[Physics] Harmonic Oscillator driven by a Dirac delta-like force

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Consider that there is no damping for simplicity.

As we know, a driving force of the form $\sin(\omega t)$ will make the oscillator at steady state vibrates at the external frequency $\omega$.

What about a force of the form $\delta(t-t')$ but distributed evenly in time? it's called a Dirac Comb or impulse train.

Will it preserve the natural frequency or will it vibrates at a frequency $1/T$ where $T$ is the period between pulses?

Best Answer

Well, I finally pull it out.

I used Green's functions and it was pretty straightforward,

For a harmonic oscillator, you have to solve:

$(\frac{d^2}{dt^2} + 2b\frac{d}{dt} + \omega^2)G(t-t')= \delta(t-t')$

The solution is for $t>t' $:

$$ G(t-t')= exp(-b(t-t'))\frac{\sin(\omega'(t-t'))}{\omega'} $$

where $\omega' = \sqrt{\omega^2-b^2}$

The solution is:

$$ y(t)= \int{f(t')exp(-b(t-t'))\frac{\sin(\omega'(t-t'))}{\omega'}dt'} $$

Using $f(t) = \sum{\delta(t-nT)}$ the integral becomes super easy and you can interchange the sum and the integral since the sum does not depend on t':

Finally:

$$ y(t)= \sum{exp(-b(t-nT))\frac{\sin(\omega'(t-nT))}{\omega'}} $$

So what we got is as many sine functions as delta diracs the comb has, and vibrating at the natural frequency (just like a guitar) regardless if you are plucking it with a determinated frequency.

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