Molecular dynamics limitations

Because of limitations of space, this section concentrates very little on rotational motion and its interaction with the vibrations of a molecule. However, this is an extremely important aspect of molecular dynamics of long-standing interest, and with development of new methods it is the focus of mtense investigation [18, 19, 20. 21. 22 and 23]. One very interesting aspect of rotation-vibration dynamics involving geometric phases is addressed in section A1.2.20. 

Monte Carlo simulations generate a large number of confonnations of tire microscopic model under study that confonn to tire probability distribution dictated by macroscopic constrains imposed on tire systems. For example, a Monte Carlo simulation of a melt at a given temperature T produces an ensemble of confonnations in which confonnation with energy E. occurs witli a probability proportional to exp (- Ej / kT). An advantage of tire Monte Carlo metliod is tliat, by judicious choice of tire elementary moves, one can circumvent tire limitations of molecular dynamics techniques and effect rapid equilibration of multiple chain systems [65]. Flowever, Monte Carlo... 

Molecular dynamics (MD) metliods can be used to simulate tribological phenomena at a molecular level. These have been used primarily to simulate behaviour observed in AFM and SFA measurements. Such simulations are limited to short-timescale events, but provide a weaitli of infonnation and insight into tribological phenomena at a level of detail tliat cannot be realized by any experimental metliod. One of tire most interesting contributions of molecular dynamics... 

The method of molecular dynamics (MD), described earlier in this book, is a powerful approach for simulating the dynamics and predicting the rates of chemical reactions. In the MD approach most commonly used, the potential of interaction is specified between atoms participating in the reaction, and the time evolution of their positions is obtained by solving Hamilton s equations for the classical motions of the nuclei. Because MD simulations of etching reactions must include a significant number of atoms from the substrate as well as the gaseous etchant species, the calculations become computationally intensive, and the time scale of the simulation is limited to the... 

Ben]amin I, Barbara P F, Gertner B J and Hynes J T 1995 Nonequilibrium free energy functions, recombination dynamics, and vibrational relaxation of tjin acetonitrile molecular dynamics of charge flow in the electronically adiabatic limit J. Phys. Chem. 99 7557-67... 

Abstract. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of proteins provide descriptions of atomic motions, which allow to relate observable properties of proteins to microscopic processes. Unfortunately, such MD simulations require an enormous amount of computer time and, therefore, are limited to time scales of nanoseconds. We describe first a fast multiple time step structure adapted multipole method (FA-MUSAMM) to speed up the evaluation of the computationally most demanding Coulomb interactions in solvated protein models, secondly an application of this method aiming at a microscopic understanding of single molecule atomic force microscopy experiments, and, thirdly, a new method to predict slow conformational motions at microsecond time scales. 

Approximation Properties and Limits of the Quantum-Classical Molecular Dynamics Model... 

Bornemann, F. A., Schiitte, Ch. On the Singular Limit of the Quantum-Classical Molecular Dynamics Model. Preprint SC 97-07 (1997) Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum Berlin. SIAM J. Appl. Math, (submitted)... 

Abstract. The overall Hamiltonian structure of the Quantum-Classical Molecular Dynamics model makes - analogously to classical molecular dynamics - symplectic integration schemes the methods of choice for long-term simulations. This has already been demonstrated by the symplectic PICKABACK method [19]. However, this method requires a relatively small step-size due to the high-frequency quantum modes. Therefore, following related ideas from classical molecular dynamics, we investigate symplectic multiple-time-stepping methods and indicate various possibilities to overcome the step-size limitation of PICKABACK. 

F.A. Bornemann and Ch. Schiitte. On the singular limit of the quantum-classical molecular dynamics model. Preprint SC 97-07, ZIB Berlin, 1997. Submitted to SIAM J. Appl. Math. 

Our work is targeted to biomolecular simulation applications, where the objective is to illuminate the structure and function of biological molecules (proteins, enzymes, etc) ranging in size from dozens of atoms to tens of thousands of atoms today, with the desire to increase this limit to millions of atoms in the near future. Such molecular dynamics (MD) simulations simply apply Newton s law to each atom in the system, with the force on each atom being determined by evaluating the gradient of the potential field at each atom s position. The potential includes contributions from bonding forces. 

