Statistical Physics Problems in Adaptive Resolution Computer Simulations of Complex Fluids

Abstract

Simulating complex fluids or in general complex molecular systems requires approaches covering decades of time and length scales. This usually cannot be achieved within one simulation model. Over the years many different methods and models have been developed ranging from rather generic models, representing most efficiently the universal statistical mechanical properties of e.g. polymers, to all atom models and even quantum mechanical treatments. While these allow for scientifically very important studies in their own right, only a combination and close link between models of different levels allows for a truly quantitative description of materials and processes. In the present contribution we discuss an adaptive resolution approach where different levels of detail are treated within one simulation and the molecules are free to diffuse between different regions in space, where the molecules interact with different interaction potentials.