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We employ the Grand Canonical Adaptive Resolution Molecular Dynamics Technique (GC-AdResS) to test the spatial locality of the 1-ethyl 3-methyl imidazolium chloride liquid. In GC-AdResS atomistic details are kept only in an open sub-region of the system while the environment is treated at coarse-grained level, thus if spatial quantities calculated in such a sub-region agree with the equivalent quantities calculated in a full atomistic simulation then the atomistic degrees of freedom outside the sub-region play a negligible role. The size of the sub-region fixes the degree of spatial locality of a certain quantity. We show that even for sub-regions whose radius corresponds to the size of a few molecules, spatial properties are reasonably {reproduced} thus suggesting a higher degree of spatial locality, a hypothesis put forward also by other {researchers} and that seems to play an important role for the characterization of fundamental properties of a large class of ionic liquids., Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures

The constrained-search principle introduced by Levy and Lieb, is proposed as a practical, though conceptually rigorous, link between Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC). The resulting numerical protocol realizes in practice the implicit key statement of DFT: "Given the three dimensional electron density of the ground state of a system of N electrons with external potential v(r) it is possible to find the corresponding 3N-dimensional wavefunction of ground state." From a numerical point of view, the proposed protocol can be employed to speed up the QMC procedure by employing DFT densities as a pre-selection criterion for the sampling of wavefunctions., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, paper in press in Chemical Physics Letters, 2015

Simulations that couple different classical molecular models in an adaptive way by changing the number of degrees of freedom on the fly, are available within reasonably consistent theoretical frameworks. The same does not occur when it comes to classical-quantum adaptivity. The main reason for this is the difficulty in describing a continuous transition between the two different kind of physical principles: probabilistic for the quantum and deterministic for the classical. Here we report the basic principles of an algorithm that allows for a continuous and smooth transition by employing the path integral description of atoms., Comment: 8 pages 4 figures

Adaptive resolution molecular dynamics (MD) schemes allow for changing the number of degrees of freedom on the fly and preserve the free exchange of particles between regions of different resolution. There are two main alternatives on how to design the algorithm to switch resolution using auxiliary ''switching'' functions; force based and potential energy based approach. In this work we show that, in the framework of classical MD, the latter presents fundamental conceptual problems which make unlikely, if not impossible, the derivation of a robust algorithm based on the potential energy., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure (color); Phys.Rev.E (2007) in press

The constrained-search formulation of Levy and Lieb, which formally defines the exact Hohenberg-Kohn functional for any N-representable electron density, is here shown to be equivalent to the minimization of the correlation functional with respect to the N-1 conditional probability density, where N is number of electrons of the system. The consequences and implications of such a result are here analyzed and discussed via a practical example., Comment: 9 pages, no figures

We propose an analytic formula for the non-local Fisher information functional, or electronic kinetic correlation term, appearing in the expression of the kinetic density functional. Such an explicit formula is constructed on the basis of well-founded physical arguments and a rigorous mathematical prescription.

We employ a recently formulated dequantization procedure to obtain an exact expression for the kinetic energy which is applicable to all kinetic-energy functionals. We express the kinetic energy of an N-electron system as the sum of an N-electron classical kinetic energy and an N-electron purely quantum kinetic energy arising from the quantum fluctuations that turn the classical momentum into the quantum momentum. This leads to an interesting analogy with Nelson's stochastic approach to quantum mechanics, which we use to conceptually clarify the physical nature of part of the kinetic-energy functional in terms of statistical fluctuations and in direct correspondence with Fisher Information Theory. We show that the N-electron purely quantum kinetic energy can be written as the sum of the (one-electron) Weizsacker term and an (N-1)-electron kinetic correlation term. We further show that the Weizsacker term results from local fluctuations while the kinetic correlation term results from the nonlocal fluctuations. For one-electron orbitals (where kinetic correlation is neglected) we obtain an exact (albeit impractical) expression for the noninteracting kinetic energy as the sum of the classical kinetic energy and the Weizsacker term. The classical kinetic energy is seen to be explicitly dependent on the electron phase and this has implications for the development of accurate orbital-free kinetic-energy functionals. Also, there is a direct connection between the classical kinetic energy and the angular momentum and, across a row of the periodic table, the classical kinetic energy component of the noninteracting kinetic energy generally increases as Z increases., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Theor Chem Acc

