Monte Carlo techniques potential energy surfaces

Significant progress has recently been made in several areas which will have a profound effect on the ability of molecular dynamics to handle more complex problems. In this section we speculate on several areas which appear to hold promise for advancing computer modeling studies. In section 4.1, recent progress in both analytic potential energy expressions and first principles calculations are briefly mentioned. Recent advances in computational techniques are discussed in section 4.2. These include the use of constraints within the classical equations of motion to model thermostats in the surface region, and the incorporation of Monte Carlo techniques into molecular dynamics simulations. 

There have been several studies of the iodine-atom recombination reaction which have used numerical techniques, normally based on the Langevin equation. Bunker and Jacobson [534] made a Monte Carlo trajectory study to two iodine atoms in a cubical box of dimension 1.6 nm containing 26 carbon tetrachloride molecules (approximated as spheres). The iodine atom and carbon tetrachloride molecules interact with a Lennard—Jones potential and the iodine atoms can recombine on a Morse potential energy surface. The trajectives were followed for several picoseconds. When the atoms were formed about 0.5—0.7 nm apart initially, they took only a few picoseconds to migrate together and react. They noted that the motion of both iodine atoms never had time to develop a characteristic diffusive form before reaction occurred. The dominance of the cage effect over such short times was considerable. 

The time evolution of the electronic wave function can be obtained in the adiabatic or in the diabatic basis set. At each time step, one evaluates the transition probabilities between electronic states and decides whether to hop to another siu-face. When hopping occurs, nuclear velocities have to be adjusted to keep the total energy constant. After hopping, the forces are calculated from the potential of the newly populated electronic state. To decide whether or not to hop, a Monte Carlo technique is used Once the transition probability is obtained, a random number in the range (0,1) is generated and compared with the transition probability. If the munber is less than the probability, a hop occurs otherwise, the nuclear motion continues on the same surface as before. At the end of the simulation, one can analyze populations, distribution of nuclear geometries, reaction times, and other observables as an average over all the trajectories. 

The selectivities were calculated using the Boltzmann distribution, based on the energies of the most stable conformations. The authors performed a conformational analysis for each of the 12 different pathways of approaching of the olefin to the osmium tetroxide. They combined two techniques, the pseudo-systematic Monte Carlo [65] to explore the entire conformational space, and the Low Mode [66] searching to explore exhaustively a local region of the potential energy surface (Table 2). 

Geometry optimization of the proposed mimetic is included as part of the design analysis to ensure the feasibility of the desired molecular conformation. MM and semiempirical quantum mechanical methods have been used most extensively for these purposes. Conformational analysis of the proposed mimetic allows the determination of an energy profile for the molecule under consideration. This has been used by researchers to assess where the desired conformation for the mimetic resides on the molecular potential energy surface. Monte Carlo, MD, and distance geometry-based conformational search techniques have been employed extensively to sample conformational space. Computational methods that attempt to approximate the efifects of aqueous solvation on the conformational profile of the mimetic are being used more frequently as part of these efforts. 

It is important to propose molecular and theoretical models to describe the forces, energy, structure and dynamics of water near mineral surfaces. Our understanding of experimental results concerning hydration forces, the hydrophobic effect, swelling, reaction kinetics and adsorption mechanisms in aqueous colloidal systems is rapidly advancing as a result of recent Monte Carlo (MC) and molecular dynamics (MO) models for water properties near model surfaces. This paper reviews the basic MC and MD simulation techniques, compares and contrasts the merits and limitations of various models for water-water interactions and surface-water interactions, and proposes an interaction potential model which would be useful in simulating water near hydrophilic surfaces. In addition, results from selected MC and MD simulations of water near hydrophobic surfaces are discussed in relation to experimental results, to theories of the double layer, and to structural forces in interfacial systems. 

As expected, the total interaction energies depend strongly on the van der Waals radii (of both sorbate and sorbent atoms) and the surface densities. This is true for both HK type models (Saito and Foley, 1991 Cheng and Yang, 1994) and more detailed statistical thermodynamics (or molecular simulation) approaches (such as Monte Carlo and density functional theory). Knowing the interaction potential, molecular simulation techniques enable the calculation of adsorption isotherms (see, for example, Razmus and Hall, (1991) and Cracknell etal. (1995)). 

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