Finite-Element Lattice Hamiltonian Matrix Eleents. Anharmonic Oscillators

Abstract

The finite-element approach to lattice field theory is both highly accurate (relative errors $\sim 1/N^2$, where $N$ is the number of lattice points) and exactly unitary (in the sense that canonical commutation relations are exactly preserved at the lattice sites). In this paper we construct matrix elements for the time evolution operator for the anharmonic oscillator, for which the continuum Hamiltonian is $H=p^2/2+λq^{2k}/2k$. Construction of such matrix elements does not require solving the implicit equations of motion. Low order approximations turn out to be quite accurate. For example, the matrix element of the time evolution operator in the harmonic oscillator ground state gives a result for the $k=2$ anharmonic oscillator ground state energy accurate to better than 1\%, while a two-state approximation reduces the error to less than 0.1\%. Accurate wavefunctions are also extracted. Analogous results may be obtained in the continuum, but there the computation is more difficult, and not generalizable to field theories in more dimensions.