Unfitted Trefftz discontinuous Galerkin methods for elliptic boundary value problems

Abstract

We propose a new geometrically unfitted finite element method based on discontinuous Trefftz ansatz spaces. When considering discontinuous Galerkin methods, one is often faced with the solution of large linear systems, especially in the case of higher-order discretisations. Trefftz discontinuous Galerkin methods allow for a reduction in the number of degrees of freedom and, thereby, the costs for solving arising linear systems significantly. In this work, we combine the concepts of geometrically unfitted finite element methods and Trefftz discontinuous Galerkin methods. From the combination of different ansatz spaces and stabilisations, we discuss a class of robust unfitted discretisations and derive a-priori error bounds, including errors arising from geometry approximation for the discretisation of a Poisson problem in a unified manner. Numerical examples validate the theoretical findings and demonstrate the potential of the approach.