Approximation of the Spectral Fractional Powers of the Laplace-Beltrami Operator

Abstract

We consider numerical approximation of spectral fractional Laplace-Beltrami problems on closed surfaces. The proposed numerical algorithms rely on their Balakrishnan integral representation and consists a sinc quadrature coupled with standard finite element methods for parametric surfaces. Possibly up to a log term, optimal rate of convergence are observed and derived analytically when the discrepancies between the exact solution and its numerical approximations are measured in $L^2$ and $H^1.$ The performances of the algorithms are illustrated on different settings including the approximation of Gaussian fields on surfaces.