Interfacing the Core-Shell or the Drude Polarizable Force Field With Car–Parrinello Molecular Dynamics for QM/MM Simulations

Sudhir K. Sahoo, Nisanth N. Nair

We report a quantum mechanics/polarizable-molecular mechanics (QM/p-MM) potential based molecular dynamics (MD) technique where the core-shell (or the Drude) type polarizable MM force field is interfaced with the plane-wave density functional theory based QM force field which allows Car-Parrinello MD for the QM subsystem. In the QM/p-MM Lagrangian proposed here, the shell (or the Drude) MM variables are treated as extended degrees of freedom along with the Kohn-Sham (KS) orbitals describing the QM wavefunction. The shell and the KS orbital degrees of freedom are then adiabatically decoupled from the nuclear degrees of freedom. In this respect, we also present here the Nosé-Hoover Chain thermostat implementation for the dynamical subsystems. Our approach is then used to investigate the effect of MM polarization on the QM/MM results. Especially, the consequence of MM polarization on reaction free energy barriers, defect formation energy, and structural and dynamical properties are investigated. A low point charge polarizable potential (p-MZHB) for pure siliceous systems is also reported here.