Nédélec (first kind)

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Alternative names	Whitney (triangle,tetrahedron), Nédélec, Q H(curl) (quadrilateral,hexahedron), Raviart–Thomas cubical H(curl) (quadrilateral), Nédélec cubical H(curl) (hexahedron)
De Rham complex families	\(\left[S_{2,k}^\unicode{0x25FA}\right]_{1}\) or \(\mathcal{P}^-_{k}\Lambda^{1}(\Delta_d)\), \(\left[S_{4,k}^\square\right]_{1}\) or \(\mathcal{Q}^-_{k}\Lambda^{1}(\square_d)\)
Abbreviated names	N1curl, NC, RTce (quadrilateral), Nce (hexahedron)
Variants	Legendre: Integral moments are taken against orthonormal polynomials Lagrange: Integral moments are taken against Lagrange basis functions
Degrees	\(0\leqslant k\) where \(k\) is the Polynomial subdegree
Polynomial subdegree	\(k\)
Polynomial superdegree	triangle: \(k+1\) tetrahedron: \(k+1\) prism: \(2k+2\) quadrilateral: \(dk+d-1\) hexahedron: \(dk+d-1\)
Lagrange subdegree	\(k\)
Lagrange superdegree	\(k+1\)
Reference elements	triangle, tetrahedron, quadrilateral, hexahedron, prism
Polynomial set	\(\mathcal{P}_{k}^d \oplus \mathcal{Z}^{(19)}_{k+1}\) (triangle, tetrahedron) \(\mathcal{Q}_{k}^d \oplus \mathcal{Z}^{(20)}_{k+1}\) (quadrilateral, hexahedron) ↓ Show polynomial set definitions ↓↑ Hide polynomial set definitions ↑ \(\mathcal{P}_k=\operatorname{span}\left\{\prod_{i=1}^dx_i^{p_i}\middle\|\sum_{i=1}^dp_i\leqslant k\right\}\) \(\mathcal{Z}^{(19)}_k=\left\{\boldsymbol{p}\in\hat{\mathcal{P}}_{k}^d\middle\|\boldsymbol{p}(\boldsymbol{x})\cdot \boldsymbol{x}=0\right\}\) \(\hat{\mathcal{P}}_k=\operatorname{span}\left\{\prod_{i=1}^dx_i^{p_i}\middle\|\sum_{i=1}^dp_i=k\right\}=\mathcal{P}_k\setminus\mathcal{P}_{k-1}\) \(\mathcal{Q}_k=\operatorname{span}\left\{\prod_{i=1}^dx_i^{p_i}\middle\|\max_i(p_i)\leqslant k\right\}\) \(\mathcal{Z}^{(20)}_k=\left\{\boldsymbol{q}\in\hat{\mathcal{Q}}_{k}^d\middle\|\boldsymbol{q}(\boldsymbol{x})\cdot x_i\boldsymbol{e}_i\in\mathcal{Q}_{k}\text{ for }i=1,\dots,d\right\}\) \(\hat{\mathcal{Q}}_k=\operatorname{span}\left\{\prod_{i=1}^dx_i^{p_i}\middle\|\max_i(p_i)=k\right\}=\mathcal{Q}_k\setminus\mathcal{Q}_{k-1}\)
DOFs	On each edge: tangent integral moments with a degree \(k\) Lagrange space On each face (triangle): integral moments with a degree \(k-1\) vector Lagrange space On each face (quadrilateral): integral moments with a degree \(k-1\) Raviart–Thomas space On each volume (tetrahedron): integral moments with a degree \(k-2\) vector Lagrange space On each volume (hexahedron): integral moments with a degree \(k-1\) Raviart–Thomas space
Number of DOFs	triangle: \((k+1)(k+3)\) (A005563) tetrahedron: \((k+1)(k+3)(k+4)/2\) (A005564) quadrilateral: \(2(k+1)(k+2)\) (A046092) hexahedron: \(3(k+1)(k+2)^2\) (A059986) prism: \(3(k+1)(k+2)(k+3)/2\)
Mapping	covariant Piola
continuity	Components tangential to facets are continuous
Categories	Vector-valued elements, H(curl) conforming elements

Implementations

This element is implemented in Basix , Basix.UFL , Bempp-cl, FIAT , NDElement , Symfem , and (legacy) UFL.↓ Show implementation detail ↓

