Equation of state of dense plasmas: Orbital-free molecular dynamics as the limit of quantum molecular dynamics for high-Z elements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Danel, J.-F.; Blottiau, P.; Kazandjian, L.; Piron, R.; Torrent, M. [CEA, DAM, DIF, 91297 Arpajon (France)

2014-10-15

The applicability of quantum molecular dynamics to the calculation of the equation of state of a dense plasma is limited at high temperature by computational cost. Orbital-free molecular dynamics, based on a semiclassical approximation and possibly on a gradient correction, is a simulation method available at high temperature. For a high-Z element such as lutetium, we examine how orbital-free molecular dynamics applied to the equation of state of a dense plasma can be regarded as the limit of quantum molecular dynamics at high temperature. For the normal mass density and twice the normal mass density, we show that the pressures calculated with the quantum approach converge monotonically towards those calculated with the orbital-free approach; we observe a faster convergence when the orbital-free approach includes the gradient correction. We propose a method to obtain an equation of state reproducing quantum molecular dynamics results up to high temperatures where this approach cannot be directly implemented. With the results already obtained for low-Z plasmas, the present study opens the way for reproducing the quantum molecular dynamics pressure for all elements up to high temperatures.

A Practical Quantum Mechanics Molecular Mechanics Method for the Dynamical Study of Reactions in Biomolecules.

Science.gov (United States)

Mendieta-Moreno, Jesús I; Marcos-Alcalde, Iñigo; Trabada, Daniel G; Gómez-Puertas, Paulino; Ortega, José; Mendieta, Jesús

2015-01-01

Quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methods are excellent tools for the modeling of biomolecular reactions. Recently, we have implemented a new QM/MM method (Fireball/Amber), which combines an efficient density functional theory method (Fireball) and a well-recognized molecular dynamics package (Amber), offering an excellent balance between accuracy and sampling capabilities. Here, we present a detailed explanation of the Fireball method and Fireball/Amber implementation. We also discuss how this tool can be used to analyze reactions in biomolecules using steered molecular dynamics simulations. The potential of this approach is shown by the analysis of a reaction catalyzed by the enzyme triose-phosphate isomerase (TIM). The conformational space and energetic landscape for this reaction are analyzed without a priori assumptions about the protonation states of the different residues during the reaction. The results offer a detailed description of the reaction and reveal some new features of the catalytic mechanism. In particular, we find a new reaction mechanism that is characterized by the intramolecular proton transfer from O1 to O2 and the simultaneous proton transfer from Glu 165 to C2. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Performance assessment of semiempirical molecular orbital methods in describing halogen bonding: quantum mechanical and quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical-molecular dynamics study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ibrahim, Mahmoud A A

2011-10-24

The performance of semiempirical molecular-orbital methods--MNDO, MNDO-d, AM1, RM1, PM3 and PM6--in describing halogen bonding was evaluated, and the results were compared with molecular mechanical (MM) and quantum mechanical (QM) data. Three types of performance were assessed: (1) geometrical optimizations and binding energy calculations for 27 halogen-containing molecules complexed with various Lewis bases (Two of the tested methods, AM1 and RM1, gave results that agree with the QM data.); (2) charge distribution calculations for halobenzene molecules, determined by calculating the solvation free energies of the molecules relative to benzene in explicit and implicit generalized Born (GB) solvents (None of the methods gave results that agree with the experimental data.); and (3) appropriateness of the semiempirical methods in the hybrid quantum-mechanical/molecular-mechanical (QM/MM) scheme, investigated by studying the molecular inhibition of CK2 protein by eight halobenzimidazole and -benzotriazole derivatives using hybrid QM/MM molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations with the inhibitor described at the QM level by the AM1 method and the rest of the system described at the MM level. The pure MM approach with inclusion of an extra point of positive charge on the halogen atom approach gave better results than the hybrid QM/MM approach involving the AM1 method. Also, in comparison with the pure MM-GBSA (generalized Born surface area) binding energies and experimental data, the calculated QM/MM-GBSA binding energies of the inhibitors were improved by replacing the G(GB,QM/MM) solvation term with the corresponding G(GB,MM) term.

Some connections between importance sampling and enhanced sampling methods in molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Lie, H C; Quer, J

2017-11-21

In molecular dynamics, enhanced sampling methods enable the collection of better statistics of rare events from a reference or target distribution. We show that a large class of these methods is based on the idea of importance sampling from mathematical statistics. We illustrate this connection by comparing the Hartmann-Schütte method for rare event simulation (J. Stat. Mech. Theor. Exp. 2012, P11004) and the Valsson-Parrinello method of variationally enhanced sampling [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 090601 (2014)]. We use this connection in order to discuss how recent results from the Monte Carlo methods literature can guide the development of enhanced sampling methods.

Approximation of quantum observables by molecular dynamics simulations

KAUST Repository

Sandberg, Mattias

2016-01-01

In this talk I will discuss how to estimate the uncertainty in molecular dynamics simulations. Molecular dynamics is a computational method to study molecular systems in materials science, chemistry, and molecular biology. The wide popularity of molecular dynamics simulations relies on the fact that in many cases it agrees very well with experiments. If we however want the simulation to predict something that has no comparing experiment, we need a mathematical estimate of the accuracy of the computation. In the case of molecular systems with few particles, such studies are made by directly solving the Schrodinger equation. In this talk I will discuss theoretical results on the accuracy between quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics, to be used for systems that are too large to be handled computationally by the Schrodinger equation.

Approximation of quantum observables by molecular dynamics simulations

KAUST Repository

Sandberg, Mattias

2016-01-06

In this talk I will discuss how to estimate the uncertainty in molecular dynamics simulations. Molecular dynamics is a computational method to study molecular systems in materials science, chemistry, and molecular biology. The wide popularity of molecular dynamics simulations relies on the fact that in many cases it agrees very well with experiments. If we however want the simulation to predict something that has no comparing experiment, we need a mathematical estimate of the accuracy of the computation. In the case of molecular systems with few particles, such studies are made by directly solving the Schrodinger equation. In this talk I will discuss theoretical results on the accuracy between quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics, to be used for systems that are too large to be handled computationally by the Schrodinger equation.

Simulation of the 2-dimensional Drude’s model using molecular dynamics method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naa, Christian Fredy; Amin, Aisyah; Ramli,; Suprijadi,; Djamal, Mitra [Theoretical High Energy Physics and Instrumentation Research Division, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132 (Indonesia); Wahyoedi, Seramika Ari; Viridi, Sparisoma, E-mail: viridi@cphys.fi.itb.ac.id [Nuclear and Biophysics Research Division, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132 (Indonesia)

2015-04-16

In this paper, we reported the results of the simulation of the electronic conduction in solids. The simulation is based on the Drude’s models by applying molecular dynamics (MD) method, which uses the fifth-order predictor-corrector algorithm. A formula of the electrical conductivity as a function of lattice length and ion diameter τ(L, d) cand be obtained empirically based on the simulation results.

Multiscale molecular dynamics using the matched interface and boundary method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geng Weihua; Wei, G.W.

2011-01-01

The Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) equation is an established multiscale model for electrostatic analysis of biomolecules and other dielectric systems. PB based molecular dynamics (MD) approach has a potential to tackle large biological systems. Obstacles that hinder the current development of PB based MD methods are concerns in accuracy, stability, efficiency and reliability. The presence of complex solvent-solute interface, geometric singularities and charge singularities leads to challenges in the numerical solution of the PB equation and electrostatic force evaluation in PB based MD methods. Recently, the matched interface and boundary (MIB) method has been utilized to develop the first second order accurate PB solver that is numerically stable in dealing with discontinuous dielectric coefficients, complex geometric singularities and singular source charges. The present work develops the PB based MD approach using the MIB method. New formulation of electrostatic forces is derived to allow the use of sharp molecular surfaces. Accurate reaction field forces are obtained by directly differentiating the electrostatic potential. Dielectric boundary forces are evaluated at the solvent-solute interface using an accurate Cartesian-grid surface integration method. The electrostatic forces located at reentrant surfaces are appropriately assigned to related atoms. Extensive numerical tests are carried out to validate the accuracy and stability of the present electrostatic force calculation. The new PB based MD method is implemented in conjunction with the AMBER package. MIB based MD simulations of biomolecules are demonstrated via a few example systems.

Nonlinear Hamiltonian mechanics applied to molecular dynamics theory and computational methods for understanding molecular spectroscopy and chemical reactions

CERN Document Server

Farantos, Stavros C

2014-01-01

This brief presents numerical methods for describing and calculating invariant phase space structures, as well as solving the classical and quantum equations of motion for polyatomic molecules. Examples covered include simple model systems to realistic cases of molecules spectroscopically studied. Vibrationally excited and reacting molecules are nonlinear dynamical systems, and thus, nonlinear mechanics is the proper theory to elucidate molecular dynamics by investigating invariant structures in phase space. Intramolecular energy transfer, and the breaking and forming of a chemical bond have now found a rigorous explanation by studying phase space structures.

Nonadiabatic electron wavepacket dynamics behind molecular autoionization

Science.gov (United States)

Matsuoka, Takahide; Takatsuka, Kazuo

2018-01-01

A theoretical method for real-time dynamics of nonadiabatic reorganization of electronic configurations in molecules is developed, with dual aim that the intramolecular electron dynamics can be probed by means of direct and/or indirect photoionizations and that the physical origins behind photoionization signals attained in the time domain can be identified in terms of the language of time-dependent quantum chemistry. In doing so, we first formulate and implement a new computational scheme for nonadiabatic electron dynamics associated with molecular ionization, which well fits in the general theory of nonadiabatic electron dynamics. In this method, the total nonadiabatic electron wavepackets are propagated in time directly with complex natural orbitals without referring to Hartree-Fock molecular orbitals, and the amount of electron flux from a molecular region leading to ionization is evaluated in terms of the relevant complex natural orbitals. In the second half of this paper, we apply the method to electron dynamics in the elementary processes consisting of the Auger decay to demonstrate the methodological significance. An illustrative example is taken from an Auger decay starting from the 2a1 orbital hole-state of H2O+. The roles of nuclear momentum (kinetic) couplings in electronic-state mixing during the decay process are analyzed in terms of complex natural orbitals, which are schematically represented in the conventional language of molecular symmetry of the Hartree-Fock orbitals.

Increasing the power of accelerated molecular dynamics methods and plans to exploit the coming exascale

Science.gov (United States)

Voter, Arthur

Many important materials processes take place on time scales that far exceed the roughly one microsecond accessible to molecular dynamics simulation. Typically, this long-time evolution is characterized by a succession of thermally activated infrequent events involving defects in the material. In the accelerated molecular dynamics (AMD) methodology, known characteristics of infrequent-event systems are exploited to make reactive events take place more frequently, in a dynamically correct way. For certain processes, this approach has been remarkably successful, offering a view of complex dynamical evolution on time scales of microseconds, milliseconds, and sometimes beyond. We have recently made advances in all three of the basic AMD methods (hyperdynamics, parallel replica dynamics, and temperature accelerated dynamics (TAD)), exploiting both algorithmic advances and novel parallelization approaches. I will describe these advances, present some examples of our latest results, and discuss what should be possible when exascale computing arrives in roughly five years. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, and by the Los Alamos Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

Multiscale Modeling using Molecular Dynamics and Dual Domain Material Point Method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dhakal, Tilak Raj [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Theoretical Division. Fluid Dynamics and Solid Mechanics Group, T-3; Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)

2016-07-07

For problems involving large material deformation rate, the material deformation time scale can be shorter than the material takes to reach a thermodynamical equilibrium. For such problems, it is difficult to obtain a constitutive relation. History dependency become important because of thermodynamic non-equilibrium. Our goal is to build a multi-scale numerical method which can bypass the need for a constitutive relation. In conclusion, multi-scale simulation method is developed based on the dual domain material point (DDMP). Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is performed to calculate stress. Since the communication among material points is not necessary, the computation can be done embarrassingly parallel in CPU-GPU platform.

The Development and Comparison of Molecular Dynamics Simulation and Monte Carlo Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jundong

2018-03-01

Molecular dynamics is an integrated technology that combines physics, mathematics and chemistry. Molecular dynamics method is a computer simulation experimental method, which is a powerful tool for studying condensed matter system. This technique not only can get the trajectory of the atom, but can also observe the microscopic details of the atomic motion. By studying the numerical integration algorithm in molecular dynamics simulation, we can not only analyze the microstructure, the motion of particles and the image of macroscopic relationship between them and the material, but can also study the relationship between the interaction and the macroscopic properties more conveniently. The Monte Carlo Simulation, similar to the molecular dynamics, is a tool for studying the micro-molecular and particle nature. In this paper, the theoretical background of computer numerical simulation is introduced, and the specific methods of numerical integration are summarized, including Verlet method, Leap-frog method and Velocity Verlet method. At the same time, the method and principle of Monte Carlo Simulation are introduced. Finally, similarities and differences of Monte Carlo Simulation and the molecular dynamics simulation are discussed.

Performance evaluation of the zero-multipole summation method in modern molecular dynamics software.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakuraba, Shun; Fukuda, Ikuo

2018-05-04

The zero-multiple summation method (ZMM) is a cutoff-based method for calculating electrostatic interactions in molecular dynamics simulations, utilizing an electrostatic neutralization principle as a physical basis. Since the accuracies of the ZMM have been revealed to be sufficient in previous studies, it is highly desirable to clarify its practical performance. In this paper, the performance of the ZMM is compared with that of the smooth particle mesh Ewald method (SPME), where the both methods are implemented in molecular dynamics software package GROMACS. Extensive performance comparisons against a highly optimized, parameter-tuned SPME implementation are performed for various-sized water systems and two protein-water systems. We analyze in detail the dependence of the performance on the potential parameters and the number of CPU cores. Even though the ZMM uses a larger cutoff distance than the SPME does, the performance of the ZMM is comparable to or better than that of the SPME. This is because the ZMM does not require a time-consuming electrostatic convolution and because the ZMM gains short neighbor-list distances due to the smooth damping feature of the pairwise potential function near the cutoff length. We found, in particular, that the ZMM with quadrupole or octupole cancellation and no damping factor is an excellent candidate for the fast calculation of electrostatic interactions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An Evaluation of Explicit Receptor Flexibility in Molecular Docking Using Molecular Dynamics and Torsion Angle Molecular Dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Armen, Roger S; Chen, Jianhan; Brooks, Charles L

2009-10-13

Incorporating receptor flexibility into molecular docking should improve results for flexible proteins. However, the incorporation of explicit all-atom flexibility with molecular dynamics for the entire protein chain may also introduce significant error and "noise" that could decrease docking accuracy and deteriorate the ability of a scoring function to rank native-like poses. We address this apparent paradox by comparing the success of several flexible receptor models in cross-docking and multiple receptor ensemble docking for p38α mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase. Explicit all-atom receptor flexibility has been incorporated into a CHARMM-based molecular docking method (CDOCKER) using both molecular dynamics (MD) and torsion angle molecular dynamics (TAMD) for the refinement of predicted protein-ligand binding geometries. These flexible receptor models have been evaluated, and the accuracy and efficiency of TAMD sampling is directly compared to MD sampling. Several flexible receptor models are compared, encompassing flexible side chains, flexible loops, multiple flexible backbone segments, and treatment of the entire chain as flexible. We find that although including side chain and some backbone flexibility is required for improved docking accuracy as expected, docking accuracy also diminishes as additional and unnecessary receptor flexibility is included into the conformational search space. Ensemble docking results demonstrate that including protein flexibility leads to to improved agreement with binding data for 227 active compounds. This comparison also demonstrates that a flexible receptor model enriches high affinity compound identification without significantly increasing the number of false positives from low affinity compounds.

Next Generation Extended Lagrangian Quantum-based Molecular Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Negre, Christian

2017-06-01

A new framework for extended Lagrangian first-principles molecular dynamics simulations is presented, which overcomes shortcomings of regular, direct Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics, while maintaining important advantages of the unified extended Lagrangian formulation of density functional theory pioneered by Car and Parrinello three decades ago. The new framework allows, for the first time, energy conserving, linear-scaling Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations, which is necessary to study larger and more realistic systems over longer simulation times than previously possible. Expensive, self-consinstent-field optimizations are avoided and normal integration time steps of regular, direct Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics can be used. Linear scaling electronic structure theory is presented using a graph-based approach that is ideal for parallel calculations on hybrid computer platforms. For the first time, quantum based Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulation is becoming a practically feasible approach in simulations of +100,000 atoms-representing a competitive alternative to classical polarizable force field methods. In collaboration with: Anders Niklasson, Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Ultrafast molecular dynamics illuminated with synchrotron radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bozek, John D.; Miron, Catalin

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Ultrafast molecular dynamics probed with synchrotron radiation. • Core-excitation as probe of ultrafast dynamics through core-hole lifetime. • Review of experimental and theoretical methods in ultrafast dynamics using core-level excitation. - Abstract: Synchrotron radiation is a powerful tool for studying molecular dynamics in small molecules in spite of the absence of natural matching between the X-ray pulse duration and the time scale of nuclear motion. Promoting core level electrons to unoccupied molecular orbitals simultaneously initiates two ultrafast processes, nuclear dynamics on the potential energy surfaces of the highly excited neutral intermediate state of the molecule on the one hand and an ultrafast electronic decay of the intermediate excited state to a cationic final state, characterized by a core hole lifetime. The similar time scales of these processes enable core excited pump-probe-type experiments to be performed with long duration X-ray pulses from a synchrotron source. Recent results obtained at the PLIEADES beamline concerning ultrafast dissociation of core excited states and molecular potential energy curve mapping facilitated by changes in the geometry of the short-lived intermediate core excited state are reviewed. High brightness X-ray beams combined with state-of-the art electron and ion-electron coincidence spectrometers and highly sophisticated theoretical methods are required to conduct these experiments and to achieve a full understanding of the experimental results.

Molecular dynamics for dense matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maruyama, Toshiki; Chiba, Satoshi; Watanabe, Gentaro

2012-01-01

We review a molecular dynamics method for nucleon many-body systems called quantum molecular dynamics (QMD), and our studies using this method. These studies address the structure and the dynamics of nuclear matter relevant to neutron star crusts, supernova cores, and heavy-ion collisions. A key advantage of QMD is that we can study dynamical processes of nucleon many-body systems without any assumptions about the nuclear structure. First, we focus on the inhomogeneous structures of low-density nuclear matter consisting not only of spherical nuclei but also of nuclear “pasta”, i.e., rod-like and slab-like nuclei. We show that pasta phases can appear in the ground and equilibrium states of nuclear matter without assuming nuclear shape. Next, we show our simulation of compression of nuclear matter which corresponds to the collapsing stage of supernovae. With the increase in density, a crystalline solid of spherical nuclei changes to a triangular lattice of rods by connecting neighboring nuclei. Finally, we discuss fragment formation in expanding nuclear matter. Our results suggest that a generally accepted scenario based on the liquid–gas phase transition is not plausible at lower temperatures. (author)

Molecular dynamics for dense matter

Science.gov (United States)

Maruyama, Toshiki; Watanabe, Gentaro; Chiba, Satoshi

2012-08-01

We review a molecular dynamics method for nucleon many-body systems called quantum molecular dynamics (QMD), and our studies using this method. These studies address the structure and the dynamics of nuclear matter relevant to neutron star crusts, supernova cores, and heavy-ion collisions. A key advantage of QMD is that we can study dynamical processes of nucleon many-body systems without any assumptions about the nuclear structure. First, we focus on the inhomogeneous structures of low-density nuclear matter consisting not only of spherical nuclei but also of nuclear "pasta", i.e., rod-like and slab-like nuclei. We show that pasta phases can appear in the ground and equilibrium states of nuclear matter without assuming nuclear shape. Next, we show our simulation of compression of nuclear matter which corresponds to the collapsing stage of supernovae. With the increase in density, a crystalline solid of spherical nuclei changes to a triangular lattice of rods by connecting neighboring nuclei. Finally, we discuss fragment formation in expanding nuclear matter. Our results suggest that a generally accepted scenario based on the liquid-gas phase transition is not plausible at lower temperatures.

A concurrent multiscale micromorphic molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Shaofan; Tong, Qi

2015-01-01

In this work, we have derived a multiscale micromorphic molecular dynamics (MMMD) from first principle to extend the (Andersen)-Parrinello-Rahman molecular dynamics to mesoscale and continuum scale. The multiscale micromorphic molecular dynamics is a con-current three-scale dynamics that couples a fine scale molecular dynamics, a mesoscale micromorphic dynamics, and a macroscale nonlocal particle dynamics together. By choosing proper statistical closure conditions, we have shown that the original Andersen-Parrinello-Rahman molecular dynamics is the homogeneous and equilibrium case of the proposed multiscale micromorphic molecular dynamics. In specific, we have shown that the Andersen-Parrinello-Rahman molecular dynamics can be rigorously formulated and justified from first principle, and its general inhomogeneous case, i.e., the three scale con-current multiscale micromorphic molecular dynamics can take into account of macroscale continuum mechanics boundary condition without the limitation of atomistic boundary condition or periodic boundary conditions. The discovered multiscale scale structure and the corresponding multiscale dynamics reveal a seamless transition from atomistic scale to continuum scale and the intrinsic coupling mechanism among them based on first principle formulation

Short-time maximum entropy method analysis of molecular dynamics simulation: Unimolecular decomposition of formic acid

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Osamu; Nomura, Tetsuo; Tabayashi, Kiyohiko; Yamasaki, Katsuyoshi

2008-07-01

We performed spectral analysis by using the maximum entropy method instead of the traditional Fourier transform technique to investigate the short-time behavior in molecular systems, such as the energy transfer between vibrational modes and chemical reactions. This procedure was applied to direct ab initio molecular dynamics calculations for the decomposition of formic acid. More reactive trajectories of dehydrolation than those of decarboxylation were obtained for Z-formic acid, which was consistent with the prediction of previous theoretical and experimental studies. Short-time maximum entropy method analyses were performed for typical reactive and non-reactive trajectories. Spectrograms of a reactive trajectory were obtained; these clearly showed the reactant, transient, and product regions, especially for the dehydrolation path.

Molecular dynamics and diffusion a compilation

CERN Document Server

Fisher, David

2013-01-01

The molecular dynamics technique was developed in the 1960s as the outgrowth of attempts to model complicated systems by using either a) direct physical simulation or (following the great success of Monte Carlo methods) by b) using computer techniques. Computer simulation soon won out over clumsy physical simulation, and the ever-increasing speed and sophistication of computers has naturally made molecular dynamics simulation into a more and more successful technique. One of its most popular applications is the study of diffusion, and some experts now even claim that molecular dynamics simulation is, in the case of situations involving well-characterised elements and structures, more accurate than experimental measurement. The present double volume includes a compilation (over 600 items) of predicted solid-state diffusion data, for all of the major materials groups, dating back nearly four decades. The double volume also includes some original papers: "Determination of the Activation Energy for Formation and ...

Extended Lagrangian Excited State Molecular Dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Bjorgaard, J A; Sheppard, D; Tretiak, S; Niklasson, A M N

2018-02-13

An extended Lagrangian framework for excited state molecular dynamics (XL-ESMD) using time-dependent self-consistent field theory is proposed. The formulation is a generalization of the extended Lagrangian formulations for ground state Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics [Phys. Rev. Lett. 2008 100, 123004]. The theory is implemented, demonstrated, and evaluated using a time-dependent semiempirical model, though it should be generally applicable to ab initio theory. The simulations show enhanced energy stability and a significantly reduced computational cost associated with the iterative solutions of both the ground state and the electronically excited states. Relaxed convergence criteria can therefore be used both for the self-consistent ground state optimization and for the iterative subspace diagonalization of the random phase approximation matrix used to calculate the excited state transitions. The XL-ESMD approach is expected to enable numerically efficient excited state molecular dynamics for such methods as time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TD-HF), Configuration Interactions Singles (CIS), and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT).

Molecular dynamics as a method to gain understanding in questions concerning montmorillonite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seppaelae, A.; Vaari, J.; Puhakka, E.; Tanhua-Tyrkkoe, M.; Olin, M.; Kasa, S.

2012-01-01

drying? How do salt composition and exchangeable cation content affect - Wetting, drying? - Formation of swelling pressure (stress) if not possibility for expansion? How much salt (cation anion pair) can penetrate the interlayer space as a function of aperture and some other parameters? Molecular dynamics modelling of montmorillonite is not a new concept but has been done by several groups before us. Topics studied include e.g. swelling of montmorillonite, diffusion of water and ion exchange between micropores and the interlayer. However, the simulation tools and used methods can be different which from one point of view works as comparison and verification of the resulting data. Our work consists of two phases and will be done using the molecular dynamics software LAMMPS. In the first phase we will model the diffusion of pure water into the interlayer space of montmorillonite to gain insight into the hydration of cations and the interactions of water with the layer surfaces and edges. A comparison will be made between two interaction potentials, namely CLAYFF and ReaxFF that both have been recently used successfully to model montmorillonite. In the second phase we will increase the ionic strength of water with the aim of gaining insight into how the swelling of montmorillonite could be controlled. Learning about the processes in microscale will take us one step closer to understanding the phenomena observed in the macroscopic scale. (authors)

Biodiversity and dynamics of meat fermentations: the contribution of molecular methods for a better comprehension of a complex ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Cocolin, Luca; Dolci, Paola; Rantsiou, Kalliopi

2011-11-01

The ecology of fermented sausages is complex and includes different species and strains of bacteria, yeasts and molds. The developments in the field of molecular biology, allowed for new methods to become available, which could be applied to better understand dynamics and diversity of the microorganisms involved in the production of sausages. Methods, such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), employed as a culture-independent approach, allow to define the microbial dynamics during the fermentation and ripening. Such approach has highlighted that two main species of lactic acid bacteria, namely Lactobacillus sakei and Lb. curvatus, are involved in the transformation process and that they are accompanied by Staphylococcus xylosus, as representative of the coagulase-negative cocci. These findings were repeatedly confirmed in different regions of the world, mainly in the Mediterranean countries where dry fermented sausages have a long tradition and history. The application of molecular methods for the identification and characterization of isolated strains from fermentations highlighted a high degree of diversity within the species mentioned above, underlining the need to better follow strain dynamics during the transformation process. While there is an important number of papers dealing with bacterial ecology by using molecular methods, studies on mycobiota of fermented sausages are just a few. This review reports on how the application of molecular methods made possible a better comprehension of the sausage fermentations, opening up new fields of research that in the near future will allow to unravel the connection between sensory properties and co-presence of multiple strains of the same species. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coulomb interactions via local dynamics: a molecular-dynamics algorithm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pasichnyk, Igor; Duenweg, Burkhard

2004-01-01

We derive and describe in detail a recently proposed method for obtaining Coulomb interactions as the potential of mean force between charges which are dynamically coupled to a local electromagnetic field. We focus on the molecular dynamics version of the method and show that it is intimately related to the Car-Parrinello approach, while being equivalent to solving Maxwell's equations with a freely adjustable speed of light. Unphysical self-energies arise as a result of the lattice interpolation of charges, and are corrected by a subtraction scheme based on the exact lattice Green function. The method can be straightforwardly parallelized using standard domain decomposition. Some preliminary benchmark results are presented

A modified synthetic driving force method for molecular dynamics simulation of grain boundary migration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Liang; Li, Saiyi

2015-01-01

The synthetic driving force (SDF) molecular dynamics method, which imposes crystalline orientation-dependent driving forces for grain boundary (GB) migration, has been considered deficient in many cases. In this work, we revealed the cause of the deficiency and proposed a modified method by introducing a new technique to distinguish atoms in grains and GB such that the driving forces can be imposed properly. This technique utilizes cross-reference order parameter (CROP) to characterize local lattice orientations in a bicrystal and introduces a CROP-based definition of interface region to minimize interference from thermal fluctuations in distinguishing atoms. A validation of the modified method was conducted by applying it to simulate the migration behavior of Ni 〈1 0 0〉 and Al 〈1 1 2〉 symmetrical tilt GBs, in comparison with the original method. The discrepancies between the migration velocities predicted by the two methods are found to be proportional to their differences in distinguishing atoms. For the Al 〈1 1 2〉 GBs, the modified method predicts a negative misorientation dependency for both the driving pressure threshold for initiating GB movement and the mobility, which agree with experimental findings and other molecular dynamics computations but contradict those predicted using the original method. Last, the modified method was applied to evaluate the mobility of Ni Σ5 〈1 0 0〉 symmetrical tilt GB under different driving pressure and temperature conditions. The results reveal a strong driving pressure dependency of the mobility at relatively low temperatures and suggest that the driving pressure should be as low as possible but large enough to trigger continuous migration.

Rheology via nonequilibrium molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoover, W.G.

1982-10-01

The equilibrium molecular dynamics formulated by Newton, Lagrange, and Hamilton has been modified in order to simulate rheologial molecular flows with fast computers. This modified Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics (NEMD) has been applied to fluid and solid deformations, under both homogeneous and shock conditions, as well as to the transport of heat. The irreversible heating associated with dissipation could be controlled by carrying out isothermal NEMD calculations. The new isothermal NEMD equations of motion are consistent with Gauss' 1829 Least-Constraint principle as well as certain microscopic equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical formulations due to Gibbs and Boltzmann. Application of isothermal NEMD revealed high-frequency and high-strain-rate behavior for simple fluids which resembled the behavior of polymer solutions and melts at lower frequencies and strain rates. For solids NEMD produces plastic flows consistent with experimental observations at much lower strain rates. The new nonequilibrium methods also suggest novel formulations of thermodynamics in nonequilibrium systems and shed light on the failure of the Principle of Material Frame Indifference

Gas-Phase Molecular Dynamics: Theoretical Studies in Spectroscopy and Chemical Dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, H.G.; Muckerman, J.T.

2010-06-01

The goal of this program is the development and application of computational methods for studying chemical reaction dynamics and molecular spectroscopy in the gas phase. We are interested in developing rigorous quantum dynamics algorithms for small polyatomic systems and in implementing approximate approaches for complex ones. Particular focus is on the dynamics and kinetics of chemical reactions and on the rovibrational spectra of species involved in combustion processes. This research also explores the potential energy surfaces of these systems of interest using state-of-the-art quantum chemistry methods.

Full Quantum Dynamics Simulation of a Realistic Molecular System Using the Adaptive Time-Dependent Density Matrix Renormalization Group Method.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Yao; Sun, Ke-Wei; Luo, Zhen; Ma, Haibo

2018-01-18

The accurate theoretical interpretation of ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy experiments relies on full quantum dynamics simulations for the investigated system, which is nevertheless computationally prohibitive for realistic molecular systems with a large number of electronic and/or vibrational degrees of freedom. In this work, we propose a unitary transformation approach for realistic vibronic Hamiltonians, which can be coped with using the adaptive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (t-DMRG) method to efficiently evolve the nonadiabatic dynamics of a large molecular system. We demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of this approach with an example of simulating the exciton dissociation process within an oligothiophene/fullerene heterojunction, indicating that t-DMRG can be a promising method for full quantum dynamics simulation in large chemical systems. Moreover, it is also shown that the proper vibronic features in the ultrafast electronic process can be obtained by simulating the two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectrum by virtue of the high computational efficiency of the t-DMRG method.

Classical trajectory methods in molecular collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Porter, R.N.; Raff, L.M.

1976-01-01

The discussion of classical trajectory methods in molecular collisions includes classical dynamics, Hamiltonian mechanics, classical scattering cross sections and rate coefficients, statistical averaging, the selection of initial states, integration of equations of motion, analysis of final states, consecutive collisions, and the prognosis for classical molecular scattering calculations. 61 references

Molecular dynamics coupled with a virtual system for effective conformational sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayami, Tomonori; Kasahara, Kota; Nakamura, Haruki; Higo, Junichi

2018-07-15

An enhanced conformational sampling method is proposed: virtual-system coupled canonical molecular dynamics (VcMD). Although VcMD enhances sampling along a reaction coordinate, this method is free from estimation of a canonical distribution function along the reaction coordinate. This method introduces a virtual system that does not necessarily obey a physical law. To enhance sampling the virtual system couples with a molecular system to be studied. Resultant snapshots produce a canonical ensemble. This method was applied to a system consisting of two short peptides in an explicit solvent. Conventional molecular dynamics simulation, which is ten times longer than VcMD, was performed along with adaptive umbrella sampling. Free-energy landscapes computed from the three simulations mutually converged well. The VcMD provided quicker association/dissociation motions of peptides than the conventional molecular dynamics did. The VcMD method is applicable to various complicated systems because of its methodological simplicity. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Theory and application of quantum molecular dynamics

CERN Document Server

Zeng Hui Zhang, John

1999-01-01

This book provides a detailed presentation of modern quantum theories for treating the reaction dynamics of small molecular systems. Its main focus is on the recent development of successful quantum dynamics theories and computational methods for studying the molecular reactive scattering process, with specific applications given in detail for a number of benchmark chemical reaction systems in the gas phase and the gas surface. In contrast to traditional books on collision in physics focusing on abstract theory for nonreactive scattering, this book deals with both the development and the appli

Modeling ramp compression experiments using large-scale molecular dynamics simulation.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mattsson, Thomas Kjell Rene; Desjarlais, Michael Paul; Grest, Gary Stephen; Templeton, Jeremy Alan; Thompson, Aidan Patrick; Jones, Reese E.; Zimmerman, Jonathan A.; Baskes, Michael I. (University of California, San Diego); Winey, J. Michael (Washington State University); Gupta, Yogendra Mohan (Washington State University); Lane, J. Matthew D.; Ditmire, Todd (University of Texas at Austin); Quevedo, Hernan J. (University of Texas at Austin)

2011-10-01

Molecular dynamics simulation (MD) is an invaluable tool for studying problems sensitive to atomscale physics such as structural transitions, discontinuous interfaces, non-equilibrium dynamics, and elastic-plastic deformation. In order to apply this method to modeling of ramp-compression experiments, several challenges must be overcome: accuracy of interatomic potentials, length- and time-scales, and extraction of continuum quantities. We have completed a 3 year LDRD project with the goal of developing molecular dynamics simulation capabilities for modeling the response of materials to ramp compression. The techniques we have developed fall in to three categories (i) molecular dynamics methods (ii) interatomic potentials (iii) calculation of continuum variables. Highlights include the development of an accurate interatomic potential describing shock-melting of Beryllium, a scaling technique for modeling slow ramp compression experiments using fast ramp MD simulations, and a technique for extracting plastic strain from MD simulations. All of these methods have been implemented in Sandia's LAMMPS MD code, ensuring their widespread availability to dynamic materials research at Sandia and elsewhere.

Protein Dynamics in Organic Media at Varying Water Activity Studied by Molecular Dynamics Simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wedberg, Nils Hejle Rasmus Ingemar; Abildskov, Jens; Peters, Günther H.J.

2012-01-01

In nonaqueous enzymology, control of enzyme hydration is commonly approached by fixing the thermodynamic water activity of the medium. In this work, we present a strategy for evaluating the water activity in molecular dynamics simulations of proteins in water/organic solvent mixtures. The method...... relies on determining the water content of the bulk phase and uses a combination of Kirkwood−Buff theory and free energy calculations to determine corresponding activity coefficients. We apply the method in a molecular dynamics study of Candida antarctica lipase B in pure water and the organic solvents...

Molecular-dynamics method for the simulation of bulk-solid interfaces at high temperatures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lutsko, J.F.; Wolf, D.; Yip, S.; Phillpot, S.R.; Nguyen, T.

1988-01-01

A new method for the molecular-dynamics simulation of bulk planar interfaces at high temperatures is presented. The method uses the basic Parrinello-Rahman (constant-stress) scheme, modified for the application to inhomogeneous systems. Since our computational cell contains only one interface with two-dimensional (2D) periodic border conditions, we are able to study isolated interfaces all the way up to melting. The interaction between boundaries which may lead to their annihilation at higher temperatures, which is a problem when 3D periodic borders are applied, is thus avoided. As an application, the method is used to study the stability of a grain boundary at high temperatures. Observations on a possible connection between grain-boundary migration and ''premelting'' are discussed

Ab initio molecular dynamics in a finite homogeneous electric field.

Science.gov (United States)

Umari, P; Pasquarello, Alfredo

2002-10-07

We treat homogeneous electric fields within density functional calculations with periodic boundary conditions. A nonlocal energy functional depending on the applied field is used within an ab initio molecular dynamics scheme. The reliability of the method is demonstrated in the case of bulk MgO for the Born effective charges, and the high- and low-frequency dielectric constants. We evaluate the static dielectric constant by performing a damped molecular dynamics in an electric field and avoiding the calculation of the dynamical matrix. Application of this method to vitreous silica shows good agreement with experiment and illustrates its potential for systems of large size.

Investigation of impurity defects in α-iron by molecular dynamics method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kevorkyan, Yu.R.

1986-01-01

Investigation of the configuration of impurity defects in α-iron by the molecular dynamics method is presented. The Jhonson model potential has been used to calculate the interaction of matrix atoms. The impurity-matrix atom interaction is described by the same form of the potential shifted along the axis of interatomic distances for a definite value. The correspondence between the shift value and change in the radius of the impurity defect is established on the basis of calculation of the relaxation volume. Possible configurations of the impurity - interstitial matrix atom complexes are obtained for the given model of the impurity defect, dimensional boundaries of possible transitions between different configurations are determined. Formation and bound energies, relaxation volumes of impurity defects are calculated

Full-direct method for imaging pharmacokinetic parameters in dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Guanglei, E-mail: guangleizhang@bjtu.edu.cn [Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Computer and Information Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Pu, Huangsheng; Liu, Fei; Bai, Jing [Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); He, Wei [China Institute of Sport Science, Beijing 100061 (China); Luo, Jianwen, E-mail: luo-jianwen@tsinghua.edu.cn [Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Center for Biomedical Imaging Research, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

2015-02-23

Images of pharmacokinetic parameters (also known as parametric images) in dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) can provide three-dimensional metabolic information for biological studies and drug development. However, the ill-posed nature of FMT and the high temporal variation of fluorophore concentration together make it difficult to obtain accurate parametric images in small animals in vivo. In this letter, we present a method to directly reconstruct the parametric images from the boundary measurements based on hybrid FMT/X-ray computed tomography (XCT) system. This method can not only utilize structural priors obtained from the XCT system to mitigate the ill-posedness of FMT but also make full use of the temporal correlations of boundary measurements to model the high temporal variation of fluorophore concentration. The results of numerical simulation and mouse experiment demonstrate that the proposed method leads to significant improvements in the reconstruction quality of parametric images.

Symmetry of quantum molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burenin, A.V.

2002-01-01

The paper reviews the current state-of-art in describing quantum molecular dynamics based on symmetry principles alone. This qualitative approach is of particular interest as the only method currently available for a broad and topical class of problems in the internal dynamics of molecules. Besides, a molecule is a physical system whose collective internal motions are geometrically structured, and its perturbation theory description requires a symmetry analysis of this structure. The nature of the geometrical symmetry groups crucial for the closed formulation of the qualitative approach is discussed [ru

Direct reconstruction of pharmacokinetic parameters in dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography by the augmented Lagrangian method

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Dianwen; Zhang, Wei; Zhao, Yue; Li, Changqing

2016-03-01

Dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) has the potential to quantify physiological or biochemical information, known as pharmacokinetic parameters, which are important for cancer detection, drug development and delivery etc. To image those parameters, there are indirect methods, which are easier to implement but tend to provide images with low signal-to-noise ratio, and direct methods, which model all the measurement noises together and are statistically more efficient. The direct reconstruction methods in dynamic FMT have attracted a lot of attention recently. However, the coupling of tomographic image reconstruction and nonlinearity of kinetic parameter estimation due to the compartment modeling has imposed a huge computational burden to the direct reconstruction of the kinetic parameters. In this paper, we propose to take advantage of both the direct and indirect reconstruction ideas through a variable splitting strategy under the augmented Lagrangian framework. Each iteration of the direct reconstruction is split into two steps: the dynamic FMT image reconstruction and the node-wise nonlinear least squares fitting of the pharmacokinetic parameter images. Through numerical simulation studies, we have found that the proposed algorithm can achieve good reconstruction results within a small amount of time. This will be the first step for a combined dynamic PET and FMT imaging in the future.

Molecular dynamics study of atomic displacements in disordered solid alloys

Science.gov (United States)

Puzyrev, Yevgeniy S.

The effects of atomic displacements on the energetics of alloys plays important role in the determining the properties of alloys. We studied the atomic displacements in disordered solid alloys using molecular dynamics and Monte-Carlo methods. The diffuse scattering of pure materials, copper, gold, nickel, and palladium was calculated. The experimental data for pure Cu was obtained from diffuse scattering intensity of synchrotron x-ray radiation. The comparison showed the advantages of molecular dynamics method for calculating the atomic displacements in solid alloys. The individual nearest neighbor separations were calculated for Cu 50Au50 alloy and compared to the result of XAFS experiment. The molecular dynamics method provided theoretical predictions of nearest neighbor pair separations in other binary alloys, Cu-Pd and Cu-Al for wide range of the concentrations. We also experimentally recovered the diffuse scattering maps for the Cu47.3Au52.7 and Cu85.2Al14.8 alloy.

Visualizing functional motions of membrane transporters with molecular dynamics simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaikh, Saher A; Li, Jing; Enkavi, Giray; Wen, Po-Chao; Huang, Zhijian; Tajkhorshid, Emad

2013-01-29

Computational modeling and molecular simulation techniques have become an integral part of modern molecular research. Various areas of molecular sciences continue to benefit from, indeed rely on, the unparalleled spatial and temporal resolutions offered by these technologies, to provide a more complete picture of the molecular problems at hand. Because of the continuous development of more efficient algorithms harvesting ever-expanding computational resources, and the emergence of more advanced and novel theories and methodologies, the scope of computational studies has expanded significantly over the past decade, now including much larger molecular systems and far more complex molecular phenomena. Among the various computer modeling techniques, the application of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and related techniques has particularly drawn attention in biomolecular research, because of the ability of the method to describe the dynamical nature of the molecular systems and thereby to provide a more realistic representation, which is often needed for understanding fundamental molecular properties. The method has proven to be remarkably successful in capturing molecular events and structural transitions highly relevant to the function and/or physicochemical properties of biomolecular systems. Herein, after a brief introduction to the method of MD, we use a number of membrane transport proteins studied in our laboratory as examples to showcase the scope and applicability of the method and its power in characterizing molecular motions of various magnitudes and time scales that are involved in the function of this important class of membrane proteins.

Classical and quantum molecular dynamics in NMR spectra

CERN Document Server

Szymański, Sławomir

2018-01-01

The book provides a detailed account of how condensed-phase molecular dynamics are reflected in the line shapes of NMR spectra. The theories establishing connections between random, time-dependent molecular processes and lineshape effects are exposed in depth. Special emphasis is placed on the theoretical aspects, involving in particular intermolecular processes in solution, and molecular symmetry issues. The Liouville super-operator formalism is briefly introduced and used wherever it is beneficial for the transparency of presentation. The proposed formal descriptions of the discussed problems are sufficiently detailed to be implemented on a computer. Practical applications of the theory in solid- and liquid-phase studies are illustrated with appropriate experimental examples, exposing the potential of the lineshape method in elucidating molecular dynamics NMR-observable molecular phenomena where quantization of the spatial nuclear degrees of freedom is crucial are addressed in the last part of the book. As ...

Gas-Phase Molecular Dynamics: Theoretical Studies In Spectroscopy and Chemical Dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu H. G.; Muckerman, J.T.

