Analog Computing for Molecular Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of modern analog computers to simulate molecular dynamics, specifically a water molecule, highlighting implementation details and comparing performance with numerical methods.

Contribution

It demonstrates for the first time a water molecule simulation on an analog computer, detailing the setup, implementation challenges, and performance analysis.

Findings

Analog computers can efficiently simulate molecular systems.

The analog simulation of a water molecule is feasible and comparable to numerical methods.

Implementation considerations are critical for accurate analog molecular dynamics.

Abstract

Modern analog computers are ideally suited to solving large systems of ordinary differential equations at high speed with low energy consumtion and limited accuracy. In this article, we survey N-body physics, applied to a simple water model inspired by force fields which are popular in molecular dynamics. We demonstrate a setup which simulate a single water molecule in time. To the best of our knowledge such a simulation has never been done on analog computers before. Important implementation aspects of the model, such as scaling, data range and circuit design, are highlighted. We also analyze the performance and compare the solution with a numerical approach.