[gmx-users] What is the autocorrelation time

[Christopher Neale]

Dear Erik:

I thought about your comment for a while and I have come to understand that you are correct. The exponential (or integral) autocorrelation time is a mathematical construct and is defined as such. What I was looking for was an interpretation of the autocorrelation time in terms of the time required to decorrelate the sampling.

As to whether or not this will depend on the nature of the data, I don't really understand your conjecture. If the interpretation of the autocorrelation time depends on the nature of the data, then that implies to me that a single scalar value is useless in this case. I don't understand how it could be useful to represent the autocorrelation time by a single number if that number does not mean anything on its own. If you have time, I would appreciate if you could elaborate on this point.

Thank you,
Chris.

-- original message --

Aren't you looking for an interpretation rather than a definition? And will this not depend on the nature of the data?

Best,

Erik