LINEAR CHAIN OF OSCILLATORS - CLASSICAL

TREATMENT, EQUATIONS OF MOTION

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Reference: W. Greiner & J. Reinhardt, Field Quantization, Springer-
Verlag (1996), Section 1.4.
Post date: 25 Nov 2017.
Greiner studies a generalization of the system of two coupled masses on
springs that we looked at in Shankar’s book. Consider a chain of N masses
m connected by springs, all of which have rest length a and spring constant
κ. The displacement of mass n from its equilibrium position is qn (t). Thus
the length of spring n is given by qn+1 (t) − qn (t), so the potential energy
of spring n is 21 κ (qn+1 (t) − qn (t))2 , according to the standard recipe for a
harmonic oscillator. The Lagrangian is therefore

L = T −V (1)
1 N κ N
= m ∑ q̇n2 − ∑ (qn+1 (t) − qn (t))2 (2)
2 n=1 2 n=1

The Hamiltonian is

H = T +V (3)
1 N κ N
= m ∑ q̇n2 + ∑ (qn+1 (t) − qn (t))2 (4)
2 n=1 2 n=1

Using the Euler-Lagrange equations leads to the equations of motion

mq̈n = κ (qn+1 + qn−1 − 2qn ) (5)

This is a set of coupled second-order differential equations which, as it
stands, would be difficult to solve by brute force. To solve any differential
equation we need to specify boundary conditions; Greiner uses periodic
boundary conditions, which means that we require

qN +1 (t) = q1 (t) (6)

1
LINEAR CHAIN OF OSCILLATORS - CLASSICAL TREATMENT, EQUATIONS OF MOTION
2

This is roughly equivalent to connecting the two ends of the chain to-
gether to form a loop, although doing this with a real system of masses on
springs would introduce bends in the springs which we aren’t considering.
To decouple the equations, we introduce normal coordinates, which is
done by expanding each coordinate function in a series

qn (t) = ∑ ak (t) ukn (7)

k
Note that k in ukn
Choosing is an index, not an
exponent.
1
ukn = √ eikan (8)
N
and imposing the periodic boundary conditions leads to a discrete Fourier
transform. The boundary condition requires ukN +n = ukn , which means that
eikaN = 1.
Thus k is restricted to
2π
k= l (9)
Na
where l is an integer. In practice, l can take on any range that covers N
consecutive integers; Greiner chooses
N N
− <l≤ (10)
2 2
Using a value of l outside this range results in a linear combination of the
functions within the range. For example, if we choose l = N2 + 1, then

e2πi(N/2+1)an/N a = eiπn e2πin/N (11)

= (−1)n e2πin/N (12)
where e2πin/N is ukn with l = 1.
Greiner proves (eqns 1.64 - 1.66) a couple of useful identities:

N
0
∑ ukn ∗ukn = δkk0 (13)
n=1
N
∑ uk∗ k
n0 un = δnn0 (14)
k=1
From its definition 8, we see that
−k
uk∗
n = un (15)
LINEAR CHAIN OF OSCILLATORS - CLASSICAL TREATMENT, EQUATIONS OF MOTION
3

The coordinates qn in 7 must be real, so we have

qn∗ = ∑ a∗k (t) uk∗

n (16)
k
= ∑ a∗k (t) u−k
n (17)
k
= qn (18)
Since we’re taking k to be over a range symmetric about k = 0, we can
replace the sum over k by a sum over −k, which means that

a∗k (t) = a−k (t) (19)

The benefit of using the decomposition 7 is that we can decouple the
differential equations. To see this, we plug 7 into 5:
0
 0 0 0

m ∑ äk0 (t) ukn = κ ∑ ak0 (t) ukn+1 + ukn−1 − 2ukn (20)
k0 k0
We can multiply by uk∗
n and sum over n:
 0 
k0 k0 k0
m ∑ äk0 (t) ∑ uk∗
n nu = κ a (t) u k∗
uk
∑ k ∑ n n+1 n−1 n
0 + u − 2u (21)
k0 n k0 n
Using 13 on the LHS, we get
 0 
k0 k0
m ∑ äk0 (t) δkk0 = κ ∑ ak0 (t) ∑ uk∗
n uk
n+1 + un−1 − 2un (22)
k0 k0 n
 0 
k0 k0
mäk (t) = κ ∑ ak0 (t) ∑ uk∗
n uk
n+1 + un−1 − 2un (23)
k0 n
From the definition 8

ukn±1 = e±ika ukn (24)

Inserting this into 23 and using 13 again:
 0  0
−ik0 a
mäk (t) = κ ∑ ak0 (t) ∑ uk∗
n eik a
+ e − 2 ukn (25)
k0 n
 0 0

= κ ∑ ak0 (t) eik a + e−ik a − 2 δkk0 (26)
k0
 
= κak (t) eika + e−ika − 2 (27)
= 2 (cos (ka) − 1) κak (t) (28)
LINEAR CHAIN OF OSCILLATORS - CLASSICAL TREATMENT, EQUATIONS OF MOTION
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We have successfully decoupled the differential equations 5, as this result

contains only a single term ak (t). Since cos (ka) ≤ 1, the coefficient of ak
on the RHS is always negative, so we can write the DE as

κ
äk (t) = 2 (cos (ka) − 1) ak (t) (29)
m
= −ωk2 ak (t) (30)
where the oscillator frequency is
r
κ
ωk = 2 (cos (ka) − 1) (31)
m
r  
κ  ka 
=2 sin  (32)
m 2
The differential equation is the standard ODE for a single harmonic os-
cillator, and has the solutions
(
b eiωk t
ak (t) = k −iω t (33)
b−k e k
where bk are (possibly complex) constants of integration.
The general solution is a linear combination of these two solutions, but
in order to satisfy 19, we must have

ak (t) = bk eiωk t + b∗−k e−iωk t (34)

with

b∗k = b−k (35)

Putting all this into 7 and rearranging terms (see Greiner eqs 1.74 - 1.76)
gives
1 
−i(ωk t−kan) ∗ i(ωk t−kan)

qn (t) = √ ∑ bk e + bk e (36)
N k
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