2012-05-29

The main goal of this program is the development and application of computational methods for studying chemical reaction dynamics and molecular spectroscopy in the gas phase. We are interested in developing rigorous quantum dynamics algorithms for small polyatomic systems and in implementing approximate approaches for complex ones. Particular focus is on the dynamics and kinetics of chemical reactions and on the rovibrational spectra of species involved in combustion processes. This research also explores the potential energy surfaces of these systems of interest using state-of-the-art quantum chemistry methods, and extends them to understand some important properties of materials in condensed phases and interstellar medium as well as in combustion environments.

Molecular dynamics simulation of self-diffusion coefficients for liquid metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ju Yuan-Yuan; Zhang Qing-Ming; Gong Zi-Zheng; Ji Guang-Fu

2013-01-01

The temperature-dependent coefficients of self-diffusion for liquid metals are simulated by molecular dynamics methods based on the embedded-atom-method (EAM) potential function. The simulated results show that a good inverse linear relation exists between the natural logarithm of self-diffusion coefficients and temperature, though the results in the literature vary somewhat, due to the employment of different potential functions. The estimated activation energy of liquid metals obtained by fitting the Arrhenius formula is close to the experimental data. The temperature-dependent shear-viscosities obtained from the Stokes—Einstein relation in conjunction with the results of molecular dynamics simulation are generally consistent with other values in the literature. (atomic and molecular physics)

Multiple time step integrators in ab initio molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luehr, Nathan; Martínez, Todd J.; Markland, Thomas E.

2014-01-01

Multiple time-scale algorithms exploit the natural separation of time-scales in chemical systems to greatly accelerate the efficiency of molecular dynamics simulations. Although the utility of these methods in systems where the interactions are described by empirical potentials is now well established, their application to ab initio molecular dynamics calculations has been limited by difficulties associated with splitting the ab initio potential into fast and slowly varying components. Here we present two schemes that enable efficient time-scale separation in ab initio calculations: one based on fragment decomposition and the other on range separation of the Coulomb operator in the electronic Hamiltonian. We demonstrate for both water clusters and a solvated hydroxide ion that multiple time-scale molecular dynamics allows for outer time steps of 2.5 fs, which are as large as those obtained when such schemes are applied to empirical potentials, while still allowing for bonds to be broken and reformed throughout the dynamics. This permits computational speedups of up to 4.4x, compared to standard Born-Oppenheimer ab initio molecular dynamics with a 0.5 fs time step, while maintaining the same energy conservation and accuracy

Molecular dynamics for reactions of heterogeneous catalysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jansen, A.P.J.; Brongersma, H.H.; Santen, van R.A.

1991-01-01

An overview is given of Molecular Dynamics, and numerical integration techniques, system initialization, boundary conditions, force representation, statistics, system size, and simulations duration are discussed. Examples from surface science are used to illustrate the pros and cons of the method.

Shock melting method to determine melting curve by molecular dynamics: Cu, Pd, and Al.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhong-Li; Zhang, Xiu-Lu; Cai, Ling-Cang

2015-09-21

A melting simulation method, the shock melting (SM) method, is proposed and proved to be able to determine the melting curves of materials accurately and efficiently. The SM method, which is based on the multi-scale shock technique, determines melting curves by preheating and/or prepressurizing materials before shock. This strategy was extensively verified using both classical and ab initio molecular dynamics (MD). First, the SM method yielded the same satisfactory melting curve of Cu with only 360 atoms using classical MD, compared to the results from the Z-method and the two-phase coexistence method. Then, it also produced a satisfactory melting curve of Pd with only 756 atoms. Finally, the SM method combined with ab initio MD cheaply achieved a good melting curve of Al with only 180 atoms, which agrees well with the experimental data and the calculated results from other methods. It turned out that the SM method is an alternative efficient method for calculating the melting curves of materials.

Shock melting method to determine melting curve by molecular dynamics: Cu, Pd, and Al

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Zhong-Li; Zhang, Xiu-Lu; Cai, Ling-Cang

2015-01-01

A melting simulation method, the shock melting (SM) method, is proposed and proved to be able to determine the melting curves of materials accurately and efficiently. The SM method, which is based on the multi-scale shock technique, determines melting curves by preheating and/or prepressurizing materials before shock. This strategy was extensively verified using both classical and ab initio molecular dynamics (MD). First, the SM method yielded the same satisfactory melting curve of Cu with only 360 atoms using classical MD, compared to the results from the Z-method and the two-phase coexistence method. Then, it also produced a satisfactory melting curve of Pd with only 756 atoms. Finally, the SM method combined with ab initio MD cheaply achieved a good melting curve of Al with only 180 atoms, which agrees well with the experimental data and the calculated results from other methods. It turned out that the SM method is an alternative efficient method for calculating the melting curves of materials

A molecular dynamics algorithm for simulation of field theories in the canonical ensemble

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kogut, J.B.; Sinclair, D.K.

1986-01-01

We add a single scalar degree of freedom (''demon'') to the microcanonical ensemble which converts its molecular dynamics into a simulation method for the canonical ensemble (euclidean path integral) of the underlying field theory. This generalization of the microcanonical molecular dynamics algorithm simulates the field theory at fixed coupling with a completely deterministic procedure. We discuss the finite size effects of the method, the equipartition theorem and ergodicity. The method is applied to the planar model in two dimensions and SU(3) lattice gauge theory with four species of light, dynamical quarks in four dimensions. The method is much less sensitive to its discrete time step than conventional Langevin equation simulations of the canonical ensemble. The method is a straightforward generalization of a procedure introduced by S. Nose for molecular physics. (orig.)

Concentration gradient driven molecular dynamics: a new method for simulations of membrane permeation and separation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozcan, Aydin; Perego, Claudio; Salvalaglio, Matteo; Parrinello, Michele; Yazaydin, Ozgur

2017-05-01

In this study, we introduce a new non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation method to perform simulations of concentration driven membrane permeation processes. The methodology is based on the application of a non-conservative bias force controlling the concentration of species at the inlet and outlet of a membrane. We demonstrate our method for pure methane, ethane and ethylene permeation and for ethane/ethylene separation through a flexible ZIF-8 membrane. Results show that a stationary concentration gradient is maintained across the membrane, realistically simulating an out-of-equilibrium diffusive process, and the computed permeabilities and selectivity are in good agreement with experimental results.

Multilevel summation with B-spline interpolation for pairwise interactions in molecular dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hardy, David J.; Schulten, Klaus; Wolff, Matthew A.; Skeel, Robert D.; Xia, Jianlin

2016-01-01

The multilevel summation method for calculating electrostatic interactions in molecular dynamics simulations constructs an approximation to a pairwise interaction kernel and its gradient, which can be evaluated at a cost that scales linearly with the number of atoms. The method smoothly splits the kernel into a sum of partial kernels of increasing range and decreasing variability with the longer-range parts interpolated from grids of increasing coarseness. Multilevel summation is especially appropriate in the context of dynamics and minimization, because it can produce continuous gradients. This article explores the use of B-splines to increase the accuracy of the multilevel summation method (for nonperiodic boundaries) without incurring additional computation other than a preprocessing step (whose cost also scales linearly). To obtain accurate results efficiently involves technical difficulties, which are overcome by a novel preprocessing algorithm. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the resulting method offers substantial improvements in accuracy and that its performance is competitive with an implementation of the fast multipole method in general and markedly better for Hamiltonian formulations of molecular dynamics. The improvement is great enough to establish multilevel summation as a serious contender for calculating pairwise interactions in molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, the method appears to be uniquely capable for molecular dynamics in two situations, nonperiodic boundary conditions and massively parallel computation, where the fast Fourier transform employed in the particle–mesh Ewald method falls short.

Ab Initio molecular dynamics with excited electrons

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alavi, A.; Kohanoff, J.; Parrinello, M.; Frenkel, D.

1994-01-01

A method to do ab initio molecular dynamics suitable for metallic and electronically hot systems is described. It is based on a density functional which is costationary with the finite-temperature functional of Mermin, with state being included with possibly fractional occupation numbers.

Energy conserving, linear scaling Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cawkwell, M J; Niklasson, Anders M N

2012-10-07

Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations with long-term conservation of the total energy and a computational cost that scales linearly with system size have been obtained simultaneously. Linear scaling with a low pre-factor is achieved using density matrix purification with sparse matrix algebra and a numerical threshold on matrix elements. The extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics formalism [A. M. N. Niklasson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 123004 (2008)] yields microcanonical trajectories with the approximate forces obtained from the linear scaling method that exhibit no systematic drift over hundreds of picoseconds and which are indistinguishable from trajectories computed using exact forces.

Non-periodic molecular dynamics simulations of coarse grained lipid bilayer in water

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kotsalis, E. M.; Hanasaki, I.; Walther, Jens Honore

2010-01-01

We present a multiscale algorithm that couples coarse grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) with continuum solver. The coupling requires the imposition of non-periodic boundary conditions on the coarse grained Molecular Dynamics which, when not properly enforced, may result in spurious fluctuations o...... in simulating more complex systems by performing a non-periodic Molecular Dynamics simulation of a DPPC lipid in liquid coarse grained water.......We present a multiscale algorithm that couples coarse grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) with continuum solver. The coupling requires the imposition of non-periodic boundary conditions on the coarse grained Molecular Dynamics which, when not properly enforced, may result in spurious fluctuations...... of the material properties of the system represented by CGMD. In this paper we extend a control algorithm originally developed for atomistic simulations [3], to conduct simulations involving coarse grained water molecules without periodic boundary conditions. We demonstrate the applicability of our method...

Integrating atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, experiments, and network analysis to study protein dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Papaleo, Elena

2015-01-01

that we observe and the functional properties of these important cellular machines. To make progresses in this direction, we need to improve the physical models used to describe proteins and solvent in molecular dynamics, as well as to strengthen the integration of experiments and simulations to overcome...... with the possibility to validate simulation methods and physical models against a broad range of experimental observables. On the other side, it also allows a complementary and comprehensive view on protein structure and dynamics. What is needed now is a better understanding of the link between the dynamic properties...... simulations with attention to the effects that can be propagated over long distances and are often associated to important biological functions. In this context, approaches inspired by network analysis can make an important contribution to the analysis of molecular dynamics simulations....

Communication: A method to compute the transport coefficient of pure fluids diffusing through planar interfaces from equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Vermorel, Romain; Oulebsir, Fouad; Galliero, Guillaume

2017-09-14

The computation of diffusion coefficients in molecular systems ranks among the most useful applications of equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. However, when dealing with the problem of fluid diffusion through vanishingly thin interfaces, classical techniques are not applicable. This is because the volume of space in which molecules diffuse is ill-defined. In such conditions, non-equilibrium techniques allow for the computation of transport coefficients per unit interface width, but their weak point lies in their inability to isolate the contribution of the different physical mechanisms prone to impact the flux of permeating molecules. In this work, we propose a simple and accurate method to compute the diffusional transport coefficient of a pure fluid through a planar interface from equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, in the form of a diffusion coefficient per unit interface width. In order to demonstrate its validity and accuracy, we apply our method to the case study of a dilute gas diffusing through a smoothly repulsive single-layer porous solid. We believe this complementary technique can benefit to the interpretation of the results obtained on single-layer membranes by means of complex non-equilibrium methods.

Reaction dynamics in polyatomic molecular systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miller, W.H. [Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, CA (United States)

1993-12-01

The goal of this program is the development of theoretical methods and models for describing the dynamics of chemical reactions, with specific interest for application to polyatomic molecular systems of special interest and relevance. There is interest in developing the most rigorous possible theoretical approaches and also in more approximate treatments that are more readily applicable to complex systems.

Kinetics from Replica Exchange Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Stelzl, Lukas S; Hummer, Gerhard

2017-08-08

Transitions between metastable states govern many fundamental processes in physics, chemistry and biology, from nucleation events in phase transitions to the folding of proteins. The free energy surfaces underlying these processes can be obtained from simulations using enhanced sampling methods. However, their altered dynamics makes kinetic and mechanistic information difficult or impossible to extract. Here, we show that, with replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD), one can not only sample equilibrium properties but also extract kinetic information. For systems that strictly obey first-order kinetics, the procedure to extract rates is rigorous. For actual molecular systems whose long-time dynamics are captured by kinetic rate models, accurate rate coefficients can be determined from the statistics of the transitions between the metastable states at each replica temperature. We demonstrate the practical applicability of the procedure by constructing master equation (Markov state) models of peptide and RNA folding from REMD simulations.

Color molecular dynamics for dense matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maruyama, Toshiki; Hatsuda, Tetsuo

2000-01-01

We propose a microscopic approach for quark many-body system based on molecular dynamics. Using color confinement and one-gluon exchange potentials together with meson exchange potentials between quarks, we construct nucleons and nuclear/quark matter. Dynamical transition between confinement and deconfinement phases are studied at high baryon density with this molecular dynamics simulation. (author)

Lattice dynamics and molecular dynamics simulation of complex materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaplot, S.L.

1997-01-01

In this article we briefly review the lattice dynamics and molecular dynamics simulation techniques, as used for complex ionic and molecular solids, and demonstrate a number of applications through examples of our work. These computational studies, along with experiments, have provided microscopic insight into the structure and dynamics, phase transitions and thermodynamical properties of a variety of materials including fullerene, high temperature superconducting oxides and geological minerals as a function of pressure and temperature. The computational techniques also allow the study of the structures and dynamics associated with disorder, defects, surfaces, interfaces etc. (author)

Detailed balance method for chemical potential determination in Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fay, P.J.; Ray, J.R.; Wolf, R.J.

1994-01-01

We present a new, nondestructive, method for determining chemical potentials in Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations. The method estimates a value for the chemical potential such that one has a balance between fictitious successful creation and destruction trials in which the Monte Carlo method is used to determine success or failure of the creation/destruction attempts; we thus call the method a detailed balance method. The method allows one to obtain estimates of the chemical potential for a given species in any closed ensemble simulation; the closed ensemble is paired with a ''natural'' open ensemble for the purpose of obtaining creation and destruction probabilities. We present results for the Lennard-Jones system and also for an embedded atom model of liquid palladium, and compare to previous results in the literature for these two systems. We are able to obtain an accurate estimate of the chemical potential for the Lennard-Jones system at higher densities than reported in the literature

Development of a new molecular dynamics method for tribochemical reaction and its application to formation dynamics of MoS2 tribofilm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morita, Yusuke; Onodera, Tasuku; Suzuki, Ai; Sahnoun, Riadh; Koyama, Michihisa; Tsuboi, Hideyuki; Hatakeyama, Nozomu; Endou, Akira; Takaba, Hiromitsu; Kubo, Momoji; Del Carpio, Carlos A.; Shin-yoshi, Takatoshi; Nishino, Noriaki; Suzuki, Atsushi; Miyamoto, Akira

2008-01-01

Recently we have developed a novel molecular dynamics program NEW-RYUDO-CR, which can deal with chemical reactions. The developed method has been applied to the study of tribochemical reaction dynamics of MoS 2 tribofilm on iron surface. The initially amorphous MoS 2 layer self-organized its structure as result of the tribochemical reactions and formed layered MoS 2 tribofilm. The friction coefficient significantly decreased as the MoS 2 tribofilm was formed. Besides, sliding was observed between sulfur layers of MoS 2 tribofilms which occurred due to repulsive Coulombic interaction forces between sulfur atoms. This indicates that the formation of the layered MoS 2 tribofilm is important to achieve better lubrication properties

Molecular dynamics for irradiation driven chemistry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sushko, Gennady B.; Solov'yov, Ilia A.; Solov'yov, Andrey V.

2016-01-01

A new molecular dynamics (MD) approach for computer simulations of irradiation driven chemical transformations of complex molecular systems is suggested. The approach is based on the fact that irradiation induced quantum transformations can often be treated as random, fast and local processes...... that describe the classical MD of complex molecular systems under irradiation. The proposed irradiation driven molecular dynamics (IDMD) methodology is designed for the molecular level description of the irradiation driven chemistry. The IDMD approach is implemented into the MBN Explorer software package...... involving small molecules or molecular fragments. We advocate that the quantum transformations, such as molecular bond breaks, creation and annihilation of dangling bonds, electronic charge redistributions, changes in molecular topologies, etc., could be incorporated locally into the molecular force fields...

Orthonormal Wavelet Bases for Quantum Molecular Dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tymczak, C.; Wang, X.

1997-01-01

We report on the use of compactly supported, orthonormal wavelet bases for quantum molecular-dynamics (Car-Parrinello) algorithms. A wavelet selection scheme is developed and tested for prototypical problems, such as the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator, the hydrogen atom, and the local density approximation to atomic and molecular systems. Our method shows systematic convergence with increased grid size, along with improvement on compression rates, thereby yielding an optimal grid for self-consistent electronic structure calculations. copyright 1997 The American Physical Society

Substructured multibody molecular dynamics.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grest, Gary Stephen; Stevens, Mark Jackson; Plimpton, Steven James; Woolf, Thomas B. (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD); Lehoucq, Richard B.; Crozier, Paul Stewart; Ismail, Ahmed E.; Mukherjee, Rudranarayan M. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY); Draganescu, Andrei I.

2006-11-01

We have enhanced our parallel molecular dynamics (MD) simulation software LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator, lammps.sandia.gov) to include many new features for accelerated simulation including articulated rigid body dynamics via coupling to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute code POEMS (Parallelizable Open-source Efficient Multibody Software). We use new features of the LAMMPS software package to investigate rhodopsin photoisomerization, and water model surface tension and capillary waves at the vapor-liquid interface. Finally, we motivate the recipes of MD for practitioners and researchers in numerical analysis and computational mechanics.

Molecular dynamics simulations of solutions at constant chemical potential

Science.gov (United States)

Perego, C.; Salvalaglio, M.; Parrinello, M.

2015-04-01

Molecular dynamics studies of chemical processes in solution are of great value in a wide spectrum of applications, which range from nano-technology to pharmaceutical chemistry. However, these calculations are affected by severe finite-size effects, such as the solution being depleted as the chemical process proceeds, which influence the outcome of the simulations. To overcome these limitations, one must allow the system to exchange molecules with a macroscopic reservoir, thus sampling a grand-canonical ensemble. Despite the fact that different remedies have been proposed, this still represents a key challenge in molecular simulations. In the present work, we propose the Constant Chemical Potential Molecular Dynamics (CμMD) method, which introduces an external force that controls the environment of the chemical process of interest. This external force, drawing molecules from a finite reservoir, maintains the chemical potential constant in the region where the process takes place. We have applied the CμMD method to the paradigmatic case of urea crystallization in aqueous solution. As a result, we have been able to study crystal growth dynamics under constant supersaturation conditions and to extract growth rates and free-energy barriers.

Peptide dynamics by molecular dynamics simulation and diffusion theory method with improved basis sets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hsu, Po Jen; Lai, S. K., E-mail: sklai@coll.phy.ncu.edu.tw [Complex Liquids Laboratory, Department of Physics, National Central University, Chungli 320, Taiwan and Molecular Science and Technology Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan (China); Rapallo, Arnaldo [Istituto per lo Studio delle Macromolecole (ISMAC) Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), via E. Bassini 15, C.A.P 20133 Milano (Italy)

2014-03-14

Improved basis sets for the study of polymer dynamics by means of the diffusion theory, and tests on a melt of cis-1,4-polyisoprene decamers, and a toluene solution of a 71-mer syndiotactic trans-1,2-polypentadiene were presented recently [R. Gaspari and A. Rapallo, J. Chem. Phys. 128, 244109 (2008)]. The proposed hybrid basis approach (HBA) combined two techniques, the long time sorting procedure and the maximum correlation approximation. The HBA takes advantage of the strength of these two techniques, and its basis sets proved to be very effective and computationally convenient in describing both local and global dynamics in cases of flexible synthetic polymers where the repeating unit is a unique type of monomer. The question then arises if the same efficacy continues when the HBA is applied to polymers of different monomers, variable local stiffness along the chain and with longer persistence length, which have different local and global dynamical properties against the above-mentioned systems. Important examples of this kind of molecular chains are the proteins, so that a fragment of the protein transthyretin is chosen as the system of the present study. This peptide corresponds to a sequence that is structured in β-sheets of the protein and is located on the surface of the channel with thyroxin. The protein transthyretin forms amyloid fibrils in vivo, whereas the peptide fragment has been shown [C. P. Jaroniec, C. E. MacPhee, N. S. Astrof, C. M. Dobson, and R. G. Griffin, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 16748 (2002)] to form amyloid fibrils in vitro in extended β-sheet conformations. For these reasons the latter is given considerable attention in the literature and studied also as an isolated fragment in water solution where both experimental and theoretical efforts have indicated the propensity of the system to form β turns or α helices, but is otherwise predominantly unstructured. Differing from previous computational studies that employed implicit

Peptide dynamics by molecular dynamics simulation and diffusion theory method with improved basis sets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hsu, Po Jen; Lai, S. K.; Rapallo, Arnaldo

2014-01-01

Improved basis sets for the study of polymer dynamics by means of the diffusion theory, and tests on a melt of cis-1,4-polyisoprene decamers, and a toluene solution of a 71-mer syndiotactic trans-1,2-polypentadiene were presented recently [R. Gaspari and A. Rapallo, J. Chem. Phys. 128, 244109 (2008)]. The proposed hybrid basis approach (HBA) combined two techniques, the long time sorting procedure and the maximum correlation approximation. The HBA takes advantage of the strength of these two techniques, and its basis sets proved to be very effective and computationally convenient in describing both local and global dynamics in cases of flexible synthetic polymers where the repeating unit is a unique type of monomer. The question then arises if the same efficacy continues when the HBA is applied to polymers of different monomers, variable local stiffness along the chain and with longer persistence length, which have different local and global dynamical properties against the above-mentioned systems. Important examples of this kind of molecular chains are the proteins, so that a fragment of the protein transthyretin is chosen as the system of the present study. This peptide corresponds to a sequence that is structured in β-sheets of the protein and is located on the surface of the channel with thyroxin. The protein transthyretin forms amyloid fibrils in vivo, whereas the peptide fragment has been shown [C. P. Jaroniec, C. E. MacPhee, N. S. Astrof, C. M. Dobson, and R. G. Griffin, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 16748 (2002)] to form amyloid fibrils in vitro in extended β-sheet conformations. For these reasons the latter is given considerable attention in the literature and studied also as an isolated fragment in water solution where both experimental and theoretical efforts have indicated the propensity of the system to form β turns or α helices, but is otherwise predominantly unstructured. Differing from previous computational studies that employed implicit

Development of a quantum chemical molecular dynamics tribochemical simulator and its application to tribochemical reaction dynamics of lubricant additives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Onodera, T; Tsuboi, H; Hatakeyama, N; Endou, A; Miyamoto, A; Miura, R; Takaba, H; Suzuki, A; Kubo, M

2010-01-01

Tribology at the atomistic and molecular levels has been theoretically studied by a classical molecular dynamics (MD) method. However, this method inherently cannot simulate the tribochemical reaction dynamics because it does not consider the electrons in nature. Although the first-principles based MD method has recently been used for understanding the chemical reaction dynamics of several molecules in the tribology field, the method cannot simulate the tribochemical reaction dynamics of a large complex system including solid surfaces and interfaces due to its huge computation costs. On the other hand, we have developed a quantum chemical MD tribochemical simulator on the basis of a hybrid tight-binding quantum chemical/classical MD method. In the simulator, the central part of the chemical reaction dynamics is calculated by the tight-binding quantum chemical MD method, and the remaining part is calculated by the classical MD method. Therefore, the developed tribochemical simulator realizes the study on tribochemical reaction dynamics of a large complex system, which cannot be treated by using the conventional classical MD or the first-principles MD methods. In this paper, we review our developed quantum chemical MD tribochemical simulator and its application to the tribochemical reaction dynamics of a few lubricant additives

DYNAMIC SURFACE BOUNDARY-CONDITIONS - A SIMPLE BOUNDARY MODEL FOR MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

JUFFER, AH; BERENDSEN, HJC

1993-01-01

A simple model for the treatment of boundaries in molecular dynamics simulations is presented. The method involves the positioning of boundary atoms on a surface that surrounds a system of interest. The boundary atoms interact with the inner region and represent the effect of atoms outside the

Field theoretic approach to dynamical orbital localization in ab initio molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thomas, Jordan W.; Iftimie, Radu; Tuckerman, Mark E.

2004-01-01

Techniques from gauge-field theory are employed to derive an alternative formulation of the Car-Parrinello ab initio molecular-dynamics method that allows maximally localized Wannier orbitals to be generated dynamically as the calculation proceeds. In particular, the Car-Parrinello Lagrangian is mapped onto an SU(n) non-Abelian gauge-field theory and the fictitious kinetic energy in the Car-Parrinello Lagrangian is modified to yield a fully gauge-invariant form. The Dirac gauge-fixing method is then employed to derive a set of equations of motion that automatically maintain orbital locality by restricting the orbitals to remain in the 'Wannier gauge'. An approximate algorithm for integrating the equations of motion that is stable and maintains orbital locality is then developed based on the exact equations of motion. It is shown in a realistic application (64 water molecules plus one hydrogen-chloride molecule in a periodic box) that orbital locality can be maintained with only a modest increase in CPU time. The ability to keep orbitals localized in an ab initio molecular-dynamics calculation is a crucial ingredient in the development of emerging linear scaling approaches

The use of molecular dynamics for the thermodynamic properties of simple and transition metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Straub, G.K.

1987-04-01

The technique of computer simulation of the molecular dynamics in metallic systems to calculate thermodynamic properties is discussed. The nature of a metal as determined by its electronic structure is used to determine the total adiabatic potential. The effective screened ion-ion interaction can then be used in a molecular dynamics simulation. The method for the construction of a molecular dynamics ensemble, its relation to the canonical ensemble, and the definition of thermodynamic functions from the Helmholtz free energy is given. The method for the analysis of the molecular dynamics results from quasiharmonic lattice dynamics and the decomposition in terms of harmonic and anharmonic contributions is given for solids. For fluid phase metals, procedures for calculating the thermodynamics and determining the constant of entropy are presented. The solid-fluid phase boundary as a function of pressure and temperature is determined using the results of molecular dynamics. Throughout, examples and results for metallic sodium are used. The treatment of the transition metal electronic d-states in terms of an effective pair-wise interaction is also discussed and the phonon dispersion curves of Al, Ni, and Cu are calculated

Dynamics of infrared multiphonon dissociation of SF6 by molecular beam method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grant, E.R.; Coggiola, M.J.; Lee, Y.T.; Schulz, P.A.; Shen, Y.R.

1977-01-01

A crossed molecular beam apparatus has been adapted to study the dynamics of excitation and dissociation of polyatomic molecules in intense IR laser fields. Initial experiments have involved the study of the dissociation of SF 6 by CO 2 laser radiation at 10.6 μm. A molecular beam of SF 6 was formed by supersonic expansion using three stages of differential pumping. A grating tuned pulsed CO 2 TEA laser was used as the excitation source. The laser beam was focused by a 25 cm focal length ZnSe lens, and crossed the molecular beam near its focal point. The fragments produced by multiphonon dissociation of SF 6 within the small interaction region were detected as a function of recoil angle and velocity. (Auth.)

Molecular dynamics based enhanced sampling of collective variables with very large time steps

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Pei-Yang; Tuckerman, Mark E.

2018-01-01

Enhanced sampling techniques that target a set of collective variables and that use molecular dynamics as the driving engine have seen widespread application in the computational molecular sciences as a means to explore the free-energy landscapes of complex systems. The use of molecular dynamics as the fundamental driver of the sampling requires the introduction of a time step whose magnitude is limited by the fastest motions in a system. While standard multiple time-stepping methods allow larger time steps to be employed for the slower and computationally more expensive forces, the maximum achievable increase in time step is limited by resonance phenomena, which inextricably couple fast and slow motions. Recently, we introduced deterministic and stochastic resonance-free multiple time step algorithms for molecular dynamics that solve this resonance problem and allow ten- to twenty-fold gains in the large time step compared to standard multiple time step algorithms [P. Minary et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 150201 (2004); B. Leimkuhler et al., Mol. Phys. 111, 3579-3594 (2013)]. These methods are based on the imposition of isokinetic constraints that couple the physical system to Nosé-Hoover chains or Nosé-Hoover Langevin schemes. In this paper, we show how to adapt these methods for collective variable-based enhanced sampling techniques, specifically adiabatic free-energy dynamics/temperature-accelerated molecular dynamics, unified free-energy dynamics, and by extension, metadynamics, thus allowing simulations employing these methods to employ similarly very large time steps. The combination of resonance-free multiple time step integrators with free-energy-based enhanced sampling significantly improves the efficiency of conformational exploration.

A stochastic phase-field model determined from molecular dynamics

KAUST Repository

von Schwerin, Erik

2010-03-17

The dynamics of dendritic growth of a crystal in an undercooled melt is determined by macroscopic diffusion-convection of heat and by capillary forces acting on the nanometer scale of the solid-liquid interface width. Its modelling is useful for instance in processing techniques based on casting. The phase-field method is widely used to study evolution of such microstructural phase transformations on a continuum level; it couples the energy equation to a phenomenological Allen-Cahn/Ginzburg-Landau equation modelling the dynamics of an order parameter determining the solid and liquid phases, including also stochastic fluctuations to obtain the qualitatively correct result of dendritic side branching. This work presents a method to determine stochastic phase-field models from atomistic formulations by coarse-graining molecular dynamics. It has three steps: (1) a precise quantitative atomistic definition of the phase-field variable, based on the local potential energy; (2) derivation of its coarse-grained dynamics model, from microscopic Smoluchowski molecular dynamics (that is Brownian or over damped Langevin dynamics); and (3) numerical computation of the coarse-grained model functions. The coarse-grained model approximates Gibbs ensemble averages of the atomistic phase-field, by choosing coarse-grained drift and diffusion functions that minimize the approximation error of observables in this ensemble average. © EDP Sciences, SMAI, 2010.

A stochastic phase-field model determined from molecular dynamics

KAUST Repository

von Schwerin, Erik; Szepessy, Anders

2010-01-01

The dynamics of dendritic growth of a crystal in an undercooled melt is determined by macroscopic diffusion-convection of heat and by capillary forces acting on the nanometer scale of the solid-liquid interface width. Its modelling is useful for instance in processing techniques based on casting. The phase-field method is widely used to study evolution of such microstructural phase transformations on a continuum level; it couples the energy equation to a phenomenological Allen-Cahn/Ginzburg-Landau equation modelling the dynamics of an order parameter determining the solid and liquid phases, including also stochastic fluctuations to obtain the qualitatively correct result of dendritic side branching. This work presents a method to determine stochastic phase-field models from atomistic formulations by coarse-graining molecular dynamics. It has three steps: (1) a precise quantitative atomistic definition of the phase-field variable, based on the local potential energy; (2) derivation of its coarse-grained dynamics model, from microscopic Smoluchowski molecular dynamics (that is Brownian or over damped Langevin dynamics); and (3) numerical computation of the coarse-grained model functions. The coarse-grained model approximates Gibbs ensemble averages of the atomistic phase-field, by choosing coarse-grained drift and diffusion functions that minimize the approximation error of observables in this ensemble average. © EDP Sciences, SMAI, 2010.

A new parallel molecular dynamics algorithm for organic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plimpton, S.; Hendrickson, B.; Heffelfinger, G.

1993-01-01

A new parallel algorithm for simulating bonded molecular systems such as polymers and proteins by molecular dynamics (MD) is presented. In contrast to methods that extract parallelism by breaking the spatial domain into sub-pieces, the new method does not require regular geometries or uniform particle densities to achieve high parallel efficiency. For very large, regular systems spatial methods are often the best choice, but in practice the new method is faster for systems with tens-of-thousands of atoms simulated on large numbers of processors. It is also several times faster than the techniques commonly used for parallelizing bonded MD that assign a subset of atoms to each processor and require all-to-all communication. Implementation of the algorithm in a CHARMm-like MD model with many body forces and constraint dynamics is discussed and timings on the Intel Delta and Paragon machines are given. Example calculations using the algorithm in simulations of polymers and liquid-crystal molecules will also be briefly discussed

Quantum molecular dynamics study of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Michielsen, Kristel; Raedt, Hans De

A quantum molecular dynamics technique is presented to compute the static and dynamic properties of a system of fermions coupled to classical degrees of freedom. The method is employed to investigate the properties of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, an electron-phonon model which is often used to

Symplectic integrators for large scale molecular dynamics simulations: A comparison of several explicit methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gray, S.K.; Noid, D.W.; Sumpter, B.G.

1994-01-01

We test the suitability of a variety of explicit symplectic integrators for molecular dynamics calculations on Hamiltonian systems. These integrators are extremely simple algorithms with low memory requirements, and appear to be well suited for large scale simulations. We first apply all the methods to a simple test case using the ideas of Berendsen and van Gunsteren. We then use the integrators to generate long time trajectories of a 1000 unit polyethylene chain. Calculations are also performed with two popular but nonsymplectic integrators. The most efficient integrators of the set investigated are deduced. We also discuss certain variations on the basic symplectic integration technique

Polymer friction Molecular Dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sivebæk, Ion Marius; Samoilov, Vladimir N.; Persson, Bo N. J.

We present molecular dynamics friction calculations for confined hydrocarbon solids with molecular lengths from 20 to 1400 carbon atoms. Two cases are considered: a) polymer sliding against a hard substrate, and b) polymer sliding on polymer. In the first setup the shear stresses are relatively...... independent of molecular length. For polymer sliding on polymer the friction is significantly larger, and dependent on the molecular chain length. In both cases, the shear stresses are proportional to the squeezing pressure and finite at zero load, indicating an adhesional contribution to the friction force....

Viscosity calculations at molecular dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirova, E M; Norman, G E

2015-01-01

Viscosity and diffusion are chosen as an example to demonstrate the universality of diagnostics methods in the molecular dynamics method. To emphasize the universality, three diverse systems are investigated, which differ from each other drastically: liquids with embedded atom method and pairwise interatomic interaction potentials and dusty plasma with a unique multiparametric interparticle interaction potential. Both the Einstein-Helfand and Green-Kubo relations are used. Such a particular process as glass transition is analysed at the simulation of the aluminium melt. The effect of the dust particle charge fluctuation is considered. The results are compared with the experimental data. (paper)

Molecular dynamics simulations of melting behavior of alkane as phase change materials slurry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rao Zhonghao; Wang Shuangfeng; Wu Maochun; Zhang Yanlai; Li Fuhuo

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► The melting behavior of phase change materials slurry was investigated by molecular dynamics simulation method. ► Four different PCM slurry systems including pure water and water/n-nonadecane composite were constructed. ► Amorphous structure and periodic boundary conditions were used in the molecular dynamics simulations. ► The simulated melting temperatures are very close to the published experimental values. - Abstract: The alkane based phase change materials slurry, with high latent heat storage capacity, is effective to enhance the heat transfer rate of traditional fluid. In this paper, the melting behavior of composite phase change materials slurry which consists of n-nonadecane and water was investigated by using molecular dynamics simulation. Four different systems including pure water and water/n-nonadecane composite were constructed with amorphous structure and periodic boundary conditions. The results showed that the simulated density and melting temperature were very close to the published experimental values. Mixing the n-nonadecane into water decreased the mobility but increased the energy storage capacity of composite systems. To describe the melting behavior of alkane based phase change materials slurry on molecular or atomic scale, molecular dynamics simulation is an effective method.

Next generation extended Lagrangian first principles molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Niklasson, Anders M N

2017-08-07

Extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics [A. M. N. Niklasson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 123004 (2008)] is formulated for general Hohenberg-Kohn density-functional theory and compared with the extended Lagrangian framework of first principles molecular dynamics by Car and Parrinello [Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2471 (1985)]. It is shown how extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics overcomes several shortcomings of regular, direct Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics, while improving or maintaining important features of Car-Parrinello simulations. The accuracy of the electronic degrees of freedom in extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics, with respect to the exact Born-Oppenheimer solution, is of second-order in the size of the integration time step and of fourth order in the potential energy surface. Improved stability over recent formulations of extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics is achieved by generalizing the theory to finite temperature ensembles, using fractional occupation numbers in the calculation of the inner-product kernel of the extended harmonic oscillator that appears as a preconditioner in the electronic equations of motion. Material systems that normally exhibit slow self-consistent field convergence can be simulated using integration time steps of the same order as in direct Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics, but without the requirement of an iterative, non-linear electronic ground-state optimization prior to the force evaluations and without a systematic drift in the total energy. In combination with proposed low-rank and on the fly updates of the kernel, this formulation provides an efficient and general framework for quantum-based Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations.

Analysis of Time Reversible Born-Oppenheimer Molecular Dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lin Lin

2013-12-01

Full Text Available We analyze the time reversible Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (TRBOMD scheme, which preserves the time reversibility of the Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics even with non-convergent self-consistent field iteration. In the linear response regime, we derive the stability condition, as well as the accuracy of TRBOMD for computing physical properties, such as the phonon frequency obtained from the molecular dynamics simulation. We connect and compare TRBOMD with Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics in terms of accuracy and stability. We further discuss the accuracy of TRBOMD beyond the linear response regime for non-equilibrium dynamics of nuclei. Our results are demonstrated through numerical experiments using a simplified one-dimensional model for Kohn-Sham density functional theory.

Magnetic nanoparticles in fluid environment: combining molecular dynamics and Lattice-Boltzmann

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Melenev, Petr, E-mail: melenev@icmm.ru [Ural Federal University, 4, Turgeneva str., 620000 Ekaterinburg (Russian Federation); Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics, 1, Koroleva str., 614013 Perm (Russian Federation)

2017-06-01

Hydrodynamic interactions between magnetic nanoparticles suspended in the Newtonian liquid are accounted for using a combination of the lattice Boltzmann method and molecular dynamics simulations. Nanoparticle is modelled by the system of molecular dynamics material points (which form structure resembles raspberry) coupled to the lattice Boltzmann fluid. The hydrodynamic coupling between the colloids is studied by simulations of the thermo-induced rotational diffusion of two raspberry objects. It was found that for the considered range of model parameters the approaching of the raspberries leads to slight retard of the relaxation process. The presence of the weak magnetic dipolar interaction between the objects leads to modest decrease of the relaxation time and the extent of the acceleration of the diffusion is intensified along with magnetic forces. - Highlights: • The combination of molecular dynamics and lattice Boltzmann method is utilized for the reveal of the role of hydrodynamic interaction in rotational dynamics of colloid particles. • The verification of the model parameters is done based on the comparison with the results of Langevin dynamics. • For the task of free rotational diffusion of the pair of colloid particles the influence of the hydrodynamic interactions on the relaxation time is examined in the case of nonmagnetic particles and at the presence of weak dipolar interaction.

A Molecular Dynamics Study of Lunasin | Singh | South African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A Molecular Dynamics Study of Lunasin. ... profile of lunasin,using classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations at the time scale of 300 ns. ... Keywords: Lunasin, molecular dynamics, amber, CLASICO, α-helix, β-turn, PTRAJ, RGD, RMSD ...

Dynamic analysis of electron density in the course of the internal motion of molecular system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tachibana, A.; Hori, K.; Asai, Y.; Yamabe, T.

1984-01-01

The general dynamic aspect of electron density of a molecular system is studied on the basis of the general equation of the electron orbital which is formulated for the dynamic study of electronic motion. The newly defined electron orbital incorporates the dynamics of molecular vibration into the electronic structures. In this scheme, the change of electron distribution caused by excitation of vibrational state is defined as the ''dynamic electron transfer.'' The dynamic electron density is found to have the remarkable ''additive'' property. The time-dependent aspect of the dynamic electron redistribution is also analyzed on the basis of the ''coherent state.'' The new method relates the classical vibrational amplitude to the quantum number of the vibrational state. As a preliminary application of the present treatment, the dynamic electron densities of H 2 , HD, HT, HF, and HCl molecules are calculated by use of ab initio molecular orbital method

Molecular potentials and relaxation dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karo, A.M.

1981-01-01

The use of empirical pseudopotentials, in evaluating interatomic potentials, provides an inexpensive and convenient method for obtaining highly accurate potential curves and permits the modeling of core-valence correlation, and the inclusion of relativistic effects when these are significant. Recent calculations of the X 1 Σ + and a 3 Σ + states of LiH, NaH, KH, RbH, and CsH and the X 2 Σ + states of their anions are discussed. Pseudopotentials, including core polarization terms, have been used to replace the core electrons, and this has been coupled with the development of compact, higly-optimized basis sets for the corresponding one- and two-electron atoms. Comparisons of the neutral potential curves with experiment and other ab initio calculations show good agreement (within 1000 cm -1 over most of the potential curves) with the difference curves being considerably more accurate. In the method of computer molecular dynamics, the force acting on each particle is the resultant of all interactions with other atoms in the neighborhood and is obtained as the derivative of an effective many-body potential. Exploiting the pseudopotential approach, in obtaining the appropriate potentials may be very fruitful in the future. In the molecular dynamics example considered here, the conventional sum-of-pairwise-interatomic-potentials (SPP) approximation is used with the potentials derived either from experimental spectroscopic data or from Hartree-Fock calculations. The problem is the collisional de-excitation of vibrationally excited molecular hydrogen at an Fe surface. The calculations have been carried out for an initial vibrotational state v = 8, J = 1 and a translational temperature corresponding to a gas temperature of 500 0 K. Different angles of approach and different initial random impact points on the surface have been selected. For any given collision with the wall, the molecule may pick up or lose vibrotatonal and translational energy

Pitfall in quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical molecular dynamics simulation of small solutes in solution.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Hao; Liu, Haiyan

2013-05-30

Developments in computing hardware and algorithms have made direct molecular dynamics simulation with the combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical methods affordable for small solute molecules in solution, in which much improved accuracy can be obtained via the quantum mechanical treatment of the solute molecule and even sometimes water molecules in the first solvation shell. However, unlike the conventional molecular mechanical simulations of large molecules, e.g., proteins, in solutions, special care must be taken in the technical details of the simulation, including the thermostat of the solute/solvent system, so that the conformational space of the solute molecules can be properly sampled. We show here that the common setup for classical molecular mechanical molecular dynamics simulations, such as the Berendsen or single Nose-Hoover thermostat, and/or rigid water models could lead to pathological sampling of the solutes' conformation. In the extreme example of a methanol molecule in aqueous solution, improper and sluggish setups could generate two peaks in the distribution of the O-H bond length. We discuss the factors responsible for this somewhat unexpected result and evoke a simple and ancient technical fix-up to resolve this problem.

Olefin Metathesis in Peptidomimetics, Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry, and Molecular Imprinting

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Low, Tammy K

2006-01-01

.... Our research goals consisted of employing olefin metathesis in the synthesis of peptidomimetics, and studying the feasibility of this method in dynamic combinatorial chemistry and molecular imprinting of nerve agents...

Model-free methods of analyzing domain motions in proteins from simulation : A comparison of normal mode analysis and molecular dynamics simulation of lysozyme

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hayward, S.; Kitao, A.; Berendsen, H.J.C.

