B-spline finite elements and their efficiency in solving relativistic mean field equations (Q1299572)

The author presents numerical solutions to the relativistic mean field equations for spherically symmetric nuclei such as \({}^{208}\)Pb. The solutions are carried out in coordinate space using the finite element method. The point of this paper is a comparison between solutions found using Lagrangian shape functions and ones found using shape functions based on B-splines. The author presents comparisons of accuracy of solutions using the two types of shape functions. The numerical results support the following conclusions. 1. Spurious solutions arise when using B-spline finite element methods in much the same way they arise using Lagrangian finite elements. They occur with about the same frequencies in each and the frequency declines similarly with increasing approximation order. 2. For the same orders of approximations, the two methods converge at the same rates with increasing numbers of mesh elements. 3. For the same order of approximation, B-spline finite element methods require about half the number of mesh elements as Lagrangian finite element methods to achieve the same absolute level of accuracy. The paper contains a brief discussion of the computer program, written in the C++ programming language, used to produce the results. The classes and member functions are summarized. The computer program itself is available from the publisher.