A low-order discontinuous Petrov–Galerkin method for the Stokes equations

This paper introduces a low-order discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin (dPG) finite element method (FEM) for the Stokes equations. The ultra-weak formulation utilizes piecewise constant and affine ansatz functions and piecewise affine and discontinuous lowest-order Raviart–Thomas test search functions. This low-order discretization for the Stokes equations allows for a direct proof of the discrete inf-sup condition with explicit constants. The general framework of Carstensen et al. (SIAM J Numer Anal 52(3):1335–1353, 2014) then implies a complete a priori and a posteriori error analysis of the dPG FEM in the natural norms. Numerical experiments investigate the performance of the method and underline its quasi-optimal convergence.