Physics Asked by Pétur on July 23, 2021
I guess this problem applies to any body that is composed of a small number of particles, but for the sake of simplicity and concreteness, let’s consider a classical model of a molecule consisting of three atoms (e.g. H2O). In brief, I’m trying to calculate the forces on each atom (atomic forces, $vec{F}_i$) from the total force ($vec{F}_{CM}$) and torque ($vec{tau}$) on the respective molecule. Specifically, I’m looking for methods that would work in a computer simulation in the following cases:
I think I should be able to find the 3*3=9 components of the atomic forces from the 3+3=6 components of the total force and torque on the molecule by solving a linear system of 9 equations. However, I can only think of 6 equations:
Apparently, I need three more constraints.
In the case of rigid molecules, the constraints are clearly that the distances between atoms in a molecule are fixed. If I was doing Lagrangian mechanics, I would just choose the generalized coordinates accordingly, or use Lagrange multipliers. What is the preferred way to do this in a computer simulation?
I’ve tried calculating the second derivative of the distance between each pair of atoms in a molecule and letting the resulting expression equal zero. That way I get three equations involving the particles’ positions, velocities, and the atomic forces. This seems like a plausible approach but I’m not sure if it’s correct.
I have no idea how to approach the case of flexible molecules with “internal potential”.
Additional details:
I have a computer program that calculates an analytic potential for a certain interaction between triatomic molecules, and also the total force on the molecules using an analytic gradient of the potential. The potential is based on a multipole expansion of the electrostatic potential. The internal potential and its derivatives are also analytic.
I realize this question is probably vague, but I’m unsure which details are needed.
I think that the answer in both situations is that the forces cannot be determined from the torque and total force. For example, consider a hydrogen molecule and apply an equal and opposite force to each atom. This might stretch or compress the molecule if it's non-rigid, but both the torque and total force would be zero.
Answered by Aaron Trout on July 23, 2021
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