cure LD Coupled Oscillations 12.1 Introduction In Chapter 3, we examined the motion of an oscillator subjected to an external driving force. The discussion was limited to the case in which the driving force is periodic; that is, the driver is itself a harmonic oscillator. We considered the action of the driver on the oscillator, but we did not include the feedback effect of the os- cillator on the driver. In many instances, ignoring this effect is unimportant, but if two (or many) oscillators are connected in such a way that energy can be trans- ferred back and forth between (or among) them, the situation becomes the more complicated case of coupled oscillations. Motion of this type can be quite com- plex (the motion may not even be periodic), but we can always describe the mo- tion of any oscillatory system in terms of normal coordinates, which have the property that each oscillates with a single, well-defined frequency; that is, the nor- mal coordinates are constructed in such a way that no coupling occurs among them, even though there is coupling among the ordinary (rectangular) coordi- nates describing the positions of particles. Initial conditions can always be pre- scribed for the system so that in the subsequent motion only one normal coordi- nate varies with time. In this circumstance, we say that one of the normal modes of the system has been excited. If the system has n degrees of freedom (e.g., n-cou- pled one-dimensional oscillators or n/3-coupled three-dimensional oscillators), there are in general n normal modes, some of which may be identical. The gen- eral motion of the system is a complicated superposition of all the normal modes of oscillation, but we can always find initial conditions such that any given one of the normal modes is independently excited. Identifying each of a system's normal "The general theory of the oscillatory motion of a system of particles with a finite number of degrees of freedom was formulated by Lagrange during the period 1762-1765, but the pioneering work had been done in 1753 by Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782). 468122 TWO COUPLED HARMONIC OSCILLATORS 469 modes allows us to construct a revealing picture of the motion, even though the system’s general motion is a complicated combination of all the normal modes. Itis relatively easy to demonstrate some of the coupled oscillator phenom- ena described in this chapter. For example, two pendula coupled by a spring be- tween their mass bobs, two pendula hung from a rope, and masses connected by springs can all be experimentally examined in the classroom. Similarly, the ti- atomic molecule discussed here is a reasonable description of CO;, Similar mod- els can approximate other molecules, In the following chapter, we shall continue the development begun here and discuss the motion of vibrating strings. This example by no means exhausts the usefulness of the normal-mode approach to the description of oscillatory sys- tems; indeed, applications can be found in many areas of mathematical physics, such as the microscopic motions in crystalline solids and the oscillations of the electromagnetic field. 12.2 Two Coupled Harmonic Oscillators A physical example of a coupled system is a solid in which the atoms interact by elastic forces between each other and oscillate about their equilibrium positions. Springs between the atoms represent the elastic forces. A molecule composed of a few such interacting atoms would be an even simpler model. We begin by con- sidering a similar system of coupled motion in one dimension: two masses con- nected by a spring to each other and by springs to fixed positions (Figure 12-1). We return to this example throughout the chapter as we describe various in- stances of coupled motion. ‘We let each of the oscillator springs have a force constant* «: the force constant of the coupling spring is «2. We restrict the motion to the line connecting the masses, so the system has only two degrees of freedom, represented by the coordi- nates x, and xp. Each coordinate is measured from the position of equilibrium. FIGURE 12-1 Two masses are connected by a spring to each other and by springs to fixed positions. This is a system of coupled motion in one dimension. “Henceforth, we denote force constants by K rather than by K as heretofore. The symbol kis re- served for (beginning in Chapter 18) an entirely different context.470 12 / COUPLED OSCILLATIONS If m, and m, are displaced from their equilibrium position by amounts x, and xg, respectively, the force on m, is —Kx;—Ky2(%, — xg), and the force on my is —Kxy — Kig(t2 — ai). Therefore the equations of motion are ME, + (k + Ky)%) — Kia 121 MB, + (K+ Ki2)%2 — Kix, a2 Because we expect the motion to be oscillatory, we attempt a solution of the form = Rew! nO = Be i (12.2) x(t) = Bye™ where the frequency w is to be determined and where the amplitudes B, and By may be complex.* These trial solutions are complex functions. Thus, in the final step of the solution, the real parts of x;(1) and x9(#) will be taken, because the real part is all that is physically significant. We use this method of solution be- cause of its great efficiency, and we use it again later, leaving out most of the de- tails, Substituting these expressions for the displacements into the equations of motion, we find — Mar Bye + (k + K12) Bye — KygBge*! = 0 (123) — Ma? Bye + (k + Kp) Bye — kyBye™ = 0. ” Collecting terms and canceling the common exponential factor, we obtain (i + ky — Mo®) By — iy :By = t ~ KigBh + (w+ wig — Ma?) By = 0 (24) For a nontrivial solution to exist for this pair of simultaneous equations, the de- terminant of the coefficients of B, and By must vanish: Ik + kip — Ma? Kip ~Ky Kt ke — as ~ (125) The expansion of this secular determinant yields (i + kp — Ma®)? — kh = 0 (12.6) Hence, K+ ig — Ma? = + Ky Solving for w, we obtain o= yo (12.7) Because a complex amplitude has a magnitude and a phase, we have the two arbitrary constants nec- essary in the solution of a second-order differential equation; that is, we could equally well write \B| exp [i(wt — 8)] oF x(0) = || cos (wt ~ 8), as in Equation 3.6b, Later (see Equation 129), we shall find it more convenient to use two distinct real amplitudes and the timesarying factors exp(io#) and exp(— io). These various forms of solution are all entirely equivalent.