Local bounded cochain projection

Abstract

We construct projections from the space of differential k-forms which belong to L2 and whose exterior derivative also belongs to L2, to finite dimensional subspaces of piecewise polynomial differential forms defined on a simplicial mesh. These projections have the properties that they commute with the exterior derivative and are bounded independent of the mesh size. Unlike some other recent work in this direction, the projections are also locally defined in the sense that they are defined by local operators on overlapping macroelements, in the spirit of the Clement interpolant.