title: From A to B in free energy space.
abstract: The authors present a new method for searching low free energy paths in complex molecular systems at finite temperature. They introduce two variables that are able to describe the position of a point in configurational space relative to a preassigned path. With the help of these two variables the authors combine features of approaches such as metadynamics or umbrella sampling with those of path based methods. This allows global searches in the space of paths to be performed and a new variational principle for the determination of low free energy paths to be established. Contrary to metadynamics or umbrella sampling the path can be described by an arbitrary large number of variables, still the energy profile along the path can be calculated. The authors exemplify the method numerically by studying the conformational changes of alanine dipeptide.
authors.affiliation: Computational Science, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, USI Campus, Via Giuseppe Buffi 13, CH-6900 Lugano, Switzerland. davide.branduardi@phys.chem.ethz.ch
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Branduardi
authors.forename: Francesco Luigi
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Gervasio
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parrinello
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004151:Dipeptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D004735:Energy Transfer; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D004151:Dipeptides; C002956:alanylalanine