Before revision:  This penalty bilinear form is similar to the known technique used to stabilize finite element approximations in various contexts , but it brings here a negative contribution. Since it reduces the stiffness of the problem , the resulting approximation technique is called softFEM . The two key advantages of softFEM over the standard Galerkin FEM are to improve the approximation of the eigenvalues in the upper part of the discrete spectrum and to reduce the condition number of the stiffness matrix.
After revision:  This penalty bilinear form is similar to the known technique used to stabilize finite element approximations in various contexts . The penalty term is designed to dampen the high frequencies in the spectrum and so it is weighted here by a negative coefficient. The resulting approximation technique is called softFEM since it reduces the stiffness of the problem , the resulting approximation technique is called softFEM . The two key advantages of softFEM over the standard Galerkin FEM are to improve the approximation of the eigenvalues in the upper part of the discrete spectrum and to reduce the condition number of the stiffness matrix.