CHAINPLOT: A Teaching Tool to Demonstrate Vibrations of Atoms on a Chain and the Cautionary Tale of a Fundamental Error Propagated Over the Last 63 Years

TL;DR

CHAINPLOT is an educational tool that simulates atomic vibrations in chains, revealing a long-standing, propagated error in the fundamental description of atomic motions in condensed matter physics literature.

Contribution

The paper introduces CHAINPLOT as a teaching aid and uncovers a 63-year-old propagated misconception in atomic motion descriptions.

Findings

CHAINPLOT effectively demonstrates atomic vibrations.

Identifies a 63-year-old fundamental error in literature.

Highlights the importance of accurate simulation in physics education.

Abstract

Simulation of the so-called monatomic and diatomic chains by the computer program CHAINPLOT is described. The simulation provides useful teaching material for undergraduate condensed matter physics lecture courses, and has revealed that for the last 63 years a fundamental description of the actual atomic motions has been copied in the literature, despite being incorrect or at least misleading..