Model-free methods are introduced to determine quantities pertaining to protein domain motions from normal mode analyses and molecular dynamics simulations, For the normal mode analysis, the methods are based on the assumption that in low frequency modes, domain motions can be well approximated by

Structure and dynamics of photosynthetic proteins studied by neutron scattering and molecular dynamic simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dellerue, Serge

2000-01-01

Understand the structure-dynamics-function relation in the case of proteins is essential. But few experimental techniques allow to have access to knowledge of fast internal movements of biological macromolecules. With the neutron scattering method, it has been possible to study the reorientation dynamics of side chains and of polypeptide skeleton for two proteins in terms of water or detergent and of temperature. With the use of the molecular dynamics method, essential for completing and interpreting the experimental data, it has been possible to assess the different contributions of the whole structure of proteins to the overall dynamics. It has been shown that the polypeptide skeleton presents an energy relaxation comparable to those of the side chains. Moreover, it has been explained that the protein dynamics can only be understood in terms of relaxation time distribution. (author) [fr

Comparative Investigation of Normal Modes and Molecular Dynamics of Hepatitis C NS5B Protein

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asafi, M S; Tekpinar, M; Yildirim, A

2016-01-01

Understanding dynamics of proteins has many practical implications in terms of finding a cure for many protein related diseases. Normal mode analysis and molecular dynamics methods are widely used physics-based computational methods for investigating dynamics of proteins. In this work, we studied dynamics of Hepatitis C NS5B protein with molecular dynamics and normal mode analysis. Principal components obtained from a 100 nanoseconds molecular dynamics simulation show good overlaps with normal modes calculated with a coarse-grained elastic network model. Coarse-grained normal mode analysis takes at least an order of magnitude shorter time. Encouraged by this good overlaps and short computation times, we analyzed further low frequency normal modes of Hepatitis C NS5B. Motion directions and average spatial fluctuations have been analyzed in detail. Finally, biological implications of these motions in drug design efforts against Hepatitis C infections have been elaborated. (paper)

Multiscale simulations of anisotropic particles combining molecular dynamics and Green's function reaction dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Vijaykumar, Adithya; Ouldridge, Thomas E.; ten Wolde, Pieter Rein; Bolhuis, Peter G.

2017-03-01

The modeling of complex reaction-diffusion processes in, for instance, cellular biochemical networks or self-assembling soft matter can be tremendously sped up by employing a multiscale algorithm which combines the mesoscopic Green's Function Reaction Dynamics (GFRD) method with explicit stochastic Brownian, Langevin, or deterministic molecular dynamics to treat reactants at the microscopic scale [A. Vijaykumar, P. G. Bolhuis, and P. R. ten Wolde, J. Chem. Phys. 143, 214102 (2015)]. Here we extend this multiscale MD-GFRD approach to include the orientational dynamics that is crucial to describe the anisotropic interactions often prevalent in biomolecular systems. We present the novel algorithm focusing on Brownian dynamics only, although the methodology is generic. We illustrate the novel algorithm using a simple patchy particle model. After validation of the algorithm, we discuss its performance. The rotational Brownian dynamics MD-GFRD multiscale method will open up the possibility for large scale simulations of protein signalling networks.

Quantitative Methods for Molecular Diagnostic and Therapeutic Imaging

OpenAIRE

Li, Quanzheng

2013-01-01

This theme issue provides an overview on the basic quantitative methods, an in-depth discussion on the cutting-edge quantitative analysis approaches as well as their applications for both static and dynamic molecular diagnostic and therapeutic imaging.

Combinatorial computational chemistry approach of tight-binding quantum chemical molecular dynamics method to the design of the automotive catalysts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Yuki; Jung, Changho; Luo, Yi; Koyama, Michihisa; Endou, Akira; Kubo, Momoji; Imamura, Akira; Miyamoto, Akira

2006-01-01

Recently, we have developed a new tight-binding quantum chemical molecular dynamics program 'Colors' for combinatorial computational chemistry approach. This methodology is based on our original tight-binding approximation and realized over 5000 times acceleration compared to the conventional first-principles molecular dynamics method. In the present study, we applied our new program to the simulations on various realistic large-scale models of the automotive three-way catalysts, ultrafine Pt particle/CeO 2 (111) support. Significant electron transfer from the Pt particle to the CeO 2 (111) surface was observed and it was found to strongly depend on the size of the Pt particle. Furthermore, our simulation results suggest that the reduction of the Ce atom due to the electron transfer from the Pt particle to the CeO 2 surface is a main reason for the strong interaction of the Pt particle and CeO 2 (111) support

An efficient implementation of parallel molecular dynamics method on SMP cluster architecture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Masaaki; Okuda, Hiroshi; Yagawa, Genki

2003-01-01

The authors have applied MPI/OpenMP hybrid parallel programming model to parallelize a molecular dynamics (MD) method on a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) cluster architecture. In that architecture, it can be expected that the hybrid parallel programming model, which uses the message passing library such as MPI for inter-SMP node communication and the loop directive such as OpenMP for intra-SNP node parallelization, is the most effective one. In this study, the parallel performance of the hybrid style has been compared with that of conventional flat parallel programming style, which uses only MPI, both in cases the fast multipole method (FMM) is employed for computing long-distance interactions and that is not employed. The computer environments used here are Hitachi SR8000/MPP placed at the University of Tokyo. The results of calculation are as follows. Without FMM, the parallel efficiency using 16 SMP nodes (128 PEs) is: 90% with the hybrid style, 75% with the flat-MPI style for MD simulation with 33,402 atoms. With FMM, the parallel efficiency using 16 SMP nodes (128 PEs) is: 60% with the hybrid style, 48% with the flat-MPI style for MD simulation with 117,649 atoms. (author)

Introduction to the nuclear structure studies of exotic nuclei by using antisymmetrized molecular dynamics method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kimura, Masaaki; Dote, Akinobu; Ohnishi, Akira; Matsumiya, Hiroshi

2009-01-01

This article is originally prepared as the course text for the practice of the AMD course of 'studies of the strangeness nuclei by using the antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) method' in the Summer School held at KEK and IPCR in 2006-8 for postgraduate as well as undergraduate students and to foster young physicists in the titled area. The fundamental principle and the formalism of the AMD method which have been commonly used in the nuclear physics are explained at first, and it is described how to extend the AMD method to the studies of exotic nuclei especially to hypernuclei. Then calculation procedure is explained in detail so that the readers can understand the structure of exotic nuclei as they follow the process by themselves. It is intended here that they will be able not only to become familiar with the research by using the AMD method but also to visually enjoy the structure of exotic nuclei and will have further interest in this field. (S. Funahashi)

Activity coefficients from molecular simulations using the OPAS method

Science.gov (United States)

Kohns, Maximilian; Horsch, Martin; Hasse, Hans

2017-10-01

A method for determining activity coefficients by molecular dynamics simulations is presented. It is an extension of the OPAS (osmotic pressure for the activity of the solvent) method in previous work for studying the solvent activity in electrolyte solutions. That method is extended here to study activities of all components in mixtures of molecular species. As an example, activity coefficients in liquid mixtures of water and methanol are calculated for 298.15 K and 323.15 K at 1 bar using molecular models from the literature. These dense and strongly interacting mixtures pose a significant challenge to existing methods for determining activity coefficients by molecular simulation. It is shown that the new method yields accurate results for the activity coefficients which are in agreement with results obtained with a thermodynamic integration technique. As the partial molar volumes are needed in the proposed method, the molar excess volume of the system water + methanol is also investigated.

Dislocation-dynamics method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Brutzel, L.

2015-01-01

Dislocation-Dynamics (DD) technique is identified as the method able to model the evolution of material plastic properties as a function of the microstructural transformation predicted at the atomic scale. Indeed, it is the only simulation method capable of taking into account the collective behaviour of a large number of dislocations inside a realistic microstructure. DD simulations are based on the elastic dislocation theory following rules inherent to the dislocation core structure often call 'local rules'. All the data necessary to establish the local rules for DD have to come directly from experiment or alternatively from simulations carried out at the atomic scale such as molecular dynamics or ab initio calculations. However, no precise information on the interaction between two dislocations or between dislocations and defects induced by irradiation are available for nuclear fuels. Therefore, in this article the DD technique will be presented and some examples are given of what can be achieved with it. (author)

Molecular structures and intramolecular dynamics of pentahalides

Science.gov (United States)

Ischenko, A. A.

2017-03-01

This paper reviews advances of modern gas electron diffraction (GED) method combined with high-resolution spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations in studies of the impact of intramolecular dynamics in free molecules of pentahalides. Some recently developed approaches to the electron diffraction data interpretation, based on direct incorporation of the adiabatic potential energy surface parameters to the diffraction intensity are described. In this way, complementary data of different experimental and computational methods can be directly combined for solving problems of the molecular structure and its dynamics. The possibility to evaluate some important parameters of the adiabatic potential energy surface - barriers to pseudorotation and saddle point of intermediate configuration from diffraction intensities in solving the inverse GED problem is demonstrated on several examples. With increasing accuracy of the electron diffraction intensities and the development of the theoretical background of electron scattering and data interpretation, it has become possible to investigate complex nuclear dynamics in fluxional systems by the GED method. Results of other research groups are also included in the discussion.

Thermally driven molecular linear motors - A molecular dynamics study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zambrano, Harvey A; Walther, Jens Honore; Jaffe, Richard Lawrence

2009-01-01

We conduct molecular dynamics simulations of a molecular linear motor consisting of coaxial carbon nanotubes with a long outer carbon nanotube confining and guiding the motion of an inner short, capsule-like nanotube. The simulations indicate that the motion of the capsule can be controlled by th...

Quantum master equation method based on the broken-symmetry time-dependent density functional theory: application to dynamic polarizability of open-shell molecular systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Kishi, Ryohei; Nakano, Masayoshi

2011-04-21

A novel method for the calculation of the dynamic polarizability (α) of open-shell molecular systems is developed based on the quantum master equation combined with the broken-symmetry (BS) time-dependent density functional theory within the Tamm-Dancoff approximation, referred to as the BS-DFTQME method. We investigate the dynamic α density distribution obtained from BS-DFTQME calculations in order to analyze the spatial contributions of electrons to the field-induced polarization and clarify the contributions of the frontier orbital pair to α and its density. To demonstrate the performance of this method, we examine the real part of dynamic α of singlet 1,3-dipole systems having a variety of diradical characters (y). The frequency dispersion of α, in particular in the resonant region, is shown to strongly depend on the exchange-correlation functional as well as on the diradical character. Under sufficiently off-resonant condition, the dynamic α is found to decrease with increasing y and/or the fraction of Hartree-Fock exchange in the exchange-correlation functional, which enhances the spin polarization, due to the decrease in the delocalization effects of π-diradical electrons in the frontier orbital pair. The BS-DFTQME method with the BHandHLYP exchange-correlation functional also turns out to semiquantitatively reproduce the α spectra calculated by a strongly correlated ab initio molecular orbital method, i.e., the spin-unrestricted coupled-cluster singles and doubles.

Huge-scale molecular dynamics simulation of multibubble nuclei

KAUST Repository

Watanabe, Hiroshi

2013-12-01

We have developed molecular dynamics codes for a short-range interaction potential that adopt both the flat-MPI and MPI/OpenMP hybrid parallelizations on the basis of a full domain decomposition strategy. Benchmark simulations involving up to 38.4 billion Lennard-Jones particles were performed on Fujitsu PRIMEHPC FX10, consisting of 4800 SPARC64 IXfx 1.848 GHz processors, at the Information Technology Center of the University of Tokyo, and a performance of 193 teraflops was achieved, which corresponds to a 17.0% execution efficiency. Cavitation processes were also simulated on PRIMEHPC FX10 and SGI Altix ICE 8400EX at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the University of Tokyo, which involved 1.45 billion and 22.9 million particles, respectively. Ostwald-like ripening was observed after the multibubble nuclei. Our results demonstrate that direct simulations of multiscale phenomena involving phase transitions from the atomic scale are possible and that the molecular dynamics method is a promising method that can be applied to petascale computers. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of the Fragment Molecular Orbital Method for Calculating Nonlocal Excitations in Large Molecular Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Fujita, Takatoshi; Mochizuki, Yuji

2018-04-19

We developed the fragment-based method for calculating nonlocal excitations in large molecular systems. This method is based on the multilayer fragment molecular orbital method and the configuration interaction single (CIS) wave function using localized molecular orbitals. The excited-state wave function for the whole system is described as a superposition of configuration state functions (CSFs) for intrafragment excitations and for interfragment charge-transfer excitations. The formulation and calculations of singlet excited-state Hamiltonian matrix elements in the fragment CSFs are presented in detail. The efficient approximation schemes for calculating the matrix elements are also presented. The computational efficiency and the accuracy were evaluated using the molecular dimers and molecular aggregates. We confirmed that absolute errors of 50 meV (relative to the conventional calculations) are achievable for the molecular systems in their equilibrium geometries. The perturbative electron correlation correction to the CIS excitation energies is also demonstrated. The present theory can compute a large number of excited states in large molecular systems; in addition, it allows for the systematic derivation of a model exciton Hamiltonian. These features are useful for studying excited-state dynamics in condensed molecular systems based on the ab initio electronic structure theory.

Polymorphic transitions in single crystals: A new molecular dynamics method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parrinello, M.; Rahman, A.

1981-12-01

A new Lagrangian formulation is introduced. It can be used to make molecular dynamics (MD) calculations on systems under the most general, externally applied, conditions of stress. In this formulation the MD cell shape and size can change according to dynamical equations given by this Lagrangian. This new MD technique is well suited to the study of structural transformations in solids under external stress and at finite temperature. As an example of the use of this technique we show how a single crystal of Ni behaves under uniform uniaxial compressive and tensile loads. This work confirms some of the results of static (i.e., zero temperature) calculations reported in the literature. We also show that some results regarding the stress-strain relation obtained by static calculations are invalid at finite temperature. We find that, under compressive loading, our model of Ni shows a bifurcation in its stress-strain relation; this bifurcation provides a link in configuration space between cubic and hexagonal close packing. It is suggested that such a transformation could perhaps be observed experimentally under extreme conditions of shock.

Polymorphic transitions in single crystals: A new molecular dynamics method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parrinello, M.; Rahman, A.

1981-01-01

A new Lagrangian formulation is introduced. It can be used to make molecular dynamics (MD) calculations on systems under the most general, externally applied, conditions of stress. In this formulation the MD cell shape and size can change according to dynamical equations given by this Lagrangian. This new MD technique is well suited to the study of structural transformations in solids under external stress and at finite temperature. As an example of the use of this technique we show how a single crystal of Ni behaves under uniform uniaxial compressive and tensile loads. This work confirms some of the results of static (i.e., zero temperature) calculations reported in the literature. We also show that some results regarding the stress-strain relation obtained by static calculations are invalid at finite temperature. We find that, under compressive loading, our model of Ni shows a bifurcation in its stress-strain relation; this bifurcation provides a link in configuration space between cubic and hexagonal close packing. It is suggested that such a transformation could perhaps be observed experimentally under extreme conditions of shock

How to remove the spurious resonances from ring polymer molecular dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rossi, Mariana; Manolopoulos, David E. [Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QZ (United Kingdom); Ceriotti, Michele [Laboratory of Computational Science and Modeling, IMX, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne (Switzerland)

2014-06-21

Two of the most successful methods that are presently available for simulating the quantum dynamics of condensed phase systems are centroid molecular dynamics (CMD) and ring polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD). Despite their conceptual differences, practical implementations of these methods differ in just two respects: the choice of the Parrinello-Rahman mass matrix and whether or not a thermostat is applied to the internal modes of the ring polymer during the dynamics. Here, we explore a method which is halfway between the two approximations: we keep the path integral bead masses equal to the physical particle masses but attach a Langevin thermostat to the internal modes of the ring polymer during the dynamics. We justify this by showing analytically that the inclusion of an internal mode thermostat does not affect any of the established features of RPMD: thermostatted RPMD is equally valid with respect to everything that has actually been proven about the method as RPMD itself. In particular, because of the choice of bead masses, the resulting method is still optimum in the short-time limit, and the transition state approximation to its reaction rate theory remains closely related to the semiclassical instanton approximation in the deep quantum tunneling regime. In effect, there is a continuous family of methods with these properties, parameterised by the strength of the Langevin friction. Here, we explore numerically how the approximation to quantum dynamics depends on this friction, with a particular emphasis on vibrational spectroscopy. We find that a broad range of frictions approaching optimal damping give similar results, and that these results are immune to both the resonance problem of RPMD and the curvature problem of CMD.

How to remove the spurious resonances from ring polymer molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rossi, Mariana; Manolopoulos, David E.; Ceriotti, Michele

2014-01-01

Two of the most successful methods that are presently available for simulating the quantum dynamics of condensed phase systems are centroid molecular dynamics (CMD) and ring polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD). Despite their conceptual differences, practical implementations of these methods differ in just two respects: the choice of the Parrinello-Rahman mass matrix and whether or not a thermostat is applied to the internal modes of the ring polymer during the dynamics. Here, we explore a method which is halfway between the two approximations: we keep the path integral bead masses equal to the physical particle masses but attach a Langevin thermostat to the internal modes of the ring polymer during the dynamics. We justify this by showing analytically that the inclusion of an internal mode thermostat does not affect any of the established features of RPMD: thermostatted RPMD is equally valid with respect to everything that has actually been proven about the method as RPMD itself. In particular, because of the choice of bead masses, the resulting method is still optimum in the short-time limit, and the transition state approximation to its reaction rate theory remains closely related to the semiclassical instanton approximation in the deep quantum tunneling regime. In effect, there is a continuous family of methods with these properties, parameterised by the strength of the Langevin friction. Here, we explore numerically how the approximation to quantum dynamics depends on this friction, with a particular emphasis on vibrational spectroscopy. We find that a broad range of frictions approaching optimal damping give similar results, and that these results are immune to both the resonance problem of RPMD and the curvature problem of CMD

Current-driven dynamics in molecular-scale devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seideman, Tamar

2003-01-01

We review recent theoretical work on current-triggered processes in molecular-scale devices - a field at the interface between solid state physics and chemical dynamics with potential applications in diverse areas, including artificial molecular machines, unimolecular transport, surface nanochemistry and nanolithography. The qualitative physics underlying current-triggered dynamics is first discussed and placed in context with several well-studied phenomena with which it shares aspects. A theory for modelling these dynamics is next formulated within a time-dependent scattering approach. Our end result provides useful insight into the system properties that determine the reaction outcome as well as a computationally convenient framework for numerical realization. The theory is applied to study single-molecule surface reactions induced by a scanning tunnelling microscope and current-triggered dynamics in single-molecule transistors. We close with a discussion of several potential applications of current-induced dynamics in molecular devices and several opportunities for future research. (topical review)

Correlations and symmetry of interactions influence collective dynamics of molecular motors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Celis-Garza, Daniel; Teimouri, Hamid; Kolomeisky, Anatoly B

2015-01-01

Enzymatic molecules that actively support many cellular processes, including transport, cell division and cell motility, are known as motor proteins or molecular motors. Experimental studies indicate that they interact with each other and they frequently work together in large groups. To understand the mechanisms of collective behavior of motor proteins we study the effect of interactions in the transport of molecular motors along linear filaments. It is done by analyzing a recently introduced class of totally asymmetric exclusion processes that takes into account the intermolecular interactions via thermodynamically consistent approach. We develop a new theoretical method that allows us to compute analytically all dynamic properties of the system. Our analysis shows that correlations play important role in dynamics of interacting molecular motors. Surprisingly, we find that the correlations for repulsive interactions are weaker and more short-range than the correlations for the attractive interactions. In addition, it is shown that symmetry of interactions affect dynamic properties of molecular motors. The implications of these findings for motor proteins transport are discussed. Our theoretical predictions are tested by extensive Monte Carlo computer simulations. (paper)

Molecular Dynamics Studies of Nanofluidic Devices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zambrano Rodriguez, Harvey Alexander

of such devices. Computational nanofluidics complements experimental studies by providing detailed spatial and temporal information of the nanosystem. In this thesis, we conduct molecular dynamics simulations to study basic nanoscale devices. We focus our studies on the understanding of transport mechanism...... to drive fluids and solids at the nanoscale. Specifically, we present the results of three different research projects. Throughout the first part of this thesis, we include a comprenhensive introduction to computational nanofluidics and to molecular simulations, and describe the molecular dynamics...... in opposite direction to the imposed thermal gradient also we measure higher velocities as higher thermal gradients are imposed. Secondly, we present an atomistic analysis of a molecular linear motor fabricated of coaxial carbon nanotubes and powered by thermal gradients. The MD simulation results indicate...

Hierarchical Coupling of First-Principles Molecular Dynamics with Advanced Sampling Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Sevgen, Emre; Giberti, Federico; Sidky, Hythem; Whitmer, Jonathan K; Galli, Giulia; Gygi, Francois; de Pablo, Juan J

2018-05-14

We present a seamless coupling of a suite of codes designed to perform advanced sampling simulations, with a first-principles molecular dynamics (MD) engine. As an illustrative example, we discuss results for the free energy and potential surfaces of the alanine dipeptide obtained using both local and hybrid density functionals (DFT), and we compare them with those of a widely used classical force field, Amber99sb. In our calculations, the efficiency of first-principles MD using hybrid functionals is augmented by hierarchical sampling, where hybrid free energy calculations are initiated using estimates obtained with local functionals. We find that the free energy surfaces obtained from classical and first-principles calculations differ. Compared to DFT results, the classical force field overestimates the internal energy contribution of high free energy states, and it underestimates the entropic contribution along the entire free energy profile. Using the string method, we illustrate how these differences lead to different transition pathways connecting the metastable minima of the alanine dipeptide. In larger peptides, those differences would lead to qualitatively different results for the equilibrium structure and conformation of these molecules.

Photocatalytic oxidation dynamics of acetone on TiO2: tight-binding quantum chemical molecular dynamics study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lv Chen; Wang Xiaojing; Agalya, Govindasamy; Koyama, Michihisa; Kubo, Momoji; Miyamoto, Akira

2005-01-01

The clarification of the excited states dynamics on TiO 2 surface is important subject for the design of the highly active photocatalysts. In the present study, we applied our novel tight-binding quantum chemical molecular dynamics method to the investigation on the photocatalytic oxidation dynamics of acetone by photogenerated OH radicals on the hydrated anatase TiO 2 surface. The elucidated photocatalytic reaction mechanism strongly supports the previous experimental proposal and finally the effectiveness of our new approach for the clarification of the photocatalytic reaction dynamics employing the large simulation model was confirmed

Temperature specification in atomistic molecular dynamics and its impact on simulation efficacy

Science.gov (United States)

Ocaya, R. O.; Terblans, J. J.

2017-10-01

Temperature is a vital thermodynamical function for physical systems. Knowledge of system temperature permits assessment of system ergodicity, entropy, system state and stability. Rapid theoretical and computational developments in the fields of condensed matter physics, chemistry, material science, molecular biology, nanotechnology and others necessitate clarity in the temperature specification. Temperature-based materials simulations, both standalone and distributed computing, are projected to grow in prominence over diverse research fields. In this article we discuss the apparent variability of temperature modeling formalisms used currently in atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, with respect to system energetics,dynamics and structural evolution. Commercial simulation programs, which by nature are heuristic, do not openly discuss this fundamental question. We address temperature specification in the context of atomistic molecular dynamics. We define a thermostat at 400K relative to a heat bath at 300K firstly using a modified ab-initio Newtonian method, and secondly using a Monte-Carlo method. The thermostatic vacancy formation and cohesion energies, equilibrium lattice constant for FCC copper is then calculated. Finally we compare and contrast the results.

Molecular dynamics simulations on PGLa using NMR orientational constraints

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sternberg, Ulrich, E-mail: ulrich.sternberg@partner.kit.edu; Witter, Raiker [Tallinn University of Technology, Technomedicum (Estonia)

2015-11-15

NMR data obtained by solid state NMR from anisotropic samples are used as orientational constraints in molecular dynamics simulations for determining the structure and dynamics of the PGLa peptide within a membrane environment. For the simulation the recently developed molecular dynamics with orientational constraints technique (MDOC) is used. This method introduces orientation dependent pseudo-forces into the COSMOS-NMR force field. Acting during a molecular dynamics simulation these forces drive molecular rotations, re-orientations and folding in such a way that the motional time-averages of the tensorial NMR properties are consistent with the experimentally measured NMR parameters. This MDOC strategy does not depend on the initial choice of atomic coordinates, and is in principle suitable for any flexible and mobile kind of molecule; and it is of course possible to account for flexible parts of peptides or their side-chains. MDOC has been applied to the antimicrobial peptide PGLa and a related dimer model. With these simulations it was possible to reproduce most NMR parameters within the experimental error bounds. The alignment, conformation and order parameters of the membrane-bound molecule and its dimer were directly derived with MDOC from the NMR data. Furthermore, this new approach yielded for the first time the distribution of segmental orientations with respect to the membrane and the order parameter tensors of the dimer systems. It was demonstrated the deuterium splittings measured at the peptide to lipid ratio of 1/50 are consistent with a membrane spanning orientation of the peptide.

Theoretical Concepts in Molecular Photodissociation Dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Niels Engholm

1995-01-01

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Quantum Dynamics of Molecular Photofragmentation The Total Reaction Probability Final Product Distributions Time-Independent Approach, Stationary Scattering States Gaussian Wave Packet Dynamics Wigner Phase Space Representation The Diatomic...

Microsecond molecular dynamics simulation shows effect of slow loop dynamics on backbone amide order parameters of proteins

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Maragakis, Paul; Lindorff-Larsen, Kresten; Eastwood, Michael P

2008-01-01

. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation provides a complementary approach to the study of protein dynamics on similar time scales. Comparisons between NMR spectroscopy and MD simulations can be used to interpret experimental results and to improve the quality of simulation-related force fields and integration......A molecular-level understanding of the function of a protein requires knowledge of both its structural and dynamic properties. NMR spectroscopy allows the measurement of generalized order parameters that provide an atomistic description of picosecond and nanosecond fluctuations in protein structure...... methods. However, apparent systematic discrepancies between order parameters extracted from simulations and experiments are common, particularly for elements of noncanonical secondary structure. In this paper, results from a 1.2 micros explicit solvent MD simulation of the protein ubiquitin are compared...

Molecular dynamics studies of superionic conductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rahman, A.; Vashishta, P.

1983-01-01

Structural and dynamical properties of superionic conductors AgI and CuI are studied using molecular dynamics (MD) techniques. The model of these superionic conductors is based on the use of effective pair potentials. To determine the constants in these potentials, cohesive energy and bulk modulus are used as input: in addition one uses notions of ionic size based on the known crystal structure. Salient features of the MD technique are outlined. Methods of treating long range Coulomb forces are discussed in detail. This includes the manner of doing Ewald sum for MD cells of arbitrary shape. Features that can be incorporated to expedite the MD calculations are also discussed. A novel MD technique which allows for a dynamically controlled variation of the shape and size of the MD cell is described briefly. The development of this novel technique has made it possible to study structural phase transitions in superionic conductors. 68 references, 17 figures, 2 tables

First principles molecular dynamics without self-consistent field optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Souvatzis, Petros; Niklasson, Anders M. N.

2014-01-01

We present a first principles molecular dynamics approach that is based on time-reversible extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics [A. M. N. Niklasson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 123004 (2008)] in the limit of vanishing self-consistent field optimization. The optimization-free dynamics keeps the computational cost to a minimum and typically provides molecular trajectories that closely follow the exact Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface. Only one single diagonalization and Hamiltonian (or Fockian) construction are required in each integration time step. The proposed dynamics is derived for a general free-energy potential surface valid at finite electronic temperatures within hybrid density functional theory. Even in the event of irregular functional behavior that may cause a dynamical instability, the optimization-free limit represents a natural starting guess for force calculations that may require a more elaborate iterative electronic ground state optimization. Our optimization-free dynamics thus represents a flexible theoretical framework for a broad and general class of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations

Distance-Based Configurational Entropy of Proteins from Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Fogolari, Federico; Corazza, Alessandra; Fortuna, Sara; Soler, Miguel Angel; VanSchouwen, Bryan; Brancolini, Giorgia; Corni, Stefano; Melacini, Giuseppe; Esposito, Gennaro

2015-01-01

Estimation of configurational entropy from molecular dynamics trajectories is a difficult task which is often performed using quasi-harmonic or histogram analysis. An entirely different approach, proposed recently, estimates local density distribution around each conformational sample by measuring the distance from its nearest neighbors. In this work we show this theoretically well grounded the method can be easily applied to estimate the entropy from conformational sampling. We consider a set of systems that are representative of important biomolecular processes. In particular: reference entropies for amino acids in unfolded proteins are obtained from a database of residues not participating in secondary structure elements;the conformational entropy of folding of β2-microglobulin is computed from molecular dynamics simulations using reference entropies for the unfolded state;backbone conformational entropy is computed from molecular dynamics simulations of four different states of the EPAC protein and compared with order parameters (often used as a measure of entropy);the conformational and rototranslational entropy of binding is computed from simulations of 20 tripeptides bound to the peptide binding protein OppA and of β2-microglobulin bound to a citrate coated gold surface. This work shows the potential of the method in the most representative biological processes involving proteins, and provides a valuable alternative, principally in the shown cases, where other approaches are problematic.

Molecular dynamics of interfacial water and cations associated with clay minerals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cygan, Randall T.; Greathouse, Jeffery A.; Teich-McGoldrick, Stephanie L.; Nenoff, Tina M.; Daemen, Luke L.

2012-01-01

Document available in extended abstract form only. Clay mineral interfaces, including interlayer and external surfaces, play an essential role in many geochemical processes. Adsorption, dissolution, precipitation, nucleation, and growth mechanisms, in particular, are controlled by the interplay of structure, thermodynamics, kinetics, and transport at clay mineral-water interfaces. Molecular details of these geochemical processes are especially important in evaluating the fate of radionuclide waste in the environment. Such details are typically beyond the sensitivity of experimental and analytical methods and therefore require accurate models and simulations. Also, the basal surfaces and interlayers of clay minerals offer structurally constrained interfacial environments to better evaluate the local molecular chemistry. We have developed and used classical and quantum methods to examine the complex behavior of clay mineral-water interfaces and dynamics of interlayer species. Bulk structures, swelling behavior, diffusion, and adsorption processes are evaluated and compared to experimental and spectroscopic findings. In particular, inelastic neutron scattering methods provide a successful probe of vibrational behavior of interlayer species to help guide the simulations. Librations involving rock, wag, and twist motions of water molecules are particularly sensitive to the interlayer environment of smectite minerals such as montmorillonite and beidellite. Trends in librational modes for interlayer water as a function of clay structure and cation hydration energy are readily explained using structural and vibrational analysis derived from molecular simulation. Molecular dynamics simulations of virtual phases, including hydrated pyrophyllite, help to explain the behavior of interlayer water that is not associated with cation species. Additionally, we use large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of other layered minerals, such as muscovite, to evaluate adsorption

Enhancing protein adsorption simulations by using accelerated molecular dynamics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Mücksch

Full Text Available The atomistic modeling of protein adsorption on surfaces is hampered by the different time scales of the simulation ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s and experiment (up to hours, and the accordingly different 'final' adsorption conformations. We provide evidence that the method of accelerated molecular dynamics is an efficient tool to obtain equilibrated adsorption states. As a model system we study the adsorption of the protein BMP-2 on graphite in an explicit salt water environment. We demonstrate that due to the considerably improved sampling of conformational space, accelerated molecular dynamics allows to observe the complete unfolding and spreading of the protein on the hydrophobic graphite surface. This result is in agreement with the general finding of protein denaturation upon contact with hydrophobic surfaces.

Molecular dynamics simulation of nonlinear spectroscopies of intermolecular motions in liquid water.

Science.gov (United States)

Yagasaki, Takuma; Saito, Shinji

2009-09-15

Water is the most extensively studied of liquids because of both its ubiquity and its anomalous thermodynamic and dynamic properties. The properties of water are dominated by hydrogen bonds and hydrogen bond network rearrangements. Fundamental information on the dynamics of liquid water has been provided by linear infrared (IR), Raman, and neutron-scattering experiments; molecular dynamics simulations have also provided insights. Recently developed higher-order nonlinear spectroscopies open new windows into the study of the hydrogen bond dynamics of liquid water. For example, the vibrational lifetimes of stretches and a bend, intramolecular features of water dynamics, can be accurately measured and are found to be on the femtosecond time scale at room temperature. Higher-order nonlinear spectroscopy is expressed by a multitime correlation function, whereas traditional linear spectroscopy is given by a one-time correlation function. Thus, nonlinear spectroscopy yields more detailed information on the dynamics of condensed media than linear spectroscopy. In this Account, we describe the theoretical background and methods for calculating higher order nonlinear spectroscopy; equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, and a combination of both, are used. We also present the intermolecular dynamics of liquid water revealed by fifth-order two-dimensional (2D) Raman spectroscopy and third-order IR spectroscopy. 2D Raman spectroscopy is sensitive to couplings between modes; the calculated 2D Raman signal of liquid water shows large anharmonicity in the translational motion and strong coupling between the translational and librational motions. Third-order IR spectroscopy makes it possible to examine the time-dependent couplings. The 2D IR spectra and three-pulse photon echo peak shift show the fast frequency modulation of the librational motion. A significant effect of the translational motion on the fast frequency modulation of the librational motion is

Advances in molecular vibrations and collision dynamics molecular clusters

CERN Document Server

Bacic, Zatko

1998-01-01

This volume focuses on molecular clusters, bound by van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonds. Twelve chapters review a wide range of recent theoretical and experimental advances in the areas of cluster vibrations, spectroscopy, and reaction dynamics. The authors are leading experts, who have made significant contributions to these topics.The first chapter describes exciting results and new insights in the solvent effects on the short-time photo fragmentation dynamics of small molecules, obtained by combining heteroclusters with femtosecond laser excitation. The second is on theoretical work on effects of single solvent (argon) atom on the photodissociation dynamics of the solute H2O molecule. The next two chapters cover experimental and theoretical aspects of the energetics and vibrations of small clusters. Chapter 5 describes diffusion quantum Monte Carlo calculations and non additive three-body potential terms in molecular clusters. The next six chapters deal with hydrogen-bonded clusters, refle...

POLYANA-A tool for the calculation of molecular radial distribution functions based on Molecular Dynamics trajectories

Science.gov (United States)

Dimitroulis, Christos; Raptis, Theophanes; Raptis, Vasilios

2015-12-01

We present an application for the calculation of radial distribution functions for molecular centres of mass, based on trajectories generated by molecular simulation methods (Molecular Dynamics, Monte Carlo). When designing this application, the emphasis was placed on ease of use as well as ease of further development. In its current version, the program can read trajectories generated by the well-known DL_POLY package, but it can be easily extended to handle other formats. It is also very easy to 'hack' the program so it can compute intermolecular radial distribution functions for groups of interaction sites rather than whole molecules.

Relaxation Estimation of RMSD in Molecular Dynamics Immunosimulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wolfgang Schreiner

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Molecular dynamics simulations have to be sufficiently long to draw reliable conclusions. However, no method exists to prove that a simulation has converged. We suggest the method of “lagged RMSD-analysis” as a tool to judge if an MD simulation has not yet run long enough. The analysis is based on RMSD values between pairs of configurations separated by variable time intervals Δt. Unless RMSD(Δt has reached a stationary shape, the simulation has not yet converged.

Hydrogen Bond Dynamics in Aqueous Solutions: Ab initio Molecular ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Rate equation for the decay of CHB(t) · Definition of Hydrogen Bonds · Results of Molecular Dynamics · Dynamics of anion-water and water-water hydrogen bonds · Structural relaxation of anion-water & water-water H-bonds · Ab initio Molecular Dynamics : · Slide 14 · Dynamics of hydrogen bonds : CPMD results · Slide 16.

Structural, dynamical, and electronic properties of amorphous silicon: An ab initio molecular dynamics study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Car, R.; Parrinello, M.

1988-01-18

An amorphous silicon structure is obtained with a computer simulation based on a new molecular-dynamics technique in which the interatomic potential is derived from a parameter-free quantum mechanical method. Our results for the atomic structure, the phonon spectrum, and the electronic properties are in excellent agreement with experiment. In addition we study details of the microscopic dynamics which are not directly accessible to experiment. We find in particular that structural defects are associated with weak bonds. These may give rise to low-frequency vibrational modes.

Molecular dynamics studies of actinide nitrides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kurosaki, Ken; Uno, Masayoshi; Yamanaka, Shinsuke; Minato, Kazuo

2004-01-01

The molecular dynamics (MD) calculation was performed for actinide nitrides (UN, NpN, and PuN) in the temperature range from 300 to 2800 K to evaluate the physical properties viz., the lattice parameter, thermal expansion coefficient, compressibility, and heat capacity. The Morse-type potential function added to the Busing-Ida type potential was employed for the ionic interactions. The interatomic potential parameters were determined by fitting to the experimental data of the lattice parameter. The usefulness and applicability of the MD method to evaluate the physical properties of actinide nitrides were studied. (author)

Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of self-assembling systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Klein, Michael L; Shinoda, Wataru

2008-08-08

Relentless increases in the size and performance of multiprocessor computers, coupled with new algorithms and methods, have led to novel applications of simulations across chemistry. This Perspective focuses on the use of classical molecular dynamics and so-called coarse-grain models to explore phenomena involving self-assembly in complex fluids and biological systems.

Initial Chemical Events in CL-20 Under Extreme Conditions: An Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Study

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Isaev, Olexandr; Kholod, Yana; Gorb, Leonid; Qasim, Mohammad; Fredrickson, Herb; Leszczynski, Jerzy

2006-01-01

.... In the present study molecular structure, electrostatic potential, vibrational spectrum and dynamics of thermal decomposition of CL-20 have been investigated by static and dynamic methods of ab...

Non-adiabatic molecular dynamic simulations of opening reaction of molecular junctions

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Zobač, Vladimír; Lewis, J.P.; Jelínek, Pavel

2016-01-01

Roč. 27, č. 28 (2016), 1-8, č. článku 285202. ISSN 0957-4484 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA14-02079S Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : non-adiabatic molecular dynamics * molecular junctions * molecular switches * DFT Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism Impact factor: 3.440, year: 2016

Visualizing Energy on Target: Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

2017-12-01

ARL-TR-8234 ● DEC 2017 US Army Research Laboratory Visualizing Energy on Target: Molecular Dynamics Simulations by DeCarlos E...return it to the originator. ARL-TR-8234● DEC 2017 US Army Research Laboratory Visualizing Energy on Target: Molecular Dynamics...REPORT TYPE Technical Report 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 1 October 2015–30 September 2016 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Visualizing Energy on Target

Quantum wavepacket ab initio molecular dynamics: an approach for computing dynamically averaged vibrational spectra including critical nuclear quantum effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Sumner, Isaiah; Iyengar, Srinivasan S

2007-10-18

We have introduced a computational methodology to study vibrational spectroscopy in clusters inclusive of critical nuclear quantum effects. This approach is based on the recently developed quantum wavepacket ab initio molecular dynamics method that combines quantum wavepacket dynamics with ab initio molecular dynamics. The computational efficiency of the dynamical procedure is drastically improved (by several orders of magnitude) through the utilization of wavelet-based techniques combined with the previously introduced time-dependent deterministic sampling procedure measure to achieve stable, picosecond length, quantum-classical dynamics of electrons and nuclei in clusters. The dynamical information is employed to construct a novel cumulative flux/velocity correlation function, where the wavepacket flux from the quantized particle is combined with classical nuclear velocities to obtain the vibrational density of states. The approach is demonstrated by computing the vibrational density of states of [Cl-H-Cl]-, inclusive of critical quantum nuclear effects, and our results are in good agreement with experiment. A general hierarchical procedure is also provided, based on electronic structure harmonic frequencies, classical ab initio molecular dynamics, computation of nuclear quantum-mechanical eigenstates, and employing quantum wavepacket ab initio dynamics to understand vibrational spectroscopy in hydrogen-bonded clusters that display large degrees of anharmonicities.

Molecular dynamics in high electric fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Apostol, M.; Cune, L.C.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • New method for rotation molecular spectra in high electric fields. • Parametric resonances – new features in spectra. • New elementary excitations in polar solids from dipolar interaction (“dipolons”). • Discussion about a possible origin of the ferroelectricity from dipolar interactions. - Abstract: Molecular rotation spectra, generated by the coupling of the molecular electric-dipole moments to an external time-dependent electric field, are discussed in a few particular conditions which can be of some experimental interest. First, the spherical-pendulum molecular model is reviewed, with the aim of introducing an approximate method which consists in the separation of the azimuthal and zenithal motions. Second, rotation spectra are considered in the presence of a static electric field. Two particular cases are analyzed, corresponding to strong and weak fields. In both cases the classical motion of the dipoles consists of rotations and vibrations about equilibrium positions; this motion may exhibit parametric resonances. For strong fields a large macroscopic electric polarization may appear. This situation may be relevant for polar matter (like pyroelectrics, ferroelectrics), or for heavy impurities embedded in a polar solid. The dipolar interaction is analyzed in polar condensed matter, where it is shown that new polarization modes appear for a spontaneous macroscopic electric polarization (these modes are tentatively called “dipolons”); one of the polarization modes is related to parametric resonances. The extension of these considerations to magnetic dipoles is briefly discussed. The treatment is extended to strong electric fields which oscillate with a high frequency, as those provided by high-power lasers. It is shown that the effect of such fields on molecular dynamics is governed by a much weaker, effective, renormalized, static electric field.

Parametrizing linear generalized Langevin dynamics from explicit molecular dynamics simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gottwald, Fabian; Karsten, Sven; Ivanov, Sergei D., E-mail: sergei.ivanov@uni-rostock.de; Kühn, Oliver [Institute of Physics, Rostock University, Universitätsplatz 3, 18055 Rostock (Germany)

2015-06-28

Fundamental understanding of complex dynamics in many-particle systems on the atomistic level is of utmost importance. Often the systems of interest are of macroscopic size but can be partitioned into a few important degrees of freedom which are treated most accurately and others which constitute a thermal bath. Particular attention in this respect attracts the linear generalized Langevin equation, which can be rigorously derived by means of a linear projection technique. Within this framework, a complicated interaction with the bath can be reduced to a single memory kernel. This memory kernel in turn is parametrized for a particular system studied, usually by means of time-domain methods based on explicit molecular dynamics data. Here, we discuss that this task is more naturally achieved in frequency domain and develop a Fourier-based parametrization method that outperforms its time-domain analogues. Very surprisingly, the widely used rigid bond method turns out to be inappropriate in general. Importantly, we show that the rigid bond approach leads to a systematic overestimation of relaxation times, unless the system under study consists of a harmonic bath bi-linearly coupled to the relevant degrees of freedom.

Parametrizing linear generalized Langevin dynamics from explicit molecular dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gottwald, Fabian; Karsten, Sven; Ivanov, Sergei D.; Kühn, Oliver

2015-01-01

Fundamental understanding of complex dynamics in many-particle systems on the atomistic level is of utmost importance. Often the systems of interest are of macroscopic size but can be partitioned into a few important degrees of freedom which are treated most accurately and others which constitute a thermal bath. Particular attention in this respect attracts the linear generalized Langevin equation, which can be rigorously derived by means of a linear projection technique. Within this framework, a complicated interaction with the bath can be reduced to a single memory kernel. This memory kernel in turn is parametrized for a particular system studied, usually by means of time-domain methods based on explicit molecular dynamics data. Here, we discuss that this task is more naturally achieved in frequency domain and develop a Fourier-based parametrization method that outperforms its time-domain analogues. Very surprisingly, the widely used rigid bond method turns out to be inappropriate in general. Importantly, we show that the rigid bond approach leads to a systematic overestimation of relaxation times, unless the system under study consists of a harmonic bath bi-linearly coupled to the relevant degrees of freedom

First-principles molecular dynamics for metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fernando, G.W.; Qian, G.; Weinert, M.; Davenport, J.W.

