Fast event-driven simulations for soft spheres: from dynamics to Laves phase nucleation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Castagnède, Antoine, Filion, Laura, Smallenburg, Frank
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Castagnède, Antoine
Filion, Laura
Smallenburg, Frank
author_facet Castagnède, Antoine
Filion, Laura
Smallenburg, Frank
contents Conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations struggle when simulating particles with steeply varying interaction potentials, due to the need to use a very short time step. Here, we demonstrate that an event-driven Monte Carlo (EDMC) approach first introduced by Peters and de With [Phys. Rev. E 85, 026703 (2012)] represents an excellent substitute for MD in the canonical ensemble. In addition to correctly reproducing the static thermodynamic properties of the system, the EDMC method closely mimics the dynamics of systems of particles interacting via the steeply repulsive Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) potential. In comparison to time-driven MD simulations, EDMC runs faster by over an order of magnitude at sufficiently low temperatures. Moreover, the lack of a finite time step in EDMC circumvents the need to trade accuracy against simulation speed associated with the choice of time step in MD. We showcase the usefulness of this model to explore the phase behavior of the WCA model at extremely low temperatures, and to demonstrate that spontaneous nucleation and growth of the Laves phases is possible at temperatures significantly lower than previously reported.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_12755
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fast event-driven simulations for soft spheres: from dynamics to Laves phase nucleation
Castagnède, Antoine
Filion, Laura
Smallenburg, Frank
Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations struggle when simulating particles with steeply varying interaction potentials, due to the need to use a very short time step. Here, we demonstrate that an event-driven Monte Carlo (EDMC) approach first introduced by Peters and de With [Phys. Rev. E 85, 026703 (2012)] represents an excellent substitute for MD in the canonical ensemble. In addition to correctly reproducing the static thermodynamic properties of the system, the EDMC method closely mimics the dynamics of systems of particles interacting via the steeply repulsive Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) potential. In comparison to time-driven MD simulations, EDMC runs faster by over an order of magnitude at sufficiently low temperatures. Moreover, the lack of a finite time step in EDMC circumvents the need to trade accuracy against simulation speed associated with the choice of time step in MD. We showcase the usefulness of this model to explore the phase behavior of the WCA model at extremely low temperatures, and to demonstrate that spontaneous nucleation and growth of the Laves phases is possible at temperatures significantly lower than previously reported.
title Fast event-driven simulations for soft spheres: from dynamics to Laves phase nucleation
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.12755