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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

Analyzing Melts and Fluids from Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations with the UMD Package
Published on: September 17, 2021
On the calculation of equilibrium thermodynamic properties from molecular dynamics
Peter V Coveney1, Shunzhou Wan1
1Centre for Computational Science, Department of Chemistry, University College London, London WC1H 0AJ, UK. p.v.coveney@ucl.ac.uk.
None:
The purpose of statistical mechanics is to provide a route to the calculation of macroscopic properties of matter from their constituent microscopic components. It is well known that the macrostates emerge as ensemble averages of microstates. However, this is more often stated than implemented in computer simulation studies. Here we consider foundational aspects of statistical mechanics which are overlooked in most textbooks and research articles that purport to compute macroscopic behaviour from microscopic descriptions based on classical mechanics and show how due attention to these issues leads in directions which have not been widely appreciated in the field of molecular dynamics simulation.
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