Simulation of harmonic oscillators on the lattice

Abstract

This work deals with the simulation of a two-dimensional ideal lattice having simple tetragonal geometry. The harmonic character of the oscillators give rise to a system of second-order linear differential equations, which can be recast into matrix form. The explicit solutions which govern the dynamics of this system can be expressed in terms of matrix trigonometric functions. For the derivation we employ the Lagrangian formalism to determine the correct solutions, which extremize the underlying action of the system. In the numerical evaluation we develop diverse state-of-the-art algorithms which efficiently tackle equations with matrix sine and cosine functions. For this purpose, we introduce two special series related to trigonometric functions. They provide approximate solutions of the system through a suitable combination. For the final computation an algorithm based on Taylor expansion with forward and backward error analysis for computing those series had to be devised. We also implement several MATLAB programs which simulate and visualize the two-dimensional lattice and check its energy conservation.