# Name for a method used to navigate the lattice in lattice field theory

I am currently working on a small code to calculate field configurations for $$\phi^4$$. Going through the literature, I stumbled upon a method for navigating a $$D$$-dimensional lattice by assigning each lattice coordinate to a unique integer. Letting the coordinates be denoted by $$\mathbf{x}=a(n_0,n_1,...,n_{D-1})$$, where $$a$$ is the lattice spacing, $$D$$ is the number of dimensions, and $$n_i\in\mathbb{N}$$, the integer corresponding to each coordinate is $$j=\sum_{k=0}^{D-1}n_kL^k,$$ where $$L$$ is the number of points along each dimension (so the volume of the lattice is $$L^D$$). Is there a name for this method?

Source: Lellouch, Laurent, et al., eds. Modern Perspectives in Lattice QCD: Quantum Field Theory and High Performance Computing: Lecture Notes of the Les Houches Summer School: Volume 93, August 2009. OUP Oxford, 2011.

• This is just the obvious ordering of points in a lattice right? Nov 27 '19 at 22:47
• It is just the trivial linearization of the lattice. It is like column major layout (or row major layout), just in four dimensions. Dec 19 '19 at 8:23