New pulsation codes based on finite element techniques

Linear pulsation codes based on the numerical concepts of finite-element analysis and providing stability, speed, accuracy, high-order convergence, and ease of use are introduced. The concept of element consists of dividing the mesh of integration into small elements and approximating the solution into each element by a linear combination of n + 1 n-th-order polynomials forming a complete basis and by minimizing the introduced error. The overall integrity of the code is tested on a constant-density analytical model. The convergence properties of various codes are presented using a compositionally stratified white-dwarf model