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Main Authors: Sheng, Changtao, Li, Huiyuan, Yuan, Huifang, Wang, Li-Lian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24809
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author Sheng, Changtao
Li, Huiyuan
Yuan, Huifang
Wang, Li-Lian
author_facet Sheng, Changtao
Li, Huiyuan
Yuan, Huifang
Wang, Li-Lian
contents Computing the stiffness matrix for the finite element discretization of the nonlocal Laplacian on unstructured meshes is difficult, because the operator is nonlocal and can even be singular. In this paper, we focus on the $C^0$-piecewise linear finite element method (FEM) for the nonlocal Laplacian on uniform grids within a $d$-dimensional rectangular domain. By leveraging the connection between FE bases and B-splines (having attractive convolution properties), we can reduce the involved $2d$-dimensional integrals for the stiffness matrix entries into integrations over $d$-dimensional balls with explicit integrands involving cubic B-splines and the kernel functions, which allows for explicit study of the singularities and accurate evaluations of such integrals in spherical coordinates. We show the nonlocal stiffness matrix has a block-Toeplitz structure, so the matrix-vector multiplication can be implemented using fast Fourier transform (FFT). In addition, when the interaction radius $δ\to 0^+,$ the nonlocal stiffness matrix automatically reduces to the local one. Although our semi-analytic approach on uniform grids cannot be extended to general domains with unstructured meshes, the resulting solver can seamlessly integrate with the grid-overlay (Go) technique for the nonlocal Laplacian on arbitrary bounded domains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_24809
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Efficient Finite Element Method for Multi-dimensional Nonlocal Laplacian on Uniform Grids
Sheng, Changtao
Li, Huiyuan
Yuan, Huifang
Wang, Li-Lian
Numerical Analysis
34B10, 65R20, 15B05, 41A25, 74S05
G.1.8
Computing the stiffness matrix for the finite element discretization of the nonlocal Laplacian on unstructured meshes is difficult, because the operator is nonlocal and can even be singular. In this paper, we focus on the $C^0$-piecewise linear finite element method (FEM) for the nonlocal Laplacian on uniform grids within a $d$-dimensional rectangular domain. By leveraging the connection between FE bases and B-splines (having attractive convolution properties), we can reduce the involved $2d$-dimensional integrals for the stiffness matrix entries into integrations over $d$-dimensional balls with explicit integrands involving cubic B-splines and the kernel functions, which allows for explicit study of the singularities and accurate evaluations of such integrals in spherical coordinates. We show the nonlocal stiffness matrix has a block-Toeplitz structure, so the matrix-vector multiplication can be implemented using fast Fourier transform (FFT). In addition, when the interaction radius $δ\to 0^+,$ the nonlocal stiffness matrix automatically reduces to the local one. Although our semi-analytic approach on uniform grids cannot be extended to general domains with unstructured meshes, the resulting solver can seamlessly integrate with the grid-overlay (Go) technique for the nonlocal Laplacian on arbitrary bounded domains.
title An Efficient Finite Element Method for Multi-dimensional Nonlocal Laplacian on Uniform Grids
topic Numerical Analysis
34B10, 65R20, 15B05, 41A25, 74S05
G.1.8
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24809