title: Exploring the Conformational Dynamics of Alanine Dipeptide in Solution Subjected to an External Electric Field: A Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics Simulation.
abstract: In this paper, we investigate the conformational dynamics of alanine dipeptide under an external electric field by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. We consider the case of a constant and of an oscillatory field. In this context, we propose a procedure to implement the temperature control, which removes the irrelevant thermal effects of the field. For the constant field different time-scales are identified in the conformational, dipole moment, and orientational dynamics. Moreover, we prove that the solvent structure only marginally changes when the external field is switched on. In the case of oscillatory field, the conformational changes are shown to be as strong as in the previous case, and nontrivial nonequilibrium circular paths in the conformation space are revealed by calculating the integrated net probability fluxes.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mathematics, Freie Universität Berlin , 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mathematics, Freie Universität Berlin , 14195 Berlin, Germany.|Zuse Institute Berlin , 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Christof
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schütte
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, University College Dublin , Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.|Dipartimento di Fisica, Università "La Sapienza" and CNISM , Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ciccotti
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mathematics, Freie Universität Berlin , 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Delle Site