1989-01-01

A Car-Parrinello-type first-principles molecular-dynamics approach capable of treating the partial occupancy of electronic states that occurs at the Fermi level in a metal is presented. The algorithms used to study metals are both simple and computationally efficient. We also discuss the connection between ordinary electronic-structure calculations and molecular-dynamics simulations as well as the role of Brillouin-zone sampling. This extension should be useful not only for metallic solids but also for solids that become metals in their liquid and/or amorphous phases

How Dynamic Visualization Technology Can Support Molecular Reasoning

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Dalit

2013-01-01

This paper reports the results of a study aimed at exploring the advantages of dynamic visualization for the development of better understanding of molecular processes. We designed a technology-enhanced curriculum module in which high school chemistry students conduct virtual experiments with dynamic molecular visualizations of solid, liquid, and…

Structural, dynamical, electronic, and bonding properties of laser-heated silicon: An ab initio molecular-dynamics study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Silvestrelli, P.-L.; Alavi, A.; Parrinello, M.; Frenkel, D.

1997-01-01

The method of ab initio molecular dynamics, based on finite-temperature density-functional theory, is used to simulate laser heating of crystalline silicon. We found that a high concentration of excited electrons dramatically weakens the covalent bonding. As a result the system undergoes a melting

Overcoming potential energy distortions in constrained internal coordinate molecular dynamics simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kandel, Saugat; Salomon-Ferrer, Romelia; Larsen, Adrien B.; Vaidehi, Nagarajan, E-mail: nvaidehi@coh.org [Division of Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California 91010 (United States); Jain, Abhinandan, E-mail: Abhi.Jain@jpl.nasa.gov [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109 (United States)

2016-01-28

The Internal Coordinate Molecular Dynamics (ICMD) method is an attractive molecular dynamics (MD) method for studying the dynamics of bonded systems such as proteins and polymers. It offers a simple venue for coarsening the dynamics model of a system at multiple hierarchical levels. For example, large scale protein dynamics can be studied using torsional dynamics, where large domains or helical structures can be treated as rigid bodies and the loops connecting them as flexible torsions. ICMD with such a dynamic model of the protein, combined with enhanced conformational sampling method such as temperature replica exchange, allows the sampling of large scale domain motion involving high energy barrier transitions. Once these large scale conformational transitions are sampled, all-torsion, or even all-atom, MD simulations can be carried out for the low energy conformations sampled via coarse grained ICMD to calculate the energetics of distinct conformations. Such hierarchical MD simulations can be carried out with standard all-atom forcefields without the need for compromising on the accuracy of the forces. Using constraints to treat bond lengths and bond angles as rigid can, however, distort the potential energy landscape of the system and reduce the number of dihedral transitions as well as conformational sampling. We present here a two-part solution to overcome such distortions of the potential energy landscape with ICMD models. To alleviate the intrinsic distortion that stems from the reduced phase space in torsional MD, we use the Fixman compensating potential. To additionally alleviate the extrinsic distortion that arises from the coupling between the dihedral angles and bond angles within a force field, we propose a hybrid ICMD method that allows the selective relaxing of bond angles. This hybrid ICMD method bridges the gap between all-atom MD and torsional MD. We demonstrate with examples that these methods together offer a solution to eliminate the potential

Ab initio molecular dynamics simulation of laser melting of silicon

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Silvestrelli, P.-L.; Alavi, A.; Parrinello, M.; Frenkel, D.

1996-01-01

The method of ab initio molecular dynamics, based on finite temperature density functional theory, is used to simulate laser heating of crystal silicon. We have found that a high concentration of excited electrons dramatically weakens the covalent bond. As a result, the system undergoes a melting

Physical adsorption and molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohan, N.V.

1981-01-01

Some aspects of noble gases adsorption (except He) on graphite substracts are reviewed. Experimental results from this adsorption are analyzed and compared with molecular dynamics calculations. (L.C.) [pt

Molecular nonlinear dynamics and protein thermal uncertainty quantification

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Kelin; Wei, Guo-Wei

2014-01-01

This work introduces molecular nonlinear dynamics (MND) as a new approach for describing protein folding and aggregation. By using a mode system, we show that the MND of disordered proteins is chaotic while that of folded proteins exhibits intrinsically low dimensional manifolds (ILDMs). The stability of ILDMs is found to strongly correlate with protein energies. We propose a novel method for protein thermal uncertainty quantification based on persistently invariant ILDMs. Extensive comparison with experimental data and the state-of-the-art methods in the field validate the proposed new method for protein B-factor prediction. PMID:24697365

Thomas-Fermi molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clerouin, J.; Pollock, E.L.; Zerah, G.

1992-01-01

A three-dimensional density-functional molecular-dynamics code is developed for the Thomas-Fermi density functional as a prototype for density functionals using only the density. Following Car and Parrinello [Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2471 (1985)], the electronic density is treated as a dynamical variable. The electronic densities are verified against a multi-ion Thomas-Fermi algorithm due to Parker [Phys. Rev. A 38, 2205 (1988)]. As an initial application, the effect of electronic polarization in enhancing ionic diffusion in strongly coupled plasmas is demonstrated

Combining molecular dynamics with mesoscopic Green’s function reaction dynamics simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vijaykumar, Adithya, E-mail: vijaykumar@amolf.nl [FOM Institute AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands); van ’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam (Netherlands); Bolhuis, Peter G. [van ’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam (Netherlands); Rein ten Wolde, Pieter, E-mail: p.t.wolde@amolf.nl [FOM Institute AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands)

2015-12-07

In many reaction-diffusion processes, ranging from biochemical networks, catalysis, to complex self-assembly, the spatial distribution of the reactants and the stochastic character of their interactions are crucial for the macroscopic behavior. The recently developed mesoscopic Green’s Function Reaction Dynamics (GFRD) method enables efficient simulation at the particle level provided the microscopic dynamics can be integrated out. Yet, many processes exhibit non-trivial microscopic dynamics that can qualitatively change the macroscopic behavior, calling for an atomistic, microscopic description. We propose a novel approach that combines GFRD for simulating the system at the mesoscopic scale where particles are far apart, with a microscopic technique such as Langevin dynamics or Molecular Dynamics (MD), for simulating the system at the microscopic scale where reactants are in close proximity. This scheme defines the regions where the particles are close together and simulated with high microscopic resolution and those where they are far apart and simulated with lower mesoscopic resolution, adaptively on the fly. The new multi-scale scheme, called MD-GFRD, is generic and can be used to efficiently simulate reaction-diffusion systems at the particle level.

Combining molecular dynamics with mesoscopic Green’s function reaction dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vijaykumar, Adithya; Bolhuis, Peter G.; Rein ten Wolde, Pieter

2015-01-01

In many reaction-diffusion processes, ranging from biochemical networks, catalysis, to complex self-assembly, the spatial distribution of the reactants and the stochastic character of their interactions are crucial for the macroscopic behavior. The recently developed mesoscopic Green’s Function Reaction Dynamics (GFRD) method enables efficient simulation at the particle level provided the microscopic dynamics can be integrated out. Yet, many processes exhibit non-trivial microscopic dynamics that can qualitatively change the macroscopic behavior, calling for an atomistic, microscopic description. We propose a novel approach that combines GFRD for simulating the system at the mesoscopic scale where particles are far apart, with a microscopic technique such as Langevin dynamics or Molecular Dynamics (MD), for simulating the system at the microscopic scale where reactants are in close proximity. This scheme defines the regions where the particles are close together and simulated with high microscopic resolution and those where they are far apart and simulated with lower mesoscopic resolution, adaptively on the fly. The new multi-scale scheme, called MD-GFRD, is generic and can be used to efficiently simulate reaction-diffusion systems at the particle level

Liquid-vapor coexistence by molecular dynamics simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baranyai, Andras; Cummings, Peter T.

2000-01-01

We present a simple and consistent molecular dynamics algorithm for determining the equilibrium properties of a bulk liquid and its coexisting vapor phase. The simulation follows the dynamics of the two systems simultaneously while maintaining the volume and the number of particles of the composite system fixed. The thermostat can constrain either the total energy or the temperature at a desired value. Division of the extensive properties between the two phases is governed by the difference of the corresponding intensive state variables. Particle numbers are continuous variables and vary only in virtual sense, i.e., the real sizes of the two systems are the same and do not change during the course of the simulation. Calculation of the chemical potential is separate from the dynamics; thus, one can replace the particle exchange step with other method if it improves the efficiency of the code. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

Ab initio molecular dynamics: basic concepts, current trends and novel applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tuckerman, Mark E

2002-01-01

The field of ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD), in which finite temperature molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories are generated with forces obtained from accurate 'on the fly' electronic structure calculations, is a rapidly evolving and growing technology that allows chemical processes in condensed phases to be studied in an accurate and unbiased way. This article is intended to present the basics of the AIMD method as well as to provide a broad survey of the state of the art of the field and showcase some of its capabilities. Beginning with a derivation of the method from the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, issues including the density functional representation of electronic structure, basis sets, calculation of observables and the Car-Parrinello extended Lagrangian algorithm are discussed. A number of example applications, including liquid structure and dynamics and aqueous proton transport, are presented in order to highlight some of the current capabilities of the approach. Finally, advanced topics such as inclusion of nuclear quantum effects, excited states and scaling issues are addressed. (topical review)

Variational methods in molecular modeling

CERN Document Server

2017-01-01

This book presents tutorial overviews for many applications of variational methods to molecular modeling. Topics discussed include the Gibbs-Bogoliubov-Feynman variational principle, square-gradient models, classical density functional theories, self-consistent-field theories, phase-field methods, Ginzburg-Landau and Helfrich-type phenomenological models, dynamical density functional theory, and variational Monte Carlo methods. Illustrative examples are given to facilitate understanding of the basic concepts and quantitative prediction of the properties and rich behavior of diverse many-body systems ranging from inhomogeneous fluids, electrolytes and ionic liquids in micropores, colloidal dispersions, liquid crystals, polymer blends, lipid membranes, microemulsions, magnetic materials and high-temperature superconductors. All chapters are written by leading experts in the field and illustrated with tutorial examples for their practical applications to specific subjects. With emphasis placed on physical unders...

Incorporation of quantum statistical features in molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohnishi, Akira; Randrup, J.

1995-01-01

We formulate a method for incorporating quantum fluctuations into molecular-dynamics simulations of many-body systems, such as those employed for energetic nuclear collision processes. Based on Fermi's Golden Rule, we allow spontaneous transitions to occur between the wave packets which are not energy eigenstates. The ensuing diffusive evolution in the space of the wave packet parameters exhibits appealing physical properties, including relaxation towards quantum-statistical equilibrium. (author)

Electron-nuclear corellations for photoinduced dynamics in molecular dimers

Science.gov (United States)

Kilin, Dmitri S.; Pereversev, Yuryi V.; Prezhdo, Oleg V.

2003-03-01

Ultrafast photoinduced dynamics of electronic excitation in molecular dimers is drastically affected by dynamic reorganization of of inter- and intra- molecular nuclear configuration modelled by quantized nuclear degree of freedom [1]. The dynamics of the electronic population and nuclear coherence is analyzed with help of both numerical solution of the chain of coupled differential equations for mean coordinate, population inversion, electronic-vibrational correlation etc.[2] and by propagating the Gaussian wavepackets in relevant adiabatic potentials. Intriguing results were obtained in the approximation of small energy difference and small change of nuclear equilibrium configuration for excited electronic states. In the limiting case of resonance between electronic states energy difference and frequency of the nuclear mode these results have been justified by comparison to exactly solvable Jaynes-Cummings model. It has been found that the photoinduced processes in dimer are arranged according to their time scales:(i) fast scale of nuclear motion,(ii) intermediate scale of dynamical redistribution of electronic population between excited states as well as growth and dynamics of electronic -nuclear correlation,(iii) slow scale of electronic population approaching to the quasiequilibrium distribution, decay of electronic-nuclear correlation, and diminishing the amplitude of mean coordinate oscillations, accompanied by essential growth of the nuclear coordinate dispersion associated with the overall nuclear wavepacket width. Demonstrated quantum-relaxational features of photoinduced vibronic dinamical processess in molecular dimers are obtained by simple method, applicable to large biological systems with many degrees of freedom. [1] J. A. Cina, D. S. Kilin, T. S. Humble, J. Chem. Phys. (2003) in press. [2] O. V. Prezhdo, J. Chem. Phys. 117, 2995 (2002).

Water Dynamics in Protein Hydration Shells: The Molecular Origins of the Dynamical Perturbation

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Protein hydration shell dynamics play an important role in biochemical processes including protein folding, enzyme function, and molecular recognition. We present here a comparison of the reorientation dynamics of individual water molecules within the hydration shell of a series of globular proteins: acetylcholinesterase, subtilisin Carlsberg, lysozyme, and ubiquitin. Molecular dynamics simulations and analytical models are used to access site-resolved information on hydration shell dynamics and to elucidate the molecular origins of the dynamical perturbation of hydration shell water relative to bulk water. We show that all four proteins have very similar hydration shell dynamics, despite their wide range of sizes and functions, and differing secondary structures. We demonstrate that this arises from the similar local surface topology and surface chemical composition of the four proteins, and that such local factors alone are sufficient to rationalize the hydration shell dynamics. We propose that these conclusions can be generalized to a wide range of globular proteins. We also show that protein conformational fluctuations induce a dynamical heterogeneity within the hydration layer. We finally address the effect of confinement on hydration shell dynamics via a site-resolved analysis and connect our results to experiments via the calculation of two-dimensional infrared spectra. PMID:24479585

Nanomaterials under extreme environments: A study of structural and dynamic properties using reactive molecular dynamics simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Shekhar, Adarsh

Nanotechnology is becoming increasingly important with the continuing advances in experimental techniques. As researchers around the world are trying to expand the current understanding of the behavior of materials at the atomistic scale, the limited resolution of equipment, both in terms of time and space, act as roadblocks to a comprehensive study. Numerical methods, in general and molecular dynamics, in particular act as able compliment to the experiments in our quest for understanding material behavior. In this research work, large scale molecular dynamics simulations to gain insight into the mechano-chemical behavior under extreme conditions of a variety of systems with many real world applications. The body of this work is divided into three parts, each covering a particular system: 1) Aggregates of aluminum nanoparticles are good solid fuel due to high flame propagation rates. Multi-million atom molecular dynamics simulations reveal the mechanism underlying higher reaction rate in a chain of aluminum nanoparticles as compared to an isolated nanoparticle. This is due to the penetration of hot atoms from reacting nanoparticles to an adjacent, unreacted nanoparticle, which brings in external heat and initiates exothermic oxidation reactions. 2) Cavitation bubbles readily occur in fluids subjected to rapid changes in pressure. We use billion-atom reactive molecular dynamics simulations on a 163,840-processor BlueGene/P supercomputer to investigate chemical and mechanical damages caused by shock-induced collapse of nanobubbles in water near amorphous silica. Collapse of an empty nanobubble generates high-speed nanojet, resulting in the formation of a pit on the surface. The pit contains a large number of silanol groups and its volume is found to be directly proportional to the volume of the nanobubble. The gas-filled bubbles undergo partial collapse and consequently the damage on the silica surface is mitigated. 3) The structure and dynamics of water confined in

Stabilities and Dynamics of Protein Folding Nuclei by Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Yong-Shun; Zhou, Xin; Zheng, Wei-Mou; Wang, Yan-Ting

2017-07-01

To understand how the stabilities of key nuclei fragments affect protein folding dynamics, we simulate by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation in aqueous solution four fragments cut out of a protein G, including one α-helix (seqB: KVFKQYAN), two β-turns (seqA: LNGKTLKG and seqC: YDDATKTF), and one β-strand (seqD: DGEWTYDD). The Markov State Model clustering method combined with the coarse-grained conformation letters method are employed to analyze the data sampled from 2-μs equilibrium MD simulation trajectories. We find that seqA and seqB have more stable structures than their native structures which become metastable when cut out of the protein structure. As expected, seqD alone is flexible and does not have a stable structure. Throughout our simulations, the native structure of seqC is stable but cannot be reached if starting from a structure other than the native one, implying a funnel-shape free energy landscape of seqC in aqueous solution. All the above results suggest that different nuclei have different formation dynamics during protein folding, which may have a major contribution to the hierarchy of protein folding dynamics. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant No. 2013CB932804, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 11421063, and the CAS Biophysics Interdisciplinary Innovation Team Project

Computational exploration of single-protein mechanics by steered molecular dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sotomayor, Marcos [Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (United States)

2015-12-31

Hair cell mechanotransduction happens in tens of microseconds, involves forces of a few picoNewtons, and is mediated by nanometer-scale molecular conformational changes. As proteins involved in this process become identified and their high resolution structures become available, multiple tools are being used to explore their “single-molecule responses” to force. Optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy offer exquisite force and extension resolution, but cannot reach the high loading rates expected for high frequency auditory stimuli. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can reach these fast time scales, and also provide a unique view of the molecular events underlying protein mechanics, but its predictions must be experimentally verified. Thus a combination of simulations and experiments might be appropriate to study the molecular mechanics of hearing. Here I review the basics of MD simulations and the different methods used to apply force and study protein mechanics in silico. Simulations of tip link proteins are used to illustrate the advantages and limitations of this method.

Reliable Approximation of Long Relaxation Timescales in Molecular Dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Zhang

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Many interesting rare events in molecular systems, like ligand association, protein folding or conformational changes, occur on timescales that often are not accessible by direct numerical simulation. Therefore, rare event approximation approaches like interface sampling, Markov state model building, or advanced reaction coordinate-based free energy estimation have attracted huge attention recently. In this article we analyze the reliability of such approaches. How precise is an estimate of long relaxation timescales of molecular systems resulting from various forms of rare event approximation methods? Our results give a theoretical answer to this question by relating it with the transfer operator approach to molecular dynamics. By doing so we also allow for understanding deep connections between the different approaches.

Calculation of the mutual diffusion coefficient by equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Erpenbeck, J.J.; Kincaid, J.M.

1986-01-01

A nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method for the calculation of the mutual diffusion coefficient for a mixture of hard spheres is described. The method is applied to a 50-50 mixture of equidiameter particles having a mass ratio of 0.1 for the two species, at a volume of three times close-packing. By extrapolating the results to the limit of vanishing concentration gradient and infinite system size, we obtain a value in statistical agreement with the result obtained using a Green-Kubo molecular dynamics procedure, which is also described. The nonequilibrium calculation yields a mutual diffusion coefficient which decreases slightly with increasing concentration gradient. The Green-Kubo timecorrelation function for mutual diffusion displays a slow decay with time, qualitatively similar to the long-time tail which has been predicted by the hydrodynamic theory of Pomeau

Molecular Dynamics Simulations with Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics and Adaptive Neural Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Lin; Yang, Weitao

2018-03-13

Direct molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with ab initio quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods is very powerful for studying the mechanism of chemical reactions in a complex environment but also very time-consuming. The computational cost of QM/MM calculations during MD simulations can be reduced significantly using semiempirical QM/MM methods with lower accuracy. To achieve higher accuracy at the ab initio QM/MM level, a correction on the existing semiempirical QM/MM model is an attractive idea. Recently, we reported a neural network (NN) method as QM/MM-NN to predict the potential energy difference between semiempirical and ab initio QM/MM approaches. The high-level results can be obtained using neural network based on semiempirical QM/MM MD simulations, but the lack of direct MD samplings at the ab initio QM/MM level is still a deficiency that limits the applications of QM/MM-NN. In the present paper, we developed a dynamic scheme of QM/MM-NN for direct MD simulations on the NN-predicted potential energy surface to approximate ab initio QM/MM MD. Since some configurations excluded from the database for NN training were encountered during simulations, which may cause some difficulties on MD samplings, an adaptive procedure inspired by the selection scheme reported by Behler [ Behler Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2015 , 115 , 1032 ; Behler Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2017 , 56 , 12828 ] was employed with some adaptions to update NN and carry out MD iteratively. We further applied the adaptive QM/MM-NN MD method to the free energy calculation and transition path optimization on chemical reactions in water. The results at the ab initio QM/MM level can be well reproduced using this method after 2-4 iteration cycles. The saving in computational cost is about 2 orders of magnitude. It demonstrates that the QM/MM-NN with direct MD simulations has great potentials not only for the calculation of thermodynamic properties but also for the characterization of

Molecular dynamics study on the interaction of a dislocation and radiation induced defect clusters in Fcc crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hideo, Kaburaki; Tomoko, Kadoyoshi; Futoshi, Shimizu; Hajime; Kimizuka; Shiro, Jitsukawa

2003-01-01

Irradiation of high-energy neutrons and charged particles into solids is known to cause a significant change in mechanical properties, in particular, hardening of metals. Hardening of solids arises as a result of interactions of dislocations with irradiation induced defect clusters. Molecular dynamics method combined with the visualization method has been used to elucidate these complex pinning structures in details. In particular, we have successfully observed the transient process for the formation of a super-jog from an edge dislocation and interstitial and vacancy clusters under irradiation cascade conditions. Parallel molecular dynamics programs, called as Parallel Molecular Dynamics Stencil (PMDS), have been developed in order to perform these large scale simulations for materials simulations. The contents of the program and its parallel performance are also reported. (authors)

Rheology of liquid n-triacontane: Molecular dynamics simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kondratyuk, N D; Norman, G E; Stegailov, V V

2016-01-01

Molecular dynamics is applied to calculate diffusion coefficients of n-triacontane C 30 H 62 using Einstein-Smoluchowski and Green-Kubo relations. The displacement 〈Δr 2 〉( t ) has a subdiffusive part 〈Δr 2 〉 ∼ t α , caused by molecular crowding at low temperatures. Longtime asymptotes of 〈v(0)v(t)〉 are collated with the hydrodynamic tail t -3/2 demonstrated for atomic liquids. The influence of these asymptotes on the compliance of Einstein-Smoluchowski and Green-Kubo methods is analyzed. The effects of the force field parameters on the diffusion process are treated. The results are compared with experimental data. (paper)

Action-Derived Molecular Dynamics in the Study of Rare Events

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Passerone, Daniele; Parrinello, Michele

2001-09-03

We present a practical method to generate classical trajectories with fixed initial and final boundary conditions. Our method is based on the minimization of a suitably defined discretized action. The method finds its most natural application in the study of rare events. Its capabilities are illustrated by nontrivial examples. The algorithm lends itself to straightforward parallelization, and when combined with ab initio molecular dynamics it promises to offer a powerful tool for the study of chemical reactions.

Action-Derived Molecular Dynamics in the Study of Rare Events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Passerone, Daniele; Parrinello, Michele

2001-01-01

We present a practical method to generate classical trajectories with fixed initial and final boundary conditions. Our method is based on the minimization of a suitably defined discretized action. The method finds its most natural application in the study of rare events. Its capabilities are illustrated by nontrivial examples. The algorithm lends itself to straightforward parallelization, and when combined with ab initio molecular dynamics it promises to offer a powerful tool for the study of chemical reactions

RPMDrate: Bimolecular chemical reaction rates from ring polymer molecular dynamics

KAUST Repository

Suleimanov, Yu.V.

2013-03-01

We present RPMDrate, a computer program for the calculation of gas phase bimolecular reaction rate coefficients using the ring polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) method. The RPMD rate coefficient is calculated using the Bennett-Chandler method as a product of a static (centroid density quantum transition state theory (QTST) rate) and a dynamic (ring polymer transmission coefficient) factor. The computational procedure is general and can be used to treat bimolecular polyatomic reactions of any complexity in their full dimensionality. The program has been tested for the H+H2, H+CH 4, OH+CH4 and H+C2H6 reactions. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

RPMDrate: Bimolecular chemical reaction rates from ring polymer molecular dynamics

KAUST Repository

Suleimanov, Yu.V.; Allen, J.W.; Green, W.H.

2013-01-01

We present RPMDrate, a computer program for the calculation of gas phase bimolecular reaction rate coefficients using the ring polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) method. The RPMD rate coefficient is calculated using the Bennett-Chandler method as a product of a static (centroid density quantum transition state theory (QTST) rate) and a dynamic (ring polymer transmission coefficient) factor. The computational procedure is general and can be used to treat bimolecular polyatomic reactions of any complexity in their full dimensionality. The program has been tested for the H+H2, H+CH 4, OH+CH4 and H+C2H6 reactions. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Molecular dynamics simulation of cascade damage in gold

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alonso, E.; Caturla, M.J.; Tang, M.; Huang, H.; Diaz de la Rubia, T.

1997-01-01

High-energy cascades have been simulated in gold using molecular dynamics with a modified embedded atom method potential. The results show that both vacancy and interstitial clusters form with high probability as a result of intracascade processes. The formation of clusters has been interpreted in terms of the high pressures generated in the core of the cascade during the early stages. The authors provide evidence that correlation between interstitial and vacancy clustering exists

Multiscale simulations of patchy particle systems combining Molecular Dynamics, Path Sampling and Green's Function Reaction Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Bolhuis, Peter

Important reaction-diffusion processes, such as biochemical networks in living cells, or self-assembling soft matter, span many orders in length and time scales. In these systems, the reactants' spatial dynamics at mesoscopic length and time scales of microns and seconds is coupled to the reactions between the molecules at microscopic length and time scales of nanometers and milliseconds. This wide range of length and time scales makes these systems notoriously difficult to simulate. While mean-field rate equations cannot describe such processes, the mesoscopic Green's Function Reaction Dynamics (GFRD) method enables efficient simulation at the particle level provided the microscopic dynamics can be integrated out. Yet, many processes exhibit non-trivial microscopic dynamics that can qualitatively change the macroscopic behavior, calling for an atomistic, microscopic description. The recently developed multiscale Molecular Dynamics Green's Function Reaction Dynamics (MD-GFRD) approach combines GFRD for simulating the system at the mesocopic scale where particles are far apart, with microscopic Molecular (or Brownian) Dynamics, for simulating the system at the microscopic scale where reactants are in close proximity. The association and dissociation of particles are treated with rare event path sampling techniques. I will illustrate the efficiency of this method for patchy particle systems. Replacing the microscopic regime with a Markov State Model avoids the microscopic regime completely. The MSM is then pre-computed using advanced path-sampling techniques such as multistate transition interface sampling. I illustrate this approach on patchy particle systems that show multiple modes of binding. MD-GFRD is generic, and can be used to efficiently simulate reaction-diffusion systems at the particle level, including the orientational dynamics, opening up the possibility for large-scale simulations of e.g. protein signaling networks.

Molecular ions, Rydberg spectroscopy and dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jungen, Ch.

2015-01-01

Ion spectroscopy, Rydberg spectroscopy and molecular dynamics are closely related subjects. Multichannel quantum defect theory is a theoretical approach which draws on this close relationship and thereby becomes a powerful tool for the study of systems consisting of a positively charged molecular ion core interacting with an electron which may be loosely bound or freely scattering

Molecular ions, Rydberg spectroscopy and dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jungen, Ch. [Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, Université de Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay (France)

2015-01-22

Ion spectroscopy, Rydberg spectroscopy and molecular dynamics are closely related subjects. Multichannel quantum defect theory is a theoretical approach which draws on this close relationship and thereby becomes a powerful tool for the study of systems consisting of a positively charged molecular ion core interacting with an electron which may be loosely bound or freely scattering.

Clustering Molecular Dynamics Trajectories for Optimizing Docking Experiments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renata De Paris

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Molecular dynamics simulations of protein receptors have become an attractive tool for rational drug discovery. However, the high computational cost of employing molecular dynamics trajectories in virtual screening of large repositories threats the feasibility of this task. Computational intelligence techniques have been applied in this context, with the ultimate goal of reducing the overall computational cost so the task can become feasible. Particularly, clustering algorithms have been widely used as a means to reduce the dimensionality of molecular dynamics trajectories. In this paper, we develop a novel methodology for clustering entire trajectories using structural features from the substrate-binding cavity of the receptor in order to optimize docking experiments on a cloud-based environment. The resulting partition was selected based on three clustering validity criteria, and it was further validated by analyzing the interactions between 20 ligands and a fully flexible receptor (FFR model containing a 20 ns molecular dynamics simulation trajectory. Our proposed methodology shows that taking into account features of the substrate-binding cavity as input for the k-means algorithm is a promising technique for accurately selecting ensembles of representative structures tailored to a specific ligand.

Constant-pH molecular dynamics using stochastic titration

Science.gov (United States)

Baptista, António M.; Teixeira, Vitor H.; Soares, Cláudio M.

2002-09-01

A new method is proposed for performing constant-pH molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, that is, MD simulations where pH is one of the external thermodynamic parameters, like the temperature or the pressure. The protonation state of each titrable site in the solute is allowed to change during a molecular mechanics (MM) MD simulation, the new states being obtained from a combination of continuum electrostatics (CE) calculations and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of protonation equilibrium. The coupling between the MM/MD and CE/MC algorithms is done in a way that ensures a proper Markov chain, sampling from the intended semigrand canonical distribution. This stochastic titration method is applied to succinic acid, aimed at illustrating the method and examining the choice of its adjustable parameters. The complete titration of succinic acid, using constant-pH MD simulations at different pH values, gives a clear picture of the coupling between the trans/gauche isomerization and the protonation process, making it possible to reconcile some apparently contradictory results of previous studies. The present constant-pH MD method is shown to require a moderate increase of computational cost when compared to the usual MD method.

Optimized molecular reconstruction procedure combining hybrid reverse Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bousige, Colin; Boţan, Alexandru; Coasne, Benoît, E-mail: coasne@mit.edu [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States); UMI 3466 CNRS-MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States); Ulm, Franz-Josef [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States); Pellenq, Roland J.-M. [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States); UMI 3466 CNRS-MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States); CINaM, CNRS/Aix Marseille Université, Campus de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09 (France)

2015-03-21

We report an efficient atom-scale reconstruction method that consists of combining the Hybrid Reverse Monte Carlo algorithm (HRMC) with Molecular Dynamics (MD) in the framework of a simulated annealing technique. In the spirit of the experimentally constrained molecular relaxation technique [Biswas et al., Phys. Rev. B 69, 195207 (2004)], this modified procedure offers a refined strategy in the field of reconstruction techniques, with special interest for heterogeneous and disordered solids such as amorphous porous materials. While the HRMC method generates physical structures, thanks to the use of energy penalties, the combination with MD makes the method at least one order of magnitude faster than HRMC simulations to obtain structures of similar quality. Furthermore, in order to ensure the transferability of this technique, we provide rational arguments to select the various input parameters such as the relative weight ω of the energy penalty with respect to the structure optimization. By applying the method to disordered porous carbons, we show that adsorption properties provide data to test the global texture of the reconstructed sample but are only weakly sensitive to the presence of defects. In contrast, the vibrational properties such as the phonon density of states are found to be very sensitive to the local structure of the sample.

Statistical Measures to Quantify Similarity between Molecular Dynamics Simulation Trajectories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jenny Farmer

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Molecular dynamics simulation is commonly employed to explore protein dynamics. Despite the disparate timescales between functional mechanisms and molecular dynamics (MD trajectories, functional differences are often inferred from differences in conformational ensembles between two proteins in structure-function studies that investigate the effect of mutations. A common measure to quantify differences in dynamics is the root mean square fluctuation (RMSF about the average position of residues defined by C α -atoms. Using six MD trajectories describing three native/mutant pairs of beta-lactamase, we make comparisons with additional measures that include Jensen-Shannon, modifications of Kullback-Leibler divergence, and local p-values from 1-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. These additional measures require knowing a probability density function, which we estimate by using a nonparametric maximum entropy method that quantifies rare events well. The same measures are applied to distance fluctuations between C α -atom pairs. Results from several implementations for quantitative comparison of a pair of MD trajectories are made based on fluctuations for on-residue and residue-residue local dynamics. We conclude that there is almost always a statistically significant difference between pairs of 100 ns all-atom simulations on moderate-sized proteins as evident from extraordinarily low p-values.

The density functional theory and the charged fluid molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hansen, J.P.; Zerah, G.

1993-01-01

Car and Parrinello had the idea of combining the density functional theory (Hohenberg, Kohn and Sham) to the 'molecular dynamics' numerical modelling method, in order to simulate metallic or co-valent solids and liquids from the first principles. The objective of this paper is to present a simplified version of this method ab initio, applicable to classical and quantal charged systems. The method is illustrated with recent results on charged colloidal suspensions and highly correlated electron-proton plasmas. 1 fig., 21 refs

Molecular Dynamics Approach in Designing Thermostable Aspergillus niger Xylanase

Science.gov (United States)

Malau, N. D.; Sianturi, M.

2017-03-01

Molecular dynamics methods we have applied as a tool in designing thermostable Aspergillus niger Xylanase, by examining Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) and The Stability of the Secondary Structure of enzymes structure at its optimum temperature and compare with its high temperature behavior. As RMSD represents structural fluctuation at a particular temperature, a better understanding of this factor will suggest approaches to bioengineer these enzymes to enhance their thermostability. In this work molecular dynamic simulations of Aspergillus niger xylanase (ANX) have been carried at 400K (optimum catalytic temperature) for 2.5 ns and 500K (ANX reported inactive temperature) for 2.5 ns. Analysis have shown that the Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) significant increase at higher temperatures compared at optimum temperature and some of the secondary structures of ANX that have been damaged at high temperature. Structural analysis revealed that the fluctuations of the α-helix and β-sheet regions are larger at higher temperatures compared to the fluctuations at optimum temperature.

Semiclassical Monte Carlo: A first principles approach to non-adiabatic molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

White, Alexander J.; Gorshkov, Vyacheslav N.; Wang, Ruixi; Tretiak, Sergei; Mozyrsky, Dmitry

2014-01-01

Modeling the dynamics of photophysical and (photo)chemical reactions in extended molecular systems is a new frontier for quantum chemistry. Many dynamical phenomena, such as intersystem crossing, non-radiative relaxation, and charge and energy transfer, require a non-adiabatic description which incorporate transitions between electronic states. Additionally, these dynamics are often highly sensitive to quantum coherences and interference effects. Several methods exist to simulate non-adiabatic dynamics; however, they are typically either too expensive to be applied to large molecular systems (10's-100's of atoms), or they are based on ad hoc schemes which may include severe approximations due to inconsistencies in classical and quantum mechanics. We present, in detail, an algorithm based on Monte Carlo sampling of the semiclassical time-dependent wavefunction that involves running simple surface hopping dynamics, followed by a post-processing step which adds little cost. The method requires only a few quantities from quantum chemistry calculations, can systematically be improved, and provides excellent agreement with exact quantum mechanical results. Here we show excellent agreement with exact solutions for scattering results of standard test problems. Additionally, we find that convergence of the wavefunction is controlled by complex valued phase factors, the size of the non-adiabatic coupling region, and the choice of sampling function. These results help in determining the range of applicability of the method, and provide a starting point for further improvement

Molecular dynamics equation designed for realizing arbitrary density: Application to sampling method utilizing the Tsallis generalized distribution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fukuda, Ikuo; Nakamura, Haruki

2010-01-01

Several molecular dynamics techniques applying the Tsallis generalized distribution are presented. We have developed a deterministic dynamics to generate an arbitrary smooth density function ρ. It creates a measure-preserving flow with respect to the measure ρdω and realizes the density ρ under the assumption of the ergodicity. It can thus be used to investigate physical systems that obey such distribution density. Using this technique, the Tsallis distribution density based on a full energy function form along with the Tsallis index q ≥ 1 can be created. From the fact that an effective support of the Tsallis distribution in the phase space is broad, compared with that of the conventional Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) distribution, and the fact that the corresponding energy-surface deformation does not change energy minimum points, the dynamics enhances the physical state sampling, in particular for a rugged energy surface spanned by a complicated system. Other feature of the Tsallis distribution is that it provides more degree of the nonlinearity, compared with the case of the BG distribution, in the deterministic dynamics equation, which is very useful to effectively gain the ergodicity of the dynamical system constructed according to the scheme. Combining such methods with the reconstruction technique of the BG distribution, we can obtain the information consistent with the BG ensemble and create the corresponding free energy surface. We demonstrate several sampling results obtained from the systems typical for benchmark tests in MD and from biomolecular systems.

Calculation of the mutual diffusion coefficient by equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Erpenbeck, J.J.; Kincaid, J.M.

1985-01-01

A nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method for the calculation of the mutual diffusion coefficient for a mixture of hard spheres is described. The method is applied to a 50-50 mixture of equidiameter particles having a mass ratio of 0.1 for the two species, at a volume of three times close-packing. By extrapolating the results to the limit of vanishing concentration gradient and infinite system size, we obtain a value in statistical agreement with the result obtained using a Green-Kubo molecular dynamics procedure which is also described. The nonequilibrium calculation yields a mutual diffusion coefficient which decreases slightly with increasing concentration gradient. The Green-Kubo time correlation function for mutual diffusion displays a slow decay with time, qualitatively similar to the long-time tail which has been predicted by the hydrodynamic theory of Pomeau

Integrating atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, experiments and network analysis to study protein dynamics: strength in unity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena ePapaleo

2015-05-01

Full Text Available In the last years, we have been observing remarkable improvements in the field of protein dynamics. Indeed, we can now study protein dynamics in atomistic details over several timescales with a rich portfolio of experimental and computational techniques. On one side, this provides us with the possibility to validate simulation methods and physical models against a broad range of experimental observables. On the other side, it also allows a complementary and comprehensive view on protein structure and dynamics. What is needed now is a better understanding of the link between the dynamic properties that we observe and the functional properties of these important cellular machines. To make progresses in this direction, we need to improve the physical models used to describe proteins and solvent in molecular dynamics, as well as to strengthen the integration of experiments and simulations to overcome their own limitations. Moreover, now that we have the means to study protein dynamics in great details, we need new tools to understand the information embedded in the protein ensembles and in their dynamic signature. With this aim in mind, we should enrich the current tools for analysis of biomolecular simulations with attention to the effects that can be propagated over long distances and are often associated to important biological functions. In this context, approaches inspired by network analysis can make an important contribution to the analysis of molecular dynamics simulations.

Orbital free ab initio molecular dynamics simulation study of some static and dynamic properties of liquid noble metals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G.M. Bhuiyan

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Several static and dynamic properties of liquid Cu, Ag and Au at thermodynamic states near their respective melting points, have been evaluated by means of the orbital free ab-initio molecular dynamics simulation method. The calculated static structure shows good agreement with the available X-ray and neutron diffraction data. As for the dynamic properties, the calculated dynamic structure factors point to the existence of collective density excitations along with a positive dispersion for l-Cu and l-Ag. Several transport coefficients have been obtained which show a reasonable agreement with the available experimental data.

A fermionic molecular dynamics technique to model nuclear matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vantournhout, K.; Jachowicz, N.; Ryckebusch, J.

2009-01-01

Full text: At sub-nuclear densities of about 10 14 g/cm 3 , nuclear matter arranges itself in a variety of complex shapes. This can be the case in the crust of neutron stars and in core-collapse supernovae. These slab like and rod like structures, designated as nuclear pasta, have been modelled with classical molecular dynamics techniques. We present a technique, based on fermionic molecular dynamics, to model nuclear matter at sub-nuclear densities in a semi classical framework. The dynamical evolution of an antisymmetric ground state is described making the assumption of periodic boundary conditions. Adding the concepts of antisymmetry, spin and probability distributions to classical molecular dynamics, brings the dynamical description of nuclear matter to a quantum mechanical level. Applications of this model vary from investigation of macroscopic observables and the equation of state to the study of fundamental interactions on the microscopic structure of the matter. (author)

Dynamical photo-induced electronic properties of molecular junctions

Science.gov (United States)

Beltako, K.; Michelini, F.; Cavassilas, N.; Raymond, L.

2018-03-01

Nanoscale molecular-electronic devices and machines are emerging as promising functional elements, naturally flexible and efficient, for next-generation technologies. A deeper understanding of carrier dynamics in molecular junctions is expected to benefit many fields of nanoelectronics and power devices. We determine time-resolved charge current flowing at the donor-acceptor interface in molecular junctions connected to metallic electrodes by means of quantum transport simulations. The current is induced by the interaction of the donor with a Gaussian-shape femtosecond laser pulse. Effects of the molecular internal coupling, metal-molecule tunneling, and light-donor coupling on photocurrent are discussed. We then define the time-resolved local density of states which is proposed as an efficient tool to describe the absorbing molecule in contact with metallic electrodes. Non-equilibrium reorganization of hybridized molecular orbitals through the light-donor interaction gives rise to two phenomena: the dynamical Rabi shift and the appearance of Floquet-like states. Such insights into the dynamical photoelectronic structure of molecules are of strong interest for ultrafast spectroscopy and open avenues toward the possibility of analyzing and controlling the internal properties of quantum nanodevices with pump-push photocurrent spectroscopy.

Dynamical processes in atomic and molecular physics

CERN Document Server

Ogurtsov, Gennadi

2012-01-01

Atomic and molecular physics underlie a basis for our knowledge of fundamental processes in nature and technology and in such applications as solid state physics, chemistry and biology. In recent years, atomic and molecular physics has undergone a revolutionary change due to great achievements in computing and experimental techniques. As a result, it has become possible to obtain information both on atomic and molecular characteristics and on dynamics of atomic and molecular processes. This e-book highlights the present state of investigations in the field of atomic and molecular physics. Rece

Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Molecular Machines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Golubeva, Natalia

2014-01-01

to their microscopic size, molecular motors are governed by principles fundamentally different from those describing the operation of man-made motors such as car engines. In this dissertation the dynamic and thermodynamic properties of molecular machines are studied using the tools of nonequilibrium statistical......Molecular machines, or molecular motors, are small biophysical devices that perform a variety of essential metabolic processes such as DNA replication, protein synthesis and intracellular transport. Typically, these machines operate by converting chemical energy into motion and mechanical work. Due...... mechanics. The first part focuses on noninteracting molecular machines described by a paradigmatic continuum model with the aim of comparing and contrasting such a description to the one offered by the widely used discrete models. Many molecular motors, for example, kinesin involved in cellular cargo...

Kernel optimization for short-range molecular dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Changjun; Wang, Xianmeng; Li, Jianjiang; He, Xinfu; Li, Shigang; Feng, Yangde; Yang, Shaofeng; Bai, He

2017-02-01

To optimize short-range force computations in Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, multi-threading and SIMD optimizations are presented in this paper. With respect to multi-threading optimization, a Partition-and-Separate-Calculation (PSC) method is designed to avoid write conflicts caused by using Newton's third law. Serial bottlenecks are eliminated with no additional memory usage. The method is implemented by using the OpenMP model. Furthermore, the PSC method is employed on Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors in both native and offload models. We also evaluate the performance of the PSC method under different thread affinities on the MIC architecture. In the SIMD execution, we explain the performance influence in the PSC method, considering the "if-clause" of the cutoff radius check. The experiment results show that our PSC method is relatively more efficient compared to some traditional methods. In double precision, our 256-bit SIMD implementation is about 3 times faster than the scalar version.

