Quadratic and cubic Lagrange finite elements for mixed Laplace eigenvalue problems on criss-cross meshes

Abstract

In Boffi et al. (2000), it was shown that the linear Lagrange element space on criss-cross meshes and its divergence exhibit spurious eigenvalues when applied in the mixed formulation of the Laplace eigenvalue problem, despite satisfying both the inf–sup condition and ellipticity on the discrete kernel. The lack of a Fortin interpolation is responsible for the spurious eigenvalues produced by the linear Lagrange space. In contrast, results in Boffi et al. (2022) confirm that quartic and higher-order Lagrange elements do not yield spurious eigenvalues on general meshes without nearly singular vertices, including criss-cross meshes as a special case. In this paper, we investigate quadratic and cubic Lagrange elements on criss-cross meshes. We prove the convergence of discrete eigenvalues by fitting the Lagrange elements on criss-cross meshes into a complex and constructing a Fortin interpolation. As a by-product, we construct bounded commuting projections for the finite element Stokes complex, which induces isomorphisms between cohomologies of the continuous and discrete complexes. We provide numerical examples to validate the theoretical results.