Mortar Coupling of 𝘩𝘱-Discontinuous Galerkin and Boundary Element Methods for the Helmholtz Equation

Abstract

We design and analyze a coupling of a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with a boundary element method to solve the Helmholtz equation with variable coefficients in three dimensions. The coupling is realized with a mortar variable that is related to an impedance trace on a smooth interface. The method obtained has a block structure with nonsingular subblocks. We prove quasi-optimality of the 𝘩- and 𝘱-versions of the scheme, under a threshold condition on the approximability properties of the discrete spaces. Amongst others, an essential tool in the analysis is a novel discontinuous-to-continuous reconstruction operator on tetrahedral meshes with curved faces.