Understanding free-energy perturbation calculations through a model of harmonic oscillators: theory and implications...

Free-energy perturbation calculation is frequently used to calculate free-energy differences because it is easy to implement and the computation is fast. However, the calculation is subject to large inaccuracies in some circumstances due to the insufficient sampling of the relevant tails of the energy-difference distributions. Here we expand this knowledge of insufficient sampling into a two-dimensional (2D) energy space using a model of harmonic oscillators. We show analytically the relation between the energies of the sampling system and those of the desired target energy spaces, which provide the basis to understand the difficulties in free-energy perturbation calculations. We clarify the reasons of the inaccurate calculation in the different harmonic cases that stem from the spatial separations of the reference and the target energy pairs located in the two-dimensional energy space. The potential-energy space introduced into this 2D energy-space model provides additional clues to improve the sampling efficiency. Based on this understanding, we propose two ways to calculate the free-energy differences using the two schemes of the distribution method. We show that the distribution method implemented in the appropriate energy space--the energy-difference space and the potential-energy space, respectively--can improve the calculation of free energies in different circumstances. This analysis implies that the sampling can be improved if it is directed toward the appropriate region in the potential-energy space, which is easily implemented in various types of free-energy calculations. To test this, we calculate the free-energy surface of alanine dipeptide in gas phase and in aqueous phase, respectively. We demonstrate that the free-energy surface calculation is improved when the biased sampling of the potential energy is integrated into the sampling scheme.