We investigate the convergence of the Crouzeix-Raviart finite element method for variational problems with non-autonomous integrands that exhibit non-standard growth conditions. While conforming schemes fail due to the Lavrentiev gap phenomenon, we prove that the solution of the Crouzeix-Raviart scheme converges to a global minimiser. Numerical experiments illustrate the performance of the scheme and give additional analytical insights.
The use of low-resolution digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters (DACs and ADCs) significantly benefits energy efficiency (EE) at the cost of high quantization noise in implementing massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. For maximizing EE in quantized downlink massive MIMO systems, this paper formulates a precoding optimization problem with antenna selection; yet acquiring the optimal joint precoding and antenna selection solution is challenging due to the intricate EE characterization. To resolve this challenge, we decompose the problem into precoding direction and power optimization problems. For precoding direction, we characterize the first-order optimality condition, which entails the effects of quantization distortion and antenna selection. For precoding power, we obtain the optimum solution using a gradient descent algorithm to maximize EE for given precoding direction. We cast the derived condition as a functional eigenvalue problem, wherein finding the principal eigenvector attains the best local optimal point. To this end, we propose generalized power iteration based algorithm. Alternating these two methods, our algorithm identifies a joint solution of the active antenna set and the precoding direction and power. In simulations, the proposed methods provide considerable performance gains. Our results suggest that a few-bit DACs are sufficient for achieving high EE in massive MIMO systems.
In this paper, we propose and analyze a temporally second-order accurate, fully discrete finite element method for the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. A modified Crank--Nicolson method is used to discretize the model and appropriate semi-implicit treatments are applied to the fluid convection term and two coupling terms. These semi-implicit approximations result in a linear system with variable coefficients for which the unique solvability can be proved theoretically. In addition, we use a decoupling projection method of the Van Kan type \cite{vankan1986} in the Stokes solver, which computes the intermediate velocity field based on the gradient of the pressure from the previous time level, and enforces the incompressibility constraint via the Helmholtz decomposition of the intermediate velocity field. The energy stability of the scheme is theoretically proved, in which the decoupled Stokes solver needs to be analyzed in details. Optimal-order convergence of $\mathcal{O} (\tau^2+h^{r+1})$ in the discrete $L^\infty(0,T;L^2)$ norm is proved for the proposed decoupled projection finite element scheme, where $\tau$ and $h$ are the time stepsize and spatial mesh size, respectively, and $r$ is the degree of the finite elements. Existing error estimates of second-order projection methods of the Van Kan type \cite{vankan1986} were only established in the discrete $L^2(0,T;L^2)$ norm for the Navier--Stokes equations. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the theoretical results.
Urban environments offer a challenging scenario for autonomous driving. Globally localizing information, such as a GPS signal, can be unreliable due to signal shadowing and multipath errors. Detailed a priori maps of the environment with sufficient information for autonomous navigation typically require driving the area multiple times to collect large amounts of data, substantial post-processing on that data to obtain the map, and then maintaining updates on the map as the environment changes. This dissertation addresses the issue of autonomous driving in an urban environment by investigating algorithms and an architecture to enable fully functional autonomous driving with limited information.
This article proposes an inertial navigation algorithm intended to lower the negative consequences of the absence of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) signals on the navigation of autonomous fixed wing low SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power) UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles). In addition to accelerometers and gyroscopes, the filter takes advantage of sensors usually present onboard these platforms, such as magnetometers, Pitot tube, and air vanes, and aims to minimize the attitude error and reduce the position drift (both horizontal and vertical) with the dual objective of improving the aircraft GNSS-Denied inertial navigation capabilities as well as facilitating the fusion of the inertial filter with visual odometry algorithms. Stochastic high fidelity Monte Carlo simulations of two representative scenarios involving the loss of GNSS signals are employed to evaluate the results, compare the proposed filter with more traditional implementations, and analyze the sensitivity of the results to the quality of the onboard sensors. The author releases the C++ implementation of both the navigation filter and the high fidelity simulation as open-source software.
