A chain-of-states acceleration method for the efficient location of minimum energy paths
- Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM–CSIC), Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid (Spain)
- Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada and IFIMAC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid (Spain)
We describe a robust and efficient chain-of-states method for computing Minimum Energy Paths (MEPs) associated to barrier-crossing events in poly-atomic systems, which we call the acceleration method. The path is parametrized in terms of a continuous variable t ∈ [0, 1] that plays the role of time. In contrast to previous chain-of-states algorithms such as the nudged elastic band or string methods, where the positions of the states in the chain are taken as variational parameters in the search for the MEP, our strategy is to formulate the problem in terms of the second derivatives of the coordinates with respect to t, i.e., the state accelerations. We show this to result in a very simple and efficient method for determining the MEP. We describe the application of the method to a series of test cases, including two low-dimensional problems and the Stone-Wales transformation in C{sub 60}.
- OSTI ID:
- 22493209
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 143, Issue 18; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9606
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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