Remarks on Multilevel Bases for Divergence-Free Finite Elements

The connection between the multilevel factorization method recently proposed by Sarin and Sameh for solving mixed discretizations of the Stokes equation using a divergence-free finite element formulation, and hierarchical basis preconditioners for the Poisson problem is established. For the 2D triangular Taylor–Hood element, a preconditioner is proposed that could be useful in fractional step methods.