d-SEAMS: Deferred Structural Elucidation Analysis for Molecular Simulations

Rohit Goswami, Amrita Goswami, Jayant Kumar Singh
Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling 2020

Code

Data

BibTeX
@article{Goswami2020,
  author = {Goswami, Rohit and Goswami, Amrita and Singh, Jayant Kumar},
  title = {d-SEAMS: Deferred Structural Elucidation Analysis for
                  Molecular Simulations},
  journal = {Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling},
  year = {2020},
  month = {3},
  day = {20},
  publisher = {American Chemical Society},
  abstract = {Structural analyses are an integral part of computational
                  research on nucleation and supercooled water, whose accuracy
                  and efficiency can impact the validity and feasibility of such
                  studies. The underlying molecular mechanisms of these often
                  elusive and computationally expensive processes can be
                  inferred from the evolution of ice-like structures, determined
                  using appropriate structural analysis techniques. We present
                  d-SEAMS, a free and open-source post-processing engine for the
                  analysis of molecular dynamics trajectories, which is
                  specifically able to qualitatively classify ice structures, in
                  both strong confinement and bulk systems. For the first time,
                  recent algorithms for confined ice structure determination
                  have been implemented, along with topological network criteria
                  for bulk ice structure determination. We also propose and
                  validate a new order parameter for identifying the building
                  blocks of quasi-two-dimensional ice. Recognizing the need for
                  customization in structural analysis, d-SEAMS has a unique
                  code architecture, built with nix, employing a YAML-Lua
                  scripting pipeline. The software has been designed to be
                  user-friendly and extensible. The engine outputs are
                  compatible with popular graphics software suites, allowing for
                  immediate visual insights into the systems studied. We
                  demonstrate the features of d-SEAMS by using it to analyze
                  nucleation in the bulk regime and for quasi-one and
                  quasi-two-dimensional systems. Structural time evolution and
                  quantitative metrics are determined for heterogenous ice
                  nucleation on a silver-exposed b-AgI surface, homogenous ice
                  nucleation, flat monolayer square ice formation and freezing
                  of an ice nanotube.},
  issn = {1549-9596},
  doi = {10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00031},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {1909.09830},
  eprinttype = {arxiv},
  keywords = {journal, selected},
}