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Basix	`basix.ElementFamily.N1E` ↓ Show Basix examples ↓↑ Hide Basix examples ↑ Before running this example, you must install Basix: pip3 install fenics-basix This element can then be created with the following lines of Python: import basix # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a triangle element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.triangle, 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a triangle element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.triangle, 2) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a quadrilateral element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.quadrilateral, 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a quadrilateral element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.quadrilateral, 2) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a tetrahedron element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.tetrahedron, 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a tetrahedron element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.tetrahedron, 2) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a hexahedron element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.hexahedron, 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a hexahedron element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.hexahedron, 2) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 on a triangle element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.triangle, 1, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.legendre) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 on a triangle element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.triangle, 2, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.legendre) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 on a quadrilateral element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.quadrilateral, 1, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.legendre) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 on a quadrilateral element = basix.create_element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.quadrilateral, 2, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.legendre) This implementation is correct for all the examples below that it supports. ↓ Show more ↓ ↑ Hide ↑ Correct: triangle,0,lagrange; triangle,1,lagrange; quadrilateral,0,lagrange; quadrilateral,1,lagrange; tetrahedron,0,lagrange; tetrahedron,1,lagrange; hexahedron,0,lagrange; hexahedron,1,lagrange; triangle,0,legendre; triangle,1,legendre; quadrilateral,0,legendre; quadrilateral,1,legendre Not implemented: prism,0,lagrange; prism,1,lagrange
Basix.UFL	`basix.ElementFamily.N1E` ↓ Show Basix.UFL examples ↓↑ Hide Basix.UFL examples ↑ Before running this example, you must install Basix.UFL: pip3 install fenics-basix fenics-ufl This element can then be created with the following lines of Python: import basix import basix.ufl # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a triangle element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.triangle, 1, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.equispaced) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a triangle element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.triangle, 2, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.equispaced) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a quadrilateral element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.quadrilateral, 1, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.equispaced) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a quadrilateral element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.quadrilateral, 2, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.equispaced) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a tetrahedron element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.tetrahedron, 1, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.equispaced) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a tetrahedron element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.tetrahedron, 2, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.equispaced) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a hexahedron element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.hexahedron, 1, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.equispaced) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a hexahedron element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.hexahedron, 2, lagrange_variant=basix.LagrangeVariant.equispaced) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 on a triangle element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.triangle, 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 on a triangle element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.triangle, 2) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 on a quadrilateral element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.quadrilateral, 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 on a quadrilateral element = basix.ufl.element(basix.ElementFamily.N1E, basix.CellType.quadrilateral, 2) This implementation is correct for all the examples below that it supports. ↓ Show more ↓ ↑ Hide ↑ Correct: triangle,0,lagrange; triangle,1,lagrange; quadrilateral,0,lagrange; quadrilateral,1,lagrange; tetrahedron,0,lagrange; tetrahedron,1,lagrange; hexahedron,0,lagrange; hexahedron,1,lagrange; triangle,0,legendre; triangle,1,legendre; quadrilateral,0,legendre; quadrilateral,1,legendre Not implemented: prism,0,lagrange; prism,1,lagrange
Bempp-cl	`"SNC"` ↓ Show Bempp-cl examples ↓↑ Hide Bempp-cl examples ↑ Before running this example, you must install Bempp-cl: pip3 install numba scipy meshio pip3 install bempp-cl This element can then be created with the following lines of Python: import bempp_cl.api grid = bempp_cl.api.shapes.regular_sphere(1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) degree 0 element = bempp_cl.api.function_space(grid, "SNC", 0)
FIAT	`FIAT.Nedelec(..., variant="integral")` ↓ Show FIAT examples ↓↑ Hide FIAT examples ↑ Before running this example, you must install FIAT: pip3 install git+https://github.com/firedrakeproject/fiat.git This element can then be created with the following lines of Python: import FIAT # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 element = FIAT.Nedelec(FIAT.ufc_cell("triangle"), 1, variant="integral") # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 element = FIAT.Nedelec(FIAT.ufc_cell("triangle"), 2, variant="integral") This implementation is correct for all the examples below that it supports. ↓ Show more ↓ ↑ Hide ↑ Correct: triangle,0,legendre; triangle,1,legendre Not implemented: triangle,0,lagrange; triangle,1,lagrange; quadrilateral,0,lagrange; quadrilateral,1,lagrange; tetrahedron,0,lagrange; tetrahedron,1,lagrange; hexahedron,0,lagrange; hexahedron,1,lagrange; prism,0,lagrange; prism,1,lagrange; quadrilateral,0,legendre; quadrilateral,1,legendre
NDElement	`Family.NedelecFirstKind` ↓ Show NDElement examples ↓↑ Hide NDElement examples ↑ Before running this example, you must install NDElement: pip3 install ndelement This element can then be created with the following lines of Python: from ndelement.ciarlet import Family, create_family from ndelement.reference_cell import ReferenceCellType # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 on a triangle family = create_family(Family.NedelecFirstKind, 1) element = family.element(ReferenceCellType.Triangle) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 on a triangle family = create_family(Family.NedelecFirstKind, 2) element = family.element(ReferenceCellType.Triangle) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 on a quadrilateral family = create_family(Family.NedelecFirstKind, 1) element = family.element(ReferenceCellType.Quadrilateral) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 on a quadrilateral family = create_family(Family.NedelecFirstKind, 2) element = family.element(ReferenceCellType.Quadrilateral) This implementation is correct for all the examples below that it supports. ↓ Show more ↓ ↑ Hide ↑ Correct: triangle,0,legendre; triangle,1,legendre; quadrilateral,0,legendre; quadrilateral,1,legendre Not implemented: triangle,0,lagrange; triangle,1,lagrange; quadrilateral,0,lagrange; quadrilateral,1,lagrange; tetrahedron,0,lagrange; tetrahedron,1,lagrange; hexahedron,0,lagrange; hexahedron,1,lagrange; prism,0,lagrange; prism,1,lagrange
Symfem	`"N1curl", variant="legendre"` (triangle, Legendre; tetrahedron, Legendre) `"Qcurl", variant="legendre"` (quadrilateral, Legendre; hexahedron, Legendre) `"Ncurl", variant="legendre"` (prism, Legendre) `"N1curl"` (triangle, Lagrange; tetrahedron, Lagrange) `"Qcurl"` (quadrilateral, Lagrange; hexahedron, Lagrange) `"Ncurl"` (prism, Lagrange) ↓ Show Symfem examples ↓↑ Hide Symfem examples ↑ Before running this example, you must install Symfem: pip3 install symfem This element can then be created with the following lines of Python: import symfem # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a triangle element = symfem.create_element("triangle", "N1curl", 0) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a triangle element = symfem.create_element("triangle", "N1curl", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a quadrilateral element = symfem.create_element("quadrilateral", "Qcurl", 0) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a quadrilateral element = symfem.create_element("quadrilateral", "Qcurl", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a tetrahedron element = symfem.create_element("tetrahedron", "N1curl", 0) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a tetrahedron element = symfem.create_element("tetrahedron", "N1curl", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a hexahedron element = symfem.create_element("hexahedron", "Qcurl", 0) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a hexahedron element = symfem.create_element("hexahedron", "Qcurl", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a prism element = symfem.create_element("prism", "Ncurl", 0) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a prism element = symfem.create_element("prism", "Ncurl", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 on a triangle element = symfem.create_element("triangle", "N1curl", 0, variant="legendre") # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 on a triangle element = symfem.create_element("triangle", "N1curl", 1, variant="legendre") # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 0 on a quadrilateral element = symfem.create_element("quadrilateral", "Qcurl", 0, variant="legendre") # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Legendre variant) degree 1 on a quadrilateral element = symfem.create_element("quadrilateral", "Qcurl", 1, variant="legendre") This implementation is used to compute the examples below and verify other implementations.
(legacy) UFL	`"N1curl"` (triangle, Lagrange; tetrahedron, Lagrange) `"RTCE"` (quadrilateral, Lagrange) `"NCE"` (hexahedron, Lagrange) ↓ Show (legacy) UFL examples ↓↑ Hide (legacy) UFL examples ↑ Before running this example, you must install (legacy) UFL: pip3 install setuptools pip3 install fenics-ufl-legacy This element can then be created with the following lines of Python: import ufl_legacy # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a triangle element = ufl_legacy.FiniteElement("N1curl", "triangle", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a triangle element = ufl_legacy.FiniteElement("N1curl", "triangle", 2) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a quadrilateral element = ufl_legacy.FiniteElement("RTCE", "quadrilateral", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a quadrilateral element = ufl_legacy.FiniteElement("RTCE", "quadrilateral", 2) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a tetrahedron element = ufl_legacy.FiniteElement("N1curl", "tetrahedron", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a tetrahedron element = ufl_legacy.FiniteElement("N1curl", "tetrahedron", 2) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 0 on a hexahedron element = ufl_legacy.FiniteElement("NCE", "hexahedron", 1) # Create Nedelec (first kind) (Lagrange variant) degree 1 on a hexahedron element = ufl_legacy.FiniteElement("NCE", "hexahedron", 2)

