[gmx-users] question about periodic boundary conditions

Justin A. Lemkul jalemkul at vt.edu
Wed Oct 20 23:47:53 CEST 2010



rainy908 at yahoo.com wrote:
> 
> Justin,
> 
> I have a single solute.  But I understand what you're saying about the 
> cutoff.  My long-range cutoff is set to 1.2 nm (from MARTINI force 
> field), so therefore, the snapshots corresponding to a minimum periodic 
> distance of < 1.2 nm would agree with the overlap witnessed in VMD?
> 

Indeed.  You've violated the minimum image convention.

-Justin

> Thanks again,
> Lili
> 
> On 20 October 2010 13:58, Justin A. Lemkul <jalemkul at vt.edu 
> <mailto:jalemkul at vt.edu>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>     rainy908 at yahoo.com <mailto:rainy908 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>         Hi Justin,
> 
>         Thanks for getting back to me.  I executed the following command
>         using g_mindist:
> 
>         $gromacs/g_mindist -pi -f n12_random_all.xtc -s n12_random.tpr
>         -n index.ndx -od mindist.xvg
> 
>         ..and got the output (see below).  It shows that the minimal
>         distance to periodic image is at the most a few nm, but when I
>         look in VMD, it is very apparent that there overlap between
>         portions of the molecule.  If so, wouldn't the minimal distance
>         be negative? I've even executed the above command with the -pbc
>         flag, and get the same output.
>         I'm not sure how to interpret these results.    Any additional
>         feedback on your end would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> 
>     Without context, I don't know how to interpret your results either.
>      Do you have a single solute?  Or multiple equivalent molecules?
> 
>     If you have a single solute, I think it's quite likely that your
>     molecule of interest has seen its periodic image.  You shouldn't be
>     concerned with the largest value you see, you should be concerned
>     with the smallest.  Towards the end of your output, you've got
>     values as low as ~0.55 nm.  I'm assuming that you're using
>     conventional cutoffs of no smaller than 1.0 nm or so, in which case
>     you've very clearly violated the minimum image convention.  This
>     agrees with your observations using VMD.
> 
>     -Justin
> 
>         Thanks,
>         Lili
> 
> 
> 
>         # Giant Rising Ordinary Mutants for A Clerical Setup
>         #
>         @    title "Minimum distance to periodic image"
>         @    xaxis  label "Time (ps)"
>         @    yaxis  label "Distance (nm)"
>         @TYPE xy
>         @ subtitle "and maximum internal distance"
>         @ view 0.15, 0.15, 0.75, 0.85
>         @ legend on
>         @ legend box on
>         @ legend loctype view
>         @ legend 0.78, 0.8
>         @ legend length 2
>         @ s0 legend "min per."
>         @ s1 legend "max int."
>         @ s2 legend "box1"
>         @ s3 legend "box2"
>         @ s4 legend "box3"
>                0        4.226 22.198 20.402  8.824 15.015
>                500      3.475 21.944 19.423  8.400 14.296
>                1000     4.266 21.065 19.420  8.397 14.295
>                1500     3.934 21.430 19.421  8.396 14.297
>                2000     3.999 21.850 19.424  8.395 14.301
>                2500     4.031 20.793 19.426  8.394 14.303
>                3000     3.469 21.160 19.425  8.392 14.304
>                3500     3.902 21.372 19.425  8.390 14.305
>                4000     4.321 20.999 19.424  8.388 14.306
>                4500     4.667 19.447 19.428  8.388 14.310
>                5000     4.794 19.991 19.430  8.387 14.312
>                5500     4.909 19.142 19.430  8.384 14.313
>                6000     5.317 19.153 19.432  8.383 14.315
>                6500     5.110 19.223 19.431  8.381 14.315
>                7000     4.864 19.127 19.434  8.380 14.318
>                7500     4.246 18.680 19.438  8.380 14.322
>                8000     4.508 18.937 19.438  8.377 14.322
>                8500     4.441 17.865 19.440  8.376 14.324
>                9000     4.104 19.036 19.438  8.373 14.324
>                9500     4.676 18.528 19.439  8.371 14.325
>                10000    4.313 18.953 19.443  8.371 14.328
>                10500    4.045 18.462 19.441  8.368 14.328
>                11000    5.013 19.162 19.443  8.367 14.330
>                11500    5.131 18.435 19.446  8.366 14.333
>                12000    5.054 17.814 19.447  8.364 14.335
>                12500    4.792 17.266 19.445  8.361 14.334
>                13000    3.684 16.897 19.451  8.361 14.339
>                13500    3.885 16.450 19.451  8.359 14.340
>                14000    4.007 17.088 19.453  8.357 14.342
>                14500    3.846 17.498 19.456  8.356 14.345
> 
>         <snip>
> 
>                172500   0.619 12.210 19.702  7.999 14.791
>                173000   0.668 12.609 19.703  8.000 14.793
>                173500   0.559 12.401 19.702  7.999 14.793
>                174000   0.507 12.638 19.701  8.000 14.794
>                174500   0.518 12.512 19.697  7.998 14.792
>                175000   0.757 12.316 19.701  8.000 14.796
>                175500   0.581 12.105 19.696  7.998 14.793
>                176000   0.810 11.777 19.696  7.999 14.794
>                176500   0.763 11.521 19.694  7.998 14.794
>                177000   0.666 11.886 19.697  7.999 14.797
>                177500   0.760 11.598 19.694  7.999 14.796