Using the phenol-terminated polycarbonate blend as an example, we demonstrate that the hydrodynamic boundary conditions for a flow of an adsorbing polymer melt are extremely sensitive to the structure of the epitaxial layer. Under shear, the adsorbed parts (chain ends) of the polymer melt move along the equipotential lines of the surface potential whereas the adsorbed additives serve as the surface defects. In response to the increase of the number of the adsorbed additives the surface layer becomes thinner and solidifies. This results in a gradual transition from the slip to the no-slip boundary condition for the melt flow, with a non-monotonic dependence of the slip length on the surface concentration of the adsorbed ends.

We propose a simple density functional expression for the upper bound of the kinetic energy for electronic systems. Such a functional is valid in the limit of slowly varying density, its validity outside this regime is discussed by making a comparison with upper bounds obtained in previous work. The advantages of the functional proposed for applications to realistic systems is briefly discussed., Comment: 10 pages, no figures

We propose that several mechanisms contribute to friction in a polymer melt adsorbed at a structured surface. The first one is the well known disentanglement of bulk polymer chains from the surface layer. However, if the surface is ideal at the atomic scale, the adsorbed parts of polymer chains can move along the equipotential lines of the surface potential. This gives rise to a strong slippage of the melt. For high shear rates chains partially desorb. However, the friction force on adsorbed chains increases, resulting in quasi-stick boundary conditions. We propose that the adsorbed layers can be efficiently used to adjust the friction force between the polymer melt and the surface.

In a recent work, M.Kohout (M.Kohout, Int.J.Quant.Chem. 87, 12 2002) raised the important question of how to make a correct use of Bohm's approach for defining a quantum potential. In this work, by taking into account Kohout's results, we propose a general self-consistent iterative procedure for solving this problem.

In a previous work one of the authors proposed a simple model for studying systems under pressure based on the Thomas-Fermi (TF) model of single atom. In this work we intend to extend the previous work to more general Thomas-Fermi models where electronic exchange and correlation are introduced. To do so, we first study numerically the equation obtained by H.W.Lewis (TFDL) which introduces the effects of exchange and correlation into the original TF equation; next the procedure followed in the previous work is extended to the new approach and a specific example is illustrated. Although one could expect that no big differences were produced by the generalized TF model, we show the qualitative as well as quantitative equivalence with detailed numerical results. These results support the robustness of our conclusions with regards to the model proposed in the previous work and give the character of universality (i.e. to pass from one atom to another, the quantities calculated must be simply scaled by a numerical factor) to the properties of compressed systems shown in this work., Comment: 16 pages and 5 figures

We propose a simple approach for studying systems of compressed matter based on the Thomas-Fermi statistical model of single atom. The central point of our work is the development of the concept of ``statistical ionization'' by compression; in simple terms, we calculate the fraction of electrons within the atom whose positive energy, due to the compression, exceeds the negative binding energy electron-nucleus. Next we extend this concept from a single atom to macroscopic systems and write the corresponding equation of state. Positive aspects as well as limitations of the model are illustrated and discussed through all the paper., Comment: The last section of the manuscript contains a correction published later as ERRATA

A Thomas-Fermi statistical analysis of Bader's interatomic surface developed in a previous work (L.Delle Site, Phys.Lett.A 286 61-64 (2001)) is here extended by considering exchange effects and electron density's inhomogeneity at basic level via Thomas-Fermi-Dirac-Weizsacker model. The results obtained show interesting connections with bohmian mechanics and lead to a statistical interpretation of the chemical properties of condensed systems at atomistic level., Comment: 8 pages, no figures

We study the properties of a polycarbonate melt near a nickel surface as a model system for the interaction of polymers with metal surfaces by employing a multiscale modeling approach. For bulk properties a suitably coarse grained bead spring model is simulated by molecular dynamics (MD) methods with model parameters directly derived from quantum chemical calculations. The surface interactions are parameterized and incorporated by extensive quantum mechanical density functional calculations using the Car-Parrinello method. We find strong chemisorption of chain ends, resulting in significant modifications of the melt composition when compared to an inert wall., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures (2 color), 1 table