Overview
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6 statements · 33% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations
On other databases
5 identifiers linking force field across the web's reference databases
6 statements · 33% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations
5 identifiers linking force field across the web's reference databases
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0
In the context of chemistry, molecular physics, physical chemistry, and molecular modelling, a force field is a computational model that is used to describe the forces between atoms within molecules or between molecules as well as in crystals. Force fields are a variety of interatomic potentials. More precisely, the force field refers to the functional form and parameter sets used to calculate the potential energy of a system on the atomistic level. Force fields are usually used in molecular dynamics or Monte Carlo simulations. The parameters for a chosen energy function may be derived from classical laboratory experiment data, calculations in quantum mechanics, or both. Force fields utilize the same concept as force fields in classical physics, with the main difference being that the force field parameters in chemistry describe the energy landscape on the atomistic level. From a force field, the acting forces on every particle are derived as a gradient of the potential energy with respect to the particle coordinates.