Molecular dynamics , phase transformations

It was demonstrated in Chapter 6 that impact theory is able to describe qualitatively the main features of the drastic transformations of gas-phase spectra into liquid ones for the case of a linear molecule. The corresponding NMR projection of spectral collapse is also reproduced qualitatively. Does this reflect any pronounced physical mechanism of molecular dynamics In particular, can molecular rotation in dense media be thought of as free during short time intervals, interrupted by much shorter collisions ... 

While experiment and theory have made tremendous advances over the past few decades in elucidating the molecular processes and transformations that occur over ideal single-crystal surfaces, the application to aqueous phase catalytic systems has been quite limited owing to the challenges associated with following the stmcture and dynamics of the solution phase over metal substrates. Even in the case of a submersed ideal single-crystal surface, there are a number of important issues that have obscured our ability to elucidate the important surface intermediates and follow the elementary physicochemical surface processes. The ability to spectroscopically isolate and resolve reaction intermediates at the aqueous/metal interface has made it difficult to experimentally estabhsh the surface chemistry. In addition, theoretical advances and CPU limitations have restricted ab initio efforts to very small and idealized model systems. 

Discrete Fourier transform (DFT), non-adiabatic coupling, Longuet-Higgins phase-based treatment, two-dimensional two-surface system, scattering calculation, 153-155 Discrete variable representation (DVR) direct molecular dynamics, nuclear motion Schrodinger equation, 364-373 non-adiabatic coupling, quantum dressed classical mechanics, 177-183 formulation, 181-183... 

Semiclassical techniques like the instanton approach [211] can be applied to tunneling splittings. Finally, one can exploit the close correspondence between the classical and the quantum treatment of a harmonic oscillator and treat the nuclear dynamics classically. From the classical trajectories, correlation functions can be extracted and transformed into spectra. The particular charm of this method rests in the option to carry out the dynamics on the fly, using Born Oppenheimer or fictitious Car Parrinello dynamics [212]. Furthermore, multiple minima on the hypersurface can be treated together as they are accessed by thermal excitation. This makes these methods particularly useful for liquid state or other thermally excited system simulations. Nevertheless, molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations can also provide insights into cold gas-phase cluster formation [213], if a reliable force field is available [189]. 

The scope of kinetics includes (i) the rates and mechanisms of homogeneous chemical reactions (reactions that occur in one single phase, such as ionic and molecular reactions in aqueous solutions, radioactive decay, many reactions in silicate melts, and cation distribution reactions in minerals), (ii) diffusion (owing to random motion of particles) and convection (both are parts of mass transport diffusion is often referred to as kinetics and convection and other motions are often referred to as dynamics), and (iii) the kinetics of phase transformations and heterogeneous reactions (including nucleation, crystal growth, crystal dissolution, and bubble growth). 

This review is organized as follows in Sec. 2, the large scale phenomenological physics of meteors is discussed, detailing observations as well as the respective current interpretations. Meteorites will not be discussed in this review. Studies of the chemical and physical processes associated with meteorites have been largely concerned with composition, phase transformations and entrapment of noble gases in the solid meteorites. The reader is referred to several reviews and textbooks on the subject.The elementary gas-phase molecular dynamics relevant to the meteor environment is discussed in Sec. 3, and will primarily focus on the hyperthermal nonequilibrium processes, in concert with the subject matter of this book. 

Simulations—isoergic and isothermal, by molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo—as well as analytic theory have been used to study this process. The diagnostics that have been used include study of mean nearest interparticle distances, kinetic energy distributions, pair distribution functions, angular distribution functions, mean square displacements and diffusion coefficients, velocity autocorrelation functions and their Fourier transforms, caloric curves, and snapshots. From the simulations it seems that some clusters, such as Ar, 3 and Ar, 9, exhibit the double-valued equation of state and bimodal kinetic energy distributions characteristic of the phase change just described, but others do not. Another kind of behavior seems to occur with Arss, which exhibits a heterogeneous equilibrium, with part of the cluster liquid and part solid. 

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