High-order integration on regular triangulated manifolds reaches super-algebraic approximation rates through cubical re-parameterizations

Abstract

We present a novel methodology for deriving high-order volume elements (HOVE) designed for the integration of scalar functions over regular embedded manifolds. For constructing HOVE we introduce square-squeezing --a homeomorphic multilinear hypercube-simplex transformation reparametrizing an initial flat triangulation of the manifold to a cubical mesh. By employing square-squeezing, we approximate the integrand and the volume element for each hypercube domain of the reparameterized mesh through interpolation in Chebyshev-Lobatto grids. This strategy circumvents the Runge phenomenon, replacing the initial integral with a closed-form expression that can be precisely computed by high-order quadratures. We prove novel bounds of the integration error in terms of the $r^\text{th}$-order total variation of the integrand and the surface parameterization, predicting high algebraic approximation rates that scale solely with the interpolation degree and not, as is common, with the average simplex size. For smooth integrals whose total variation is constantly bounded with increasing $r$, the estimates prove the integration error to decrease even exponentially, while mesh refinements are limited to achieve algebraic rates. The resulting approximation power is demonstrated in several numerical experiments, particularly showcasing $p$-refinements to overcome the limitations of $h$-refinements for highly varying smooth integrals.