The phonon spectrum of the octagonal tiling

Abstract

A study of the phonon spectrum of the octagonal tiling is presented, by calculating and analysing the properties of the spectrum of perfect and randomized commensurate approximants with unit cells containing up to 8119 vertices. The total density of states, obtained by numerical integration over the Brillouin zone, exhibits much structure, and in the low frequency range of the spectrum there is deviation from the normal linear behaviour in the form of pseudogaps. For randomized approximants these pseudogaps disappear and the density of states is globally smoothened. It turns out that the widths of the gaps in the dispersion vanish in the low frequency limit. Therefore the scaling behaviour of the lowest branches tends to the behaviour of an absolutely continuous spectrum, which is not the case at higher frequencies. As an application, the vibrational specific heat of the different tiling models is calculated and compared to the specific heat of a square lattice and of a Debye model.