2022/01/04 by Frank Smallenburg, Smallenburg, Frank · 9 citations
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Parallel Computing and Optimization Techniques #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Stochastic processes and statistical mechanics #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2201.01100
openalex publication_date 2022/01/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Hard spheres are arguably one of the most fundamental model systems in soft matter physics, and hence a common topic of simulation studies. Event-driven simulation methods provide an efficient method for studying the phase behavior and dynamics of hard spheres under a wide range of different conditions. Here, we examine the impact of several optimization strategies for speeding up event-driven molecular dynamics of hard spheres, and present a light-weight simulation code that outperforms existing simulation codes over a large range of system sizes and packing fractions. The presented differences in simulation speed, typically a factor of five to ten, save significantly on both CPU time and energy consumption, and may be a crucial factor for studying slow processes such as crystal nucleation and glassy dynamics.