jumps. We also comment on some computational issues and establish various links with other numerical schemes. In Sect. 2,
devoted to linear problems, we consider (i) the transport equation, (ii) the wave equation, (iii) the Poisson equation, and (iv)
the Oseen system. In Sect. 3, we consider the more difficult non-linear hyperbolic problems. We end the paper in Sect. 4, with
some concluding remarks.
2 Linear problems
2.1 The transport equation
In this sub-section, we consider DG methods for the transport equation
u
t
+ ∇·(a u)=0 in R
d
× (0,T),
u(t =0)=u
0
on R
d
.
We consider only the discretization of this equation in space; the full discretization will be studied when when deal with
non-linear hyperbolic problems in Sect. 3.
The objective here is to examine three properties that are especially relevant in this case. The first is that when the DG
methods are strongly related to classical finite volume methods like the up-winding and the Lax-Friedrichs methods. The
second is that when polynomials of high degree are used, the DG method can achieve high-order accuracy while remaining
highly parallelizable. The third is that the artificial viscosity of the method is given by the size of the jumps which, in turn,
are associated with the residual inside the elements. As a consequence, as the polynomial degree of its approximate solution
increases, the artificial viscosity diminishes even in the presence of discontinuities.
The DG methods. To discretize the transport equation in space by using a DG method, we first triangulate the domain R
d
;
let us denote by T
h
such triangulation. We then seek a discontinuous approximate solution u
h
which, in each element K of
the triangulation T
h
, belongs to the space V (K). There is no restriction in how to choose the space V (K), although a typical
choice is the space of polynomials of degree at most k, P
k
(K). We determine the approximate solution on the element K by
weakly enforcing the transport equation as follows:
K
(u
h
)
t
v −
K
a u
h
·∇v +
∂K
a u
h
· n vds=0, (4)
for all v ∈ V (K). To complete the definition of the DG method, it only remains to define the numerical trace
a u
h
.
To do that, we proceed as in the ODE considered in the Introduction and begin by obtaining a stability result for the problem
under consideration. We thus multiply the transport equation by u, and integrate over the space and time to get
1
2
R
d
u
2
(x,T) dx +
1
2
T
0
R
d
∇·a(x) u
2
(x,t) dx dt =
1
2
R
d
u
2
0
(x) dx.
From this equation, a stability result immediately follows if we assume, for example, that −∇ · a ≤ L.
Now, let us mimic the above procedure for the DG method under consideration. Taking v = u
h
in the weak formulation
defining the approximate solution u
h
, and adding on the elements K,weget
1
2
R
d
u
2
h
(x,T) dx +
1
2
T
0
R
d
∇·a(x) u
2
h
(x,t) dx dt +
T
0
Θ
h
(t) dt =
1
2
R
d
u
2
h,0
(x) dx,
where
Θ
h
(t)=
K∈T
h
−
1
2
K
∇·(a u
h
)(x,t) dx +
∂K
a u
h
(x,t) · n u
h
(x,t) ds
.
Next, we investigate if it is possible to define the numerical trace
a u
h
in such a way as to render Θ
h
non-negative.
At this point, it is convenient to introduce the following notation. Let x be a point on the set e =
∂K
+
∩ ∂K
−
and let n
±
denote the unit outward normal to ∂K
±
at the point x. Let u
±
h
(x) denote the value lim
↓0
u
h
x − n
±
and set
{u
h
} =
1
2
u
+
h
+ u
−
h
, [[ u
h
]] = u
−
h
n
−
+ u
+
h
n
+
.
Finally, let E
h
denote the set of sets e = ∂K
+
∩ ∂K
−
for all K
+
and K
−
∈T
h
.