title: Dimer Metadynamics.
abstract: Sampling complex potential energies is one of the most pressing challenges of contemporary computational science. Inspired by recent efforts that use quantum effects and discretized Feynman's path integrals to overcome large barriers we propose a replica exchange method that we expect to be effective at least for systems of up to 150 atoms roughly. In each replica two copies of the same system with halved potential strengths interact via inelastic springs. The strength of the spring is varied in the different replicas so as to bridge the gap between the infinitely strong spring, that corresponds to the Boltzmann replica, and the less tight ones. We enhance the spring length fluctuations using Metadynamics. We test the method on simple yet challenging problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, and Facoltà di Informatica, Istituto di Scienze Computazionali, Università della Svizzera Italiana , Via G. Buffi 13, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8490-9347
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nava
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, and Facoltà di Informatica, Istituto di Scienze Computazionali, Università della Svizzera Italiana , Via G. Buffi 13, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ferruccio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palazzesi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, and Facoltà di Informatica, Istituto di Scienze Computazionali, Università della Svizzera Italiana , Via G. Buffi 13, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Perego
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, and Facoltà di Informatica, Istituto di Scienze Computazionali, Università della Svizzera Italiana , Via G. Buffi 13, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parrinello