Convergence of sparse collocation for functions of countably many Gaussian random variables (with application to elliptic PDEs)

We give a convergence proof for the approximation by sparse collocation of Hilbert-space-valued functions depending on countably many Gaussian random variables. Such functions appear as solutions of elliptic PDEs with lognormal diffusion coefficients. We outline a general $L^2$-convergence theory based on previous work by Bachmayr et al. [ESAIM Math. Model. Numer. Anal., 51 (2017), pp. 341--363] and Chen [ESAIM Math. Model. Numer. Anal., in press, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1051/m2an/2018012] and establish an algebraic convergence rate for sufficiently smooth functions assuming a mild growth bound for the univariate hierarchical surpluses of the interpolation scheme applied to Hermite polynomials. We specifically verify for Gauss--Hermite nodes that this assumption holds and also show algebraic convergence with respect to the resulting number of sparse grid points for this case. Numerical experiments illustrate the dimension-independent convergence rate.