Nitsche's prescription of Dirichlet conditions in the finite element approximation of Maxwell's problem

Abstract: In this paper we consider the finite element approximation of Maxwell's problem and analyse the prescription of essential boundary conditions in a weak sense using Nitsche's method. To avoid indefiniteness of the problem, the original equations are augmented with the gradient of a scalar field that allows one to impose the zero divergence of the magnetic induction, even if the exact solution for this scalar field is zero. Two finite element approximations are considered, namely, one in which the approximation spaces are assumed to satisfy the appropriate inf-sup condition that render the standard Galerkin method stable, and another augmented and stabilised one that permits the use of finite element interpolations of arbitrary order. Stability and convergence results are provided for the two finite element formulations considered.