English

Shifted forces in molecular dynamics

Soft Condensed Matter 2013-01-29 v3 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

Simulations involving the Lennard-Jones potential usually employ a cut-off at r=2.5σr=2.5\sigma. This paper investigates the possibility of reducing the cut-off. Two different cut-off implementations are compared, the standard shifted potential cut-off and the less commonly used shifted forces cut-off. The first has correct forces below the cut-off, whereas the shifted forces cut-off modifies Newton's equations at all distances. The latter is nevertheless superior; we find that for most purposes realistic simulations may be obtained using a shifted-forces cut-off at r=1.5σr=1.5\sigma, even though the pair force is here 30 times larger than at r=2.5σr=2.5\sigma.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1012.1116,
  title  = {Shifted forces in molecular dynamics},
  author = {Søren Toxvaerd and Jeppe C. Dyre},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.1116},
  year   = {2013}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:53:56.104Z