  We present a C0 interior penalty finite element method for the sixth-order
phase field crystal equation. We demonstrate that the numerical scheme is
uniquely solvable, unconditionally energy stable, and convergent. We remark
that the novelty of this paper lies in the fact that this is the first C0
interior penalty finite element method developed for the phase field crystal
equation. Additionally, the error analysis presented develops a detailed
methodology for analyzing time dependent problems utilizing the C0 interior
penalty method. We furthermore benchmark our method against numerical
experiments previously established in the literature.