Molecular Dynamics: New Frontier in Personalized Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Sneha, P; Doss, C George Priya

2016-01-01

The field of drug discovery has witnessed infinite development over the last decade with the demand for discovery of novel efficient lead compounds. Although the development of novel compounds in this field has seen large failure, a breakthrough in this area might be the establishment of personalized medicine. The trend of personalized medicine has shown stupendous growth being a hot topic after the successful completion of Human Genome Project and 1000 genomes pilot project. Genomic variant such as SNPs play a vital role with respect to inter individual's disease susceptibility and drug response. Hence, identification of such genetic variants has to be performed before administration of a drug. This process requires high-end techniques to understand the complexity of the molecules which might bring an insight to understand the compounds at their molecular level. To sustenance this, field of bioinformatics plays a crucial role in revealing the molecular mechanism of the mutation and thereby designing a drug for an individual in fast and affordable manner. High-end computational methods, such as molecular dynamics (MD) simulation has proved to be a constitutive approach to detecting the minor changes associated with an SNP for better understanding of the structural and functional relationship. The parameters used in molecular dynamic simulation elucidate different properties of a macromolecule, such as protein stability and flexibility. MD along with docking analysis can reveal the synergetic effect of an SNP in protein-ligand interaction and provides a foundation for designing a particular drug molecule for an individual. This compelling application of computational power and the advent of other technologies have paved a promising way toward personalized medicine. In this in-depth review, we tried to highlight the different wings of MD toward personalized medicine. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Is the molecular statics method suitable for the study of nanomaterials? A study case of nanowires

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, I-L; Chen, Y-C

2007-01-01

Both molecular statics and molecular dynamics methods were employed to study the mechanical properties of copper nanowires. The size effect on both elastic and plastic properties of square cross-sectional nanowire was examined and compared systematically using two molecular approaches. It was found consistently from both molecular methods that the elastic and plastic properties of nanowires depend on the lateral size of nanowires. As the lateral size of nanowires decreases, the values of Young's modulus decrease and dislocation nucleation stresses increase. However, it was shown that the dislocation nucleation stress would be significantly influenced by the axial periodic length of the nanowire model using the molecular statics method while molecular dynamics simulations at two distinct temperatures (0.01 and 300 K) did not show the same dependence. It was concluded that molecular statics as an energy minimization numerical scheme is quite insensitive to the instability of atomic structure especially without thermal fluctuation and might not be a suitable tool for studying the behaviour of nanomaterials beyond the elastic limit

Dynamic signature of molecular association in methanol

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertrand, C. E.; Copley, J. R. D.; Faraone, A.; Self, J. L.

2016-01-01

Quasielastic neutron scattering measurements and molecular dynamics simulations were combined to investigate the collective dynamics of deuterated methanol, CD 3 OD. In the experimentally determined dynamic structure factor, a slow, non-Fickian mode was observed in addition to the standard density-fluctuation heat mode. The simulation results indicate that the slow dynamical process originates from the hydrogen bonding of methanol molecules. The qualitative behavior of this mode is similar to the previously observed α-relaxation in supercooled water [M. C. Bellissent-Funel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 3644 (2000)] which also originates from the formation and dissolution of hydrogen-bonded associates (supramolecular clusters). In methanol, however, this mode is distinguishable well above the freezing transition. This finding indicates that an emergent slow mode is not unique to supercooled water, but may instead be a general feature of hydrogen-bonding liquids and associating molecular liquids.

Molecular dynamics simulation of a DNA containing a single strand break

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yamaguchi, H.; Siebers, G.; Furukawa, A.; Otagiri, N.; Osman, R

2002-07-01

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed for a dodecamer DNA containing a single strand break (SSB), which has been represented by a 3'-OH deoxyribose and 5'-OH phosphate in the middle of the strand. Molecular force field parameters of the 5'-OH phosphate region were determined from an ab initio calculation at the HF/6-31G level using the program package GAMESS. The DNA was placed in a periodic boundary box with water molecules and Na+ counter-ions to produce a neutralised system. After minimisation, the system was heated to 300 K, equilibrated and a production run at constant NTP was executed for 1 ns using AMBER 4.1. Snapshots of the SSB-containing DNA and a detailed analysis of the equilibriated average structure revealed surprisingly small conformational changes compared to normal DNA. However, dynamic properties calculated using the essential dynamics method showed some features that may be important for the recognition of this damage by repair enzymes. (author)

Molecular dynamics for fermions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feldmeier, H.; Schnack, J.

2000-02-01

The time-dependent variational principle for many-body trial states is used to discuss the relation between the approaches of different molecular dynamics models to describe indistinguishable fermions. Early attempts to include effects of the Pauli principle by means of nonlocal potentials as well as more recent models which work with antisymmetrized many-body states are reviewed under these premises. (orig.)

Pattern recognition in molecular dynamics. [FORTRAN

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zurek, W H; Schieve, W C [Texas Univ., Austin (USA)

1977-07-01

An algorithm for the recognition of the formation of bound molecular states in the computer simulation of a dilute gas is presented. Applications to various related problems in physics and chemistry are pointed out. Data structure and decision processes are described. Performance of the FORTRAN program based on the algorithm in cooperation with the molecular dynamics program is described and the results are presented.

Ab initio molecular dynamics, iterative methods and multiscale approaches in electronic structure calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bernholc, J.

1998-01-01

The field of computational materials physics has grown very quickly in the past decade, and it is now possible to simulate properties of complex materials completely from first principles. The presentation has mostly focused on first-principles dynamic simulations. Such simulations have been pioneered by Car and Parrinello, who introduced a method for performing realistic simulations within the context of density functional theory. The Car-Parrinello method and related plane wave approaches are reviewed in depth. The Car-Parrinello method was reviewed and illustrated with several applications: the dynamics of the C 60 solid, diffusion across Si steps, and computing free energy differences. Alternative ab initio simulation schemes, which use preconditioned conjugate gradient techniques for energy minimization and dynamics were also discussed

Molecular sieving through a graphene nanopore: non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Chengzhen Sun; Bofeng Bai

2017-01-01

Two-dimensional graphene nanopores have shown great promise as ultra-permeable molecular sieves based on their size-sieving effects.We design a nitrogen/hydrogen modified graphene nanopore and conduct a transient non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation on its molecular sieving effects.The distinct time-varying molecular crossing numbers show that this special nanopore can efficiently sieve CO2 and H2S molecules from CH4 molecules with high selectivity.By analyzing the molecular structure and pore functionalization-related molecular orientation and permeable zone in the nanopore,density distribution in the molecular adsorption layer on the graphene surface,as well as other features,the molecular sieving mechanisms of graphene nanopores are revealed.Finally,several implications on the design of highly-efficient graphene nanopores,especially for determining the porosity and chemical functionalization,as gas separation membranes are summarized based on the identified phenomena and mechanisms.

Dynamic load balancing algorithm for molecular dynamics based on Voronoi cells domain decompositions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fattebert, J.-L. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Richards, D.F. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Glosli, J.N. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2012-12-01

We present a new algorithm for automatic parallel load balancing in classical molecular dynamics. It assumes a spatial domain decomposition of particles into Voronoi cells. It is a gradient method which attempts to minimize a cost function by displacing Voronoi sites associated with each processor/sub-domain along steepest descent directions. Excellent load balance has been obtained for quasi-2D and 3D practical applications, with up to 440·10⁶ particles on 65,536 MPI tasks.

Molecular dynamics of bacteriorhodopsin.

Science.gov (United States)

Lupo, J A; Pachter, R

1997-02-01

A model of bacteriorhodopsin (bR), with a retinal chromophore attached, has been derived for a molecular dynamics simulation. A method for determining atomic coordinates of several ill-defined strands was developed using a structure prediction algorithm based on a sequential Kalman filter technique. The completed structure was minimized using the GROMOS force field. The structure was then heated to 293 K and run for 500 ps at constant temperature. A comparison with the energy-minimized structure showed a slow increase in the all-atom RMS deviation over the first 200 ps, leveling off to approximately 2.4 A relative to the starting structure. The final structure yielded a backbone-atom RMS deviation from the crystallographic structure of 2.8 A. The residue neighbors of the chromophore atoms were followed as a function of time. The set of persistent near-residue neighbors supports the theory that differences in pKa values control access to the Schiff base proton, rather than formation of a counterion complex.

Multiscale equation-free algorithms for molecular dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Abi Mansour, Andrew

Molecular dynamics is a physics-based computational tool that has been widely employed to study the dynamics and structure of macromolecules and their assemblies at the atomic scale. However, the efficiency of molecular dynamics simulation is limited because of the broad spectrum of timescales involved. To overcome this limitation, an equation-free algorithm is presented for simulating these systems using a multiscale model cast in terms of atomistic and coarse-grained variables. Both variables are evolved in time in such a way that the cross-talk between short and long scales is preserved. In this way, the coarse-grained variables guide the evolution of the atom-resolved states, while the latter provide the Newtonian physics for the former. While the atomistic variables are evolved using short molecular dynamics runs, time advancement at the coarse-grained level is achieved with a scheme that uses information from past and future states of the system while accounting for both the stochastic and deterministic features of the coarse-grained dynamics. To complete the multiscale cycle, an atom-resolved state consistent with the updated coarse-grained variables is recovered using algorithms from mathematical optimization. This multiscale paradigm is extended to nanofluidics using concepts from hydrodynamics, and it is demonstrated for macromolecular and nanofluidic systems. A toolkit is developed for prototyping these algorithms, which are then implemented within the GROMACS simulation package and released as an open source multiscale simulator.

Scalable Molecular Dynamics for Large Biomolecular Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert K. Brunner

2000-01-01

Full Text Available We present an optimized parallelization scheme for molecular dynamics simulations of large biomolecular systems, implemented in the production-quality molecular dynamics program NAMD. With an object-based hybrid force and spatial decomposition scheme, and an aggressive measurement-based predictive load balancing framework, we have attained speeds and speedups that are much higher than any reported in literature so far. The paper first summarizes the broad methodology we are pursuing, and the basic parallelization scheme we used. It then describes the optimizations that were instrumental in increasing performance, and presents performance results on benchmark simulations.

Dynamic neutron scattering from conformational dynamics. II. Application using molecular dynamics simulation and Markov modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Yi, Zheng; Lindner, Benjamin; Prinz, Jan-Hendrik; Noé, Frank; Smith, Jeremy C

2013-11-07

Neutron scattering experiments directly probe the dynamics of complex molecules on the sub pico- to microsecond time scales. However, the assignment of the relaxations seen experimentally to specific structural rearrangements is difficult, since many of the underlying dynamical processes may exist on similar timescales. In an accompanying article, we present a theoretical approach to the analysis of molecular dynamics simulations with a Markov State Model (MSM) that permits the direct identification of structural transitions leading to each contributing relaxation process. Here, we demonstrate the use of the method by applying it to the configurational dynamics of the well-characterized alanine dipeptide. A practical procedure for deriving the MSM from an MD is introduced. The result is a 9-state MSM in the space of the backbone dihedral angles and the side-chain methyl group. The agreement between the quasielastic spectrum calculated directly from the atomic trajectories and that derived from the Markov state model is excellent. The dependence on the wavevector of the individual Markov processes is described. The procedure means that it is now practicable to interpret quasielastic scattering spectra in terms of well-defined intramolecular transitions with minimal a priori assumptions as to the nature of the dynamics taking place.

Molecular stopwatches, cogwheels and ``spinflakes'': studying the dynamics of molecular superrotors

Science.gov (United States)

Korobenko, Aleksey; Milner, Alexander; Hepburn, John; Milner, Valery

2015-05-01

Using the technique of an optical centrifuge, we excite diatomic molecules to ultrafast synchronous rotation. Femtosecond velocity-map imaging allows us to visualize and study the coherent dynamics of molecular superrotors under field free conditions and in external magnetic field. We demonstrate that when the created rotational wave packet is narrow, its free evolution is nondispersing and follows the motion of a classically rotating dumbbell or a hand of the smallest natural stopwatch. For wider rotational distributions, we observe the breakdown of classical rotation, when a dumbbell shape changes to that of a ``quantum cogwheel'' - a molecular state simultaneously aligned along multiple direction. Our measurements in external magnetic field reveal other peculiar aspects of the rich dynamics of molecular superrotors. The rotation of a non-magnetic molecule interacts with the applied field only weakly, giving rise to slow precession of the molecular angular momentum around the field direction. In contrast, the electronic spin of a paramagnetic superrotor mediates this interaction, causing the initial disk-like angular distribution to split into several spatial components, each precessing with its own frequency determined by the spin projection.

Parallel computing and molecular dynamics of biological membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

La Penna, G.; Letardi, S.; Minicozzi, V.; Morante, S.; Rossi, G.C.; Salina, G.

1998-01-01

In this talk I discuss the general question of the portability of molecular dynamics codes for diffusive systems on parallel computers of the APE family. The intrinsic single precision of the today available platforms does not seem to affect the numerical accuracy of the simulations, while the absence of integer addressing from CPU to individual nodes puts strong constraints on possible programming strategies. Liquids can be satisfactorily simulated using the ''systolic'' method. For more complex systems, like the biological ones at which we are ultimately interested in, the ''domain decomposition'' approach is best suited to beat the quadratic growth of the inter-molecular computational time with the number of atoms of the system. The promising perspectives of using this strategy for extensive simulations of lipid bilayers are briefly reviewed. (orig.)

ProtoMD: A prototyping toolkit for multiscale molecular dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Somogyi, Endre; Mansour, Andrew Abi; Ortoleva, Peter J.

2016-05-01

ProtoMD is a toolkit that facilitates the development of algorithms for multiscale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. It is designed for multiscale methods which capture the dynamic transfer of information across multiple spatial scales, such as the atomic to the mesoscopic scale, via coevolving microscopic and coarse-grained (CG) variables. ProtoMD can be also be used to calibrate parameters needed in traditional CG-MD methods. The toolkit integrates 'GROMACS wrapper' to initiate MD simulations, and 'MDAnalysis' to analyze and manipulate trajectory files. It facilitates experimentation with a spectrum of coarse-grained variables, prototyping rare events (such as chemical reactions), or simulating nanocharacterization experiments such as terahertz spectroscopy, AFM, nanopore, and time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. ProtoMD is written in python and is freely available under the GNU General Public License from github.com/CTCNano/proto_md.

Molecular quantum dynamics. From theory to applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gatti, Fabien

2014-01-01

An educational and accessible introduction to the field of molecular quantum dynamics. Illustrates the importance of the topic for broad areas of science: from astrophysics and the physics of the atmosphere, over elementary processes in chemistry, to biological processes. Presents chosen examples of striking applications, highlighting success stories, summarized by the internationally renowned experts. Including a foreword by Lorenz Cederbaum (University Heidelberg, Germany). This book focuses on current applications of molecular quantum dynamics. Examples from all main subjects in the field, presented by the internationally renowned experts, illustrate the importance of the domain. Recent success in helping to understand experimental observations in fields like heterogeneous catalysis, photochemistry, reactive scattering, optical spectroscopy, or femto- and attosecond chemistry and spectroscopy underline that nuclear quantum mechanical effects affect many areas of chemical and physical research. In contrast to standard quantum chemistry calculations, where the nuclei are treated classically, molecular quantum dynamics can cover quantum mechanical effects in their motion. Many examples, ranging from fundamental to applied problems, are known today that are impacted by nuclear quantum mechanical effects, including phenomena like tunneling, zero point energy effects, or non-adiabatic transitions. Being important to correctly understand many observations in chemical, organic and biological systems, or for the understanding of molecular spectroscopy, the range of applications covered in this book comprises broad areas of science: from astrophysics and the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere, over elementary processes in chemistry, to biological processes (such as the first steps of photosynthesis or vision). Nevertheless, many researchers refrain from entering this domain. The book ''Molecular Quantum Dynamics'' offers them an accessible introduction. Although the

Molecular quantum dynamics. From theory to applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gatti, Fabien (ed.) [Montpellier 2 Univ. (France). Inst. Charles Gerhardt - CNRS 5253

2014-09-01

An educational and accessible introduction to the field of molecular quantum dynamics. Illustrates the importance of the topic for broad areas of science: from astrophysics and the physics of the atmosphere, over elementary processes in chemistry, to biological processes. Presents chosen examples of striking applications, highlighting success stories, summarized by the internationally renowned experts. Including a foreword by Lorenz Cederbaum (University Heidelberg, Germany). This book focuses on current applications of molecular quantum dynamics. Examples from all main subjects in the field, presented by the internationally renowned experts, illustrate the importance of the domain. Recent success in helping to understand experimental observations in fields like heterogeneous catalysis, photochemistry, reactive scattering, optical spectroscopy, or femto- and attosecond chemistry and spectroscopy underline that nuclear quantum mechanical effects affect many areas of chemical and physical research. In contrast to standard quantum chemistry calculations, where the nuclei are treated classically, molecular quantum dynamics can cover quantum mechanical effects in their motion. Many examples, ranging from fundamental to applied problems, are known today that are impacted by nuclear quantum mechanical effects, including phenomena like tunneling, zero point energy effects, or non-adiabatic transitions. Being important to correctly understand many observations in chemical, organic and biological systems, or for the understanding of molecular spectroscopy, the range of applications covered in this book comprises broad areas of science: from astrophysics and the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere, over elementary processes in chemistry, to biological processes (such as the first steps of photosynthesis or vision). Nevertheless, many researchers refrain from entering this domain. The book ''Molecular Quantum Dynamics'' offers them an accessible

Docking of flexible ligands to flexible receptors in solution by molecular dynamics simulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mangoni, R; Roccatano, D; Di Nola, A

1999-01-01

In this paper, a method of simulating the docking of small flexible ligands to flexible receptors in water is reported. The method is based on molecular dynamics simulations and is an extension of an algorithm previously reported by Di Nola et al, (Di Nola et al,, Proteins 1994;19:174-182), The

Time-dependent theoretical treatments of the dynamics of electrons and nuclei in molecular systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deumens, E.; Diz, A.; Longo, R.; Oehrn, Y.

1994-01-01

An overview is presented of methods for time-dependent treatments of molecules as systems of electrons and nuclei. The theoretical details of these methods are reviewed and contrasted in the light of a recently developed time-dependent method called electron-nuclear dynamics. Electron-nuclear dynamics (END) is a formulation of the complete dynamics of electrons and nuclei of a molecular system that eliminates the necessity of constructing potential-energy surfaces. Because of its general formulation, it encompasses many aspects found in other formulations and can serve as a didactic device for clarifying many of the principles and approximations relevant in time-dependent treatments of molecular systems. The END equations are derived from the time-dependent variational principle applied to a chosen family of efficiently parametrized approximate state vectors. A detailed analysis of the END equations is given for the case of a single-determinantal state for the electrons and a classical treatment of the nuclei. The approach leads to a simple formulation of the fully nonlinear time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory including nuclear dynamics. The nonlinear END equations with the ab initio Coulomb Hamiltonian have been implemented at this level of theory in a computer program, ENDyne, and have been shown feasible for the study of small molecular systems. Implementation of the Austin Model 1 semiempirical Hamiltonian is discussed as a route to large molecular systems. The linearized END equations at this level of theory are shown to lead to the random-phase approximation for the coupled system of electrons and nuclei. The qualitative features of the general nonlinear solution are analyzed using the results of the linearized equations as a first approximation. Some specific applications of END are presented, and the comparison with experiment and other theoretical approaches is discussed

Vision-Augmented Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Nanoindentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rajab Al-Sayegh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We present a user-friendly vision-augmented technique to carry out atomic simulation using hand gestures. The system is novel in its concept as it enables the user to directly manipulate the atomic structures on the screen, in 3D space using hand gestures, allowing the exploration and visualisation of molecular interactions at different relative conformations. The hand gestures are used to pick and place atoms on the screen allowing thereby the ease of carrying out molecular dynamics simulation in a more efficient way. The end result is that users with limited expertise in developing molecular structures can now do so easily and intuitively by the use of body gestures to interact with the simulator to study the system in question. The proposed system was tested by simulating the crystal anisotropy of crystalline silicon during nanoindentation. A long-range (Screened bond order Tersoff potential energy function was used during the simulation which revealed the value of hardness and elastic modulus being similar to what has been found previously from the experiments. We anticipate that our proposed system will open up new horizons to the current methods on how an MD simulation is designed and executed.

Excited-state molecular photoionization dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pratt, S.T.

1995-01-01

This review presents a survey of work using resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization and double-resonance techniques to study excited-state photoionization dynamics in molecules. These techniques routinely provide detail and precision that are difficult to achieve in single-photon ionization from the ground state. The review not only emphasizes new aspects of photoionization revealed in the excited-state experiments but also shows how the excited-state techniques can provide textbook illustrations of some fundamental mechanisms in molecular photoionization dynamics. Most of the examples are confined to diatomic molecules. (author)

Molecular Modeling of Enzyme Dynamics Towards Understanding Solvent Effects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wedberg, Nils Hejle Rasmus Ingemar

This thesis describes the development of a molecular simulation methodology to study properties of enzymes in non-aqueous media at fixed thermodynamic water activities. The methodology is applied in a molecular dynamics study of the industrially important enzyme Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB...... of enzyme kinetics in non-aqueous media, it has been a fruitful approach to fix the enzyme hydration level by controlling the water activity of the medium. In this work, a protocol is therefore developed for determining the water activity in non-aqueous protein simulations. The method relies on determining...... integration, while for small systems, it seems to be even better. The method is applied to compute the excess Gibbs energy of the mixtures of water and organic solvents used in the simulations of CALB. This allows to determine the water activity of the simulated systems and thus to compare protein properties...

Molecular dynamics modeling of polymer flammability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nyden, M.R.; Brown, J.E.; Lomakin, S.M.

1992-01-01

Molecular dynamic simulations were used to identify factors which promote char formation during the thermal degradation of polymers. Computer movies based on these simulations, indicate that cross-linked model polymers tend to undergo further cross-linking when burned, eventually forming a high molecular weight, thermally stable char. This paper reports that the prediction was confirmed by char yield measurements made on γ and e - -irradiated polyethylene and chemically cross-linked poly(methyl methacrylate)

Electron-nuclear dynamics of molecular systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diz, A.; Oehrn, Y.

1994-01-01

The content of an ab initio time-dependent theory of quantum molecular dynamics of electrons and atomic nuclei is presented. Employing the time-dependent variational principle and a family of approximate state vectors yields a set of dynamical equations approximating the time-dependent Schroedinger equation. These equations govern the time evolution of the relevant state vector parameters as molecular orbital coefficients, nuclear positions, and momenta. This approach does not impose the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, does not use potential energy surfaces, and takes into account electron-nuclear coupling. Basic conservation laws are fully obeyed. The simplest model of the theory employs a single determinantal state for the electrons and classical nuclei and is implemented in the computer code ENDyne. Results from this ab-initio theory are reported for ion-atom and ion-molecule collisions

Molecular dynamics simulations of disordered materials from network glasses to phase-change memory alloys

CERN Document Server

Massobrio, Carlo; Bernasconi, Marco; Salmon, Philip S

2015-01-01

This book is a unique reference work in the area of atomic-scale simulation of glasses. For the first time, a highly selected panel of about 20 researchers provides, in a single book, their views, methodologies and applications on the use of molecular dynamics as a tool to describe glassy materials. The book covers a wide range of systems covering ""traditional"" network glasses, such as chalcogenides and oxides, as well as glasses for applications in the area of phase change materials. The novelty of this work is the interplay between molecular dynamics methods (both at the classical and firs

Self-diffusion in monodisperse three-dimensional magnetic fluids by molecular dynamics simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dobroserdova, A.B. [Ural Federal University, Lenin Av. 51, Ekaterinburg (Russian Federation); Kantorovich, S.S., E-mail: alla.dobroserdova@urfu.ru [Ural Federal University, Lenin Av. 51, Ekaterinburg (Russian Federation); University of Vienna, Sensengasse 8, Vienna (Austria)

2017-06-01

In the present work we study the self-diffusion behaviour in the three-dimensional monodisperse magnetic fluids using the Molecular Dynamics Simulation and Density Functional Theory. The peculiarity of computer simulation is to study two different systems: dipolar and soft sphere ones. In the theoretical method, it is important to choose the approximation for the main structures, which are chains. We compare the theoretical results and the computer simulation data for the self-diffusion coefficient as a function of the particle volume fraction and magnetic dipole-dipole interaction parameter and find the qualitative and quantitative agreement to be good. - Highlights: • The paper deals with the study of the self-diffusion in monodisperse three-dimensional magnetic fluids. • The theoretical approach contains the free energy density functional minimization. • Computer simulations are performed by the molecular dynamics method. • We have a good qualitative and quantitative agreement between the theoretical results and computer simulation data.

Thermostating extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, Enrique; Cawkwell, Marc J; Voter, Arthur F; Niklasson, Anders M N

2015-04-21

Extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics is developed and analyzed for applications in canonical (NVT) simulations. Three different approaches are considered: the Nosé and Andersen thermostats and Langevin dynamics. We have tested the temperature distribution under different conditions of self-consistent field (SCF) convergence and time step and compared the results to analytical predictions. We find that the simulations based on the extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer framework provide accurate canonical distributions even under approximate SCF convergence, often requiring only a single diagonalization per time step, whereas regular Born-Oppenheimer formulations exhibit unphysical fluctuations unless a sufficiently high degree of convergence is reached at each time step. The thermostated extended Lagrangian framework thus offers an accurate approach to sample processes in the canonical ensemble at a fraction of the computational cost of regular Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations.

Dynamics of molecular superrotors in an external magnetic field

Science.gov (United States)

Korobenko, Aleksey; Milner, Valery

2015-08-01

We excite diatomic oxygen and nitrogen to high rotational states with an optical centrifuge and study their dynamics in an external magnetic field. Ion imaging is employed to directly visualize, and follow in time, the rotation plane of the molecular superrotors. The two different mechanisms of interaction between the magnetic field and the molecular angular momentum in paramagnetic oxygen and non-magnetic nitrogen lead to qualitatively different behaviour. In nitrogen, we observe the precession of the molecular angular momentum around the field vector. In oxygen, strong spin-rotation coupling results in faster and richer dynamics, encompassing the splitting of the rotation plane into three separate components. As the centrifuged molecules evolve with no significant dispersion of the molecular wave function, the observed magnetic interaction presents an efficient mechanism for controlling the plane of molecular rotation.

Constant pressure and temperature discrete-time Langevin molecular dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grønbech-Jensen, Niels [Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Davis, California 95616 (United States); Department of Mathematics, University of California, Davis, California 95616 (United States); Farago, Oded [Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be' er Sheva 84105 (Israel); Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be' er Sheva 84105 (Israel)

2014-11-21

We present a new and improved method for simultaneous control of temperature and pressure in molecular dynamics simulations with periodic boundary conditions. The thermostat-barostat equations are built on our previously developed stochastic thermostat, which has been shown to provide correct statistical configurational sampling for any time step that yields stable trajectories. Here, we extend the method and develop a set of discrete-time equations of motion for both particle dynamics and system volume in order to seek pressure control that is insensitive to the choice of the numerical time step. The resulting method is simple, practical, and efficient. The method is demonstrated through direct numerical simulations of two characteristic model systems—a one-dimensional particle chain for which exact statistical results can be obtained and used as benchmarks, and a three-dimensional system of Lennard-Jones interacting particles simulated in both solid and liquid phases. The results, which are compared against the method of Kolb and Dünweg [J. Chem. Phys. 111, 4453 (1999)], show that the new method behaves according to the objective, namely that acquired statistical averages and fluctuations of configurational measures are accurate and robust against the chosen time step applied to the simulation.

Structural Refinement of Proteins by Restrained Molecular Dynamics Simulations with Non-interacting Molecular Fragments.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rong Shen

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The knowledge of multiple conformational states is a prerequisite to understand the function of membrane transport proteins. Unfortunately, the determination of detailed atomic structures for all these functionally important conformational states with conventional high-resolution approaches is often difficult and unsuccessful. In some cases, biophysical and biochemical approaches can provide important complementary structural information that can be exploited with the help of advanced computational methods to derive structural models of specific conformational states. In particular, functional and spectroscopic measurements in combination with site-directed mutations constitute one important source of information to obtain these mixed-resolution structural models. A very common problem with this strategy, however, is the difficulty to simultaneously integrate all the information from multiple independent experiments involving different mutations or chemical labels to derive a unique structural model consistent with the data. To resolve this issue, a novel restrained molecular dynamics structural refinement method is developed to simultaneously incorporate multiple experimentally determined constraints (e.g., engineered metal bridges or spin-labels, each treated as an individual molecular fragment with all atomic details. The internal structure of each of the molecular fragments is treated realistically, while there is no interaction between different molecular fragments to avoid unphysical steric clashes. The information from all the molecular fragments is exploited simultaneously to constrain the backbone to refine a three-dimensional model of the conformational state of the protein. The method is illustrated by refining the structure of the voltage-sensing domain (VSD of the Kv1.2 potassium channel in the resting state and by exploring the distance histograms between spin-labels attached to T4 lysozyme. The resulting VSD structures are in good

Reliable Viscosity Calculation from Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics Simulations: A Time Decomposition Method.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yong; Otani, Akihito; Maginn, Edward J

2015-08-11

Equilibrium molecular dynamics is often used in conjunction with a Green-Kubo integral of the pressure tensor autocorrelation function to compute the shear viscosity of fluids. This approach is computationally expensive and is subject to a large amount of variability because the plateau region of the Green-Kubo integral is difficult to identify unambiguously. Here, we propose a time decomposition approach for computing the shear viscosity using the Green-Kubo formalism. Instead of one long trajectory, multiple independent trajectories are run and the Green-Kubo relation is applied to each trajectory. The averaged running integral as a function of time is fit to a double-exponential function with a weighting function derived from the standard deviation of the running integrals. Such a weighting function minimizes the uncertainty of the estimated shear viscosity and provides an objective means of estimating the viscosity. While the formal Green-Kubo integral requires an integration to infinite time, we suggest an integration cutoff time tcut, which can be determined by the relative values of the running integral and the corresponding standard deviation. This approach for computing the shear viscosity can be easily automated and used in computational screening studies where human judgment and intervention in the data analysis are impractical. The method has been applied to the calculation of the shear viscosity of a relatively low-viscosity liquid, ethanol, and relatively high-viscosity ionic liquid, 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethane-sulfonyl)imide ([BMIM][Tf2N]), over a range of temperatures. These test cases show that the method is robust and yields reproducible and reliable shear viscosity values.

Thermal conductivity of ZnTe investigated by molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Hanfu; Chu Weiguo

2009-01-01

The thermal conductivity of ZnTe with zinc-blende structure has been computed by equilibrium molecular dynamics method based on Green-Kubo formalism. A Tersoff's potential is adopted in the simulation to model the atomic interactions. The calculations are performed as a function of temperature up to 800 K. The calculated thermal conductivities are in agreement with the experimental values between 150 K and 300 K, while the results above the room temperature are comparable with the Slack's equation.

Femtochemistry and femtobiology ultrafast dynamics in molecular science

CERN Document Server

Douhal, Abderrazzak

2002-01-01

This book contains important contributions from top international scientists on the-state-of-the-art of femtochemistry and femtobiology at the beginning of the new millennium. It consists of reviews and papers on ultrafast dynamics in molecular science.The coverage of topics highlights several important features of molecular science from the viewpoint of structure (space domain) and dynamics (time domain). First of all, the book presents the latest developments, such as experimental techniques for understanding ultrafast processes in gas, condensed and complex systems, including biological mol

Property Analysis of Exfoliated Graphite Nanoplatelets Modified Asphalt Model Using Molecular Dynamics (MD Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hui Yao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This Molecular Dynamics (MD simulation paper presents a physical property comparison study between exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGNP modified and control asphalt models, including density, glass transition temperature, viscosity and thermal conductivity. The three-component control asphalt model consists of asphaltenes, aromatics, and saturates based on previous references. The xGNP asphalt model was built by incorporating an xGNP and control asphalt model and controlling mass ratios to represent the laboratory prepared samples. The Amber Cornell Extension Force Field (ACEFF was used with assigned molecular electro-static potential (ESP charge from NWChem analysis. After optimization and ensemble relaxation, the properties of the control and xGNP modified asphalt models were computed and analyzed using the MD method. The MD simulated results have a similar trend as the test results. The property analysis showed that: (1 the density of the xGNP modified model is higher than that of the control model; (2 the glass transition temperature of the xGNP modified model is closer to the laboratory data of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP asphalt binders than that of the control model; (3 the viscosities of the xGNP modified model at different temperatures are higher than those of the control model, and it coincides with the trend in the laboratory data; (4 the thermal conductivities of the xGNP modified asphalt model are higher than those of the control asphalt model at different temperatures, and it is consistent with the trend in the laboratory data.

A hybrid algorithm for parallel molecular dynamics simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Mangiardi, Chris M.; Meyer, R.

2017-10-01

This article describes algorithms for the hybrid parallelization and SIMD vectorization of molecular dynamics simulations with short-range forces. The parallelization method combines domain decomposition with a thread-based parallelization approach. The goal of the work is to enable efficient simulations of very large (tens of millions of atoms) and inhomogeneous systems on many-core processors with hundreds or thousands of cores and SIMD units with large vector sizes. In order to test the efficiency of the method, simulations of a variety of configurations with up to 74 million atoms have been performed. Results are shown that were obtained on multi-core systems with Sandy Bridge and Haswell processors as well as systems with Xeon Phi many-core processors.

Molecular dynamics simulation of ribosome jam

KAUST Repository

Matsumoto, Shigenori; Takagi, Fumiko; Shimada, Takashi; Ito, Nobuyasu

2011-01-01

We propose a coarse-grained molecular dynamics model of ribosome molecules to study the dependence of translation process on environmental parameters. We found the model exhibits traffic jam property, which is consistent with an ASEP model. We

In situ structure and dynamics of DNA origami determined through molecular dynamics simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoo, Jejoong; Aksimentiev, Aleksei

2013-12-10

The DNA origami method permits folding of long single-stranded DNA into complex 3D structures with subnanometer precision. Transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and recently cryo-EM tomography have been used to characterize the properties of such DNA origami objects, however their microscopic structures and dynamics have remained unknown. Here, we report the results of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations that characterized the structural and mechanical properties of DNA origami objects in unprecedented microscopic detail. When simulated in an aqueous environment, the structures of DNA origami objects depart from their idealized targets as a result of steric, electrostatic, and solvent-mediated forces. Whereas the global structural features of such relaxed conformations conform to the target designs, local deformations are abundant and vary in magnitude along the structures. In contrast to their free-solution conformation, the Holliday junctions in the DNA origami structures adopt a left-handed antiparallel conformation. We find the DNA origami structures undergo considerable temporal fluctuations on both local and global scales. Analysis of such structural fluctuations reveals the local mechanical properties of the DNA origami objects. The lattice type of the structures considerably affects global mechanical properties such as bending rigidity. Our study demonstrates the potential of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to play a considerable role in future development of the DNA origami field by providing accurate, quantitative assessment of local and global structural and mechanical properties of DNA origami objects.

Atomistic interactions of clusters on surfaces using molecular dynamics and hyper molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanz-Navarro, Carlos F.

2002-01-01

The work presented in this thesis describes the results of Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations applied to the interaction of silver clusters with graphite surfaces and some numerical and theoretical methods concerning the extension of MD simulations to longer time scales (hyper-MD). The first part of this thesis studies the implantation of clusters at normal incidence onto a graphite surface in order to determine the scaling of the penetration depth (PD) against the impact energy. A comparison with experimental results is made with good agreement. The main physical observations of the impact process are described and analysed. It is shown that there is a threshold impact velocity above which the linear dependence on PD on impact energy changes to a linear dependence on velocity. Implantation of silver clusters at oblique incidence is also considered. The second part of this work analyses the validity and feasibility of the three minimisation methods for the hyper-MD simulation method whereby time scales of an MD simulation can be extended. A correct mathematical basis for the iterative method is derived. It is found that one of the iterative methods, upon which hyper-lD is based, is very likely to fail in high-dimensional situations because it requires a too expensive convergence. Two new approximations to the hyper-MD approach are proposed, which reduce the computational effort considerably. Both approaches, although not exact, can help to search for some of the most likely transitions in the system. Some examples are given to illustrate this. (author)

Dynamics of molecular superrotors in an external magnetic field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korobenko, Aleksey; Milner, Valery

2015-01-01

We excite diatomic oxygen and nitrogen to high rotational states with an optical centrifuge and study their dynamics in an external magnetic field. Ion imaging is employed to directly visualize, and follow in time, the rotation plane of the molecular superrotors. The two different mechanisms of interaction between the magnetic field and the molecular angular momentum in paramagnetic oxygen and non-magnetic nitrogen lead to qualitatively different behaviour. In nitrogen, we observe the precession of the molecular angular momentum around the field vector. In oxygen, strong spin–rotation coupling results in faster and richer dynamics, encompassing the splitting of the rotation plane into three separate components. As the centrifuged molecules evolve with no significant dispersion of the molecular wave function, the observed magnetic interaction presents an efficient mechanism for controlling the plane of molecular rotation. (paper)

AceCloud: Molecular Dynamics Simulations in the Cloud.

Science.gov (United States)

Harvey, M J; De Fabritiis, G

2015-05-26

We present AceCloud, an on-demand service for molecular dynamics simulations. AceCloud is designed to facilitate the secure execution of large ensembles of simulations on an external cloud computing service (currently Amazon Web Services). The AceCloud client, integrated into the ACEMD molecular dynamics package, provides an easy-to-use interface that abstracts all aspects of interaction with the cloud services. This gives the user the experience that all simulations are running on their local machine, minimizing the learning curve typically associated with the transition to using high performance computing services.

Charge-leveling and proper treatment of long-range electrostatics in all-atom molecular dynamics at constant pH.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace, Jason A; Shen, Jana K

2012-11-14

Recent development of constant pH molecular dynamics (CpHMD) methods has offered promise for adding pH-stat in molecular dynamics simulations. However, until now the working pH molecular dynamics (pHMD) implementations are dependent in part or whole on implicit-solvent models. Here we show that proper treatment of long-range electrostatics and maintaining charge neutrality of the system are critical for extending the continuous pHMD framework to the all-atom representation. The former is achieved here by adding forces to titration coordinates due to long-range electrostatics based on the generalized reaction field method, while the latter is made possible by a charge-leveling technique that couples proton titration with simultaneous ionization or neutralization of a co-ion in solution. We test the new method using the pH-replica-exchange CpHMD simulations of a series of aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with varying carbon chain length. The average absolute deviation from the experimental pK(a) values is merely 0.18 units. The results show that accounting for the forces due to extended electrostatics removes the large random noise in propagating titration coordinates, while maintaining charge neutrality of the system improves the accuracy in the calculated electrostatic interaction between ionizable sites. Thus, we believe that the way is paved for realizing pH-controlled all-atom molecular dynamics in the near future.

A neural network approach to the study of dynamics and structure of molecular systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Getino, C.; Sumpter, B.G.; Noid, D.W.

1994-01-01

Neural networks are used to study intramolecular energy flow in molecular systems (tetratomics to macromolecules), developing new techniques for efficient analysis of data obtained from molecular-dynamics and quantum mechanics calculations. Neural networks can map phase space points to intramolecular vibrational energies along a classical trajectory (example of complicated coordinate transformation), producing reasonably accurate values for any region of the multidimensional phase space of a tetratomic molecule. Neural network energy flow predictions are found to significantly enhance the molecular-dynamics method to longer time-scales and extensive averaging of trajectories for macromolecular systems. Pattern recognition abilities of neural networks can be used to discern phase space features. Neural networks can also expand model calculations by interpolation of costly quantum mechanical ab initio data, used to develop semiempirical potential energy functions

Enhanced Sampling in Molecular Dynamics Using Metadynamics, Replica-Exchange, and Temperature-Acceleration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cameron Abrams

2013-12-01

Full Text Available We review a selection of methods for performing enhanced sampling in molecular dynamics simulations. We consider methods based on collective variable biasing and on tempering, and offer both historical and contemporary perspectives. In collective-variable biasing, we first discuss methods stemming from thermodynamic integration that use mean force biasing, including the adaptive biasing force algorithm and temperature acceleration. We then turn to methods that use bias potentials, including umbrella sampling and metadynamics. We next consider parallel tempering and replica-exchange methods. We conclude with a brief presentation of some combination methods.

Nonreactive spreading at high-temperature revisited for metal systems via molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Benhassine, M; Saiz, E; Tomsia, A P; De Coninck, J

2009-10-06

The spreading for Cu and Ag droplets on top of a rigid solid surface modeling Mo is herewith considered via molecular dynamics. The dynamics of the base radius and the contact angle are recorded and fitted using the molecular-kinetic theory. A method is described to determine for liquid metals at the microscopic level the parameters appearing in this theory. These microscopic parameters are calculated directly in the simulations and compared to the fitted values. The agreement between the fitted values and the calculated ones shows that the dissipation of energy within the drop is caused primarily by the friction of liquid atoms over the substrate. This validation supports the understanding of the mechanisms controlling the spreading of liquid metals which, up to now, were based on experimental data and fitting procedures.

Molecular dynamics simulations of RNA motifs

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Csaszar, K.; Špačková, Naďa; Šponer, Jiří; Leontis, N. B.

2002-01-01

Roč. 223, - (2002), s. 154 ISSN 0065-7727. [Annual Meeting of the American Chemistry Society /223./. 07.04.2002-11.04.2002, Orlando ] Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z5004920 Keywords : molecular dynamics * RNA * hydration Subject RIV: BO - Biophysics

Comparative classical and 'ab initio' molecular dynamics study of molten and glassy germanium dioxide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hawlitzky, M; Horbach, J; Binder, K; Ispas, S; Krack, M

2008-01-01

A molecular dynamics (MD) study of the static and dynamic properties of molten and glassy germanium dioxide is presented. The interactions between the atoms are modeled by the classical pair potential proposed by Oeffner and Elliott (OE) (1998 Phys. Rev. B 58 14791). We compare our results to experiments and previous simulations. In addition, an 'ab initio' method, the so-called Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD), is applied to check the accuracy of the structural properties, as obtained by the classical MD simulations with the OE potential. As in a similar study for SiO 2 , the structure predicted by CPMD is only slightly softer than that resulting from the classical MD. In contrast to earlier simulations, both the static structure and dynamic properties are in very good agreement with pertinent experimental data. MD simulations with the OE potential are also used to study the relaxation dynamics. As previously found for SiO 2 , for high temperatures the dynamics of molten GeO 2 is compatible with a description in terms of mode coupling theory

Thermo-dynamical contours of electronic-vibrational spectra simulated using the statistical quantum-mechanical methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pomogaev, Vladimir; Pomogaeva, Anna; Avramov, Pavel

2011-01-01

Three polycyclic organic molecules in various solvents focused on thermo-dynamical aspects were theoretically investigated using the recently developed statistical quantum mechanical/classical molecular dynamics method for simulating electronic-vibrational spectra. The absorption bands of estradiol...

Monte Carlo-molecular dynamics simulations for two-dimensional magnets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawabata, C.; takeuchi, M.; Bishop, A.R.

1985-01-01

A combined Monte Carlo-molecular dynamics simulation technique is used to study the dynamic structure factor on a square lattice for isotropic Heisenberg and planar classical ferromagnetic spin Hamiltonians

Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo calculations in statistical mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wood, W.W.; Erpenbeck, J.J.

1976-01-01

Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics calculations on statistical mechanical systems is reviewed giving some of the more significant recent developments. It is noted that the term molecular dynamics refers to the time-averaging technique for hard-core and square-well interactions and for continuous force-law interactions. Ergodic questions, methodology, quantum mechanical, Lorentz, and one-dimensional, hard-core, and square and triangular-well systems, short-range soft potentials, and other systems are included. 268 references

Extended phase-space methods for enhanced sampling in molecular simulations: a review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiroshi eFujisaki

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Molecular Dynamics simulations are a powerful approach to study biomolecular conformational changes or protein-ligand, protein-protein and protein-DNA/RNA interactions. Straightforward applications however are often hampered by incomplete sampling, since in a typical simulated trajectory the system will spend most of its time trapped by high energy barriers in restricted regions of the configuration space. Over the years, several techniques have been designed to overcome this problem and enhance space sampling. Here, we review a class of methods that rely on the idea of extending the set of dynamical variables of the system by adding extra ones associated to functions describing the process under study. In particular, we illustrate the Temperature Accelerated Molecular Dynamics (TAMD, Logarithmic Mean Force Dynamics (LogMFD, andMultiscale Enhanced Sampling (MSES algorithms. We also discuss combinations with techniques for searching reaction paths. We show the advantages presented by this approach and how it allows to quickly sample important regions of the free energy landscape via automatic exploration.

Thermal parameter identification for non-Fourier heat transfer from molecular dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Amit; Tadmor, Ellad B.

2015-10-01

Fourier's law leads to a diffusive model of heat transfer in which a thermal signal propagates infinitely fast and the only material parameter is the thermal conductivity. In micro- and nano-scale systems, non-Fourier effects involving coupled diffusion and wavelike propagation of heat can become important. An extension of Fourier's law to account for such effects leads to a Jeffreys-type model for heat transfer with two relaxation times. We propose a new Thermal Parameter Identification (TPI) method for obtaining the Jeffreys-type thermal parameters from molecular dynamics simulations. The TPI method makes use of a nonlinear regression-based approach for obtaining the coefficients in analytical expressions for cosine and sine-weighted averages of temperature and heat flux over the length of the system. The method is applied to argon nanobeams over a range of temperature and system sizes. The results for thermal conductivity are found to be in good agreement with standard Green-Kubo and direct method calculations. The TPI method is more efficient for systems with high diffusivity and has the advantage, that unlike the direct method, it is free from the influence of thermostats. In addition, the method provides the thermal relaxation times for argon. Using the determined parameters, the Jeffreys-type model is able to reproduce the molecular dynamics results for a short-duration heat pulse where wavelike propagation of heat is observed thereby confirming the existence of second sound in argon. An implementation of the TPI method in MATLAB is available as part of the online supplementary material.

Numerical methodologies for investigation of moderate-velocity flow using a hybrid computational fluid dynamics - molecular dynamics simulation approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ko, Soon Heum; Kim, Na Yong; Nikitopoulos, Dimitris E.; Moldovan, Dorel; Jha, Shantenu

2014-01-01

Numerical approaches are presented to minimize the statistical errors inherently present due to finite sampling and the presence of thermal fluctuations in the molecular region of a hybrid computational fluid dynamics (CFD) - molecular dynamics (MD) flow solution. Near the fluid-solid interface the hybrid CFD-MD simulation approach provides a more accurate solution, especially in the presence of significant molecular-level phenomena, than the traditional continuum-based simulation techniques. It also involves less computational cost than the pure particle-based MD. Despite these advantages the hybrid CFD-MD methodology has been applied mostly in flow studies at high velocities, mainly because of the higher statistical errors associated with low velocities. As an alternative to the costly increase of the size of the MD region to decrease statistical errors, we investigate a few numerical approaches that reduce sampling noise of the solution at moderate-velocities. These methods are based on sampling of multiple simulation replicas and linear regression of multiple spatial/temporal samples. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each technique in the perspective of solution accuracy and computational cost.

Exploring the vibrational fingerprint of the electronic excitation energy via molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deyne, Andy Van Yperen-De; Pauwels, Ewald; Ghysels, An; Waroquier, Michel; Van Speybroeck, Veronique; Hemelsoet, Karen; De Meyer, Thierry; De Clerck, Karen

2014-01-01

A Fourier-based method is presented to relate changes of the molecular structure during a molecular dynamics simulation with fluctuations in the electronic excitation energy. The method implies sampling of the ground state potential energy surface. Subsequently, the power spectrum of the velocities is compared with the power spectrum of the excitation energy computed using time-dependent density functional theory. Peaks in both spectra are compared, and motions exhibiting a linear or quadratic behavior can be distinguished. The quadratically active motions are mainly responsible for the changes in the excitation energy and hence cause shifts between the dynamic and static values of the spectral property. Moreover, information about the potential energy surface of various excited states can be obtained. The procedure is illustrated with three case studies. The first electronic excitation is explored in detail and dominant vibrational motions responsible for changes in the excitation energy are identified for ethylene, biphenyl, and hexamethylbenzene. The proposed method is also extended to other low-energy excitations. Finally, the vibrational fingerprint of the excitation energy of a more complex molecule, in particular the azo dye ethyl orange in a water environment, is analyzed

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Properties

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Fojtíková, J.; Kalvoda, L.; Sedlák, Petr

2015-01-01

Roč. 128, č. 4 (2015), s. 637-639 ISSN 0587-4246 R&D Projects: GA ČR GB14-36566G Institutional support: RVO:61388998 Keywords : molecular dynamics * poly(dimethylsiloxane) * dissipative particle dynamics Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism Impact factor: 0.525, year: 2015 http://przyrbwn.icm.edu.pl/APP/PDF/128/a128z4p40.pdf

Nanotribology investigations with classical molecular dynamics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Solhjoo, Soheil

2017-01-01

This thesis presents a number of nanotribological problems investigated by means of classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, within the context of the applicability of continuum mechanics contact theories at the atomic scale. Along these lines, three different themes can be recognized herein:

Optimal identification of semi-rigid domains in macromolecules from molecular dynamics simulation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Bernhard

Full Text Available Biological function relies on the fact that biomolecules can switch between different conformations and aggregation states. Such transitions involve a rearrangement of parts of the biomolecules involved that act as dynamic domains. The reliable identification of such domains is thus a key problem in biophysics. In this work we present a method to identify semi-rigid domains based on dynamical data that can be obtained from molecular dynamics simulations or experiments. To this end the average inter-atomic distance-deviations are computed. The resulting matrix is then clustered by a constrained quadratic optimization problem. The reliability and performance of the method are demonstrated for two artificial peptides. Furthermore we correlate the mechanical properties with biological malfunction in three variants of amyloidogenic transthyretin protein, where the method reveals that a pathological mutation destabilizes the natural dimer structure of the protein. Finally the method is used to identify functional domains of the GroEL-GroES chaperone, thus illustrating the efficiency of the method for large biomolecular machines.

Revealing Atomic-Level Mechanisms of Protein Allostery with Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Hertig

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Molecular dynamics (MD simulations have become a powerful and popular method for the study of protein allostery, the widespread phenomenon in which a stimulus at one site on a protein influences the properties of another site on the protein. By capturing the motions of a protein's constituent atoms, simulations can enable the discovery of allosteric binding sites and the determination of the mechanistic basis for allostery. These results can provide a foundation for applications including rational drug design and protein engineering. Here, we provide an introduction to the investigation of protein allostery using molecular dynamics simulation. We emphasize the importance of designing simulations that include appropriate perturbations to the molecular system, such as the addition or removal of ligands or the application of mechanical force. We also demonstrate how the bidirectional nature of allostery-the fact that the two sites involved influence one another in a symmetrical manner-can facilitate such investigations. Through a series of case studies, we illustrate how these concepts have been used to reveal the structural basis for allostery in several proteins and protein complexes of biological and pharmaceutical interest.

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation of coupling between nanoparticles and base-fluid in a nanofluid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Hongbo; Zhang, Yuwen; Yang, Mo; Li, Ling

2012-01-01

The intent of this study is to examine nonequilibrium heat transfer in a copper–argon nanofluid by molecular dynamics simulation. Two different methods, the physical definition method and the curve fitting method, are introduced to calculate the coupling factor between nanoparticles and base fluid. The results show that the coupling factors obtained by these two methods are consistent. The coupling factor is proportional to the volume fraction of the nanoparticle and inversely proportional to nanoparticle diameter. In the temperature range of 90–200 K, the coupling factor is not affected by temperature. The nanoparticle aggregation results in a decrease of the coupling factor. -- Highlights: ► Nonequilibrium heat transfer in a copper–argon nanofluid is investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. ► The coupling factor is proportion to the volume fraction of the nanoparticle and inverse proportion to nanoparticle diameter. ► In the temperature range of 90–200 K, there is no temperature effect on the coupling factor. ► The nanoparticle aggregation results in a decrease of the coupling factor.

A molecular dynamics simulation code ISIS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kambayashi, Shaw

1992-06-01

Computer simulation based on the molecular dynamics (MD) method has become an important tool complementary to experiments and theoretical calculations in a wide range of scientific fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, and so on. In the MD method, the Newtonian equations-of-motion of classical particles are integrated numerically to reproduce a phase-space trajectory of the system. In the 1980's, several new techniques have been developed for simulation at constant-temperature and/or constant-pressure in convenient to compare result of computer simulation with experimental results. We first summarize the MD method for both microcanonical and canonical simulations. Then, we present and overview of a newly developed ISIS (Isokinetic Simulation of Soft-spheres) code and its performance on various computers including vector processors. The ISIS code has a capability to make a MD simulation under constant-temperature condition by using the isokinetic constraint method. The equations-of-motion is integrated by a very accurate fifth-order finite differential algorithm. The bookkeeping method is also utilized to reduce the computational time. Furthermore, the ISIS code is well adopted for vector processing: Speedup ratio ranged from 16 to 24 times is obtained on a VP2600/10 vector processor. (author)

Efficient Exploration of Reactive Potential Energy Surfaces Using Car-Parrinello Molecular Dynamics

OpenAIRE

Iannuzzi, Marcella; Laio, Alessandro; Parrinello, Michele

2003-01-01

The possibility of observing chemical reactions in ab initio molecular dynamics runs is severely hindered by the short simulation time accessible. We propose a new method for accelerating the reaction process, based on the ideas of the extended Lagrangian and coarse-grained non-Markovian metady- namics. We demonstrate that by this method it is possible to simulate reactions involving complex atomic rearrangements and very large energy barriers in runs of a few picoseconds.

Acidity constants from DFT-based molecular dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sulpizi, Marialore; Sprik, Michiel

2010-01-01

In this contribution we review our recently developed method for the calculation of acidity constants from density functional theory based molecular dynamics simulations. The method is based on a half reaction scheme in which protons are formally transferred from solution to the gas phase. The corresponding deprotonation free energies are computed from the vertical energy gaps for insertion or removal of protons. Combined to full proton transfer reactions, the deprotonation energies can be used to estimate relative acidity constants and also the Broensted pK a when the deprotonation free energy of a hydronium ion is used as a reference. We verified the method by investigating a series of organic and inorganic acids and bases spanning a wide range of pK a values (20 units). The thermochemical corrections for the biasing potentials assisting and directing the insertion are discussed in some detail.

Drug design based on x-ray diffraction and steered molecular dynamics

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hašek, Jindřich; Skálová, Tereza; Dohnálek, Jan; Dušková, Jarmila; Petroková, Hana; Vondráčková, Eva; Zimmermann, K.

2005-01-01

Roč. 12, č. 3 (2005), s. 208-210 ISSN 1211-5894. [VUFB Conference on Modern Methods in Synthesis and Analysis of Active Pharmaceutical Substances /5./. Praha, 23.11.2005-24.11.2005] R&D Projects: GA AV ČR KJB4050312 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40500505 Keywords : drug design * X-ray diffraction * steered molecular dynamics Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry

A Coupling Tool for Parallel Molecular Dynamics-Continuum Simulations

KAUST Repository

Neumann, Philipp; Tchipev, Nikola

2012-01-01

We present a tool for coupling Molecular Dynamics and continuum solvers. It is written in C++ and is meant to support the developers of hybrid molecular - continuum simulations in terms of both realisation of the respective coupling algorithm

Using molecular dynamics simulations and finite element method to study the mechanical properties of nanotube reinforced polyethylene and polyketone

Science.gov (United States)

Rouhi, S.; Alizadeh, Y.; Ansari, R.; Aryayi, M.

2015-09-01

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the mechanical behavior of single-walled carbon nanotube reinforced composites. Polyethylene and polyketone are selected as the polymer matrices. The effects of nanotube atomic structure and diameter on the mechanical properties of polymer matrix nanocomposites are investigated. It is shown that although adding nanotube to the polymer matrix raises the longitudinal elastic modulus significantly, the transverse tensile and shear moduli do not experience important change. As the previous finite element models could not be used for polymer matrices with the atom types other than carbon, molecular dynamics simulations are used to propose a finite element model which can be used for any polymer matrices. It is shown that this model can predict Young’s modulus with an acceptable accuracy.

Molecular dynamics study of the hydration of Lennard-Jones solutes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geiger, A.; Rahman, A.; Stillinger, F.H.

1979-01-01

In order to clarify the nature of hydrophobic interactions in water, we have used the molecular dynamics simulation method to study a system comprising two Lennard-Jones solute particles and 214 water molecules. Although the solutes were placed initially in contact, forces in the system drive them slightly apart to permit formation of vertex-sharing solvent ''cages.'' Definite orientational preferences have been observed for water molecules in the first solvation layer around the Lennard-Jones solutes; these preferences are loosely reminiscent of structure in clathrates. Nevertheless, substantial local disorder is obviously present. The dynamical data show that translational and rotational motions of solvation--sheath water molecules are perceptibly slower (by at least 20%) than those in pure bulk water

Structural phase transition and dynamical properties of PbTiO3 simulated by molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Costa, S C; Pizani, P S; Rino, J P; Borges, D S

2005-01-01

The temperature- and pressure-induced structural phase transition in PbTiO 3 is studied with the isoenthalpic-isobaric molecular-dynamics method, using an effective two-body interaction potential. The tetragonal to cubic transformation is successfully reproduced with both temperature and pressure. The behaviour of lattice parameters, vibrational density of states, and phonon anharmonicity with temperature and pressure are in very good agreement with experimental data. Two- and three-body correlations were analysed through pair distribution functions, coordination numbers and bond-angle distributions

Molecular Dynamics Study of Water Molecules in Interlayer of 14 ^|^Aring; Tobermorite

KAUST Repository

Yoon, Seyoon; Monteiro, Paulo J.M.

2013-01-01

The molecular structure and dynamics of interlayer water of 14 Å tobermorite are investigated based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Calculated structural parameters of the interlayer water configuration are in good agreement with current

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Kinetic Models for Chiral Dominance in Soft Condensed Matter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toxvaerd, Søren

2001-01-01

Molecular dynamics simulation, models for isomerization kinetics, origin of biomolecular chirality......Molecular dynamics simulation, models for isomerization kinetics, origin of biomolecular chirality...

molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemical calculations

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ABSTRACT. The molecular dynamic (MD) simulation and quantum chemical calculations for the adsorption of [2-(2-Henicos-10- .... electronic properties of molecule clusters, surfaces and ... The local reactivity was analyzed by determining the.

Invariant molecular-dynamics approach to structural phase transitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wentzcovitch, R.M.

1991-01-01

Two fictitious Lagrangians to be used in molecular-dynamics simulations with variable cell shape and suitable to study problems like structural phase transitions are introduced. Because they are invariant with respect to the choice of the simulation cell edges and eliminate symmetry breaking associated with the fictitious part of the dynamics, they improve the physical content of numerical simulations that up to now have been done by using Parrinello-Rahman dynamics

Molecular Dynamics Simulation for the Mechanical Properties of CNT/Polymer Nanocomposites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Seung Hwa; Cho, Maeg Hyo

2007-01-01

In order to obtain mechanical properties of CNT/Polymer nano-composites, molecular dynamics simulation is performed. Overall system was modeled as a flexible unit cell in which carbon nanotubes are embedded into a polyethylene matrix for N σ T ensemble simulation. COMPASS force field was chosen to describe inter and intra molecular potential and bulk effect was achieved via periodic boundary conditions. In CNT-polymer interface, only Lennard-Jones non-bond potential was considered. Using Parrinello-Rahman fluctuation method, mechanical properties of orthotropic nano-composites under various temperatures were successfully obtained. Also, we investigated thermal behavior of the short CNT reinforced nanocomposites system with predicting glass transition temperature

Correlation of chemical shifts predicted by molecular dynamics simulations for partially disordered proteins

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karp, Jerome M.; Erylimaz, Ertan; Cowburn, David, E-mail: cowburn@cowburnlab.org, E-mail: David.cowburn@einstein.yu.edu [Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Department of Biochemistry (United States)

2015-01-15

There has been a longstanding interest in being able to accurately predict NMR chemical shifts from structural data. Recent studies have focused on using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation data as input for improved prediction. Here we examine the accuracy of chemical shift prediction for intein systems, which have regions of intrinsic disorder. We find that using MD simulation data as input for chemical shift prediction does not consistently improve prediction accuracy over use of a static X-ray crystal structure. This appears to result from the complex conformational ensemble of the disordered protein segments. We show that using accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) simulations improves chemical shift prediction, suggesting that methods which better sample the conformational ensemble like aMD are more appropriate tools for use in chemical shift prediction for proteins with disordered regions. Moreover, our study suggests that data accurately reflecting protein dynamics must be used as input for chemical shift prediction in order to correctly predict chemical shifts in systems with disorder.

Nonadiabatic excited-state molecular dynamics: On-the-fly limiting of essential excited states

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nelson, Tammie [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Naumov, Artem [Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow 143026 (Russian Federation); Fernandez-Alberti, Sebastian [Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Roque Saenz Pea 352, B1876BXD Bernal (Argentina); Tretiak, Sergei, E-mail: serg@lanl.gov [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)

2016-12-20

The simulation of nonadiabatic dynamics in extended molecular systems involving hundreds of atoms and large densities of states is particularly challenging. Nonadiabatic coupling terms (NACTs) represent a significant numerical bottleneck in surface hopping approaches. Rather than using unreliable NACT cutting schemes, here we develop “on-the-fly” state limiting methods to eliminate states that are no longer essential for the non-radiative relaxation dynamics as a trajectory proceeds. We propose a state number criteria and an energy-based state limit. The latter is more physically relevant by requiring a user-imposed energy threshold. For this purpose, we introduce a local kinetic energy gauge by summing contributions from atoms within the spatial localization of the electronic wavefunction to define the energy available for upward hops. The proposed state limiting schemes are implemented within the nonadiabatic excited-state molecular dynamics framework to simulate photoinduced relaxation in poly-phenylene vinylene (PPV) and branched poly-phenylene ethynylene (PPE) oligomers for benchmark evaluation.

Young's moduli of carbon materials investigated by various classical molecular dynamics schemes

Science.gov (United States)

Gayk, Florian; Ehrens, Julian; Heitmann, Tjark; Vorndamme, Patrick; Mrugalla, Andreas; Schnack, Jürgen

2018-05-01

For many applications classical carbon potentials together with classical molecular dynamics are employed to calculate structures and physical properties of such carbon-based materials where quantum mechanical methods fail either due to the excessive size, irregular structure or long-time dynamics. Although such potentials, as for instance implemented in LAMMPS, yield reasonably accurate bond lengths and angles for several carbon materials such as graphene, it is not clear how accurate they are in terms of mechanical properties such as for instance Young's moduli. We performed large-scale classical molecular dynamics investigations of three carbon-based materials using the various potentials implemented in LAMMPS as well as the EDIP potential of Marks. We show how the Young's moduli vary with classical potentials and compare to experimental results. Since classical descriptions of carbon are bound to be approximations it is not astonishing that different realizations yield differing results. One should therefore carefully check for which observables a certain potential is suited. Our aim is to contribute to such a clarification.

Extended Lagrangian Density Functional Tight-Binding Molecular Dynamics for Molecules and Solids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aradi, Balint; Frauenheim, Thomas

2015-01-01

A computationally fast quantum mechanical molecular dynamics scheme using an extended Lagrangian density functional tight-binding formulation has been developed and implemented in the DFTB+ electronic structure program package for simulations of solids and molecular systems. The scheme combines the computational speed of self-consistent density functional tight-binding theory with the efficiency and long-term accuracy of extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics. Furthermore, for systems without self-consistent charge instabilities, only a single diagonalization or construction of the single-particle density matrix is required in each time step. The molecular dynamics simulation scheme can also be applied to a broad range of problems in materials science, chemistry, and biology

Easy GROMACS: A Graphical User Interface for GROMACS Molecular Dynamics Simulation Package

Science.gov (United States)

Dizkirici, Ayten; Tekpinar, Mustafa

2015-03-01

GROMACS is a widely used molecular dynamics simulation package. Since it is a command driven program, it is difficult to use this program for molecular biologists, biochemists, new graduate students and undergraduate researchers who are interested in molecular dynamics simulations. To alleviate the problem for those researchers, we wrote a graphical user interface that simplifies protein preparation for a classical molecular dynamics simulation. Our program can work with various GROMACS versions and it can perform essential analyses of GROMACS trajectories as well as protein preparation. We named our open source program `Easy GROMACS'. Easy GROMACS can give researchers more time for scientific research instead of dealing with technical intricacies.

Extended Lagrangian Density Functional Tight-Binding Molecular Dynamics for Molecules and Solids.

Science.gov (United States)

Aradi, Bálint; Niklasson, Anders M N; Frauenheim, Thomas

2015-07-14

A computationally fast quantum mechanical molecular dynamics scheme using an extended Lagrangian density functional tight-binding formulation has been developed and implemented in the DFTB+ electronic structure program package for simulations of solids and molecular systems. The scheme combines the computational speed of self-consistent density functional tight-binding theory with the efficiency and long-term accuracy of extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics. For systems without self-consistent charge instabilities, only a single diagonalization or construction of the single-particle density matrix is required in each time step. The molecular dynamics simulation scheme can be applied to a broad range of problems in materials science, chemistry, and biology.

NMR investigations of molecular dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, Arthur

2011-03-01

NMR spectroscopy is a powerful experimental approach for characterizing protein conformational dynamics on multiple time scales. The insights obtained from NMR studies are complemented and by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, which provide full atomistic details of protein dynamics. Homologous mesophilic (E. coli) and thermophilic (T. thermophilus) ribonuclease H (RNase H) enzymes serve to illustrate how changes in protein sequence and structure that affect conformational dynamic processes can be monitored and characterized by joint analysis of NMR spectroscopy and MD simulations. A Gly residue inserted within a putative hinge between helices B and C is conserved among thermophilic RNases H, but absent in mesophilic RNases H. Experimental spin relaxation measurements show that the dynamic properties of T. thermophilus RNase H are recapitulated in E. coli RNase H by insertion of a Gly residue between helices B and C. Additional specific intramolecular interactions that modulate backbone and sidechain dynamical properties of the Gly-rich loop and of the conserved Trp residue flanking the Gly insertion site have been identified using MD simulations and subsequently confirmed by NMR spin relaxation measurements. These results emphasize the importance of hydrogen bonds and local steric interactions in restricting conformational fluctuations, and the absence of such interactions in allowing conformational adaptation to substrate binding.

Excitation dynamics and relaxation in a molecular heterodimer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balevičius, V.; Gelzinis, A.; Abramavicius, D.; Mančal, T.; Valkunas, L.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Dynamics of excitation within a heterogenous molecular dimer. ► Excited states can be swapped due to different reorganization energies of monomers. ► Conventional excitonic basis becomes renormalized due to interaction with the bath. ► Relaxation is independent of mutual positioning of monomeric excited states. -- Abstract: The exciton dynamics in a molecular heterodimer is studied as a function of differences in excitation and reorganization energies, asymmetry in transition dipole moments and excited state lifetimes. The heterodimer is composed of two molecules modeled as two-level systems coupled by the resonance interaction. The system-bath coupling is taken into account as a modulating factor of the molecular excitation energy gap, while the relaxation to the ground state is treated phenomenologically. Comparison of the description of the excitation dynamics modeled using either the Redfield equations (secular and full forms) or the Hierarchical quantum master equation (HQME) is demonstrated and discussed. Possible role of the dimer as an excitation quenching center in photosynthesis self-regulation is discussed. It is concluded that the system-bath interaction rather than the excitonic effect determines the excitation quenching ability of such a dimer.

The nonequilibrium molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoover, W.G.

1992-03-01

MOLECULAR DYNAMICS has been generalized in order to simulate a variety of NONEQUILIBRIUM systems. This generalization has been achieved by adopting microscopic mechanical definitions of macroscopic thermodynamic and hydrodynamic variables, such as temperature and stress. Some of the problems already treated include rapid plastic deformation, intense heat conduction, strong shockwaves simulation, and far-from-equilibrium phase transformations. Continuing advances in technique and in the modeling of interatomic forces, coupled with qualitative improvements in computer hardware, are enabling such simulations to approximate real-world microscale and nanoscale experiments

Reaction dynamics of molecular hydrogen on silicon surfaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bratu, P.; Brenig, W.; Gross, A.

1996-01-01

of the preexponential factor by about one order of magnitude per lateral degree of freedom. Molecular vibrations have practically no effect on the adsorption/desorption dynamics itself, but lead to vibrational heating in desorption with a strong isotope effect. Ab initio calculations for the H-2 interaction...... between the two surfaces. These results indicate that tunneling, molecular vibrations, and the structural details of the surface play only a minor role for the adsorption dynamics. Instead, they appear to be governed by the localized H-Si bonding and Si-Si lattice vibrations. Theoretically, an effective......Experimental and theoretical results on the dynamics of dissociative adsorption and recombinative desorption of hydrogen on silicon are presented. Using optical second-harmonic generation, extremely small sticking probabilities in the range 10(-9)-10(-5) could be measured for H-2 and D-2 on Si(111...

Molecular dynamics simulation of a piston driven shock wave in a hard sphere gas. Final Contractor ReportPh.D. Thesis

Science.gov (United States)

Woo, Myeung-Jouh; Greber, Isaac

1995-01-01

Molecular dynamics simulation is used to study the piston driven shock wave at Mach 1.5, 3, and 10. A shock tube, whose shape is a circular cylinder, is filled with hard sphere molecules having a Maxwellian thermal velocity distribution and zero mean velocity. The piston moves and a shock wave is generated. All collisions are specular, including those between the molecules and the computational boundaries, so that the shock development is entirely causal, with no imposed statistics. The structure of the generated shock is examined in detail, and the wave speed; profiles of density, velocity, and temperature; and shock thickness are determined. The results are compared with published results of other methods, especially the direct simulation Monte-Carlo method. Property profiles are similar to those generated by direct simulation Monte-Carlo method. The shock wave thicknesses are smaller than the direct simulation Monte-Carlo results, but larger than those of the other methods. Simulation of a shock wave, which is one-dimensional, is a severe test of the molecular dynamics method, which is always three-dimensional. A major challenge of the thesis is to examine the capability of the molecular dynamics methods by choosing a difficult task.

Equivalence of the equilibrium and the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics methods for thermal conductivity calculations: From bulk to nanowire silicon

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Haikuan; Fan, Zheyong; Shi, Libin; Harju, Ari; Ala-Nissila, Tapio

2018-03-01

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations play an important role in studying heat transport in complex materials. The lattice thermal conductivity can be computed either using the Green-Kubo formula in equilibrium MD (EMD) simulations or using Fourier's law in nonequilibrium MD (NEMD) simulations. These two methods have not been systematically compared for materials with different dimensions and inconsistencies between them have been occasionally reported in the literature. Here we give an in-depth comparison of them in terms of heat transport in three allotropes of Si: three-dimensional bulk silicon, two-dimensional silicene, and quasi-one-dimensional silicon nanowire. By multiplying the correlation time in the Green-Kubo formula with an appropriate effective group velocity, we can express the running thermal conductivity in the EMD method as a function of an effective length and directly compare it to the length-dependent thermal conductivity in the NEMD method. We find that the two methods quantitatively agree with each other for all the systems studied, firmly establishing their equivalence in computing thermal conductivity.

Classical molecular dynamics simulation of electronically non-adiabatic processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, William H; Cotton, Stephen J

2016-12-22

Both classical and quantum mechanics (as well as hybrids thereof, i.e., semiclassical approaches) find widespread use in simulating dynamical processes in molecular systems. For large chemical systems, however, which involve potential energy surfaces (PES) of general/arbitrary form, it is usually the case that only classical molecular dynamics (MD) approaches are feasible, and their use is thus ubiquitous nowadays, at least for chemical processes involving dynamics on a single PES (i.e., within a single Born-Oppenheimer electronic state). This paper reviews recent developments in an approach which extends standard classical MD methods to the treatment of electronically non-adiabatic processes, i.e., those that involve transitions between different electronic states. The approach treats nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom (DOF) equivalently (i.e., by classical mechanics, thereby retaining the simplicity of standard MD), and provides "quantization" of the electronic states through a symmetrical quasi-classical (SQC) windowing model. The approach is seen to be capable of treating extreme regimes of strong and weak coupling between the electronic states, as well as accurately describing coherence effects in the electronic DOF (including the de-coherence of such effects caused by coupling to the nuclear DOF). A survey of recent applications is presented to illustrate the performance of the approach. Also described is a newly developed variation on the original SQC model (found universally superior to the original) and a general extension of the SQC model to obtain the full electronic density matrix (at no additional cost/complexity).

State-to-state dynamics of molecular energy transfer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gentry, W.R.; Giese, C.F. [Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis (United States)

1993-12-01

The goal of this research program is to elucidate the elementary dynamical mechanisms of vibrational and rotational energy transfer between molecules, at a quantum-state resolved level of detail. Molecular beam techniques are used to isolate individual molecular collisions, and to control the kinetic energy of collision. Lasers are used both to prepare specific quantum states prior to collision by stimulated-emission pumping (SEP), and to measure the distribution of quantum states in the collision products by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). The results are interpreted in terms of dynamical models, which may be cast in a classical, semiclassical or quantum mechanical framework, as appropriate.

Line-shape theory and molecular dynamics in collision-induced light scattering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balucani, U.; Tognetti, V.; Vallauri, R.

1979-01-01

Molecular-dynamics studies in argon at 148 amagats are presented for gaining information on the dynamical properties responsible for the depolarized light scattering from simple fluids. The total and pair-correlation functions are computed within the simple dipole--induced-dipole model of polarizability anisotropy. The pair spectral shape is derived. These results are compared with a theoretical analysis based on a continued-fraction approach. The necessary frequency moments are calculated both in the low-density limit and taking into account first-order density corrections, and compared with the molecular-dynamics data. The agreement between the theoretical spectra and molecular-dynamics data shows the validity of the memory-function approach. The comparison with the real experimental results allows one to test the relevant physical contributions to the polarizability anisotropy

Direct assignment of molecular vibrations via normal mode analysis of the neutron dynamic pair distribution function technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fry-Petit, A. M.; Sheckelton, J. P.; McQueen, T. M.; Rebola, A. F.; Fennie, C. J.; Mourigal, M.; Valentine, M.; Drichko, N.

2015-01-01

For over a century, vibrational spectroscopy has enhanced the study of materials. Yet, assignment of particular molecular motions to vibrational excitations has relied on indirect methods. Here, we demonstrate that applying group theoretical methods to the dynamic pair distribution function analysis of neutron scattering data provides direct access to the individual atomic displacements responsible for these excitations. Applied to the molecule-based frustrated magnet with a potential magnetic valence-bond state, LiZn 2 Mo 3 O 8 , this approach allows direct assignment of the constrained rotational mode of Mo 3 O 13 clusters and internal modes of MoO 6 polyhedra. We anticipate that coupling this well known data analysis technique with dynamic pair distribution function analysis will have broad application in connecting structural dynamics to physical properties in a wide range of molecular and solid state systems

Estimating Arrhenius parameters using temperature programmed molecular dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Imandi, Venkataramana; Chatterjee, Abhijit

2016-01-01

Kinetic rates at different temperatures and the associated Arrhenius parameters, whenever Arrhenius law is obeyed, are efficiently estimated by applying maximum likelihood analysis to waiting times collected using the temperature programmed molecular dynamics method. When transitions involving many activated pathways are available in the dataset, their rates may be calculated using the same collection of waiting times. Arrhenius behaviour is ascertained by comparing rates at the sampled temperatures with ones from the Arrhenius expression. Three prototype systems with corrugated energy landscapes, namely, solvated alanine dipeptide, diffusion at the metal-solvent interphase, and lithium diffusion in silicon, are studied to highlight various aspects of the method. The method becomes particularly appealing when the Arrhenius parameters can be used to find rates at low temperatures where transitions are rare. Systematic coarse-graining of states can further extend the time scales accessible to the method. Good estimates for the rate parameters are obtained with 500-1000 waiting times.

Estimating Arrhenius parameters using temperature programmed molecular dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Imandi, Venkataramana; Chatterjee, Abhijit, E-mail: abhijit@che.iitb.ac.in [Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076 (India)

2016-07-21

Kinetic rates at different temperatures and the associated Arrhenius parameters, whenever Arrhenius law is obeyed, are efficiently estimated by applying maximum likelihood analysis to waiting times collected using the temperature programmed molecular dynamics method. When transitions involving many activated pathways are available in the dataset, their rates may be calculated using the same collection of waiting times. Arrhenius behaviour is ascertained by comparing rates at the sampled temperatures with ones from the Arrhenius expression. Three prototype systems with corrugated energy landscapes, namely, solvated alanine dipeptide, diffusion at the metal-solvent interphase, and lithium diffusion in silicon, are studied to highlight various aspects of the method. The method becomes particularly appealing when the Arrhenius parameters can be used to find rates at low temperatures where transitions are rare. Systematic coarse-graining of states can further extend the time scales accessible to the method. Good estimates for the rate parameters are obtained with 500-1000 waiting times.

The MOLDY short-range molecular dynamics package

Science.gov (United States)

Ackland, G. J.; D'Mellow, K.; Daraszewicz, S. L.; Hepburn, D. J.; Uhrin, M.; Stratford, K.

2011-12-01

We describe a parallelised version of the MOLDY molecular dynamics program. This Fortran code is aimed at systems which may be described by short-range potentials and specifically those which may be addressed with the embedded atom method. This includes a wide range of transition metals and alloys. MOLDY provides a range of options in terms of the molecular dynamics ensemble used and the boundary conditions which may be applied. A number of standard potentials are provided, and the modular structure of the code allows new potentials to be added easily. The code is parallelised using OpenMP and can therefore be run on shared memory systems, including modern multicore processors. Particular attention is paid to the updates required in the main force loop, where synchronisation is often required in OpenMP implementations of molecular dynamics. We examine the performance of the parallel code in detail and give some examples of applications to realistic problems, including the dynamic compression of copper and carbon migration in an iron-carbon alloy. Program summaryProgram title: MOLDY Catalogue identifier: AEJU_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEJU_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License version 2 No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 382 881 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 6 705 242 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: Fortran 95/OpenMP Computer: Any Operating system: Any Has the code been vectorised or parallelized?: Yes. OpenMP is required for parallel execution RAM: 100 MB or more Classification: 7.7 Nature of problem: Moldy addresses the problem of many atoms (of order 10 6) interacting via a classical interatomic potential on a timescale of microseconds. It is designed for problems where statistics must be gathered over a number of equivalent runs, such as

Lattice dynamics of a crystal with a molecular impurity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahoo, D.; Venkataraman, G.

1975-01-01

The dynamics of a crystal containing a molecular impurity is discussed with allowance for the effects of internal vibrations of the molecule. Cartesian coordinates are used to describe internal vibrations, angular oscillations and centre of mass translations of the impurity, and the displacement of atoms of the host lattice. Next the Hamiltonian is set up and the equations of motion derived. In this process, use is made of Dirac brackets when dealing with vibrational coordinates (of the molecule) which have redundancy and constraints. A method of solution of the normal modes of the system is indicated by using the defect space matrixpartitioning technique. The special case of a rigid molecular impurity is then discussed along with the relevance of the present formalism in the interpretation of a recent neutron scattering experiment. It is also shown how the results of crystal-field approximation model and those of the molecular model approximation are obtained as further special cases of the present formalism. A comparison of the present work with those of others has been made. (author)

Dynamical simulation of heavy ion collisions; VUU and QMD method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niita, Koji

1992-01-01

We review two simulation methods based on the Vlasov-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (VUU) equation and Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD), which are the most widely accepted theoretical framework for the description of intermediate-energy heavy-ion reactions. We show some results of the calculations and compare them with the experimental data. (author)

Note: Local thermal conductivities from boundary driven non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bresme, F.; Armstrong, J.

2014-01-01

We report non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of heat transport in models of molecular fluids. We show that the “local” thermal conductivities obtained from non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations agree within numerical accuracy with equilibrium Green-Kubo computations. Our results support the local equilibrium hypothesis for transport properties. We show how to use the local dependence of the thermal gradients to quantify the thermal conductivity of molecular fluids for a wide range of thermodynamic states using a single simulation

Quantum molecular dynamics: Numerical methods and physical study of the structure, thermodynamics, stability and fragmentation of sodium metallic clusters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blaise, Philippe

1998-01-01

The aim of this thesis is to study metallic sodium clusters by numerical simulation. We have developed two ab initio molecular dynamics programs within the formalism of density functional theory. The first is based on the semi-classical extended Thomas-Fermi approach. We use a real-space grid and a Car-Parrinello-like scheme. The computational cost is O(N), and we have built a pseudopotential that speeds up the calculations. By neglecting quantum shell effects, we are able to study a very large set of clusters. We show that sodium cluster energies fit well a liquid drop formula, by adjusting a few parameters. We have investigated breathing modes, surface oscillations and the net charge density. We have shown that the surface energy varies strongly with temperature, and that clusters have a lower melting point than bulk material. We have calculated fission barriers by a constraint method. The second program is based on the quantum Kohn-Sham approach. We use a real-space grid, and combine a generalized Broyden scheme for assuring self-consistency with an iterative Davidson-Lanczos algorithm for solving the Eigen-problem. The cost of the method is much higher. First of all, we have calculated some stable structures for small clusters and their energetics. We obtained very good agreement with previous works. Then, we have investigated highly charged cluster dynamics. We have identified a chaotic fission process. For high fissility systems, we observe a multi-fragmentation dynamics and we find preferential emission of monomers on a characteristic time scale less than a pico-second. This has been simulated for the first time, with the help of our adaptive grid method which follows each fragment as they move apart during the fragmentation. (author)

A Robust and Efficient Numerical Method for RNA-Mediated Viral Dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Reinharz

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The multiscale model of hepatitis C virus (HCV dynamics, which includes intracellular viral RNA (vRNA replication, has been formulated in recent years in order to provide a new conceptual framework for understanding the mechanism of action of a variety of agents for the treatment of HCV. We present a robust and efficient numerical method that belongs to the family of adaptive stepsize methods and is implicit, a Rosenbrock type method that is highly suited to solve this problem. We provide a Graphical User Interface that applies this method and is useful for simulating viral dynamics during treatment with anti-HCV agents that act against HCV on the molecular level.

DGR, GGR; molecular dynamical codes for simulating radiation damages in diamond and graphite crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taji, Yukichi

1984-06-01

Development has been made of molecular dynamical codes DGR and GGR to simulate radiation damages yielded in the diamond and graphite structure crystals, respectively. Though the usual molecular dynamical codes deal only with the central forces as the mutual interactions between atoms, the present codes can take account of noncentral forces to represent the effect of the covalent bonds characteristic of diamond or graphite crystals. It is shown that lattice defects yielded in these crystals are stable by themselves in the present method without any supports of virtual surface forces set on the crystallite surfaces. By this effect the behavior of lattice defects has become possible to be simulated in a more realistic manner. Some examples of the simulation with these codes are shown. (author)

Fermionic molecular dynamics for colliding and decaying nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feldmeier, H.; Schnack, J.

1993-11-01

Fermionic Molecular Dynamics models a system of fermions by means of a trial many-body state composed of an antisymmetrized product of single-particle states which are localized gaussians in coordinate and momentum space. The parameters specifying them are the analogue to the variables in classical molecular dynamics. The time-dependent variational principle yields the equations of motion which are solved for collisions of 12 C+ 12 C and deexcitations of 12 C. The collisions show a great variety of phenomena including explosion, sequential fragmentation and multifragmentation. The deexcitation for nuclei with E * /A ∼ 5MeV is dominated by particle evaporation on time scales of the order of 10 -20 s or longer. (orig.)

Optical spectra and lattice dynamics of molecular crystals

CERN Document Server

Zhizhin, GN

1995-01-01

The current volume is a single topic volume on the optical spectra and lattice dynamics of molecular crystals. The book is divided into two parts. Part I covers both the theoretical and experimental investigations of organic crystals. Part II deals with the investigation of the structure, phase transitions and reorientational motion of molecules in organic crystals. In addition appendices are given which provide the parameters for the calculation of the lattice dynamics of molecular crystals, procedures for the calculation of frequency eigenvectors of utilizing computers, and the frequencies and eigenvectors of lattice modes for several organic crystals. Quite a large amount of Russian literature is cited, some of which has previously not been available to scientists in the West.

Molecular dynamics simulations of a lithium/sodium carbonate mixture.

Science.gov (United States)

Ottochian, Alistar; Ricca, Chiara; Labat, Frederic; Adamo, Carlo

2016-03-01

The diffusion and ionic conductivity of Li x Na1-x CO3 salt mixtures were studied by means of Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, using the Janssen and Tissen model (Janssen and Tissen, Mol Simul 5:83-98; 1990). These salts have received particular attention due to their central role in fuel cells technology, and reliable numerical methods that could perform as important interpretative tool of experimental data are thus required but still lacking. The chosen computational model nicely reproduces the main structural behaviour of the pure Li2CO3, Na2CO3 and K2CO3 carbonates, but also of their Li/K and Li/Na mixtures. However, it fails to accurately describe dynamic properties such as activation energies of diffusion and conduction processes, outlining the need to develop more accurate models for the simulation of molten salt carbonates.

Molecular dynamics studies of the dynamics of supercooled Lennard-Jones liquids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Leeuw, S.W.; Brakkee, M.J.D.

1990-01-01

Results are presented of molecular dynamics experiments, in which the Lennard-Jones liquid is cooled isobarically into the metastable temperature region below the freezing temperature. The variation of the density-density and transverse current correlation functions with temperature is studied. We observed a power-law behaviour for the temperature dependence of dynamical properties (viscosity and coefficienty of self-diffusion) with an exponent in good agreement with prediction of mode coupling theories and recent experimental results. (author). 23 refs, 5 figs

Orbital free molecular dynamics; Approche sans orbitale des plasmas denses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lambert, F

2007-08-15

The microscopic properties of hot and dense plasmas stay a field essentially studied thanks to classical theories like the One Component Plasma, models which rely on free parameters, particularly ionization. In order to investigate these systems, we have used, in this PhD work, a semi-classical model, without free parameters, that is based on coupling consistently classical molecular dynamics for the nuclei and orbital free density functional theory for the electrons. The electronic fluid is represented by a free energy entirely determined by the local density. This approximation was validated by a comparison with an ab initio technique, quantum molecular dynamics. This one is identical to the previous except for the description of the free energy that depends on a quantum-independent-particle model. Orbital free molecular dynamics was then used to compute equation of state of boron and iron plasmas in the hot and dense regime. Furthermore, comparisons with classical theories were performed on structural and dynamical properties. Finally, equation of state and transport coefficients mixing laws were studied by direct simulation of a plasma composed of deuterium and copper. (author)

Preserving the Boltzmann ensemble in replica-exchange molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooke, Ben; Schmidler, Scott C

2008-10-28

We consider the convergence behavior of replica-exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) [Sugita and Okamoto, Chem. Phys. Lett. 314, 141 (1999)] based on properties of the numerical integrators in the underlying isothermal molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We show that a variety of deterministic algorithms favored by molecular dynamics practitioners for constant-temperature simulation of biomolecules fail either to be measure invariant or irreducible, and are therefore not ergodic. We then show that REMD using these algorithms also fails to be ergodic. As a result, the entire configuration space may not be explored even in an infinitely long simulation, and the simulation may not converge to the desired equilibrium Boltzmann ensemble. Moreover, our analysis shows that for initial configurations with unfavorable energy, it may be impossible for the system to reach a region surrounding the minimum energy configuration. We demonstrate these failures of REMD algorithms for three small systems: a Gaussian distribution (simple harmonic oscillator dynamics), a bimodal mixture of Gaussians distribution, and the alanine dipeptide. Examination of the resulting phase plots and equilibrium configuration densities indicates significant errors in the ensemble generated by REMD simulation. We describe a simple modification to address these failures based on a stochastic hybrid Monte Carlo correction, and prove that this is ergodic.