The main difference between the force-bias and the smart Monte Carlo methods is that the latter does not impose any limit on the displacement that m atom may undergo. The displacement in the force-bias method is limited to a cube of the appropriate size centred on the atom. However, in practice the two methods are very similar and there is often little to choose between them. In suitable cases they can be much more efficient at covering phase space and are better able to avoid bottlenecks in phase space than the conventional Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm. The methods significantly enhance the acceptance rate of trial moves, thereby enabling Icirger moves to be made as well as simultaneous moves of more than one particle. However, the need to calculate the forces makes the methods much more elaborate, and comparable in complexity to molecular dynamics. 

Alonso D O V and V Daggett 1995. Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Protein Unfolding and Limited Refolding Characterisation of Partially Unfolded States of Ubiquitm in 60% Methanol and in Water. Journal of Molecular Biology 247 501-520. 

Ihe allure of methods for calculating free energies and their associated thermod)mai values such as equilibrium constants has resulted in considerable interest in free ene calculations. A number of decisions must be made about the way that the calculatior performed. One obvious choice concerns the simulation method. In principle, eit Monte Carlo or molecular dynamics can be used in practice, molecular dynamics almost always used for systems where there is a significant degree of conformatio flexibility, whereas Monte Carlo can give very good results for small molecules which either rigid or have limited conformational freedom. 

Monte Carlo simulations require less computer time to execute each iteration than a molecular dynamics simulation on the same system. However, Monte Carlo simulations are more limited in that they cannot yield time-dependent information, such as diffusion coefficients or viscosity. As with molecular dynamics, constant NVT simulations are most common, but constant NPT simulations are possible using a coordinate scaling step. Calculations that are not constant N can be constructed by including probabilities for particle creation and annihilation. These calculations present technical difficulties due to having very low probabilities for creation and annihilation, thus requiring very large collections of molecules and long simulation times. 

The tests in the two previous paragraphs are often used because they are easy to perform. They are, however, limited due to their neglect of intermolecular interactions. Testing the effect of intennolecular interactions requires much more intensive simulations. These would be simulations of the bulk materials, which include many polymer strands and often periodic boundary conditions. Such a bulk system can then be simulated with molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo, or simulated annealing methods to examine the tendency to form crystalline phases. 

NWChem (we tested Version 3.2.1) is a program for ah initio, band-structure, molecular mechanics, and molecular dynamics calculations. The DFT band-structure capability is still under development and was not included in the Linux version tested. NWChem is unique in that it was designed from scratch for efficient parallel execution. The user agreement is more restrictive than most, apparently because the code is still under active development. At the time of this book s publication, limited support was available for users outside of the EMSL facility. 

Because of limitations in computer power and time, it is frequently impractical to run a constant energy molecular dynamics simulation. Several approximations to the energy (usually to the potential energy) are possible, which require modifying the Hamilto-... 

You can often use experimental data, such as Nuclear Overhauser Effect (NOE) signals from 2D NMR studies, as restraints. NOE signals give distances between pairs of hydrogens in a molecule. Use these distances to limit distances during a molecular mechanics geometry optimization or molecular dynamics calculation. Information on dihedral angles, deduced from NMR, can also limit a conformational search. 

The setup of these calculations is very similar for both quantum and molecular mechanics. In practice, molecular dynamics calculation s using the nl) initio and semi-empirical quantum mechanical SCFmethods are limited to relatively small systems. Each time step requires a complete calculation of the wave function and the forces. 

In order to conserve the total energy in molecular dynamics calculations using semi-empirical methods, the gradient needs to be very accurate. Although the gradient is calculated analytically, it is a function of wavefunction, so its accuracy depends on that of the wavefunction. Tests for CH4 show that the convergence limit needs to be at most le-6 for CNDO and INDO and le-7 for MINDO/3, MNDO, AMI, and PM3 for accurate energy conservation. ZINDO/S is not suitable for molecular dynamics calculations. 

The single average value that is reported for this quantity in the Molecular Dynamics averages dialog box is the limit reached by the plotted values at i=N, i.e. the RMS value of x ... 

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