27,957 research outputs found
Variational electrodynamics of Atoms
We generalize Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics by the minimization of a finite
action functional defined for variational trajectories that are required to
merge continuously into given past and future boundary segments. We prove that
the boundary-value problem is well-posed for two classes of boundary data and
show that the well-posed solution in general has velocity discontinuities,
henceforth broken extrema. Along regular segments, broken extrema satisfy the
Euler-Lagrange neutral differential delay equations with state-dependent
deviating arguments. At points where velocities are discontinuous, broken
extrema satisfy the Weierstrass-Erdmann conditions that energies and momenta
are continuous. The electromagnetic fields of the variational trajectories are
derived quantities that can be extended only to a bounded region B of
space-time. For extrema with a finite number of velocity discontinuities,
extended fields are defined for all point in B with the exception of sets of
zero measure. The extended fields satisfy the integral laws of classical
electrodynamics for most surfaces and curves inside B. As an application, we
study globally bounded trajectories with vanishing far-fields for the
hydrogenoid atomic models of hydrogen, muonium and positronium. Our model uses
solutions of the neutral differential delay equations along regular segments
and a variational approximation for the collisional segments. Each hydrogenoid
model predicts a discrete set of finitely measured neighbourhoods of orbits
with vanishing far-fields at the correct atomic magnitude and in quantitative
and qualitative agreement with experiment and quantum mechanics, i.e., the
spacings between consecutive discrete angular momenta agree with Planck's
constant within thirty-percent, while orbital frequencies agree with a
corresponding spectroscopic line within a few percent.Comment: Full re-write using same equations and back to original title
(version 18 compiled with the wrong figure 5). A few commas introduced and
all paragraphs broken into smaller ones whenever possibl
A fractional B-spline collocation method for the numerical solution of fractional predator-prey models
We present a collocation method based on fractional B-splines for the solution of fractional differential problems. The key-idea is to use the space generated by the fractional B-splines, i.e., piecewise polynomials of noninteger degree, as approximating space. Then, in the collocation step the fractional derivative of the approximating function is approximated accurately and efficiently by an exact differentiation rule that involves the generalized finite difference operator. To show the effectiveness of the method for the solution of nonlinear dynamical systems of fractional order, we solved the fractional Lotka-Volterra model and a fractional predator-pray model with variable coefficients. The numerical tests show that the method we proposed is accurate while keeping a low computational cost
Status of the differential transformation method
Further to a recent controversy on whether the differential transformation
method (DTM) for solving a differential equation is purely and solely the
traditional Taylor series method, it is emphasized that the DTM is currently
used, often only, as a technique for (analytically) calculating the power
series of the solution (in terms of the initial value parameters). Sometimes, a
piecewise analytic continuation process is implemented either in a numerical
routine (e.g., within a shooting method) or in a semi-analytical procedure
(e.g., to solve a boundary value problem). Emphasized also is the fact that, at
the time of its invention, the currently-used basic ingredients of the DTM
(that transform a differential equation into a difference equation of same
order that is iteratively solvable) were already known for a long time by the
"traditional"-Taylor-method users (notably in the elaboration of software
packages --numerical routines-- for automatically solving ordinary differential
equations). At now, the defenders of the DTM still ignore the, though much
better developed, studies of the "traditional"-Taylor-method users who, in
turn, seem to ignore similarly the existence of the DTM. The DTM has been given
an apparent strong formalization (set on the same footing as the Fourier,
Laplace or Mellin transformations). Though often used trivially, it is easily
attainable and easily adaptable to different kinds of differentiation
procedures. That has made it very attractive. Hence applications to various
problems of the Taylor method, and more generally of the power series method
(including noninteger powers) has been sketched. It seems that its potential
has not been exploited as it could be. After a discussion on the reasons of the
"misunderstandings" which have caused the controversy, the preceding topics are
concretely illustrated.Comment: To appear in Applied Mathematics and Computation, 29 pages,
references and further considerations adde
High-order numerical method for the nonlinear Helmholtz equation with material discontinuities in one space dimension
The nonlinear Helmholtz equation (NLH) models the propagation of
electromagnetic waves in Kerr media, and describes a range of important
phenomena in nonlinear optics and in other areas. In our previous work, we
developed a fourth order method for its numerical solution that involved an
iterative solver based on freezing the nonlinearity. The method enabled a
direct simulation of nonlinear self-focusing in the nonparaxial regime, and a
quantitative prediction of backscattering. However, our simulations showed that
there is a threshold value for the magnitude of the nonlinearity, above which
the iterations diverge. In this study, we numerically solve the one-dimensional
NLH using a Newton-type nonlinear solver. Because the Kerr nonlinearity
contains absolute values of the field, the NLH has to be recast as a system of
two real equations in order to apply Newton's method. Our numerical simulations
show that Newton's method converges rapidly and, in contradistinction with the
iterations based on freezing the nonlinearity, enables computations for very
high levels of nonlinearity. In addition, we introduce a novel compact
finite-volume fourth order discretization for the NLH with material
discontinuities.The one-dimensional results of the current paper create a
foundation for the analysis of multi-dimensional problems in the future.Comment: 47 pages, 8 figure
Multi-Adaptive Time-Integration
Time integration of ODEs or time-dependent PDEs with required resolution of
the fastest time scales of the system, can be very costly if the system
exhibits multiple time scales of different magnitudes. If the different time
scales are localised to different components, corresponding to localisation in
space for a PDE, efficient time integration thus requires that we use different
time steps for different components.
We present an overview of the multi-adaptive Galerkin methods mcG(q) and
mdG(q) recently introduced in a series of papers by the author. In these
methods, the time step sequence is selected individually and adaptively for
each component, based on an a posteriori error estimate of the global error.
The multi-adaptive methods require the solution of large systems of nonlinear
algebraic equations which are solved using explicit-type iterative solvers
(fixed point iteration). If the system is stiff, these iterations may fail to
converge, corresponding to the well-known fact that standard explicit methods
are inefficient for stiff systems. To resolve this problem, we present an
adaptive strategy for explicit time integration of stiff ODEs, in which the
explicit method is adaptively stabilised by a small number of small,
stabilising time steps
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