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Potential energy is the energy by virtue of an object's position relative to other objects. [6] Potential energy is often associated with restoring forces such as a spring or the force of gravity. The action of stretching a spring or lifting a mass is performed by an external force that works against the force field of the potential.
A potential energy surface (PES) or energy landscape describes the energy of a system, especially a collection of atoms, in terms of certain parameters, normally the positions of the atoms. The surface might define the energy as a function of one or more coordinates; if there is only one coordinate, the surface is called a potential energy ...
The graph of a 2D potential energy function is a potential energy surface that can be imagined as the Earth's surface in a landscape of hills and valleys. Then a potential well would be a valley surrounded on all sides with higher terrain, which thus could be filled with water (e.g., be a lake ) without any water flowing away toward another ...
The Lennard-Jones potential is a simple model that still manages to describe the essential features of interactions between simple atoms and molecules: Two interacting particles repel each other at very close distance, attract each other at moderate distance, and eventually stop interacting at infinite distance, as shown in the Figure.
In simplest terms, a potential energy surface or PES is a mathematical or graphical representation of the relation between energy of a molecule and its geometry. The methods for describing the potential energy are broken down into a classical mechanics interpretation (molecular mechanics) and a quantum mechanical interpretation.
Another class of machine-learned interatomic potential is the Gaussian approximation potential (GAP), [87] [88] [89] which combines compact descriptors of local atomic environments [90] with Gaussian process regression [91] to machine learn the potential energy surface of a given system.
The Morse potential, named after physicist Philip M. Morse, is a convenient interatomic interaction model for the potential energy of a diatomic molecule.It is a better approximation for the vibrational structure of the molecule than the quantum harmonic oscillator because it explicitly includes the effects of bond breaking, such as the existence of unbound states.
The minimum total potential energy principle is a fundamental concept used in physics and engineering.It dictates that at low temperatures a structure or body shall deform or displace to a position that (locally) minimizes the total potential energy, with the lost potential energy being converted into kinetic energy (specifically heat).