Examples

triangle degree 0 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
triangle degree 1 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
quadrilateral degree 0 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
quadrilateral degree 1 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
tetrahedron degree 0 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
tetrahedron degree 1 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
hexahedron degree 0 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
hexahedron degree 1 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
prism degree 0 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
prism degree 1 Lagrange variant	(click to view basis functions)
triangle degree 0 Legendre variant	(click to view basis functions)
triangle degree 1 Legendre variant	(click to view basis functions)
quadrilateral degree 0 Legendre variant	(click to view basis functions)
quadrilateral degree 1 Legendre variant	(click to view basis functions)

References

Nédélec, Jean-Claude. Mixed finite elements in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), Numerische Mathematik 35(3), 315–341, 1980. [DOI: 10.1007/BF01396415] [BibTeX]
Arnold, Douglas N. and Logg, Anders. Periodic table of the finite elements, SIAM News 47, 2014. [www.siam.org/publications/siam-news/issues/volume-47-number-09-november-2014/] [BibTeX]
Cockburn, Bernardo and Fu, Guosheng. A systematic construction of finite element commuting exact sequences, SIAM journal on numerical analysis 55, 1650–1688, 2017. [DOI: 10.1137/16M1073352] [BibTeX]

DefElement stats

Element added	24 March 2021
Element last updated	31 March 2025