A posteriori error analysis of hybrid higher order methods for the elliptic obstacle problem

Abstract: In this article, a posteriori error analysis of the elliptic obstacle problem is addressed using hybrid high-order methods. The method involve cell unknowns represented by degree-$r$ polynomials and face unknowns represented by degree-$s$ polynomials, where $r=0$ and $s$ is either $0$ or $1$. The discrete obstacle constraints are specifically applied to the cell unknowns. The analysis hinges on the construction of a suitable Lagrange multiplier, a residual functional and a linear averaging map. The reliability and the efficiency of the proposed a posteriori error estimator is discussed, and the study is concluded by numerical experiments supporting the theoretical results.