44 research outputs found
Comment on the calculation of forces for multibody interatomic potentials
The system of particles interacting via multibody interatomic potential of
general form is considered. Possible variants of partition of the total force
acting on a single particle into pair contributions are discussed. Two
definitions for the force acting between a pair of particles are compared. The
forces coincide only if the particles interact via pair or embedded-atom
potentials. However in literature both definitions are used in order to
determine Cauchy stress tensor. A simplest example of the linear pure shear of
perfect square lattice is analyzed. It is shown that, Hardy's definition for
the stress tensor gives different results depending on the radius of
localization function. The differences strongly depend on the way of the force
definition.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure