Discrete transparent boundary conditions for the Schrödinger equation: fast calculation, approximation, and stability

We propose a way to efficiently treat the well-known transparent boundary conditions for the Schrödinger equation. Our approach is based on two ideas: to write out a discrete transparent boundary condition (DTBC) using the Crank-Nicolson finite difference scheme for the governing equation, and to approximate the discrete convolution kernel of DTBC by sum-of-exponentials for a rapid recursive calculation of the convolution.

We prove stability of the resulting initial-boundary value scheme, give error estimates for the considered approximation of the boundary condition, and illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method on several examples.

Keywords

Schrödinger equation, transparent boundary conditions, discrete convolution, sum of exponentials, Padé approximations, finite difference schemes

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

35Q40, 45K05, 65M12

Full Text (PDF format)

Published 1 January 2003