elements, in typical discontinuous elements there is one degree of freedom at
each vertex <i>for each of the adjacent elements</i>, rather than just one,
and similarly for edges and faces. As an example of how fast the number of
-unknowns grows,
-consider the <code>FE_DGP_Monomial</code> basis: each
+unknowns grows, consider the FE_DGPMonomial basis: each
scalar solution component is represented by polynomials of degree $p$
with $(1/dim!)*\prod_{i=1}^{dim}(p+i)$ degrees of freedom per
element. Typically, all degrees of freedom in an element are coupled
this goal by formulating the mathematical problem using Dirichlet-to-Neumann
mappings. The partial differential equations are first written as a first
order system, and each field is then discretized via a DG method. At this
-point the single-valued "trace" values on the skeleton of the
+point, the single-valued "trace" values on the skeleton of the
mesh, i.e. element faces, are taken to be independent unknown quantities.
+This yields unknowns in the discrete formulation that fall into two categories:
+- Face unknowns that only couple with the unknowns from both sides of the face;
+- Cell unknowns that only couple with each other and the other unknowns
+ defined within the same cell. Crucially, no cell interior degree of freedom
+ on one cell ever couples to any interior cell degree of freedom of a
+ different cell.
+
The Dirichlet-to-Neumann map concept then permits the following solution procedure:
<ol>
<li> Use local element interior data to enforce a Neumann condition on the
The above procedure also has a linear algebra interpretation and is referred to
as static condensation. Let us write the complete linear system associated to
-the HDG problem as a block system with the discrete DG variables $U$ as
-first block and the skeleton variables $\Lambda$ as the second block:
+the HDG problem as a block system with the discrete DG (cell interior)
+variables $U$ as first block and the skeleton (face) variables $\Lambda$ as the
+second block:
@f{eqnarray*}
\begin{pmatrix} A & B \\ C & D \end{pmatrix}
\begin{pmatrix} U \\ \Lambda \end{pmatrix}