SISSA Mathlab seminar announcement

[Emanuele Tuillier Illingworth]

MATHLAB SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT

Francesco Rizzi, Ph.D.
Dept. of Mechanical and Materials Science
Duke University, NC, USA

Venue: Wednesday 21 May at 11:30 am in lecture room 133

Title:
Uncertainty Quantification in Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Abstract:
Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations provide a suitable tool to explore 
the properties of
a system at the atomic level which, in general, are difficult and 
expensive to investigate experimentally.
The main weakness of MD is that its predictive reliability depends on 
the accuracy with which
the MD potential function can model the atomic interactions occurring in 
the real system of interest.
Consequently, defining the potential is the most delicate stage of an MD 
simulation.
This is typically done in a deterministic setting, namely by choosing 
specific values for
the parameters of the MD potential. Literature, however, shows that for 
most MD systems,
these parameters are characterized by broad uncertainties. Uncertainty 
quantification (UQ) can
thus play a key role for quantifying these uncertainties, and properly 
characterize the predictive accuracy.

This talk shows a possible approach for applying UQ methods to MD 
simulations.
Two fundamental, distinct sources of uncertainty are investigated, 
namely parametric
uncertainty and intrinsic noise. Intrinsic noise is inherently present 
in the MD setting,
due to fluctuations originating from thermal effects. Parametric 
uncertainty, on the contrary,
is introduced in the form of uncertain potential parameters, geometry, 
and/or boundary conditions.
We illustrate the use of a probabilistic (Bayesian) approach to infer 
atomistic
parameters for MD simulations of pure water using data of selected 
macroscale observables.
Using Polynomial Chaos (PC) expansions and Bayesian inference, we 
develop a framework
that enables us to describe the impact of parametric uncertainty on the 
MD predictions
and, at the same time, properly quantify the effect of the intrinsic noise.