Electron force field

Su, J. An electron force field for simulating large scale excited electron dynamics (2007). Ph.D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology... 

Su JT, Goddard WA (2009) The dynamics of highly excited electrraiic systems applications of the electron force field. J Chem Phys 131(24) 244501-(20)... 

MMVB is a hybrid force field, which uses MM to treat the unreactive molecular framework, combined with a valence bond (VB) approach to treat the reactive part. The MM part uses the MM2 force field [58], which is well adapted for organic molecules. The VB part uses a parametrized Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian, which can be illustrated by considering a two orbital, two electron description of a sigma bond described by the VB determinants... 

In stead, these m eth od s solve the poten tial energy surface by using a force field equation (see Molecular Mechanics" on page2] i.The force field equation represen ts electron ic energy implicitly th roil gh param eteri/ation. 

For XH bonds, where X isany heavy atom, the hydrogen electron den sity is ri ot th ough t to be cen tered at th e position of th e hydrogen n ueleus but displaced alon g th e bon d sorn ewhat, towards X. The MM+ force field reduces the XH bond length by a factor of 0.9 I 5 strictly for th e purposes of calculatin g van der Waals in teraction s with hydrogen atoms. 

In some force fields the interaction sites are not all situated on the atomic nuclei. For example, in the MM2, MM3 and MM4 programs, the van der Waals centres of hydrogen atoms bonded to carbon are placed not at the nuclei but are approximately 10% along the bond towards the attached atom. The rationale for this is that the electron distribution about small atoms such as oxygen, fluorine and particularly hydrogen is distinctly non-spherical. The single electron from the hydrogen is involved in the bond to the adjacent atom and there are no other electrons that can contribute to the van der Waals interactions. Some force fields also require lone pairs to be defined on particular atoms these have their own van der Waals and electrostatic parameters. 

Stretching, bond bending, torsions, electrostatic interactions, van der Waals forces, and hydrogen bonding. Force fields differ in the number of terms in the energy expression, the complexity of those terms, and the way in which the constants were obtained. Since electrons are not explicitly included, electronic processes cannot be modeled. 

The disadvantage of molecular mechanics is that there are many chemical properties that are not even defined within the method, such as electronic excited states. Since chemical bonding tenns are explicitly included in the force field, it is not possible without some sort of mathematical manipulation to examine reactions in which bonds are formed or broken. In order to work with extremely large and complicated systems, molecular mechanics software packages often have powerful and easy-to-use graphic interfaces. Because of this, mechanics is sometimes used because it is an easy, but not necessarily a good, way to describe a system. 

One disadvantage is that the lower levels of theory must be able to describe all atoms in the inner regions of the molecule. Thus, this method cannot be used to incorporate a metal atom into a force field that is not parameterized for it. The effect of one region of the molecule causing polarization of the electron density in the other region of the molecule is incorporated only to the extent that the lower levels of theory describe polarization. This method requires more CPU time than most of the others mentioned. However, the extra time should be minimal since it is due to lower-level calculations on smaller sections of the system. 

Empirical energy functions can fulfill the demands required by computational studies of biochemical and biophysical systems. The mathematical equations in empirical energy functions include relatively simple terms to describe the physical interactions that dictate the structure and dynamic properties of biological molecules. In addition, empirical force fields use atomistic models, in which atoms are the smallest particles in the system rather than the electrons and nuclei used in quantum mechanics. These two simplifications allow for the computational speed required to perform the required number of energy calculations on biomolecules in their environments to be attained, and, more important, via the use of properly optimized parameters in the mathematical models the required chemical accuracy can be achieved. The use of empirical energy functions was initially applied to small organic molecules, where it was referred to as molecular mechanics [4], and more recently to biological systems [2,3]. 

Significant progress in the optimization of VDW parameters was associated with the development of the OPLS force field [53]. In those efforts the approach of using Monte Carlo calculations on pure solvents to compute heats of vaporization and molecular volumes and then using that information to refine the VDW parameters was first developed and applied. Subsequently, developers of other force fields have used this same approach for optimization of biomolecular force fields [20,21]. Van der Waals parameters may also be optimized based on calculated heats of sublimation of crystals [68], as has been done for the optimization of some of the VDW parameters in the nucleic acid bases [18]. Alternative approaches to optimizing VDW parameters have been based primarily on the use of QM data. Quantum mechanical data contains detailed information on the electron distribution around a molecule, which, in principle, should be useful for the optimization of VDW... 

---