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Local order parameters for use in driving homogeneous ice nucleation with all-atom models of water
Aleks Reinhardt1, Jonathan P K Doye, Eva G Noya
1Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QZ, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We present a local order parameter based on the standard Steinhardt-Ten Wolde approach that is capable both of tracking and of driving homogeneous ice nucleation in simulations of all-atom models of water. We demonstrate that it is capable of forcing the growth of ice nuclei in supercooled liquid water simulated using the TIP4P/2005 model using over-biassed umbrella sampling Monte Carlo simulations. However, even with such an order parameter, the dynamics of ice growth in deeply supercooled liquid water in all-atom models of water are shown to be very slow, and so the computation of free energy landscapes and nucleation rates remains extremely challenging.
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