B-spline finite elements and their efficiency in solving relativistic mean field equations Original Research Article

A finite element method using B-splines is presented and compared with a conventional finite element method of Lagrangian type. The efficiency of both methods has been investigated at the example of a coupled nonlinear system of Dirac eigenvalue equations and inhomogeneous Klein-Gordon equations which describe a nuclear system in the framework of relativistic mean field theory. Although FEM has been applied with great success in nuclear RMF recently, a well known problem is the appearance of spurious solutions in the spectra of the Dirac equation. The question whether B-splines lead to a reduction of spurious solutions is analyzed. Numerical expenses, precision and behavior of convergence are compared for both methods in view of their use in large scale computation on FEM grids with more dimensions. A B-spline version of the object oriented C++ code for spherical nuclei has been used for this investigation.