z-logo
open-access-imgOpen Access
Computing the Free Energy Barriers for Less by Sampling with a Coarse Reference Potential while Retaining Accuracy of the Target Fine Model
Author(s) -
Nikolay V. Plotnikov
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of chemical theory and computation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.001
H-Index - 185
eISSN - 1549-9626
pISSN - 1549-9618
DOI - 10.1021/ct500109m
Subject(s) - metadynamics , free energy perturbation , thermodynamic integration , sampling (signal processing) , umbrella sampling , energy (signal processing) , energy landscape , interpolation (computer graphics) , statistical physics , physics , computational physics , algorithm , computer science , molecular dynamics , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics , optics , thermodynamics , motion (physics) , detector
Proposed in this contribution is a protocol for calculating fine-physics (e.g., ab initio QM/MM) free-energy surfaces at a high level of accuracy locally (e.g., only at reactants and at the transition state for computing the activation barrier) from targeted fine-physics sampling and extensive exploratory coarse-physics sampling. The full free-energy surface is still computed but at a lower level of accuracy from coarse-physics sampling. The method is analytically derived in terms of the umbrella sampling and the free-energy perturbation methods which are combined with the thermodynamic cycle and the targeted sampling strategy of the paradynamics approach. The algorithm starts by computing low-accuracy fine-physics free-energy surfaces from the coarse-physics sampling in order to identify the reaction path and to select regions for targeted sampling. Thus, the algorithm does not rely on the coarse-physics minimum free-energy reaction path. Next, segments of high-accuracy free-energy surface are computed locally at selected regions from the targeted fine-physics sampling and are positioned relative to the coarse-physics free-energy shifts. The positioning is done by averaging the free-energy perturbations computed with multistep linear response approximation method. This method is analytically shown to provide results of the thermodynamic integration and the free-energy interpolation methods, while being extremely simple in implementation. Incorporating the metadynamics sampling to the algorithm is also briefly outlined. The application is demonstrated by calculating the B3LYP//6-31G*/MM free-energy barrier for an enzymatic reaction using a semiempirical PM6/MM reference potential. These modifications allow computing the activation free energies at a significantly reduced computational cost but at the same level of accuracy compared to computing full potential of mean force.

The content you want is available to Zendy users.

Already have an account? Click here to sign in.
Having issues? You can contact us here