Unfitted hybrid high-order methods stabilized by polynomial extension for elliptic interface problems

In this work, we study the design and analysis of a novel hybrid high-order (HHO) method on unfitted meshes. HHO methods rely on a pair of unknowns, combining polynomials attached to the mesh faces and the mesh cells. In the unfitted framework, the interface can cut through the mesh cells in a very general fashion, and the polynomial unknowns are doubled in the cut cells and the cut faces. In order to avoid the ill-conditioning issues caused by the presence of small cut cells, the novel approach introduced herein is to use polynomial extensions in the definition of the gradient reconstruction operator. Stability and consistency results are established, leading to optimally decaying error estimates. The theory is illustrated by numerical experiments.