We investigate a random field of mutually dependent random variables ("spins"), indexed by a finite one-dimensional lattice, called in physical sciences the one-dimensional Ising model, in which the random variables can take only ±1 values (see the text for a precise definition). One of the couplings, termed a "bond," that describes the mutual influence of two adjacent random variables is altered—it does not equal the others, thereby introducing a single "defect" bond. This defect bond represents a localised perturbation within an otherwise uniform system. Utilising the recurrence relations of Chebyshev polynomials and the bijective map between the number of spins and the polynomial index, we present a new method for calculations and systematically explore, using it, the system’s properties across different chain lengths and boundary conditions. As an application, we derive analytical expressions for the dependence of the average values of the random variables on their position within the chain, which we refer to as the "local magnetisation profile". From the findings related to the system with a defect bond, we present a novel result for this profile under free (Dirichlet) boundary conditions and re-derive the corresponding result for antiperiodic boundary conditions.
Background: Time-dependent density functional theory is widely used to describe excitations of many-fermion systems. In its many applications, three-dimensional (3D) coordinate-space representation is used, and infinite-domain calculations are limited to a finite volume represented by a spatial box. For finite quantum systems (atoms, molecules, nuclei, hadrons), the commonly used periodic or reflecting boundary conditions introduce spurious quantization of the continuum states and artificial reflections from boundary; hence, an incorrect treatment of evaporated particles.Purpose: The finite-volume artifacts for finite systems can be practically cured by invoking an absorbing potential in a certain boundary region sufficiently far from the described system. However, such absorption cannot be applied in the calculations of infinite matter (crystal electrons, quantum fluids, neutron star crust), which suffer from unphysical effects stemming from a finite computational box used. Here, twist-averaged boundary conditions (TABC) have been used successfully to diminish the finite-volume effects. In this work, we extend TABC to time-dependent modes.Method: We use the 3D time-dependent density functional framework with the Skyrme energy density functional. The practical calculations are carried out for small- and large-amplitude electric dipole and quadrupole oscillations of
16O. We apply and compare three kinds of boundary conditions: periodic, absorbing, and twist-averaged.Results: Calculations employing absorbing boundary conditions (ABC) and TABC are superior to those based on periodic boundary conditions. For low-energy excitations, TABC and ABC variants yield very similar results. With only four twist phases per spatial direction in TABC, one obtains an excellent reduction of spurious fluctuations. In the nonlinear regime, one has to deal with evaporated particles. In TABC, the floating nucleon gas remains in the box; the amount of nucleons in the gas is found to be roughly the same as the number of absorbed particles in ABC.Conclusion: We demonstrate that by using TABC, one can reduce finite-volume effects drastically without adding any additional parameters associated with absorption at large distances. Moreover, TABC are an obvious choice for time-dependent calculations for infinite systems. Since TABC calculations for different twists can be performed independently, the method is trivially adapted to parallel computing.