ScienceDirect® Home Skip Main Navigation Links
You have guest access to ScienceDirect. Find out more.
 
Home
Browse
My Settings
Alerts
Help
 Quick Search
 Search tips (Opens new window)
    Clear all fields    
advertisementadvertisement
Computer Physics Communications
Volume 176, Issue 4, 15 February 2007, Pages 292-299
 
Font Size: Decrease Font Size  Increase Font Size
 Abstract - selected
Article
Purchase PDF (430 K)

 
 
 
Related Articles in ScienceDirect
View More Related Articles
 
View Record in Scopus
 
doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2006.11.003    How to Cite or Link Using DOI (Opens New Window)
Copyright © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pathfinder: A parallel search algorithm for concerted atomistic events

Aiichiro Nakanoa, E-mail The Corresponding Author

aCollaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, Department of Computer Science, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0242, USA

Received 26 October 2006; 
revised 5 November 2006; 
accepted 7 November 2006. 
Available online 1 December 2006.

Purchase the full-text article



References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

Abstract

An algorithm has been designed to search for the escape paths with the lowest activation barriers when starting from a local minimum-energy configuration of a many-atom system. The pathfinder algorithm combines: (1) a steered eigenvector-following method that guides a constrained escape from the convex region and subsequently climbs to a transition state tangentially to the eigenvector corresponding to the lowest negative Hessian eigenvalue; (2) discrete abstraction of the atomic configuration to systematically enumerate concerted events as linear combinations of atomistic events; (3) evolutionary control of the population dynamics of low activation-barrier events; and (4) hybrid task + spatial decompositions to implement massive search for complex events on parallel computers. The program exhibits good scalability on parallel computers and has been used to study concerted bond-breaking events in the fracture of alumina.

Keywords: Transition state theory; Molecular dynamics; Parallel computing

PACS classification codes: 02.70.-c; 02.70.Ns; 82.20.Db

Article Outline

1. Introduction
2. Pathfinder algorithm
2.1. Steered eigenvector-following (SEF) event generator
2.2. Concerted event generation by discrete linear combination of atomistic events (LCAE)
3. Parallelization by hybrid task + spatial decompositions (HTSD)
4. Numerical results
5. Summary
Acknowledgements
Appendix A. Lanczos algorithm to obtain the minimal Hessian eigenpair
References




Computer Physics Communications
Volume 176, Issue 4, 15 February 2007, Pages 292-299
 
Home
Browse
My Settings
Alerts
Help
Elsevier.com (Opens new window)
About ScienceDirect  |  Contact Us  |  Information for Advertisers  |  Terms & Conditions  |  Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ScienceDirect® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V.