Simulationsmethoden in der Physik 2 / Simulation methods in physics 2 (SS 2011)

Simulation Methods in Physics II

Type

Lecture (2 SWS) and Tutorials (1 SWS)

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Christian Holm (Lecture); Marcello Sega and Peter Košovan (Tutorials)

Course language

Deutsch oder Englisch, wie gewünscht - German or English, by vote

Lectures

Time: Thursdays, 11:30 - 13:00, Room V 57.06

Tutorials

Time: Wednesday, 17:00-18.30, 2 hours/(every other week)

The lecture is accompanied by hands-on-tutorials which will take place in the CIP-Pool of the ICP, Pfaffenwaldring 27, U 108. They consist of practical exercises at the computer, like small programming tasks, simulations, visualization and data analysis. The tutorials build on each other, therefore continuous attendance is expected.

Note: students from the COMMAS master will have to attend tutorials every week, and one extra tutorial is expected. Course can count then as 2SWS plus 2SWS tutorials

Scope

The course intends to give an overview about modern simulation methods used in physics today. The stress of the lecture will be to introduce different approaches to simulate a problem, hence we will not go too to deep into specific details but rather try to cover a broad range of methods. In more detail, the lecture will consist of:

to be done

.

Prerequisites

We expect the participants to have basic knowledge in classical and statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, electrodynamics, and partial differential equations, as well as knowledge of a programming language (preferably C or C++). The knowledge of the previous course Simulation Methods I is expected.

Certificate Requirements:

1. Attendance of the exercise classes

2. Obtaining 50% of the possible marks in the hand-in exercises

There will be a final grade for the Module "Simulation Methods" (this module consists of both lectures, Sim I plus Sim II) determined at the end of lecture Simulation Methods II.

The final grade will be determined in the following way :

1. There will be an oral examination performed at (or after) the end of the course Simulation Methods II (SS 2011).

NOTE: students from the COMMAS master will have to present, at the end of the course, a supplementary project (topic to be discussed with tutors).

Lecture

Date	Subject
28.04.2011
05.05.2011
12.05.2011
19.05.2011
26.05.2011
09.06.2011
16.06.2011
30.06.2011
07.07.2011
14.07.2011
21.07.2011
28.07.2011

Tutorials (U 108)

Obtaining extra points

First person who identifies a bug in the code provided by the tutors gets an extra point and one additional extra point if he/she can fix the bug. Same applies to finding a mistake in the worksheets which significantly changes the meaning. We are also thankful for pointing out misprints but these are not awarded extra points.

Scheduling of tutorials

Tutorials are scheduled every two weeks (see table below). In the week between the tutorials, the tutors will be available to help the you with any problems. Since participation is optional, it is recommended that you notify the tutors that they are intending to come and seek their assistance.

Week	Date	Topic
1.	4.5.	T1: Error analysis
3.	18.5.	T2: Gromacs - simulation of water
5.	1.6.	T3: ESPResSo - simulation of a coarse-grained polymer
8.	22.6.	T4: ESPResSo - simulation of a charged rod with counter-ions
10.	6.7.	T5: ESPResSo - Lattice-Boltzmann fluid
12.	20.7.	T6: Advanced MC/MD
13.	27.7.	Closing ceremony

Guidelines for submitting the homework

Homework for the tutorials should be submitted in the form of a report. It has to be submitted via e-mail as a single pdf document or alternatively as a paper printout. Handwritten reports will be accepted. Source code should always be sent via e-mail. If the code concerns only a few lines, it may be included in the text of the report. Reports clearly not meeting these requirements may be rejected without evaluation.

Identical pieces of reports annihilate when submitted by different people producing anti-points for both. The amount of anti-points grows exponentially with the similarity. It is fine if you help each other and discuss your results, but each part of the report has to be an original, not a copy from your neighbour.

If you have a technical problem on the CIP pool computers, e.g. a missing program or library or something else which does not allow you to perform a certain task, ask the tutor for assistance. Saying in your report "I was not able to run program XXX, therefore I do not provide answer to Task YY." cannot be awarded any points.

Deadline

Approximately 10 days after the tutorial, but no later than Monday 8:00 of the week when the next worksheet is going to be handed out. Reports on paper can be handed in personally until lunch break on Monday.

In case of special circumstances (illness, accident, ...) contact the tutor immediately via e-mail to agree on an alternative deadline.

Text of the report

Has to contain author name, student ID and date.

Should be subdivided into sections, each section being clearly related to one task of the homework.

Must be written in sentences, not points like in a presentation.

All conclusions must be explained and when appropriate, supported by data (plots, tables). In case a derivation is required, all intermediate steps have to be clearly understandable or explained in the text.

For each simulation, it has to be clear, what were the input parameters, so that it can be re-run.

Figures and plots

Each figure has to have a number and a caption or title saying what is in the figure.

In text, refer to figures by the number or title, so that it is clear which figure you are referring to.

Each plot has to have labels on axes with font size comparable to other text. Plots without labels will not be considered.

Data points should fill a major part of plot area. The point size, x- and y-scales have to be chosen appropriately so that all important features can be seen.

All figures have to be included in the report. Figures sent as separate files will not be considered.

You may optionally provide the data files. If there is a problem in your work, it may help the tutor understand where you made a mistake.

Source files

Remember that someone has to read your code, understand it and check that it is correct.

Provide all files in which you made changes!

Use variables with intuitively understandable names. If not, at least put a comment saying what it means.

If the code is more complex, add comments to it. Especially to parts which may not be straightforward to understand.

We recommend that you indent your code for better readability.

Recommended literature

• Daan Frenkel, Berend Smit.
  Understanding Molecular Simulation: From Algorithms to Applications.
  Part of Computational Science, volume 1. Edition 2.
  Academic Press, San Diego, 2002. ISBN: 978-0-12-267351-1.
  [DOI]
• Mike P. Allen, Dominik J. Tildesley.
  Computer Simulation of Liquids.
  Part of Oxford Science Publications. Edition 1.
  Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987.
  
• D. C. Rapaport.
  The Art of Molecular Dynamics Simulation.
  Edition 2.
  Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780511816581.
  [DOI]
• D. P. Landau, K. Binder.
  A guide to Monte Carlo Simulations in Statistical Physics.
  Edition second edition.
  Cambridge, 2005.
  
• M. E. J. Newman, G. T. Barkema.
  Monte Carlo Methods in Statistical Physics.
  Edition 2002 edition.
  Oxford University Press, 1999.
  

Useful online resources

• E-book: D.P. Landau and K. Binder: A guide to Monte Carlo Simulations in Statistical Physics

• Linux cheat sheet here (53 KB).

• A good and freely available book about using Linux: Introduction to Linux by M. Garrels

• Not so frequently asked questions about GNUPLOT (Often used by myself as a cheat sheet)

• Introduction to Molecular Simulation and Statistical Thermodynamics

• Becareful when using Wiki-type of resources. They may contain a lot of useful information, but also a lot of nonsense, because anyone can write into them.