>                178000   0.495 11.356 19.689  7.997 14.793
>                178500   0.782 11.741 19.693  7.999 14.797
>                179000   0.509 11.908 19.692  7.999 14.798
>                179500   0.654 12.413 19.690  7.998 14.797
>                180000   0.840 12.171 19.694  8.000 14.801
>                180500   0.631 12.090 19.690  7.999 14.800
>                181000   0.511 12.345 19.692  8.000 14.802
>                181500   0.494 12.205 19.688  7.999 14.801
>                182000   0.579 13.061 19.689  8.000 14.803
>                182500   0.496 13.220 19.687  7.999 14.803
> 
>         <snip>
> 
>                1.02e+06         0.785 13.881 19.555  7.999 14.902
>                1.0205e+06       0.920 13.526 19.552  7.998 14.900
>                1.021e+06        0.764 12.981 19.551  7.998 14.899
>                1.0215e+06       1.000 13.326 19.554  7.999 14.901
>                1.022e+06        0.983 13.016 19.552  7.998 14.899
>                1.0225e+06       0.969 13.209 19.553  7.999 14.900
>                1.023e+06        0.826 13.377 19.555  7.999 14.901
>                1.0235e+06       0.717 12.895 19.555  7.999 14.901
>                1.024e+06        0.868 13.191 19.555  7.999 14.902
>                1.0245e+06       0.868 12.682 19.557  8.000 14.903
>                1.025e+06        0.524 12.980 19.556  8.000 14.903
>                1.0255e+06       0.468 13.197 19.558  8.001 14.904
>                1.026e+06        0.715 13.212 19.554  7.999 14.901
>                1.0265e+06       0.547 12.988 19.556  7.999 14.902
>                1.027e+06        0.777 12.686 19.552  7.998 14.900
>                1.0275e+06       0.798 12.490 19.555  7.999 14.902
>                1.028e+06        0.702 12.716 19.554  7.999 14.901
>                1.0285e+06       0.661 12.851 19.555  7.999 14.902
>                1.029e+06        0.505 12.433 19.553  7.999 14.901
>                1.0295e+06       0.889 12.451 19.557  8.000 14.904
>                1.03e+06         0.769 12.860 19.553  7.998 14.900
>                1.0305e+06       0.558 12.903 19.559  8.001 14.905
>                1.031e+06        0.857 13.268 19.557  8.000 14.904
> 
> 
>         On 20 October 2010 13:22, Justin A. Lemkul <jalemkul at vt.edu
>         <mailto:jalemkul at vt.edu> <mailto:jalemkul at vt.edu
>         <mailto:jalemkul at vt.edu>>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
>            rainy908 at yahoo.com <mailto:rainy908 at yahoo.com>
>         <mailto:rainy908 at yahoo.com <mailto:rainy908 at yahoo.com>> wrote:
> 
>                Hi,
> 
>                Is there a way to quantitatively determine, from a trajectory
>                file, whether a molecule is interacting with a copy of
>         itself in
>                the adjacent box (given that PBC is applied)?  Currently, I'm
>                using VMD - I've already loaded the *xtc file into the*gro
>                structure file and viewed the "periodic images to draw" under
>                the Periodic tab of Graphical Representations.
>                But I figure there's got to be an analytical way to do this,
>                using g_dist or g_mindist?  How the molecule is interacting
>                (with its adjacent copy) is not the primary interest - I just
>                want to know whether interactions among adjacent
>         molecules are
>                occurring.
> 
> 
>             >From g_mindist -h:
> 
>            "With option -pi the minimum distance of a group to its periodic
>            image is
>            plotted. This is useful for checking if a protein has seen its
>            periodic image
>            during a simulation. Only one shift in each direction is
>         considered,
>            giving a
>            total of 26 shifts. It also plots the maximum distance within the
>            group and
>            the lengths of the three box vectors."
> 
>            -Justin
> 
> 
>                Does anyone have any ideas?
> 
>                Thanks,
>                Lili
> 
> 
>            --     ========================================
> 
>            Justin A. Lemkul
>            Ph.D. Candidate
>            ICTAS Doctoral Scholar
>            MILES-IGERT Trainee
>            Department of Biochemistry
>            Virginia Tech
>            Blacksburg, VA
>            jalemkul[at]vt.edu <http://vt.edu> <http://vt.edu> | (540)
>         231-9080
> 
>            http://www.bevanlab.biochem.vt.edu/Pages/Personal/justin
> 
>            ========================================
> 
> 
> 
>     -- 
>     ========================================
> 
>     Justin A. Lemkul
>     Ph.D. Candidate
>     ICTAS Doctoral Scholar
>     MILES-IGERT Trainee
>     Department of Biochemistry
>     Virginia Tech
>     Blacksburg, VA
>     jalemkul[at]vt.edu <http://vt.edu> | (540) 231-9080
>     http://www.bevanlab.biochem.vt.edu/Pages/Personal/justin
> 
>     ========================================
>     -- 
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> 

-- 
========================================

Justin A. Lemkul
Ph.D. Candidate
ICTAS Doctoral Scholar
MILES-IGERT Trainee
Department of Biochemistry
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA
jalemkul[at]vt.edu | (540) 231-9080
http://www.bevanlab.biochem.vt.edu/Pages/Personal/justin

========================================



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