In the past decade, there are many works on the finite element methods for the fully nonlinear Hamilton--Jacobi--Bellman (HJB) equations with Cordes condition. The linearised systems have large condition numbers, which depend not only on the mesh size, but also on the parameters in the Cordes condition. This paper is concerned with the design and analysis of auxiliary space preconditioners for the linearised systems of $C^0$ finite element discretization of HJB equations [Calcolo, 58, 2021]. Based on the stable decomposition on the auxiliary spaces, we propose both the additive and multiplicative preconditoners which converge uniformly in the sense that the resulting condition number is independent of both the number of degrees of freedom and the parameter $\lambda$ in Cordes condition. Numerical experiments are carried out to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed preconditioners.
In this paper, we propose, analyze, and test an efficient algorithm for computing ensemble average of incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) flows, where instances/members correspond to varying kinematic viscosity, magnetic diffusivity, body forces, and initial conditions. The algorithm is decoupled in Els\"asser variables and permits a shared coefficient matrix for all members at each time-step. Thus, the algorithm is much more computationally efficient than separately computing simulations for each member using usual MHD algorithms. We prove the proposed algorithm is unconditionally stable and convergent. Several numerical tests are given to support the predicted convergence rates. Finally, we test the proposed scheme and observe how the physical behavior changes as the coupling number increases in a lid-driven cavity problem with mean Reynolds number $Re\approx 15000$, and as the deviation of uncertainties in the initial and boundary conditions increases in a channel flow past a step problem.
By improving the trace finite element method, we developed another higher-order trace finite element method by integrating on the surface with exact geometry description. This method restricts the finite element space on the volume mesh to the surface accurately, and approximates Laplace-Beltrami operator on the surface by calculating the high-order numerical integration on the exact surface directly. We employ this method to calculate the Laplace-Beltrami equation and the Laplace-Beltrami eigenvalue problem. Numerical error analysis shows that this method has an optimal convergence order in both problems. Numerical experiments verify the correctness of the theoretical analysis. The algorithm is more accurate and easier to implement than the existing high-order trace finite element method.
We introduce a simple, rigorous, and unified framework for solving nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs), and for solving inverse problems (IPs) involving the identification of parameters in PDEs, using the framework of Gaussian processes. The proposed approach: (1) provides a natural generalization of collocation kernel methods to nonlinear PDEs and IPs; (2) has guaranteed convergence for a very general class of PDEs, and comes equipped with a path to compute error bounds for specific PDE approximations; (3) inherits the state-of-the-art computational complexity of linear solvers for dense kernel matrices. The main idea of our method is to approximate the solution of a given PDE as the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator of a Gaussian process conditioned on solving the PDE at a finite number of collocation points. Although this optimization problem is infinite-dimensional, it can be reduced to a finite-dimensional one by introducing additional variables corresponding to the values of the derivatives of the solution at collocation points; this generalizes the representer theorem arising in Gaussian process regression. The reduced optimization problem has the form of a quadratic objective function subject to nonlinear constraints; it is solved with a variant of the Gauss--Newton method. The resulting algorithm (a) can be interpreted as solving successive linearizations of the nonlinear PDE, and (b) in practice is found to converge in a small number of iterations (2 to 10), for a wide range of PDEs. Most traditional approaches to IPs interleave parameter updates with numerical solution of the PDE; our algorithm solves for both parameter and PDE solution simultaneously. Experiments on nonlinear elliptic PDEs, Burgers' equation, a regularized Eikonal equation, and an IP for permeability identification in Darcy flow illustrate the efficacy and scope of our framework.
For the solution of the cubic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in one space dimension, we propose and analyse a fully discrete low-regularity integrator. The scheme is explicit and can easily be implemented using the fast Fourier transform with a complexity of $\mathcal{O}(N\log N)$ operations per time step, where $N$ denotes the degrees of freedom in the spatial discretisation. We prove that the new scheme provides an $\mathcal{O}(\tau^{\frac32\gamma-\frac12-\varepsilon}+N^{-\gamma})$ error bound in $L^2$ for any initial data belonging to $H^\gamma$, $\frac12<\gamma\leq 1$, where $\tau$ denotes the temporal step size. Numerical examples illustrate this convergence behavior.
Stochastic variance reduced gradient (SVRG) is a popular variance reduction technique for stochastic gradient descent (SGD). We provide a first analysis of the method for solving a class of linear inverse problems in the lens of the classical regularization theory. We prove that for a suitable constant step size schedule, the method can achieve an optimal convergence rate in terms of the noise level (under suitable regularity condition) and the variance of the SVRG iterate error is smaller than that by SGD. These theoretical findings are corroborated by a set of numerical experiments.