Pair potential
In physics, a pair potential is a function that describes the potential energy of two interacting objects solely as a function of the distance between them.[1] Examples of pair potentials include the Coulomb's law in electrodynamics, Newton's law of universal gravitation in mechanics, and the Lennard-Jones potential and the Morse potential in computational chemistry.
Pair potentials are very common in physics and computational chemistry and biology; exceptions are very rare. An example of a potential energy function that is not a pair potential is the three-body Axilrod-Teller potential. Another example is the Stillinger-Weber potential for silicon, which includes the angle in a triangle of silicon atoms as an input parameter.[2][3]
References
- ^ Pei, Jun; Song, Lin Frank; Merz Jr., Kenneth M. (June 19, 2020). "Pair Potentials as Machine Learning Features". J. Chem. Theory Comput. 16 (8): 5385–5400. doi:10.1021/acs.jctc.9b01246. PMID 32559380. S2CID 219947826. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ Stillinger, Frank H.; Weber, Thomas A. (15 April 1985). "Computer simulation of local order in condensed phases of silicon". Physical Review B. 31 (8): 5262–5271. Bibcode:1985PhRvB..31.5262S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.31.5262. PMID 9936488. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
- ^ Stillinger, Frank H.; Weber, Thomas A. (15 January 1986). "Erratum: Computer simulation of local order in condensed phases of silicon [Phys. Rev. B 31, 5262 (1985)]". Physical Review B. 33 (2): 1451. Bibcode:1986PhRvB..33.1451S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.33.1451. PMID 9938428. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
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