Technical Documentation
SOFT SPHERE ENERGY FUNCTION: Introduction

This Soft Sphere term is of the Exclusion type (i.e., indexed by the Atom Exclusion Type). An Inclusion version of this term is also available, see [SoftSphereI]. An individual term is:

{

Ks( rij - do )n

, if rij < do

0

, if rij >= do

where rij is the distance between atoms i and j, Ks is a force constant, do is the contact distance and n is a user-specified power. In contrast to the van der Waals term, the Soft Sphere term has no attractive component and the repulsion component operates only when two atoms are closer together than their contact distance. The repulsion component is also much softer than in the van der Waals term although the user may adjust the softness by specifying larger values of n. This is a single value specified for the whole module (and therefore applied equally to all pairs). It must be a whole number and the value must be at least 2.

The SoftSphereX module is located in the Energy sub-directory of the Yup package, hence: Yup.Energy.SoftSphereX.

The soft sphere term is introduced into a simulation by first creating an (empty) instance of the SoftSphereX object. As this is an Exclusion list term, an empty object means that all pair interactions will be considered. This can be modified by adding atom pairs, whose interaction should not be considered, to an exclusion list. Previously excluded pairs may also be removed, which will restore that pair interaction. All these actions affect only a list of candidate pairs. The compile process binds Coordinate and Gradient AtomVectors to the SoftSphereX module and then goes through the candidate pairs to form a compiled exclusion list in which all the atoms that are involved are positively identified. Only then can the soft sphere term be evaluated. (Prior attempts at evaluation will either yield an exception or null results.) The evaluate method would now be called many times as part of a molecular mechanics calculation. Each call would yield different results even though the compiled exclusion list is fixed because the Coordinates are different at each call. However, it is possible to modify the soft sphere parameters (Ks and do) continuously during a calculation. The parameters are accessed through the subscript operator. More radical changes can be made by excluding new pairs or restoring previously excluded pairs. These actions affect the candidate list and immediately clear the compiled list. Therefore the SoftSphereX module must be compiled again before evaluation can resume. The state of the SoftSphereX module can be judged by examining the data attributes. The compiled pairs can also be examined in great detail by printing the object.

This manual is divided into several pages:

Name

Content

SoftSphereX

Introduction: this page.

Create

Creating a new SoftSphereX object. The function SoftSphereX().

Data

The data attributes of a SoftSphereX object; some of which may be assigned new values.

Manage

Managing soft sphere pairs: excluding pairs, and restoring excluded pairs. The methods: exclude() and include().

Compile

Preparing a SoftSphereX object for evaluation of the energy and gradients. The methods: update() and compile().

Evaluate

Evaluate the soft sphere energy and gradients. The method: evaluate().

Subscript

The subscript [] operator: used to access and to assign values to the soft sphere parameters

Print

Documents the print, repr, delete and compare operators.

Write

Writing the finalized soft sphere record to the force field file.

SoftSphereX
Create
Data
Manage
Compile
Evaluate
Subscript
Print
Write

OVERVIEW
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SwissCheeseX
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