Dispersive properties of high-order Nédélec/edge element approximation of the time-harmonic Maxwell equations

The dispersive behaviour of high-order Nédélec element approximation of the time harmonic Maxwell equations at a prescribed temporal frequency omega on tensor-product meshes of size h is analysed. A simple argument is presented, showing that the discrete dispersion relation may be expressed in terms of that for the approximation of the scalar Helmholtz equation in one dimension. An explicit form for the one-dimensional dispersion relation is given, valid for arbitrary order of approximation. Explicit expressions for the leading term in the error in the regimes where omega h is small, showing that the dispersion relation is accurate to order 2p for a pth-order method; and in the high-wavenumber limit where 1<< omega h, showing that in this case the error reduces at a super-exponential rate once the order of approximation exceeds a certain threshold, which is given explicitly.