Comment on ``Quasisaddles as relevant points of the potential energy surface in the dynamics of supercooled liquids'' [J. Chem. Phys. 116, 10297 (2002); cond-mat/0203301]

TL;DR

This paper critiques the idea that minima of the gradient squared function in supercooled liquids are nearly saddles, highlighting implications for interpreting potential energy surface analyses.

Contribution

It challenges the notion that these minima are quasisaddles, clarifying their true nature and impact on supercooled liquids studies.

Findings

Most minima of the gradient squared function are local minima, not saddles.

The concept of quasisaddles is misleading for interpreting potential energy surfaces.

Implications affect the analysis of supercooled liquids' dynamics.

Abstract

Recently, the properties of supercooled liquids have been studied by mapping instaneous configurations onto minima of the gradient squared. It was originally suggested that this mapping would probe higher-order saddle points of the potential energy surface. However, it was subsequently shown that the majority of the minima of this function are only local minima and so do not correspond to saddles. In this comment, we provide a critique of the suggestion made by Angelani et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 116, 10297 (2002); cond-mat/0203301] that although these minima are not true saddles, they are almost saddles (hence the term quasisaddles). This issue has important implications for the interpretation of the results obtained by this approach.