Conformational analysis of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides using molecular dynamics simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Martin

2015-01-01

Complex carbohydrates usually have a large number of rotatable bonds and consequently a large number of theoretically possible conformations can be generated (combinatorial explosion). The application of systematic search methods for conformational analysis of carbohydrates is therefore limited to disaccharides and trisaccharides in a routine analysis. An alternative approach is to use Monte-Carlo methods or (high-temperature) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to explore the conformational space of complex carbohydrates. This chapter describes how to use MD simulation data to perform a conformational analysis (conformational maps, hydrogen bonds) of oligosaccharides and how to build realistic 3D structures of large polysaccharides using Conformational Analysis Tools (CAT).

Dynamic combinatorial libraries based on hydrogen-bonde molecular boxes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kerckhoffs, J.M.C.A.; Mateos timoneda, Miguel; Reinhoudt, David; Crego Calama, Mercedes

2007-01-01

This article describes two different types of dynamic combinatorial libraries of host and guest molecules. The first part of this article describes the encapsulation of alizarin trimer 2 a3 by dynamic mixtures of up to twenty different self-assembled molecular receptors together with the

The Art of Molecular Dynamics Simulation (by D. C. Rapaport)

Science.gov (United States)

Molner, Stephen P.

1999-02-01

Cambridge University Press: New York, 1996. 400 pp. ISBN 0 521 44561 2. $74.95. This book describes the extremely powerful techniques of molecular dynamics simulation. The techniques involve solving the classical many-body problems in contexts relevant to the study of matter at the atomic level. The method allows the prediction of static and dynamics properties of substances directly from the underlying interactions between molecules. This is, of course, a very broad subject and the author has adopted a dual approach in that the text is partly tutorial and also contains a large number of computer programs for practical use. Rapaport has adopted the attitude of trying the simplest method first. Atoms are modeled as point particles interacting through point potentials. Molecules are represented by atoms with orientation dependent forces, or as extended structures each containing several interaction sites. The molecules may be rigid, flexible, or somewhere in between, and if there are internal degrees of freedom there will be internal forces as well. The intent of the book is not to discuss the design of molecular models, but rather to make use of existing models, and from a pedagogical viewpoint the simpler the model the better. The aim of the book is to demonstrate the general methodology of molecular dynamics simulation by example, not to review the large body of literature covering the many different kinds of models developed for specific applications. The text is partly tutorial, but also contains a large number of computer programs for practical use. This volume will serve as an introduction to the subject for beginners and as a reference manual for the more experienced practitioner. The material covers a wide range of practical methods and real applications and is organized as a series of case studies. The typical case study includes a summary of the theoretical background used for the formulation of the computational approach. That is described by either a

Charge-dependent conformations and dynamics of pamam dendrimers revealed by neutron scattering and molecular dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Bin

, at neutral condition, the exterior residues folding back into interior would necessarily lead to higher entropy and equivalently lower free energy and thereby is energetically favored. As one decreases the pH condition of PAMAM dendrimers, the constituent residues would carry positive charges. The resultant inter-residue Coulomb repulsion would naturally result in conformational evolution. We found from CVSANS analysis that when dendrimers are charged by different acids, this conformational evolution is not the same. For dendrimers charged by DCl, the mass is seen to relocate from molecular interior to periphery. Nevertheless, those acidified by D 2SO4 exhibit surprisingly minor structural change under variation of molecular charge. To explain the above observation, we performed MD simulations and calculated the excess free energy of Cl- and SO 42- counterions. The binding between sulfate ions and charged amines of PAMAM dendrimers are found to be much stronger than the case for chlorides. This more energetic binding would serve as better screening effect among charged residues. Consequently, electrostatic repulsion triggered outstretching tendency is effectively diminished. In order to make direct comparison between MD simulations and neutron scattering experiments, we proposed and implemented a rigorous method, which incorporates the contribution from those invasive water molecules, to calculate scattering functions of a single PAMAM dendrimer using equilibrium MD trajectories. The bridge between neutron scattering experiments and MD simulation is successfully established. Aside from structural comparisons between MD simulations and experiments, we utilized MD simulation to decipher the previously reported QENS experimental observation that the segmental dynamics of PAMAM dendrimer would enhance with increasing molecular charge. We pursued the mechanism from the perspective of hydrocarbon component of dendrimer and solvent (water) interaction as a form similar to

Molecular dynamics simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alder, B.J.

1985-07-01

The molecular dynamics computer simulation discovery of the slow decay of the velocity autocorrelation function in fluids is briefly reviewed in order to contrast that long time tail with those observed for the stress autocorrelation function in fluids and the velocity autocorrelation function in the Lorentz gas. For a non-localized particle in the Lorentz gas it is made plausible that even if it behaved quantum mechanically its long time tail would be the same as the classical one. The generalization of Fick's law for diffusion for the Lorentz gas, necessary to avoid divergences due to the slow decay of correlations, is presented. For fluids, that generalization has not yet been established, but the region of validity of generalized hydrodynamics is discussed. 20 refs., 5 figs

Growth of bi- and tri-layered graphene on silicon carbide substrate via molecular dynamics simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Min, Tjun Kit; Yoon, Tiem Leong [School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Penang (Malaysia); Lim, Thong Leng [Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Multimedia University, Melaka Campus, 75450 Melaka (Malaysia)

2015-04-24

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with simulated annealing method is used to study the growth process of bi- and tri-layered graphene on a 6H-SiC (0001) substrate via molecular dynamics simulation. Tersoff-Albe-Erhart (TEA) potential is used to describe the inter-atomic interactions among the atoms in the system. The formation temperature, averaged carbon-carbon bond length, pair correlation function, binding energy and the distance between the graphene formed and the SiC substrate are quantified. The growth mechanism, graphitization of graphene on the SiC substrate and characteristics of the surface morphology of the graphene sheet obtained in our MD simulation compare well to that observed in epitaxially grown graphene experiments and other simulation works.

Rotationally resolved flurorescence as a probe of molecular photoionization dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poliakoff, E.D.; Kakar, S.; Choi, H.C.

1993-01-01

We present rotationally resolved data for N 2 (2σ u -1 ) photoionization in the excitation energy range 19 ≤ hν ≤ 35 eV. These are the first rotationally resolved measurements on the photoion over an extended spectral range above the ionization threshold. The requisite resolution is obtained by measuring rotationally resolved fluorescence from electronically excited photoions created by synchrotron radiation. This technique is useful for studying dynamical features embedded deep in the ionization continua and should supplement laser-based methods that are limited to probing near-threshold phenomena. The present study shows that the outgoing photoelectron can alter the rotational motion of the more massive photoion by exchanging angular momentum and this partitioning of angular momentum depends on the ionization dynamics. Thus, our data directly probe electron-molecule interactions and are sensitive probes of scattering dynamics. We are currently investigating dynamical features such as shape resonances and Cooper minima with rotational resolution for deciphering microscopic aspects of molecular scattering and these efforts will be discussed

A new algorithm for extended nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of mixed flow

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hunt, T.A.; Hunt, Thomas A.; Bernardi, Stefano; Todd, B.D.

2010-01-01

In this work, we develop a new algorithm for nonequilibrium molecular dynamics of fluids under planar mixed flow, a linear combination of planar elongational flow and planar Couette flow. To date, the only way of simulating mixed flow using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics techniques was to impose

A Flexible, Grid-Enabled Web Portal for GROMACS Molecular Dynamics Simulations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dijk, Marc; Wassenaar, Tsjerk A; Bonvin, Alexandre M J J

2012-01-01

Molecular dynamics simulations are becoming a standard part of workflows in structural biology. They are used for tasks as diverse as assessing molecular flexibility, probing conformational changes, assessing the impact of mutations, or gaining information about molecular interactions. However,

A flexible, grid-enabled web portal for GROMACS molecular dynamics simulations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dijk, M.; Wassenaar, T.A.; Bonvin, A.M.J.J.

2012-01-01

Molecular dynamics simulations are becoming a standard part of workflows in structural biology. They are used for tasks as diverse as assessing molecular flexibility, probing conformational changes, assessing the impact of mutations, or gaining information about molecular interactions. However,

Molecular dynamics simulations of thermally activated edge dislocation unpinning from voids in α -Fe

Science.gov (United States)

Byggmästar, J.; Granberg, F.; Nordlund, K.

2017-10-01

In this study, thermal unpinning of edge dislocations from voids in α -Fe is investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations. The activation energy as a function of shear stress and temperature is systematically determined. Simulations with a constant applied stress are compared with dynamic simulations with a constant strain rate. We found that a constant applied stress results in a temperature-dependent activation energy. The temperature dependence is attributed to the elastic softening of iron. If the stress is normalized with the softening of the specific shear modulus, the activation energy is shown to be temperature-independent. From the dynamic simulations, the activation energy as a function of critical shear stress was determined using previously developed methods. The results from the dynamic simulations are in good agreement with the constant stress simulations, after the normalization. This indicates that the computationally more efficient dynamic method can be used to obtain the activation energy as a function of stress and temperature. The obtained relation between stress, temperature, and activation energy can be used to introduce a stochastic unpinning event in larger-scale simulation methods, such as discrete dislocation dynamics.

Energy conservation in molecular dynamics simulations of classical systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toxværd, Søren; Heilmann, Ole; Dyre, J. C.

2012-01-01

Classical Newtonian dynamics is analytic and the energy of an isolated system is conserved. The energy of such a system, obtained by the discrete “Verlet” algorithm commonly used in molecular dynamics simulations, fluctuates but is conserved in the mean. This is explained by the existence...

The effect of empirical potential functions on modeling of amorphous carbon using molecular dynamics method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Longqiu; Xu, Ming; Song, Wenping; Ovcharenko, Andrey; Zhang, Guangyu; Jia, Ding

2013-01-01

Empirical potentials have a strong effect on the hybridization and structure of amorphous carbon and are of great importance in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In this work, amorphous carbon at densities ranging from 2.0 to 3.2 g/cm 3 was modeled by a liquid quenching method using Tersoff, 2nd REBO, and ReaxFF empirical potentials. The hybridization, structure and radial distribution function G(r) of carbon atoms were analyzed as a function of the three potentials mentioned above. The ReaxFF potential is capable to model the change of the structure of amorphous carbon and MD results are in a good agreement with experimental results and density function theory (DFT) at low density of 2.6 g/cm 3 and below. The 2nd REBO potential can be used when amorphous carbon has a very low density of 2.4 g/cm 3 and below. Considering the computational efficiency, the Tersoff potential is recommended to model amorphous carbon at a high density of 2.6 g/cm 3 and above. In addition, the influence of the quenching time on the hybridization content obtained with the three potentials is discussed.

Tensor-optimized antisymmetrized molecular dynamics as a successive variational method in nuclear many-body system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Myo, Takayuki, E-mail: takayuki.myo@oit.ac.jp [General Education, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka 535-8585 (Japan); Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka University, Ibaraki 567-0047 (Japan); Toki, Hiroshi [Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka University, Ibaraki 567-0047 (Japan); Ikeda, Kiyomi [RIKEN Nishina Center, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan); Horiuchi, Hisashi [Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka University, Ibaraki 567-0047 (Japan); Suhara, Tadahiro [Matsue College of Technology, Matsue 690-8518 (Japan)

2017-06-10

We study the tensor-optimized antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (TOAMD) as a successive variational method in many-body systems with strong interaction for nuclei. In TOAMD, the correlation functions for the tensor force and the short-range repulsion and their multiples are operated to the AMD state as the variational wave function. The total wave function is expressed as the sum of all the components and the variational space can be increased successively with the multiple correlation functions to achieve convergence. All the necessary matrix elements of many-body operators, consisting of the multiple correlation functions and the Hamiltonian, are expressed analytically using the Gaussian integral formula. In this paper we show the results of TOAMD with up to the double products of the correlation functions for the s-shell nuclei, {sup 3}H and {sup 4}He, using the nucleon–nucleon interaction AV8′. It is found that the energies and Hamiltonian components of two nuclei converge rapidly with respect to the multiple of correlation functions. This result indicates the efficiency of TOAMD for the power series expansion in terms of the tensor and short-range correlation functions.

Adaptive sampling strategies with high-throughput molecular dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Clementi, Cecilia

Despite recent significant hardware and software developments, the complete thermodynamic and kinetic characterization of large macromolecular complexes by molecular simulations still presents significant challenges. The high dimensionality of these systems and the complexity of the associated potential energy surfaces (creating multiple metastable regions connected by high free energy barriers) does not usually allow to adequately sample the relevant regions of their configurational space by means of a single, long Molecular Dynamics (MD) trajectory. Several different approaches have been proposed to tackle this sampling problem. We focus on the development of ensemble simulation strategies, where data from a large number of weakly coupled simulations are integrated to explore the configurational landscape of a complex system more efficiently. Ensemble methods are of increasing interest as the hardware roadmap is now mostly based on increasing core counts, rather than clock speeds. The main challenge in the development of an ensemble approach for efficient sampling is in the design of strategies to adaptively distribute the trajectories over the relevant regions of the systems' configurational space, without using any a priori information on the system global properties. We will discuss the definition of smart adaptive sampling approaches that can redirect computational resources towards unexplored yet relevant regions. Our approaches are based on new developments in dimensionality reduction for high dimensional dynamical systems, and optimal redistribution of resources. NSF CHE-1152344, NSF CHE-1265929, Welch Foundation C-1570.

Molecular packing in 1-hexanol-DMPC bilayers studied by molecular dynamics simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, U.R.; Peters, Günther H.j.; Westh, P.

2007-01-01

The structure and molecular packing density of a “mismatched” solute, 1-hexanol, in lipid membranes of dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) was studied by molecular dynamics simulations. We found that the average location and orientation of the hexanol molecules matched earlier experimental data...... on comparable systems. The local density or molecular packing in DMPC–hexanol was elucidated through the average Voronoi volumes of all heavy (non-hydrogen) atoms. Analogous analysis was conducted on trajectories from simulations of pure 1-hexanol and pure (hydrated) DMPC bilayers. The results suggested...... of the alcohol upon partitioning and an even stronger loosening in the packing of the lipid. Furthermore, analysis of Voronoi volumes along the membrane normal identifies a distinctive depth dependence of the changes in molecular packing. The outer (interfacial) part of the lipid acyl chains (up to C8...

Verification of experimental dynamic strength methods with atomistic ramp-release simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Alexander P.; Brown, Justin L.; Lim, Hojun; Lane, J. Matthew D.

2018-05-01

Material strength and moduli can be determined from dynamic high-pressure ramp-release experiments using an indirect method of Lagrangian wave profile analysis of surface velocities. This method, termed self-consistent Lagrangian analysis (SCLA), has been difficult to calibrate and corroborate with other experimental methods. Using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics, we validate the SCLA technique by demonstrating that it accurately predicts the same bulk modulus, shear modulus, and strength as those calculated from the full stress tensor data, especially where strain rate induced relaxation effects and wave attenuation are small. We show here that introducing a hold in the loading profile at peak pressure gives improved accuracy in the shear moduli and relaxation-adjusted strength by reducing the effect of wave attenuation. When rate-dependent effects coupled with wave attenuation are large, we find that Lagrangian analysis overpredicts the maximum unload wavespeed, leading to increased error in the measured dynamic shear modulus. These simulations provide insight into the definition of dynamic strength, as well as a plausible explanation for experimental disagreement in reported dynamic strength values.

Analysis of Serial and Parallel Algorithms for Use in Molecular Dynamics.. Review and Proposals

Science.gov (United States)

Mazzone, A. M.

This work analyzes the stability and accuracy of multistep methods, either for serial or parallel calculations, applied to molecular dynamics simulations. Numerical testing is made by evaluating the equilibrium configurations of mono-elemental crystalline lattices of metallic and semiconducting type (Ag and Si, respectively) and of a cubic CuY compound.

Multi-scale multi-physics computational chemistry simulation based on ultra-accelerated quantum chemical molecular dynamics method for structural materials in boiling water reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyamoto, Akira; Sato, Etsuko; Sato, Ryo; Inaba, Kenji; Hatakeyama, Nozomu

2014-01-01

In collaboration with experimental experts we have reported in the present conference (Hatakeyama, N. et al., “Experiment-integrated multi-scale, multi-physics computational chemistry simulation applied to corrosion behaviour of BWR structural materials”) the results of multi-scale multi-physics computational chemistry simulations applied to the corrosion behaviour of BWR structural materials. In macro-scale, a macroscopic simulator of anode polarization curve was developed to solve the spatially one-dimensional electrochemical equations on the material surface in continuum level in order to understand the corrosion behaviour of typical BWR structural material, SUS304. The experimental anode polarization behaviours of each pure metal were reproduced by fitting all the rates of electrochemical reactions and then the anode polarization curve of SUS304 was calculated by using the same parameters and found to reproduce the experimental behaviour successfully. In meso-scale, a kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulator was applied to an actual-time simulation of the morphological corrosion behaviour under the influence of an applied voltage. In micro-scale, an ultra-accelerated quantum chemical molecular dynamics (UA-QCMD) code was applied to various metallic oxide surfaces of Fe 2 O 3 , Fe 3 O 4 , Cr 2 O 3 modelled as same as water molecules and dissolved metallic ions on the surfaces, then the dissolution and segregation behaviours were successfully simulated dynamically by using UA-QCMD. In this paper we describe details of the multi-scale, multi-physics computational chemistry method especially the UA-QCMD method. This method is approximately 10,000,000 times faster than conventional first-principles molecular dynamics methods based on density-functional theory (DFT), and the accuracy was also validated for various metals and metal oxides compared with DFT results. To assure multi-scale multi-physics computational chemistry simulation based on the UA-QCMD method for

Melting of Cu nanoclusters by molecular dynamics simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Li; Zhang, Yanning; Bian, Xiufang; Chen, Ying

2003-04-14

We present a detailed molecular dynamics study of the melting of copper nanoclusters with up to 8628 atoms within the framework of the embedded-atom method. The finding indicates that there exists an intermediate nanocrystal regime above 456 atoms. The linear relation between the cluster size and its thermodynamics properties is obeyed in this regime. Melting first occurs at the surface of the clusters, leading to T{sub m,N}=T{sub m,Bulk}-{alpha}N{sup -1/3}, dropping from T{sub m,Bulk}=1360 K to T{sub m,456}=990 K. In addition, the size, surface energy as well as the root mean square displacement (RMSD) of the clusters in the intermediate regime have been investigated.

Molecular mechanism of allosteric communication in Hsp70 revealed by molecular dynamics simulations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Federica Chiappori

Full Text Available Investigating ligand-regulated allosteric coupling between protein domains is fundamental to understand cell-life regulation. The Hsp70 family of chaperones represents an example of proteins in which ATP binding and hydrolysis at the Nucleotide Binding Domain (NBD modulate substrate recognition at the Substrate Binding Domain (SBD. Herein, a comparative analysis of an allosteric (Hsp70-DnaK and a non-allosteric structural homolog (Hsp110-Sse1 of the Hsp70 family is carried out through molecular dynamics simulations, starting from different conformations and ligand-states. Analysis of ligand-dependent modulation of internal fluctuations and local deformation patterns highlights the structural and dynamical changes occurring at residue level upon ATP-ADP exchange, which are connected to the conformational transition between closed and open structures. By identifying the dynamically responsive protein regions and specific cross-domain hydrogen-bonding patterns that differentiate Hsp70 from Hsp110 as a function of the nucleotide, we propose a molecular mechanism for the allosteric signal propagation of the ATP-encoded conformational signal.

Molecular dynamical and structural studies for the bakelite by neutron cross section measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Voi, D.L.

1992-05-01

Neutron reaction cross sections were determined by transmission and scattering measurements, to study the dynamics and molecular structure of calcined bakelites. Total cross sections were determined, with a deviation smaller than 5%, from the literature values, by neutron transmission method and a specially devised approximation. These cross sections were then correlated with data obtained with infra-red spectroscopy, elemental analysis and other techniques to get the probable molecular formulae of bakelite. Double differential scattering cross sections, scattering law values and frequency distributions were determined with 15% error using the neutron inelastic scattering method. The frequency distributions as well as the overall results from all experimental techniques used in this work allowed to suggest a structural model like polycyclic hydrocarbons, for calcined bakelite at 800 0 C. (author)

Catalysis and communication in dynamic molecular networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fanlo Virgos, Hugo

2015-01-01

The interactions of a Dynamic Combinatorial Library (DCL) of molecules with specific targets leads to composition changes of the library which can reveal potential guests and / or catalysts. In this thesis some chemical systems have been proposed to achieve a certain level of molecular complexity

Molecular dynamics study of cavitation in carbon nanotube reinforced polyethylene nanocomposite

Science.gov (United States)

Logunov, M. A.; Orekhov, N. D.

2018-01-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have proved to be very promising fillers for polymer nanocomposites. However, because of the lack of a detailed understanding of the principles of the nanoinclusion interaction with polymer matrixes, the properties of such materials are poorly understood. In the present study, within the coarse-grained molecular-dynamics methods, aspects of the interaction of amorphous polyethylene matrix with carbon nanotubes and the influence of CNTs on the cavitation during the nanocomposite deformation are studied.

Molecular dynamics simulations of the melting curve of NiAl alloy under pressure

OpenAIRE

Wenjin Zhang; Yufeng Peng; Zhongli Liu

2014-01-01

The melting curve of B2-NiAl alloy under pressure has been investigated using molecular dynamics technique and the embedded atom method (EAM) potential. The melting temperatures were determined with two approaches, the one-phase and the two-phase methods. The first one simulates a homogeneous melting, while the second one involves a heterogeneous melting of materials. Both approaches reduce the superheating effectively and their results are close to each other at the applied pressures. By fit...

Characterization of Hydrophobic Interactions of Polymers with Water and Phospholipid Membranes Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Drenscko, Mihaela

small membranes using all atomistic and coarse-grained methods. The molecular interaction between common polymer chains used in biomedical applications and the cell membrane is unknown. This interaction may affect the biocompatibility of the polymer chains. Molecular dynamics simulations offer an emerging tool to characterize the interaction between common degradable polymer chains used in biomedical applications, such as polycaprolactone, and model cell membranes. We systematically characterize with long-time all-atomistic molecular dynamics simulations the interaction between single polycaprolactone chains of varying chain lengths with a model phospholipid membrane. We find that the length of polymer chain greatly affects the nature of interaction with the membrane, as well as the membrane properties. Furthermore, we next utilize advanced sampling techniques in molecular dynamics to characterize the two-dimensional free energy surface for the interaction of varying polymer chain lengths (short, intermediate, and long) with model cell membranes. We find that the free energy minimum shifts from the membrane-water interface to the hydrophobic core of the phospholipid membrane as a function of chain length. These results can be used to design polymer chain lengths and chemistries to optimize their interaction with cell membranes at the molecular level.

Bridging the gap between molecular dynamics simulations and phase-field modelling: dynamics of a [NixZr1-x]liquid-Zrcrystal solidification front

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Danilov, Denis; Nestler, Britta; Guerdane, Mohammed; Teichler, Helmar

2009-01-01

Results are presented from phase-field modelling and molecular dynamics simulations concerning the relaxation dynamics in a finite-temperature two-phase crystal-liquid sample subjected to an abrupt temperature drop. Relaxation takes place by propagation of the solidification front under formation of a spatially varying concentration profile in the melt. The molecular dynamics simulations are carried out with an interatomic model appropriate for the NiZr alloy system and provide the thermophysical data required for setting up the phase-field simulations. Regarding the concentration profile and velocity of the solidification front, best agreement between the phase-field model and molecular dynamics simulation is obtained when increasing the apparent diffusion coefficients in the phase-field treatment by a factor of four against their molecular dynamics estimates.

Laser Controlled Molecular Orientation Dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atabek, O.

2004-01-01

Molecular orientation is a challenging control issue covering a wide range of applications from reactive collisions, high order harmonic generation, surface processing and catalysis, to nanotechnologies. The laser control scenario rests on the following three steps: (i) depict some basic mechanisms producing dynamical orientation; (ii) use them both as computational and interpretative tools in optimal control schemes involving genetic algorithms; (iii) apply what is learnt from optimal control to improve the basic mechanisms. The existence of a target molecular rotational state combining the advantages of efficient and post-pulse long duration orientation is shown. A strategy is developed for reaching such a target in terms of a train of successive short laser pulses applied at predicted time intervals. Each individual pulse imparts a kick to the molecule which orients. Transposition of such strategies to generic systems is now under investigation

Directly calculated electrical conductivity of hot dense hydrogen from molecular dynamics simulation beyond Kubo-Greenwood formula

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Qian; Kang, Dongdong; Zhao, Zengxiu; Dai, Jiayu

2018-01-01

Electrical conductivity of hot dense hydrogen is directly calculated by molecular dynamics simulation with a reduced electron force field method, in which the electrons are represented as Gaussian wave packets with fixed sizes. Here, the temperature is higher than electron Fermi temperature ( T > 300 eV , ρ = 40 g / cc ). The present method can avoid the Coulomb catastrophe and give the limit of electrical conductivity based on the Coulomb interaction. We investigate the effect of ion-electron coupled movements, which is lost in the static method such as density functional theory based Kubo-Greenwood framework. It is found that the ionic dynamics, which contributes to the dynamical electrical microfield and electron-ion collisions, will reduce the conductivity significantly compared with the fixed ion configuration calculations.

Thermodynamics of small clusters of atoms: A molecular dynamics simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damgaard Kristensen, W.; Jensen, E. J.; Cotterill, Rodney M J

1974-01-01

The thermodynamic properties of clusters containing 55, 135, and 429 atoms have been calculated using the molecular dynamics method. Structural and vibrational properties of the clusters were examined at different temperatures in both the solid and the liquid phase. The nature of the melting...... transition was investigated, and a number of properties, such as melting temperature, latent heat of melting, and premelting phenomena, were found to vary with cluster size. These properties were also found to depend on the structure of the solid phase. In this phase the configuration of lowest free energy...

The 2011 Dynamics of Molecular Collisions Conference

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nesbitt, David J. [JILA, NIST

2011-07-11

The Dynamics of Molecular Collisions Conference focuses on all aspects of molecular collisions--experimental & theoretical studies of elastic, inelastic, & reactive encounters involving atoms, molecules, ions, clusters, & surfaces--as well as half collisions--photodissociation, photo-induced reaction, & photodesorption. The scientific program for the meeting in 2011 included exciting advances in both the core & multidisciplinary forefronts of the study of molecular collision processes. Following the format of the 2009 meeting, we also invited sessions in special topics that involve interfacial dynamics, novel emerging spectroscopies, chemical dynamics in atmospheric, combustion & interstellar environments, as well as a session devoted to theoretical & experimental advances in ultracold molecular samples. Researchers working inside & outside the traditional core topics of the meeting are encouraged to join the conference. We invite contributions of work that seeks understanding of how inter & intra-molecular forces determine the dynamics of the phenomena under study. In addition to invited oral sessions & contributed poster sessions, the scientific program included a formal session consisting of five contributed talks selected from the submitted poster abstracts. The DMC has distinguished itself by having the Herschbach Medal Symposium as part of the meeting format. This tradition of the Herschbach Medal was first started in the 2007 meeting chaired by David Chandler, based on a generous donation of funds & artwork design by Professor Dudley Herschbach himself. There are two such awards made, one for experimental & one for theoretical contributions to the field of Molecular Collision Dynamics, broadly defined. The symposium is always held on the last night of the meeting & has the awardees are asked to deliver an invited lecture on their work. The 2011 Herschbach Medal was dedicated to the contributions of two long standing leaders in Chemical Physics, Professor

Mathematical modeling of the crack growth in linear elastic isotropic materials by conventional fracture mechanics approaches and by molecular dynamics method: crack propagation direction angle under mixed mode loading

Science.gov (United States)

Stepanova, Larisa; Bronnikov, Sergej

2018-03-01

The crack growth directional angles in the isotropic linear elastic plane with the central crack under mixed-mode loading conditions for the full range of the mixity parameter are found. Two fracture criteria of traditional linear fracture mechanics (maximum tangential stress and minimum strain energy density criteria) are used. Atomistic simulations of the central crack growth process in an infinite plane medium under mixed-mode loading using Large-scale Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS), a classical molecular dynamics code, are performed. The inter-atomic potential used in this investigation is Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potential. The plane specimens with initial central crack were subjected to Mixed-Mode loadings. The simulation cell contains 400000 atoms. The crack propagation direction angles under different values of the mixity parameter in a wide range of values from pure tensile loading to pure shear loading in a wide diapason of temperatures (from 0.1 К to 800 К) are obtained and analyzed. It is shown that the crack propagation direction angles obtained by molecular dynamics method coincide with the crack propagation direction angles given by the multi-parameter fracture criteria based on the strain energy density and the multi-parameter description of the crack-tip fields.

NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Time-Dependent Quantum Molecular Dynamics : Theory and Experiment

CERN Document Server

Lathouwers, L

1992-01-01

From March 30th to April 3rd, 1992, a NATO Advanced Research workshop entitled "Time Dependent Quantum Molecular Dynamics: Theory and Experiment" was held at Snowbird, Utah. The organizing committee consisted of J. BROECKHOVE (Antwerp, Belgium), L. CEDERBAUM (Heidelberg, Germany), L. LATHOUWERS (Antwerp, Belgium), N. OHRN (Gainesville, Florida) and J. SIMONS (Salt Lake City, Utah). Fifty-two participants from eleven different countries attended the meeting at which thirty-three talks and one poster session were held. Twenty-eight participants submitted contributions to the proceedings of the meeting, which are reproduced in this volume. The workshop brought together experts in different areas 0 f molecular quantum dynamics, all adhering to the time dependent approach. The aim was to discuss and compare methods and applications. The ~amiliarityo~ the aUdience with the concepts o~ time dependent approaches greatly facilitated topical discussions and probing towards new applications. A broad area of subject matt...

Towards the molecular bases of polymerase dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chela Flores, J.

1991-03-01

One aspect of the strong relationship that is known to exist between the processes of DNA replication and transcription is manifest in the coupling of the rates of movement of the replication fork (r f ) and RNA polymerase (r t ). We address two issues concerning the largely unexplored area of polymerase dynamics: (i) The validity of an approximate kinematic formula linking r f and r t suggested by experiments in which transcription is initiated in some prokaryotes with the antibiotic streptolydigin, and (ii) What are the molecular bases of the kinematic formula? An analysis of the available data suggests possible molecular bases for polymerase dynamics. In particular, we are led to a hypothesis: In active chromatin r t may depend on the length (λ t ) of the transcript of the primary messenger RNA (pre-mRNA). This new effect is subject to experimental verification. We discuss possible experiments that may be performed in order to test this prediction. (author). Refs, 6 tabs

Dynamical quenching of tunneling in molecular magnets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

José Santander, María; Nunez, Alvaro S.; Roldán-Molina, A.; Troncoso, Roberto E.

2015-01-01

It is shown that a single molecular magnet placed in a rapidly oscillating magnetic field displays the phenomenon of quenching of tunneling processes. The results open a way to manipulate the quantum states of molecular magnets by means of radiation in the terahertz range. Our analysis separates the time evolution into slow and fast components thereby obtaining an effective theory for the slow dynamics. This effective theory presents quenching of the tunnel effect, in particular, stands out its difference with the so-called coherent destruction of tunneling. We support our prediction with numerical evidence based on an exact solution of Schrödinger's equation. - Highlights: • Single molecular magnets under rapidly oscillating magnetic fields is studied. • It is shown that this system displays the quenching of tunneling processes. • Our findings provide a control of quantum molecular magnets via terahertz radiation

Dynamical quenching of tunneling in molecular magnets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

José Santander, María, E-mail: maria.jose.noemi@gmail.com [Recursos Educativos Quántica, Santiago (Chile); Departamento de Física, Universidad de Santiago de Chile and CEDENNA, Avda. Ecuador 3493, Santiago (Chile); Nunez, Alvaro S., E-mail: alnunez@dfi.uchile.cl [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 487-3, Santiago (Chile); Roldán-Molina, A. [Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Universidad 330, Curauma, Valparaíso (Chile); Troncoso, Roberto E., E-mail: r.troncoso.c@gmail.com [Centro para el Desarrollo de la Nanociencia y la Nanotecnología, CEDENNA, Avda. Ecuador 3493, Santiago 9170124 (Chile); Departamento de Física, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Avenida España 1680, Valparaíso (Chile)

2015-12-15

It is shown that a single molecular magnet placed in a rapidly oscillating magnetic field displays the phenomenon of quenching of tunneling processes. The results open a way to manipulate the quantum states of molecular magnets by means of radiation in the terahertz range. Our analysis separates the time evolution into slow and fast components thereby obtaining an effective theory for the slow dynamics. This effective theory presents quenching of the tunnel effect, in particular, stands out its difference with the so-called coherent destruction of tunneling. We support our prediction with numerical evidence based on an exact solution of Schrödinger's equation. - Highlights: • Single molecular magnets under rapidly oscillating magnetic fields is studied. • It is shown that this system displays the quenching of tunneling processes. • Our findings provide a control of quantum molecular magnets via terahertz radiation.

Molecular dynamics simulations suggest ligand's binding to nicotinamidase/pyrazinamidase.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ji-Long; Zheng, Qing-Chuan; Li, Zheng-Qiang; Zhang, Hong-Xing

2012-01-01

The research on the binding process of ligand to pyrazinamidase (PncA) is crucial for elucidating the inherent relationship between resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and PncA's activity. In the present study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation methods were performed to investigate the unbinding process of nicotinamide (NAM) from two PncA enzymes, which is the reverse of the corresponding binding process. The calculated potential of mean force (PMF) based on the steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations sheds light on an optimal binding/unbinding pathway of the ligand. The comparative analyses between two PncAs clearly exhibit the consistency of the binding/unbinding pathway in the two enzymes, implying the universality of the pathway in all kinds of PncAs. Several important residues dominating the pathway were also determined by the calculation of interaction energies. The structural change of the proteins induced by NAM's unbinding or binding shows the great extent interior motion in some homologous region adjacent to the active sites of the two PncAs. The structure comparison substantiates that this region should be very important for the ligand's binding in all PncAs. Additionally, MD simulations also show that the coordination position of the ligand is displaced by one water molecule in the unliganded enzymes. These results could provide the more penetrating understanding of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis and be helpful for the development of new antituberculosis drugs.

Nanopore wall-liquid interaction under scope of molecular dynamics study: Review

Science.gov (United States)

Tsukanov, A. A.; Psakhie, S. G.

2017-12-01

The present review is devoted to the analysis of recent molecular dynamics based on the numerical studies of molecular aspects of solid-fluid interaction in nanoscale channels. Nanopore wall-liquid interaction plays the crucial role in such processes as gas separation, water desalination, liquids decontamination, hydrocarbons and water transport in nano-fractured geological formations. Molecular dynamics simulation is one of the most suitable tools to study molecular level effects occurred in such multicomponent systems. The nanopores are classified by their geometry to four groups: nanopore in nanosheet, nanotube-like pore, slit-shaped nanopore and soft-matter nanopore. The review is focused on the functionalized nanopores in boron nitride nanosheets as novel selective membranes and on the slit-shaped nanopores formed by minerals.

Extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations of the shock-induced chemistry of phenylacetylene

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cawkwell, M. J., E-mail: cawkwell@lanl.gov; Niklasson, Anders M. N. [Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States); Dattelbaum, Dana M. [Weapons Experiments Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

2015-02-14

The initial chemical events that occur during the shock compression of liquid phenylacetylene have been investigated using self-consistent tight binding molecular dynamics simulations. The extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics formalism enabled us to compute microcanonical trajectories with precise conservation of the total energy. Our simulations revealed that the first density-increasing step under shock compression arises from the polymerization of phenylacetylene molecules at the acetylene moiety. The application of electronic structure-based molecular dynamics with long-term conservation of the total energy enabled us to identify electronic signatures of reactivity via monitoring changes in the HOMO-LUMO gap, and to capture directly adiabatic shock heating, transient non-equilibrium states, and changes in temperature arising from exothermic chemistry in classical molecular dynamics trajectories.

Extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations of the shock-induced chemistry of phenylacetylene.

Science.gov (United States)

Cawkwell, M J; Niklasson, Anders M N; Dattelbaum, Dana M

2015-02-14

The initial chemical events that occur during the shock compression of liquid phenylacetylene have been investigated using self-consistent tight binding molecular dynamics simulations. The extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics formalism enabled us to compute microcanonical trajectories with precise conservation of the total energy. Our simulations revealed that the first density-increasing step under shock compression arises from the polymerization of phenylacetylene molecules at the acetylene moiety. The application of electronic structure-based molecular dynamics with long-term conservation of the total energy enabled us to identify electronic signatures of reactivity via monitoring changes in the HOMO-LUMO gap, and to capture directly adiabatic shock heating, transient non-equilibrium states, and changes in temperature arising from exothermic chemistry in classical molecular dynamics trajectories.

Extended application of Kohn-Sham first-principles molecular dynamics method with plane wave approximation at high energy—From cold materials to hot dense plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Shen; Kang, Wei; Wang, Hongwei; Zhang, Ping; He, X. T.

2016-01-01

An extended first-principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) method based on Kohn-Sham scheme is proposed to elevate the temperature limit of the FPMD method in the calculation of dense plasmas. The extended method treats the wave functions of high energy electrons as plane waves analytically and thus expands the application of the FPMD method to the region of hot dense plasmas without suffering from the formidable computational costs. In addition, the extended method inherits the high accuracy of the Kohn-Sham scheme and keeps the information of electronic structures. This gives an edge to the extended method in the calculation of mixtures of plasmas composed of heterogeneous ions, high-Z dense plasmas, lowering of ionization potentials, X-ray absorption/emission spectra, and opacities, which are of particular interest to astrophysics, inertial confinement fusion engineering, and laboratory astrophysics.

Extended application of Kohn-Sham first-principles molecular dynamics method with plane wave approximation at high energy—From cold materials to hot dense plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Shen; Kang, Wei, E-mail: weikang@pku.edu.cn [Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Wang, Hongwei [College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Zhang, Ping, E-mail: zhang-ping@iapcm.ac.cn [Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); LCP, Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100088 (China); He, X. T., E-mail: xthe@iapcm.ac.cn [Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center of MoE, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100088 (China)

2016-04-15

An extended first-principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) method based on Kohn-Sham scheme is proposed to elevate the temperature limit of the FPMD method in the calculation of dense plasmas. The extended method treats the wave functions of high energy electrons as plane waves analytically and thus expands the application of the FPMD method to the region of hot dense plasmas without suffering from the formidable computational costs. In addition, the extended method inherits the high accuracy of the Kohn-Sham scheme and keeps the information of electronic structures. This gives an edge to the extended method in the calculation of mixtures of plasmas composed of heterogeneous ions, high-Z dense plasmas, lowering of ionization potentials, X-ray absorption/emission spectra, and opacities, which are of particular interest to astrophysics, inertial confinement fusion engineering, and laboratory astrophysics.

Cation solvation with quantum chemical effects modeled by a size-consistent multi-partitioning quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics method.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Hiroshi C; Kubillus, Maximilian; Kubař, Tomáš; Stach, Robert; Mizaikoff, Boris; Ishikita, Hiroshi

2017-07-21

In the condensed phase, quantum chemical properties such as many-body effects and intermolecular charge fluctuations are critical determinants of the solvation structure and dynamics. Thus, a quantum mechanical (QM) molecular description is required for both solute and solvent to incorporate these properties. However, it is challenging to conduct molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for condensed systems of sufficient scale when adapting QM potentials. To overcome this problem, we recently developed the size-consistent multi-partitioning (SCMP) quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) method and realized stable and accurate MD simulations, using the QM potential to a benchmark system. In the present study, as the first application of the SCMP method, we have investigated the structures and dynamics of Na + , K + , and Ca 2+ solutions based on nanosecond-scale sampling, a sampling 100-times longer than that of conventional QM-based samplings. Furthermore, we have evaluated two dynamic properties, the diffusion coefficient and difference spectra, with high statistical certainty. Furthermore the calculation of these properties has not previously been possible within the conventional QM/MM framework. Based on our analysis, we have quantitatively evaluated the quantum chemical solvation effects, which show distinct differences between the cations.

A MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS STUDY OF LECITHIN MONOLAYERS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

AHLSTROM, P; BERENDSEN, HJC

1993-01-01

Two monolayers of didecanoyllecithin at the air-water interface have been studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The model system consisted of two monolayers of 42 lecithin molecules each separated by a roughly 4 nm thick slab of SPC water. The area per lecithin molecule was 0.78 nm(2)

Bicanonical ab Initio Molecular Dynamics for Open Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Frenzel, Johannes; Meyer, Bernd; Marx, Dominik

2017-08-08

Performing ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of open systems, where the chemical potential rather than the number of both nuclei and electrons is fixed, still is a challenge. Here, drawing on bicanonical sampling ideas introduced two decades ago by Swope and Andersen [ J. Chem. Phys. 1995 , 102 , 2851 - 2863 ] to calculate chemical potentials of liquids and solids, an ab initio simulation technique is devised, which introduces a fictitious dynamics of two superimposed but otherwise independent periodic systems including full electronic structure, such that either the chemical potential or the average fractional particle number of a specific chemical species can be kept constant. As proof of concept, we demonstrate that solvation free energies can be computed from these bicanonical ab initio simulations upon directly superimposing pure bulk water and the respective aqueous solution being the two limiting systems. The method is useful in many circumstances, for instance for studying heterogeneous catalytic processes taking place on surfaces where the chemical potential of reactants rather than their number is controlled and opens a pathway toward ab initio simulations at constant electrochemical potential.

Dynamics of relaxation to a stationary state for interacting molecular motors

Science.gov (United States)

Gomes, Luiza V. F.; Kolomeisky, Anatoly B.

2018-01-01

Motor proteins are active enzymatic molecules that drive a variety of biological processes, including transfer of genetic information, cellular transport, cell motility and muscle contraction. It is known that these biological molecular motors usually perform their cellular tasks by acting collectively, and there are interactions between individual motors that specify the overall collective behavior. One of the fundamental issues related to the collective dynamics of motor proteins is the question if they function at stationary-state conditions. To investigate this problem, we analyze a relaxation to the stationary state for the system of interacting molecular motors. Our approach utilizes a recently developed theoretical framework, which views the collective dynamics of motor proteins as a totally asymmetric simple exclusion process of interacting particles, where interactions are taken into account via a thermodynamically consistent approach. The dynamics of relaxation to the stationary state is analyzed using a domain-wall method that relies on a mean-field description, which takes into account some correlations. It is found that the system quickly relaxes for repulsive interactions, while attractive interactions always slow down reaching the stationary state. It is also predicted that for some range of parameters the fastest relaxation might be achieved for a weak repulsive interaction. Our theoretical predictions are tested with Monte Carlo computer simulations. The implications of our findings for biological systems are briefly discussed.

