System

A System contains all the data about the physical system we are simulating. It contains four types of data:

  • A list of Particles, which are physical objects with a position, a velocity, a mass and a name;
  • A list of Molecules containing information about how the particles are bounded together;
  • An UnitCell, i.e. the bounding box of the simulation.
  • Interactions, sometimes called a force field.

Particles

Particles are the basic building blocks of a system. They can be atoms or more complex: coarse-grained sites, dummy atoms, anisotropic particles …

They have a name, a mass, a position, a velocity, and most importantly a particle kind, defined by the name of the particle. All particles with the same name share the same kind: all H are the same, as well as all C, etc.

Molecules

When particles are bonded together, they form molecules. A Molecule contains the list of its bonds; molecules make for the molecular part in molecular simulation.

Unit cells

Lumol knows about three types of unit cells:

  • Infinite cells do not have any boundaries and can be used to simulate systems in vacuum;
  • Orthorhombic cells have up to three independent lengths whereas all angles of the cell are set to 90°;
  • Triclinic cells have 6 independent parameters: 3 lengths and 3 angles.

Orthorhombic and Triclinic cells are used in combination with periodic boundary conditions to simulate infinite systems.

Interactions

Interactions are potentials acting on or between particles. Lumol provides functions for various potential types:

  • Non-bonding pair potentials;
  • Bonds potentials in molecules;
  • Angles potentials in molecules;
  • Dihedral angles potentials in molecules;
  • Long-ranges coulombic potentials (Ewald and Wolf methods);
  • Arbitrary external potential applying on the whole system at once.