Ab initio and classical molecular dynamics calculations of the high-pressure melting of Ne

Abstract

Classical molecular dynamics (CMD) calculations are fast but are heavily dependent on the potential feasibility. On the other hand, first-principles (ab initio) molecular dynamics (AIMD) does not use any empirical knowledge, but can be extremely time consuming. As both techniques have been applied to study melting at extreme conditions, a comparison of the methods is motivated. Furthermore, when melting is studied with MD, the use of coexistent solid and liquid structures (two-phase) in the initial simulation configuration, instead of a only a solid structure (one-phase), can have a significant impact. In this work, comparisons have been made between CMD and AIMD methods applied to one- and two-phase systems for the melting of Ne at high pressure.