Testing the fourth moment approximation of vibrational mode lifetimes in fcc Lennard-Jonesium

Y Gao and MS Daw, MODELLING AND SIMULATION IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, 22, 075011 (2014).

DOI: 10.1088/0965-0393/22/7/075011

A recently proposed method of approximating the vibrational mode lifetimes in insulators is based on ensemble averages of displacements and forces. In this report, the so-called 'fourth-moment approximation' is tested against the conventional 'ensemble molecular dynamics' method on vibrational modes in fcc 'Lennard-Jonesium'. Cells of 4, 8, 16, and 32 atoms are used as a testbed for comparing the two methods. The results show that the moments method gives a quite reasonable accounting of the vibrational mode lifetimes in these cells at all temperatures and is orders of magnitude faster than the MD-based approach.

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