Learning reduced kinetic Monte Carlo models of complex chemistry from molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Qian; Sing-Long, Carlos A; Reed, Evan J

2017-08-01

We propose a novel statistical learning framework for automatically and efficiently building reduced kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) models of large-scale elementary reaction networks from data generated by a single or few molecular dynamics simulations (MD). Existing approaches for identifying species and reactions from molecular dynamics typically use bond length and duration criteria, where bond duration is a fixed parameter motivated by an understanding of bond vibrational frequencies. In contrast, we show that for highly reactive systems, bond duration should be a model parameter that is chosen to maximize the predictive power of the resulting statistical model. We demonstrate our method on a high temperature, high pressure system of reacting liquid methane, and show that the learned KMC model is able to extrapolate more than an order of magnitude in time for key molecules. Additionally, our KMC model of elementary reactions enables us to isolate the most important set of reactions governing the behavior of key molecules found in the MD simulation. We develop a new data-driven algorithm to reduce the chemical reaction network which can be solved either as an integer program or efficiently using L1 regularization, and compare our results with simple count-based reduction. For our liquid methane system, we discover that rare reactions do not play a significant role in the system, and find that less than 7% of the approximately 2000 reactions observed from molecular dynamics are necessary to reproduce the molecular concentration over time of methane. The framework described in this work paves the way towards a genomic approach to studying complex chemical systems, where expensive MD simulation data can be reused to contribute to an increasingly large and accurate genome of elementary reactions and rates.

Molecular dynamics simulation of impact test

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akahoshi, Y.; Schmauder, S.; Ludwig, M.

1998-01-01

This paper describes an impact test by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to evaluate embrittlement of bcc Fe at different temperatures. A new impact test model is developed for MD simulation. The typical fracture behaviors show transition from brittle to ductile fracture, and a history of the impact loads also demonstrates its transition. We conclude that the impact test by MD could be feasible. (orig.)

Molecular dynamics simulation of impact test

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Akahoshi, Y. [Kyushu Inst. of Tech., Kitakyushu, Fukuoka (Japan); Schmauder, S.; Ludwig, M. [Stuttgart Univ. (Germany). Staatliche Materialpruefungsanstalt

1998-11-01

This paper describes an impact test by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to evaluate embrittlement of bcc Fe at different temperatures. A new impact test model is developed for MD simulation. The typical fracture behaviors show transition from brittle to ductile fracture, and a history of the impact loads also demonstrates its transition. We conclude that the impact test by MD could be feasible. (orig.)

Estimation of Nanodiamond Surface Charge Density from Zeta Potential and Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Ge, Zhenpeng; Wang, Yi

2017-04-20

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoparticles (NPs) are increasingly used to study their interactions with various biological macromolecules. Such simulations generally require detailed knowledge of the surface composition of the NP under investigation. Even for some well-characterized nanoparticles, however, this knowledge is not always available. An example is nanodiamond, a nanoscale diamond particle with surface dominated by oxygen-containing functional groups. In this work, we explore using the harmonic restraint method developed by Venable et al., to estimate the surface charge density (σ) of nanodiamonds. Based on the Gouy-Chapman theory, we convert the experimentally determined zeta potential of a nanodiamond to an effective charge density (σ eff ), and then use the latter to estimate σ via molecular dynamics simulations. Through scanning a series of nanodiamond models, we show that the above method provides a straightforward protocol to determine the surface charge density of relatively large (> ∼100 nm) NPs. Overall, our results suggest that despite certain limitation, the above protocol can be readily employed to guide the model construction for MD simulations, which is particularly useful when only limited experimental information on the NP surface composition is available to a modeler.

Molecular dynamics study of the ternary Cu50Ti25Zr25 bulk glass forming alloy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Celtek M.

2011-05-01

Full Text Available The structure and thermodynamic properties of a ternary Cu50Ti25Zr25 metallic glass forming alloy in solid-liquid to glass phases were studied using molecular dynamics (MD method based on tight-binding (TB potentials. An atomic description of the melting, glass formation and crystallization process has been analyzed using different heating and cooling rates. The computed Glass Forming Ability (GFA parameters are in good agreement with experimental data. The structure analysis of the Cu50Ti25Zr25 based on molecular dynamics simulation will be also presented and compared with available MD results. We have also discussed the crystallization transition with two different interatomic potentials used in this work

Molecular hydrodynamic approach to dynamical correlations in quantum liquids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rabani, Eran; Reichman, David R.

2002-01-01

A quantum molecular hydrodynamic formalism is developed for the study of dynamics in quantum liquids. The method combines exact static input, generated by path-integral Monte Carlo, and an approximate form of the quantum memory function for the solution of the exact quantum generalized Langevin equation under consideration. This methodology is applied to the study of the spectrum of density fluctuations in liquid para-H 2 . Using a physically motivated approximation for the memory function, semiquantitative agreement is obtained for S(k,ω) in comparison to the recent experiments of Bermejo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5359 (2000)]. Improvement of the methodology and future applications are discussed

Dense fluid self-diffusion coefficient calculations using perturbation theory and molecular dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

COELHO L. A. F.

1999-01-01

Full Text Available A procedure to correlate self-diffusion coefficients in dense fluids by using the perturbation theory (WCA coupled with the smooth-hard-sphere theory is presented and tested against molecular simulations and experimental data. This simple algebraic expression correlates well the self-diffusion coefficients of carbon dioxide, ethane, propane, ethylene, and sulfur hexafluoride. We have also performed canonical ensemble molecular dynamics simulations by using the Hoover-Nosé thermostat and the mean-square displacement formula to compute self-diffusion coefficients for the reference WCA intermolecular potential. The good agreement obtained from both methods, when compared with experimental data, suggests that the smooth-effective-sphere theory is a useful procedure to correlate diffusivity of pure substances.

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of a Linear Nanomotor Driven by Thermophoretic Forces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zambrano, Harvey A; Walther, Jens Honore; Jaffe, Richard L.

Molecular Dynamics of a Linear Nanomotor Driven by Thermophoresis Harvey A. Zambrano1, Jens H. Walther1,2 and Richard L. Jaffe3 1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Fluid Mechanics, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark; 2Computational Science and Engineering Laboratory, ETH...... future molecular machines a complete understanding of the friction forces involved on the transport process at the molecular level have to be addressed.18 In this work we perform Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations using the MD package FASTTUBE19 to study a molecular linear motor consisting of coaxial...... the valence forces within the CNT using Morse, harmonic angle and torsion potentials.19We include a nonbonded carbon-carbon Lennard-Jones potential to describe the vdW interaction between the carbon atoms within the double wall portion of the system. We equilibrate the system at 300K for 0.1 ns, by coupling...

Multiscale implementation of infinite-swap replica exchange molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Tang-Qing; Lu, Jianfeng; Abrams, Cameron F; Vanden-Eijnden, Eric

2016-10-18

Replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) is a popular method to accelerate conformational sampling of complex molecular systems. The idea is to run several replicas of the system in parallel at different temperatures that are swapped periodically. These swaps are typically attempted every few MD steps and accepted or rejected according to a Metropolis-Hastings criterion. This guarantees that the joint distribution of the composite system of replicas is the normalized sum of the symmetrized product of the canonical distributions of these replicas at the different temperatures. Here we propose a different implementation of REMD in which (i) the swaps obey a continuous-time Markov jump process implemented via Gillespie's stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA), which also samples exactly the aforementioned joint distribution and has the advantage of being rejection free, and (ii) this REMD-SSA is combined with the heterogeneous multiscale method to accelerate the rate of the swaps and reach the so-called infinite-swap limit that is known to optimize sampling efficiency. The method is easy to implement and can be trivially parallelized. Here we illustrate its accuracy and efficiency on the examples of alanine dipeptide in vacuum and C-terminal β-hairpin of protein G in explicit solvent. In this latter example, our results indicate that the landscape of the protein is a triple funnel with two folded structures and one misfolded structure that are stabilized by H-bonds.

Combined Molecular Dynamics Simulation-Molecular-Thermodynamic Theory Framework for Predicting Surface Tensions.

Science.gov (United States)

Sresht, Vishnu; Lewandowski, Eric P; Blankschtein, Daniel; Jusufi, Arben

2017-08-22

A molecular modeling approach is presented with a focus on quantitative predictions of the surface tension of aqueous surfactant solutions. The approach combines classical Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations with a molecular-thermodynamic theory (MTT) [ Y. J. Nikas, S. Puvvada, D. Blankschtein, Langmuir 1992 , 8 , 2680 ]. The MD component is used to calculate thermodynamic and molecular parameters that are needed in the MTT model to determine the surface tension isotherm. The MD/MTT approach provides the important link between the surfactant bulk concentration, the experimental control parameter, and the surfactant surface concentration, the MD control parameter. We demonstrate the capability of the MD/MTT modeling approach on nonionic alkyl polyethylene glycol surfactants at the air-water interface and observe reasonable agreement of the predicted surface tensions and the experimental surface tension data over a wide range of surfactant concentrations below the critical micelle concentration. Our modeling approach can be extended to ionic surfactants and their mixtures with both ionic and nonionic surfactants at liquid-liquid interfaces.

Molecular dynamics simulation of a phospholipid membrane

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Egberts, Egbert; Marrink, Siewert-Jan; Berendsen, Herman J.C.

We present the results of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of a phospholipid membrane in water, including full atomic detail. The goal of the simulations was twofold: first we wanted to set up a simulation system which is able to reproduce experimental results and can serve as a model membrane in

Structural, dynamic, and vibrational properties during heat transfer in Si/Ge superlattices: A Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ji, Pengfei; Zhang, Yuwen, E-mail: zhangyu@missouri.edu [Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211 (United States); Yang, Mo [College of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093 (China)

2013-12-21

The structural, dynamic, and vibrational properties during heat transfer process in Si/Ge superlattices are studied by analyzing the trajectories generated by the ab initio Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulation. The radial distribution functions and mean square displacements are calculated and further discussions are made to explain and probe the structural changes relating to the heat transfer phenomenon. Furthermore, the vibrational density of states of the two layers (Si/Ge) are computed and plotted to analyze the contributions of phonons with different frequencies to the heat conduction. Coherent heat conduction of the low frequency phonons is found and their contributions to facilitate heat transfer are confirmed. The Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulation outputs in the work show reasonable thermophysical results of the thermal energy transport process and shed light on the potential applications of treating the heat transfer in the superlattices of semiconductor materials from a quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulation perspective.

Structural, dynamic, and vibrational properties during heat transfer in Si/Ge superlattices: A Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ji, Pengfei; Zhang, Yuwen; Yang, Mo

2013-01-01

The structural, dynamic, and vibrational properties during heat transfer process in Si/Ge superlattices are studied by analyzing the trajectories generated by the ab initio Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulation. The radial distribution functions and mean square displacements are calculated and further discussions are made to explain and probe the structural changes relating to the heat transfer phenomenon. Furthermore, the vibrational density of states of the two layers (Si/Ge) are computed and plotted to analyze the contributions of phonons with different frequencies to the heat conduction. Coherent heat conduction of the low frequency phonons is found and their contributions to facilitate heat transfer are confirmed. The Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulation outputs in the work show reasonable thermophysical results of the thermal energy transport process and shed light on the potential applications of treating the heat transfer in the superlattices of semiconductor materials from a quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulation perspective

Structural, dynamic, and vibrational properties during heat transfer in Si/Ge superlattices: A Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics study

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Pengfei; Zhang, Yuwen; Yang, Mo

2013-12-01

The structural, dynamic, and vibrational properties during heat transfer process in Si/Ge superlattices are studied by analyzing the trajectories generated by the ab initio Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulation. The radial distribution functions and mean square displacements are calculated and further discussions are made to explain and probe the structural changes relating to the heat transfer phenomenon. Furthermore, the vibrational density of states of the two layers (Si/Ge) are computed and plotted to analyze the contributions of phonons with different frequencies to the heat conduction. Coherent heat conduction of the low frequency phonons is found and their contributions to facilitate heat transfer are confirmed. The Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulation outputs in the work show reasonable thermophysical results of the thermal energy transport process and shed light on the potential applications of treating the heat transfer in the superlattices of semiconductor materials from a quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulation perspective.

Hybrid method coupling molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations to study the properties of gases in microchannels and nanochannels

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nedea, S.V.; Frijns, A.J.H.; Steenhoven, van A.A.; Markvoort, Albert. J.; Hilbers, P.A.J.

2005-01-01

We combine molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to study the properties of gas molecules confined between two hard walls of a microchannel or nanochannel. The coupling between MD and MC simulations is introduced by performing MD near the boundaries for accuracy and MC in the bulk

First Principles Modelling of Shape Memory Alloys Molecular Dynamics Simulations

CERN Document Server

Kastner, Oliver

2012-01-01

Materials sciences relate the macroscopic properties of materials to their microscopic structure and postulate the need for holistic multiscale research. The investigation of shape memory alloys is a prime example in this regard. This particular class of materials exhibits strong coupling of temperature, strain and stress, determined by solid state phase transformations of their metallic lattices. The present book presents a collection of simulation studies of this behaviour. Employing conceptually simple but comprehensive models, the fundamental material properties of shape memory alloys are qualitatively explained from first principles. Using contemporary methods of molecular dynamics simulation experiments, it is shown how microscale dynamics may produce characteristic macroscopic material properties. The work is rooted in the materials sciences of shape memory alloys and  covers  thermodynamical, micro-mechanical  and crystallographical aspects. It addresses scientists in these research fields and thei...

Shapiro like steps reveals molecular nanomagnets’ spin dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdollahipour, Babak; Abouie, Jahanfar; Ebrahimi, Navid

2015-01-01

We present an accurate way to detect spin dynamics of a nutating molecular nanomagnet by inserting it in a tunnel Josephson junction and studying the current voltage (I-V) characteristic. The spin nutation of the molecular nanomagnet is generated by applying two circularly polarized magnetic fields. We demonstrate that modulation of the Josephson current by the nutation of the molecular nanomagnet’s spin appears as a stepwise structure like Shapiro steps in the I-V characteristic of the junction. Width and heights of these Shapiro-like steps are determined by two parameters of the spin nutation, frequency and amplitude of the nutation, which are simply tuned by the applied magnetic fields

Multiscale Modeling of Complex Molecular Structure and Dynamics with MBN Explorer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Solov'yov, Ilia A.; Korol, Andrei V.; Solov'yov, Andrey V.

-up of input files, controls the simulations, and supports the subsequent visualization and analysis of the results obtained. The book subsequently provides a systematic description of the capabilities of this universal and powerful software package within the framework of computational molecular science...... of molecular and random walk dynamics. The package allows the use of a broad variety of interatomic potentials and can, e.g., be configured to select any subset of a molecular system as rigid fragments, whenever a significant reduction in the number of dynamical degrees of freedom is required for computational...... practicalities. MBN Studio enables users to easily construct initial geometries for the molecular, liquid, crystalline, gaseous and hybrid systems that serve as input for the subsequent simulations of their physical and chemical properties using MBN Explorer. Despite its universality, the computational...

Extended Lagrangian formulation of charge-constrained tight-binding molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cawkwell, M J; Coe, J D; Yadav, S K; Liu, X-Y; Niklasson, A M N

2015-06-09

The extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics formalism [Niklasson, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 100, 123004] has been applied to a tight-binding model under the constraint of local charge neutrality to yield microcanonical trajectories with both precise, long-term energy conservation and a reduced number of self-consistent field optimizations at each time step. The extended Lagrangian molecular dynamics formalism restores time reversal symmetry in the propagation of the electronic degrees of freedom, and it enables the efficient and accurate self-consistent optimization of the chemical potential and atomwise potential energy shifts in the on-site elements of the tight-binding Hamiltonian that are required when enforcing local charge neutrality. These capabilities are illustrated with microcanonical molecular dynamics simulations of a small metallic cluster using an sd-valent tight-binding model for titanium. The effects of weak dissipation on the propagation of the auxiliary degrees of freedom for the chemical potential and on-site Hamiltonian matrix elements that is used to counteract the accumulation of numerical noise during trajectories was also investigated.

Vectorization, parallelization and implementation of Quantum molecular dynamics codes (QQQF, MONTEV)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kato, Kaori [High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki (Japan); Kunugi, Tomoaki; Kotake, Susumu; Shibahara, Masahiko

1998-03-01

This report describes parallelization, vectorization and implementation for two simulation codes, Quantum molecular dynamics simulation code QQQF and Photon montecalro molecular dynamics simulation code MONTEV, that have been developed for the analysis of the thermalization of photon energies in the molecule or materials. QQQF has been vectorized and parallelized on Fujitsu VPP and has been implemented from VPP to Intel Paragon XP/S and parallelized. MONTEV has been implemented from VPP to Paragon and parallelized. (author)

A domain specific language for performance portable molecular dynamics algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Saunders, William Robert; Grant, James; Müller, Eike Hermann

2018-03-01

Developers of Molecular Dynamics (MD) codes face significant challenges when adapting existing simulation packages to new hardware. In a continuously diversifying hardware landscape it becomes increasingly difficult for scientists to be experts both in their own domain (physics/chemistry/biology) and specialists in the low level parallelisation and optimisation of their codes. To address this challenge, we describe a "Separation of Concerns" approach for the development of parallel and optimised MD codes: the science specialist writes code at a high abstraction level in a domain specific language (DSL), which is then translated into efficient computer code by a scientific programmer. In a related context, an abstraction for the solution of partial differential equations with grid based methods has recently been implemented in the (Py)OP2 library. Inspired by this approach, we develop a Python code generation system for molecular dynamics simulations on different parallel architectures, including massively parallel distributed memory systems and GPUs. We demonstrate the efficiency of the auto-generated code by studying its performance and scalability on different hardware and compare it to other state-of-the-art simulation packages. With growing data volumes the extraction of physically meaningful information from the simulation becomes increasingly challenging and requires equally efficient implementations. A particular advantage of our approach is the easy expression of such analysis algorithms. We consider two popular methods for deducing the crystalline structure of a material from the local environment of each atom, show how they can be expressed in our abstraction and implement them in the code generation framework.

Molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemical calculations ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Molecular dynamic simulation results indicate that the imidazoline derivative molecules uses the imidazoline ring to effectively adsorb on the surface of iron, with the alkyl hydrophobic tail forming an n shape (canopy like covering) at geometry optimization and at 353 K. The n shape canopy like covering to a large extent may ...

Molecular dynamics simulations from putative transition states of alpha-spectrin SH3 domain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Periole, Xavier; Vendruscolo, Michele; Mark, Alan E.

2007-01-01

A series of molecular dynamics simulations in explicit solvent were started from nine structural models of the transition state of the SH3 domain of alpha-spectrin, which were generated by Lindorff Larsen et al. (Nat Struct Mol Biol 2004;11:443-449) using molecular dynamics simulations in which

Droplet spreading driven by van der Waals force: a molecular dynamics study

KAUST Repository

Wu, Congmin

2010-07-07

The dynamics of droplet spreading is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations for two immiscible fluids of equal density and viscosity. All the molecular interactions are modeled by truncated Lennard-Jones potentials and a long-range van der Waals force is introduced to act on the wetting fluid. By gradually increasing the coupling constant in the attractive van der Waals interaction between the wetting fluid and the substrate, we observe a transition in the initial stage of spreading. There exists a critical value of the coupling constant, above which the spreading is pioneered by a precursor film. In particular, the dynamically determined critical value quantitatively agrees with that determined by the energy criterion that the spreading coefficient equals zero. The latter separates partial wetting from complete wetting. In the regime of complete wetting, the radius of the spreading droplet varies with time as R(t) ∼ √t, a behavior also found in molecular dynamics simulations where the wetting dynamics is driven by the short-range Lennard-Jones interaction between liquid and solid. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.

xMDFF: molecular dynamics flexible fitting of low-resolution X-ray structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McGreevy, Ryan; Singharoy, Abhishek; Li, Qufei; Zhang, Jingfen; Xu, Dong; Perozo, Eduardo; Schulten, Klaus

2014-01-01

A new real-space refinement method for low-resolution X-ray crystallography is presented. The method is based on the molecular dynamics flexible fitting protocol targeted at addressing large-scale deformations of the search model to achieve refinement with minimal manual intervention. An explanation of the method is provided, augmented by results from the refinement of both synthetic and experimental low-resolution data, including an independent electrophysiological verification of the xMDFF-refined crystal structure of a voltage-sensor protein. X-ray crystallography remains the most dominant method for solving atomic structures. However, for relatively large systems, the availability of only medium-to-low-resolution diffraction data often limits the determination of all-atom details. A new molecular dynamics flexible fitting (MDFF)-based approach, xMDFF, for determining structures from such low-resolution crystallographic data is reported. xMDFF employs a real-space refinement scheme that flexibly fits atomic models into an iteratively updating electron-density map. It addresses significant large-scale deformations of the initial model to fit the low-resolution density, as tested with synthetic low-resolution maps of d-ribose-binding protein. xMDFF has been successfully applied to re-refine six low-resolution protein structures of varying sizes that had already been submitted to the Protein Data Bank. Finally, via systematic refinement of a series of data from 3.6 to 7 Å resolution, xMDFF refinements together with electrophysiology experiments were used to validate the first all-atom structure of the voltage-sensing protein Ci-VSP

xMDFF: molecular dynamics flexible fitting of low-resolution X-ray structures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McGreevy, Ryan; Singharoy, Abhishek [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States); Li, Qufei [The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Zhang, Jingfen; Xu, Dong [University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 (United States); Perozo, Eduardo [The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States); Schulten, Klaus, E-mail: kschulte@ks.uiuc.edu [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States); University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)

2014-09-01

A new real-space refinement method for low-resolution X-ray crystallography is presented. The method is based on the molecular dynamics flexible fitting protocol targeted at addressing large-scale deformations of the search model to achieve refinement with minimal manual intervention. An explanation of the method is provided, augmented by results from the refinement of both synthetic and experimental low-resolution data, including an independent electrophysiological verification of the xMDFF-refined crystal structure of a voltage-sensor protein. X-ray crystallography remains the most dominant method for solving atomic structures. However, for relatively large systems, the availability of only medium-to-low-resolution diffraction data often limits the determination of all-atom details. A new molecular dynamics flexible fitting (MDFF)-based approach, xMDFF, for determining structures from such low-resolution crystallographic data is reported. xMDFF employs a real-space refinement scheme that flexibly fits atomic models into an iteratively updating electron-density map. It addresses significant large-scale deformations of the initial model to fit the low-resolution density, as tested with synthetic low-resolution maps of d-ribose-binding protein. xMDFF has been successfully applied to re-refine six low-resolution protein structures of varying sizes that had already been submitted to the Protein Data Bank. Finally, via systematic refinement of a series of data from 3.6 to 7 Å resolution, xMDFF refinements together with electrophysiology experiments were used to validate the first all-atom structure of the voltage-sensing protein Ci-VSP.

Role of nuclear dynamics in the asymmetric molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions for C 1s photoejection from CO2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyabe, S.; Haxton, D. J.; Rescigno, T. N.; McCurdy, C. W.

2011-01-01

We report the results of semiclassical calculations of the asymmetric molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions for C 1s ionization of CO 2 measured with respect to the CO + and O + ions produced by subsequent Auger decay, and show how the decay event can be used to probe ultrafast molecular dynamics of the transient cation. The fixed-nuclei photoionization amplitudes were constructed using variationally obtained electron-molecular-ion scattering wave functions. The amplitudes are then used in a semiclassical manner to investigate their dependence on the nuclear dynamics of the cation. The method introduced here can be used to study other core-level ionization events.

Molecular dynamics study on welding a defected graphene by a moving fullerene

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cai, Kun; Wan, Jing; Yu, Jingzhou; Cai, Haifang; Qin, Qinghua

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Fullerene (FN) is adopted to weld the gap on a graphene (GN) sheet using molecular dynamics simulation. • The mechanism is that the dangling sp"1 carbon atoms on both sides of gap are excited by FN to form new sp"2-sp"2 carbon bonds. • The velocity of FN influences the welding result due to the fact that the deformation of GN depends on the velocity of FN. • A complex nanostructure, e.g., cone, can be formed by the present method, which will be applicable in nano fabrication/manufacturing. - Abstract: When a composite nanostructure is fabricated through van der Waals interaction only, the interaction among components may be sensitive to environmental conditions. To endow such a structure with relative stability, new covalent bonds should be applied. In this paper, a welding method for welding a circular graphene with a defect gap through a moving fullerene (C240 or C540 buckyball) is presented. When the buckyball moves above the gap, the two faces of the gap are attracted to each other and the distance between the two faces is shortened. When the dangling carbon atoms on both faces of the gap are excited to form new normal sp"2-sp"2 carbon bonds, the gap can be sewn up quickly. Molecular dynamics simulations are presented to demonstrate the welding process. When the gap is a sector, an ideal cone can be fabricated using the present method.

Molecular dynamics study on welding a defected graphene by a moving fullerene

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cai, Kun, E-mail: kuncai99@163.com [College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A& F University, Yangling 712100 (China); Research School of Engineering, The Australian National University, ACT 2601 (Australia); Wan, Jing; Yu, Jingzhou; Cai, Haifang [College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A& F University, Yangling 712100 (China); Qin, Qinghua [Research School of Engineering, The Australian National University, ACT 2601 (Australia)

2016-07-30

Highlights: • Fullerene (FN) is adopted to weld the gap on a graphene (GN) sheet using molecular dynamics simulation. • The mechanism is that the dangling sp{sup 1} carbon atoms on both sides of gap are excited by FN to form new sp{sup 2}-sp{sup 2} carbon bonds. • The velocity of FN influences the welding result due to the fact that the deformation of GN depends on the velocity of FN. • A complex nanostructure, e.g., cone, can be formed by the present method, which will be applicable in nano fabrication/manufacturing. - Abstract: When a composite nanostructure is fabricated through van der Waals interaction only, the interaction among components may be sensitive to environmental conditions. To endow such a structure with relative stability, new covalent bonds should be applied. In this paper, a welding method for welding a circular graphene with a defect gap through a moving fullerene (C240 or C540 buckyball) is presented. When the buckyball moves above the gap, the two faces of the gap are attracted to each other and the distance between the two faces is shortened. When the dangling carbon atoms on both faces of the gap are excited to form new normal sp{sup 2}-sp{sup 2} carbon bonds, the gap can be sewn up quickly. Molecular dynamics simulations are presented to demonstrate the welding process. When the gap is a sector, an ideal cone can be fabricated using the present method.

Thermophysical Properties of Homologous Tetracyanoborate-Based Ionic Liquids Using Experiments and Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Koller, Thomas M; Ramos, Javier; Schulz, Peter S; Economou, Ioannis G; Rausch, Michael H; Fröba, Andreas P

2017-04-27

Thermophysical properties of low-viscosity ionic liquids (ILs) based on the tetracyanoborate ([B(CN) 4 ] - ) anion carrying a homologous series of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium ([AMIM] + ) cations [EMIM] + (ethyl), [BMIM] + (butyl), [HMIM] + (hexyl), [OMIM] + (octyl), and [DMIM] + (decyl) were investigated by experimental methods and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations at atmospheric pressure and various temperatures. Spectroscopic methods based on nuclear magnetic resonance and surface light scattering were applied to measure the ion self-diffusion coefficients and dynamic viscosity, respectively. In terms of MD simulations, a nonpolarizable molecular model for [EMIM][B(CN) 4 ] developed by optimization to experimental data was transferred to the other homologous ILs. For the appropriate description of the inter- and intramolecular interactions, precise and approximate force fields (FFs) were tested regarding their transferability within the homologous IL series, aiming at reducing the computational effort in molecular simulations. It is shown that at comparable simulated and experimental densities, the calculated and measured data for viscosity and self-diffusion coefficients of the ILs agree well mostly within combined uncertainties, but deviate stronger for longer-chained ILs using an overly coarse FF model. For the [B(CN) 4 ] - -based ILs studied, a comparison with literature data, the influence of varying alkyl chain length in the cation on their structural and thermophysical properties, and a correlation between self-diffusivity and viscosity are discussed.

QTAIM and Stress Tensor Characterization of Intramolecular Interactions Along Dynamics Trajectories of a Light-Driven Rotary Molecular Motor.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lingling; Huan, Guo; Momen, Roya; Azizi, Alireza; Xu, Tianlv; Kirk, Steven R; Filatov, Michael; Jenkins, Samantha

2017-06-29

A quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and stress tensor analysis was applied to analyze intramolecular interactions influencing the photoisomerization dynamics of a light-driven rotary molecular motor. For selected nonadiabatic molecular dynamics trajectories characterized by markedly different S 1 state lifetimes, the electron densities were obtained using the ensemble density functional theory method. The analysis revealed that torsional motion of the molecular motor blades from the Franck-Condon point to the S 1 energy minimum and the S 1 /S 0 conical intersection is controlled by two factors: greater numbers of intramolecular bonds before the hop-time and unusually strongly coupled bonds between the atoms of the rotor and the stator blades. This results in the effective stalling of the progress along the torsional path for an extended period of time. This finding suggests a possibility of chemical tuning of the speed of photoisomerization of molecular motors and related molecular switches by reshaping their molecular backbones to decrease or increase the degree of coupling and numbers of intramolecular bond critical points as revealed by the QTAIM/stress tensor analysis of the electron density. Additionally, the stress tensor scalar and vector analysis was found to provide new methods to follow the trajectories, and from this, new insight was gained into the behavior of the S 1 state in the vicinity of the conical intersection.

Molecular dynamics simulations and applications in computational toxicology and nanotoxicology.

Science.gov (United States)

Selvaraj, Chandrabose; Sakkiah, Sugunadevi; Tong, Weida; Hong, Huixiao

2018-02-01

Nanotoxicology studies toxicity of nanomaterials and has been widely applied in biomedical researches to explore toxicity of various biological systems. Investigating biological systems through in vivo and in vitro methods is expensive and time taking. Therefore, computational toxicology, a multi-discipline field that utilizes computational power and algorithms to examine toxicology of biological systems, has gained attractions to scientists. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of biomolecules such as proteins and DNA are popular for understanding of interactions between biological systems and chemicals in computational toxicology. In this paper, we review MD simulation methods, protocol for running MD simulations and their applications in studies of toxicity and nanotechnology. We also briefly summarize some popular software tools for execution of MD simulations. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Multi-scale calculation based on dual domain material point method combined with molecular dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dhakal, Tilak Raj [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-02-27

This dissertation combines the dual domain material point method (DDMP) with molecular dynamics (MD) in an attempt to create a multi-scale numerical method to simulate materials undergoing large deformations with high strain rates. In these types of problems, the material is often in a thermodynamically non-equilibrium state, and conventional constitutive relations are often not available. In this method, the closure quantities, such as stress, at each material point are calculated from a MD simulation of a group of atoms surrounding the material point. Rather than restricting the multi-scale simulation in a small spatial region, such as phase interfaces, or crack tips, this multi-scale method can be used to consider non-equilibrium thermodynamic e ects in a macroscopic domain. This method takes advantage that the material points only communicate with mesh nodes, not among themselves; therefore MD simulations for material points can be performed independently in parallel. First, using a one-dimensional shock problem as an example, the numerical properties of the original material point method (MPM), the generalized interpolation material point (GIMP) method, the convected particle domain interpolation (CPDI) method, and the DDMP method are investigated. Among these methods, only the DDMP method converges as the number of particles increases, but the large number of particles needed for convergence makes the method very expensive especially in our multi-scale method where we calculate stress in each material point using MD simulation. To improve DDMP, the sub-point method is introduced in this dissertation, which provides high quality numerical solutions with a very small number of particles. The multi-scale method based on DDMP with sub-points is successfully implemented for a one dimensional problem of shock wave propagation in a cerium crystal. The MD simulation to calculate stress in each material point is performed in GPU using CUDA to accelerate the

Microsecond atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations of polyimides

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lyulin, S.V.; Gurtovenko, A.A.; Larin, S.V.; Nazarychev, V.M.; Lyulin, A.V.

2013-01-01

We employ microsecond atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations to get insight into the structural and thermal properties of heat-resistant bulk polyimides. As electrostatic interactions are essential for the polyimides considered, we propose a two-step equilibration protocol that includes long

Emulating Molecular Orbitals and Electronic Dynamics with Ultracold Atoms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dirk-Sören Lühmann

2015-08-01

Full Text Available In recent years, ultracold atoms in optical lattices have proven their great value as quantum simulators for studying strongly correlated phases and complex phenomena in solid-state systems. Here, we reveal their potential as quantum simulators for molecular physics and propose a technique to image the three-dimensional molecular orbitals with high resolution. The outstanding tunability of ultracold atoms in terms of potential and interaction offer fully adjustable model systems for gaining deep insight into the electronic structure of molecules. We study the orbitals of an artificial benzene molecule and discuss the effect of tunable interactions in its conjugated π electron system with special regard to localization and spin order. The dynamical time scales of ultracold atom simulators are on the order of milliseconds, which allows for the time-resolved monitoring of a broad range of dynamical processes. As an example, we compute the hole dynamics in the conjugated π system of the artificial benzene molecule.

Moving contact lines: linking molecular dynamics and continuum-scale modelling.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Edward R; Theodorakis, Panagiotis E; Craster, Richard V; Matar, Omar K

2018-05-04

Despite decades of research, the modelling of moving contact lines has remained a formidable challenge in fluid dynamics whose resolution will impact numerous industrial, biological, and daily-life applications. On the one hand, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation has the ability to provide unique insight into the microscopic details that determine the dynamic behavior of the contact line, which is not possible with either continuum-scale simulations or experiments. On the other hand, continuum-based models provide the link to the macroscopic description of the system. In this Feature Article, we explore the complex range of physical factors, including the presence of surfactants, which govern the contact line motion through MD simulations. We also discuss links between continuum- and molecular-scale modelling, and highlight the opportunities for future developments in this area.

Dynamic combinatorial libraries: from exploring molecular recognition to systems chemistry.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jianwei; Nowak, Piotr; Otto, Sijbren

2013-06-26

Dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC) is a subset of combinatorial chemistry where the library members interconvert continuously by exchanging building blocks with each other. Dynamic combinatorial libraries (DCLs) are powerful tools for discovering the unexpected and have given rise to many fascinating molecules, ranging from interlocked structures to self-replicators. Furthermore, dynamic combinatorial molecular networks can produce emergent properties at systems level, which provide exciting new opportunities in systems chemistry. In this perspective we will highlight some new methodologies in this field and analyze selected examples of DCLs that are under thermodynamic control, leading to synthetic receptors, catalytic systems, and complex self-assembled supramolecular architectures. Also reviewed are extensions of the principles of DCC to systems that are not at equilibrium and may therefore harbor richer functional behavior. Examples include self-replication and molecular machines.

Estimation of flow stress of radiation induced F/M steels using molecular dynamics and discrete dislocation dynamics approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

More, Ameya; Dutta, B.K.; Durgaprasad, P.V.; Arya, A.K.

2012-01-01

Fe-Cr based Ferritic/Martensitic (F/M) steels are the candidate structural materials for future fusion reactors. In this work, a multi-scale approach comprising atomistic Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and Discrete Dislocation Dynamics (DDD) simulations are used to model the effect of irradiation dose on the flow stress of F/M steels. At the atomic scale, molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the dislocation interaction with irradiation induced defects, i.e. voids and He bubbles. Whereas, the DDD simulations are used to estimate the change in flow stress of the material as a result of irradiation hardening. (author)

Rational design of methicillin resistance staphylococcus aureus inhibitors through 3D-QSAR, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballu, Srilata; Itteboina, Ramesh; Sivan, Sree Kanth; Manga, Vijjulatha

2018-04-01

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram positive bacterium. It is the leading cause of skin and respiratory infections, osteomyelitis, Ritter's disease, endocarditis, and bacteraemia in the developed world. We employed combined studies of 3D QSAR, molecular docking which are validated by molecular dynamics simulations and in silico ADME prediction have been performed on Isothiazoloquinolones inhibitors against methicillin resistance Staphylococcus aureus. Three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) study was applied using comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) with Q 2 of 0.578, R 2 of 0.988, and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) with Q 2 of 0.554, R 2 of 0.975. The predictive ability of these model was determined using a test set of molecules that gave acceptable predictive correlation (r 2 Pred) values 0.55 and 0.57 of CoMFA and CoMSIA respectively. Docking, simulations were employed to position the inhibitors into protein active site to find out the most probable binding mode and most reliable conformations. Developed models and Docking methods provide guidance to design molecules with enhanced activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Molecular determinants of epidermal growth factor binding: a molecular dynamics study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeffrey M Sanders

Full Text Available The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR is a member of the receptor tyrosine kinase family that plays a role in multiple cellular processes. Activation of EGFR requires binding of a ligand on the extracellular domain to promote conformational changes leading to dimerization and transphosphorylation of intracellular kinase domains. Seven ligands are known to bind EGFR with affinities ranging from sub-nanomolar to near micromolar dissociation constants. In the case of EGFR, distinct conformational states assumed upon binding a ligand is thought to be a determining factor in activation of a downstream signaling network. Previous biochemical studies suggest the existence of both low affinity and high affinity EGFR ligands. While these studies have identified functional effects of ligand binding, high-resolution structural data are lacking. To gain a better understanding of the molecular basis of EGFR binding affinities, we docked each EGFR ligand to the putative active state extracellular domain dimer and 25.0 ns molecular dynamics simulations were performed. MM-PBSA/GBSA are efficient computational approaches to approximate free energies of protein-protein interactions and decompose the free energy at the amino acid level. We applied these methods to the last 6.0 ns of each ligand-receptor simulation. MM-PBSA calculations were able to successfully rank all seven of the EGFR ligands based on the two affinity classes: EGF>HB-EGF>TGF-α>BTC>EPR>EPG>AR. Results from energy decomposition identified several interactions that are common among binding ligands. These findings reveal that while several residues are conserved among the EGFR ligand family, no single set of residues determines the affinity class. Instead we found heterogeneous sets of interactions that were driven primarily by electrostatic and Van der Waals forces. These results not only illustrate the complexity of EGFR dynamics but also pave the way for structure-based design of

Communication: On the consistency of approximate quantum dynamics simulation methods for vibrational spectra in the condensed phase.

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi, Mariana; Liu, Hanchao; Paesani, Francesco; Bowman, Joel; Ceriotti, Michele

2014-11-14

Including quantum mechanical effects on the dynamics of nuclei in the condensed phase is challenging, because the complexity of exact methods grows exponentially with the number of quantum degrees of freedom. Efforts to circumvent these limitations can be traced down to two approaches: methods that treat a small subset of the degrees of freedom with rigorous quantum mechanics, considering the rest of the system as a static or classical environment, and methods that treat the whole system quantum mechanically, but using approximate dynamics. Here, we perform a systematic comparison between these two philosophies for the description of quantum effects in vibrational spectroscopy, taking the Embedded Local Monomer model and a mixed quantum-classical model as representatives of the first family of methods, and centroid molecular dynamics and thermostatted ring polymer molecular dynamics as examples of the latter. We use as benchmarks D2O doped with HOD and pure H2O at three distinct thermodynamic state points (ice Ih at 150 K, and the liquid at 300 K and 600 K), modeled with the simple q-TIP4P/F potential energy and dipole moment surfaces. With few exceptions the different techniques yield IR absorption frequencies that are consistent with one another within a few tens of cm(-1). Comparison with classical molecular dynamics demonstrates the importance of nuclear quantum effects up to the highest temperature, and a detailed discussion of the discrepancies between the various methods let us draw some (circumstantial) conclusions about the impact of the very different approximations that underlie them. Such cross validation between radically different approaches could indicate a way forward to further improve the state of the art in simulations of condensed-phase quantum dynamics.

Molecular dynamics simulations suggest ligand's binding to nicotinamidase/pyrazinamidase.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ji-Long Zhang

Full Text Available The research on the binding process of ligand to pyrazinamidase (PncA is crucial for elucidating the inherent relationship between resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and PncA's activity. In the present study, molecular dynamics (MD simulation methods were performed to investigate the unbinding process of nicotinamide (NAM from two PncA enzymes, which is the reverse of the corresponding binding process. The calculated potential of mean force (PMF based on the steered molecular dynamics (SMD simulations sheds light on an optimal binding/unbinding pathway of the ligand. The comparative analyses between two PncAs clearly exhibit the consistency of the binding/unbinding pathway in the two enzymes, implying the universality of the pathway in all kinds of PncAs. Several important residues dominating the pathway were also determined by the calculation of interaction energies. The structural change of the proteins induced by NAM's unbinding or binding shows the great extent interior motion in some homologous region adjacent to the active sites of the two PncAs. The structure comparison substantiates that this region should be very important for the ligand's binding in all PncAs. Additionally, MD simulations also show that the coordination position of the ligand is displaced by one water molecule in the unliganded enzymes. These results could provide the more penetrating understanding of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis and be helpful for the development of new antituberculosis drugs.

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics theory, algorithms and applications

CERN Document Server

Todd, Billy D

2017-01-01

Written by two specialists with over twenty-five years of experience in the field, this valuable text presents a wide range of topics within the growing field of nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD). It introduces theories which are fundamental to the field - namely, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and nonequilibrium thermodynamics - and provides state-of-the-art algorithms and advice for designing reliable NEMD code, as well as examining applications for both atomic and molecular fluids. It discusses homogenous and inhomogenous flows and pays considerable attention to highly confined fluids, such as nanofluidics. In addition to statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, the book covers the themes of temperature and thermodynamic fluxes and their computation, the theory and algorithms for homogenous shear and elongational flows, response theory and its applications, heat and mass transport algorithms, applications in molecular rheology, highly confined fluids (nanofluidics), the phenomenon of slip and...

Molecular dynamics simulation of the formation, structure, and dynamics of small phospholipid vesicles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marrink, SJ; Mark, AE

2003-01-01

Here, we use coarse grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the spontaneous aggregation of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) lipids into small unilamellar vesicles. We show that the aggregation process occurs on a nanosecond time scale, with bicelles and cuplike vesicles formed at

Pressure-area isotherm of a lipid monolayer from molecular dynamics simulations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Baoukina, Svetlana; Monticelli, Luca; Marrink, Siewert J.; Tieleman, D. Peter

2007-01-01

We calculated the pressure-area isotherm of a dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) lipid monolayer from molecular dynamics simulations using a coarse-grained molecular model. We characterized the monolayer structure, geometry, and phases directly from the simulations and compared the calculated

A comparative molecular dynamics study of diffusion of n-decane ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Administrator

Abstract. Molecular dynamics simulations are reported on the structure and dynamics of n-decane and. 3-methylpentane in zeolite NaY. We have calculated several properties such as the center of mass-center of mass rdf, the end-end distance distribution, bond angle distribution and dihedral angle distribution. We.

Molecular Interactions and Reaction Dynamics in Supercritical Water Oxidation

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Johnston, K

1998-01-01

.... From UV-vis spectroscopic measurements and molecular dynamics simulation of chemical equilibria, we have shown that density effects on broad classes of reactions may be explained in terms of changes...

Friction in Carborane-Based Molecular Rotors Driven by Gas Flow or Electric Field: Classical Molecular Dynamics

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database