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Harmonic Oscillator

1) A harmonic oscillator is a system that experiences a restoring force proportional to its displacement from equilibrium. 2) If only this restoring force acts on the system, it undergoes simple harmonic motion with sinusoidal oscillations at a constant amplitude and frequency. 3) If damping is also present, the oscillator is damped, and can oscillate with decreasing amplitude (underdamped) or decay to equilibrium without oscillations (overdamped).

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Hoorish Niazi
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57 views3 pages

Harmonic Oscillator

1) A harmonic oscillator is a system that experiences a restoring force proportional to its displacement from equilibrium. 2) If only this restoring force acts on the system, it undergoes simple harmonic motion with sinusoidal oscillations at a constant amplitude and frequency. 3) If damping is also present, the oscillator is damped, and can oscillate with decreasing amplitude (underdamped) or decay to equilibrium without oscillations (overdamped).

Uploaded by

Hoorish Niazi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Harmonic Oscillator:

In classical mechanics, a harmonic oscillator is a system that, when displaced from its equilibrium position,
experiences a restoring force F proportional to the displacement x:

where k is a positive constant.
If F is the only force acting on the system, the system is called a simple harmonic oscillator, and it
undergoes simple harmonic motion: sinusoidal oscillations about the equilibrium point, with a
constant amplitude and a constant frequency (which does not depend on the amplitude).
If a frictional force (damping) proportional to the velocity is also present, the harmonic oscillator is described
as a damped oscillator. Depending on the friction coefficient, the system can:

 Oscillate with a frequency lower than in the undamped case, and an amplitude decreasing with


time (underdamped oscillator).
 Decay to the equilibrium position, without oscillations (overdamped oscillator).
The boundary solution between an underdamped oscillator and an overdamped oscillator occurs at a particular
value of the friction coefficient and is called critically damped.
If an external time-dependent force is present, the harmonic oscillator is described as a driven oscillator.
Mechanical examples include pendulums (with small angles of displacement), masses connected to springs,
and acoustical systems. Other analogous systems include electrical harmonic oscillators such as RLC circuits.
The harmonic oscillator model is very important in physics, because any mass subject to a force in stable
equilibrium acts as a harmonic oscillator for small vibrations. Harmonic oscillators occur widely in nature and
are exploited in many manmade devices, such as clocks and radio circuits. They are the source of virtually all
sinusoidal vibrations and waves.

Classical Oscillator
A simple realization of the harmonic oscillator in classical mechanics is a particle which is acted
upon by a restoring force proportional to its displacement from its equilibrium position.
Considering motion in one dimension, this means

F=−kx

Such a force might originate from a spring that obeys Hooke’s law, as shown in Figure.
According to Hooke’s law, which applies to real springs for sufficiently small displacements, the
restoring force is proportional to the displacement—either stretching or compression—from the
equilibrium position.

The force constant k is a measure of the stiffness of the spring. The variable x is chosen equal to
zero at the equilibrium position, positive for stretching, and negative for compression. The
negative sign in Equation reflects the fact that F is a restoring force, always in the opposite sense
to the displacement x.
Applying Newton’s second law to the force from Equation we find x

F=md^2x/dx^2=−kx

where m is the mass of the body attached to the spring, which is itself assumed massless. This
leads to a differential equation of the familiar form, although with different variables:

x¨(t)+ω2x(t)=0
with
ω^2=k/m

The dot notation (introduced by Newton himself) is used in place of primes when the
independent variable is time. The general solution to is:

x(t)=Asinωt+Bcosωt

which represents periodic motion with sinusoidal time dependence. This is known as simple
harmonic motion and the corresponding system is known as a harmonic oscillator. The
oscillation occurs with a constant angular frequency

ω=√k/m radians per second

This is called the natural frequency of the oscillator. The corresponding circular (or angular)


frequency in Hertz (cycles per second) is

ν=ω/2π=(1/2π)√km Hz

The general relation between force and potential energy in a conservative system in one
dimension is

F=−dV/dx

Thus the potential energy of a harmonic oscillator is given by

V(x)=(1/2)kx^2

which has the shape of a parabola, as drawn in Figure. A simple computation shows that the
oscillator moves between positive and negative turning points ±xmax where the total
energy E equals the potential energy (½)kx^2max while the kinetic energy is momentarily zero.
In contrast, when the oscillator moves past x=0, the kinetic energy reaches its maximum value
while the potential energy equals zero.

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