Resolution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with the imaginary-time method on a Lagrange mesh.

The Lagrange-mesh method is an approximate variational calculation which has the simplicity of a mesh calculation. Combined with the imaginary-time method, it is applied to the iterative resolution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Two variants of a fourth-order factorization of the exponential of the Hamiltonian and two types of mesh (Lagrange-Hermite and Lagrange-sinc) are employed and compared. The accuracy is checked with the help of these comparisons and of the virial theorem. The Lagrange-Hermite mesh provides very accurate results with short computing times for values of the dimensionless parameter of the nonlinear term up to 10⁴. For higher values up to 10⁷, the Lagrange-sinc mesh is more efficient. Examples are given for anisotropic and nonseparable trapping potentials.