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Zhonghan Hu

Publications and source records attributed to Zhonghan Hu.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Analytic Boundary Terms for Arbitrary Crystal Geometries and Direct-Sum Evaluation of Madelung Constants in Triclinic Lattices

The direct-sum evaluation of Madelung constants is complicated by the conditional convergence of lattice sums, which gives rise to a shape-dependent boundary term. In this work, we present, for the first time, a closed-form analytic expression for this boundary term that is valid for arbitrary crystal geometries. For general triclinic lattices, this boundary term maps exactly onto the electrostatic potential generated by a set of uniformly charged parallelograms. In addition, we demonstrate that the residual finite-size correction for a crystal of characteristic size $p$ decays as $(2p+1)^{-2}$. Building on these results, we develop a robust direct-sum method for the accurate computation of Madelung constants in arbitrary triclinic lattices and validate its effectiveness through explicit calculations on representative Bravais lattices.

cond-mat.other↗
arXiv2026

The Finite Coulomb Lattice Sum: A Resolution of Conditional Convergence through Exact Shape and Size

This work examines conditionally convergent Coulomb lattice sums under periodic boundary conditions. The recently developed finite lattice sum cleanly decomposes the series into three distinct components: a periodic bulk term $ν_{\rm pbc}$, a shape-dependent non-periodic boundary term $ν_{\rm b}$, and a finite-size correction term $ν_{\rm corr}$. This rigorous formulation explicitly parameterizes the geometry of a finite lattice by its exact shape and size and takes an effective pairwise form. We analyze it in detail and compare it with various derivations of lattice sums in the literature. Perspectives on future applications are discussed, including analytical developments for arbitrarily shaped crystals and numerical mesh-type algorithms for condensed matter simulations.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2026

The Madelung Problem of Finite Crystals

The Coulomb potential at an interior ion in a finite crystal of size $p$ is given by a linear superposition of contributions from displacement vectors ${\mathbf r}=(x,y,z)$ to its neighbors. This additive structure underlies universal relationships among Madelung constants and applies to both standard periodic boundary conditions and alternative Clifford supercells. Each pairwise contribution decomposes into three physically distinct components: a periodic bulk term, a quadratic boundary term, and a finite-size correction whose leading order term is $[24r^4-40(x^4+y^4+z^4)]/[9\sqrt{3} (2p+1)^2]$ for cubic crystals with unit lattice constant. Combining this decomposition with linear superposition yields a rapidly convergent direct-summation scheme, accurate even at $p=1$ ($3^3$ unit cells), enabling hands-on calculations of Madelung constants for a wide range of ionic crystals.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2025

Infinite Boundary Terms and Pairwise Interactions: A Unified Framework for Periodic Coulomb Systems

The introduction of the infinite boundary terms and the pairwise interactions [J. Chem. Theory Comput., 10, 5254, (2014)] enables a physically intuitive approach for deriving electrostatic energy and pressure for both neutral and non-neutral systems under the periodic boundary condition (PBC). For a periodic system consisting of $N$ point charges (with charge $q_j$ located at ${\mathbf r}_j$ where $j=1,2,\cdots N$) and one charge distribution of density $ρ({\mathbf r})$ within a primary cell of volume $V$, the derived electrostatic energy can be expressed as, \[ {\mathcal U} = \sum_{i<j}^N q_iq_jν({\mathbf r}_{ij} ) + \sum_{j=1}^N q_j \int_V d{\mathbf r}_0\,ρ({\mathbf r}_0) ν({\mathbf r}_{0j} ) + \frac{1}{2}\int_V d{\mathbf r}_0 \int_V d{\mathbf r}_1\,ρ({\mathbf r}_0)ρ({\mathbf r}_1) ν({\mathbf r}_{01}), \] where ${\mathbf r}_{ij}={\mathbf r}_i - {\mathbf r}_j$ is the relative vector and $ν({\mathbf r})$ represents the effective pairwise interaction under PBC. The charge density $ρ({\mathbf r})$ is free of Delta-function-like divergence throughout the volume but may exhibit discontinuity. This unified formulation directly follows that of the isolated system by replacing the Coulomb interaction $1/\lvert {\mathbf r} \rvert$ or other modified Coulomb interactions with $ν({\mathbf r})$. For a particular system of one-component plasma with a uniform neutralizing background, the implementation of various pairwise formulations clarifies the contribution of the background and subsequently reveals criteria for designing volume-dependent potentials that preserve the simple relation between energy and pressure.

physics.comp-ph↗
arXiv2024

On the relation between the velocity- and position-Verlet integrators

The difference and similarity between the velocity- and position-Verlet integrators are discussed from the viewpoint of their Hamiltonian representations for both linear and nonlinear systems. For a harmonic oscillator, the exact Hamiltonians reveal that positional trajectories generated by the two integrators follow an identical second-order differential equation and thus can be matched by adjusting initial conditions. In contrast, the series expansion of the Hamiltonians for the nonlinear discrete dynamics clearly indicate that the two integrators differ fundamentally. These analytical results are confirmed by simple numerical simulations of harmonic and anharmonic oscillators.

physics.comp-ph↗
arXiv2024

Non-unique Hamiltonians for Discrete Symplectic Dynamics

An outstanding property of any Hamiltonian system is the symplecticity of its flow, namely, the continuous trajectory preserves volume in phase space. Given a symplectic but discrete trajectory generated by a transition matrix applied at a fixed time-increment ($τ> 0$), it was generally believed that there exists a unique Hamiltonian producing a continuous trajectory that coincides at all discrete times ($t = nτ$ with $n$ integers) as long as $τ$ is small enough. However, it is now exactly demonstrated that, for any given discrete symplectic dynamics of a harmonic oscillator, there exist an infinite number of real-valued Hamiltonians for any small value of $τ$ and an infinite number of complex-valued Hamiltonians for any large value of $τ$. In addition, when the transition matrix is similar to a Jordan normal form with the supradiagonal element of $1$ and the two identical diagonal elements of either $1$ or $-1$, only one solution to the Hamiltonian is found for the case with the diagonal elements of $1$, but no solution can be found for the other case.

math-ph↗
arXiv2021

The Symmetry-Preserving Mean Field Condition for Electrostatic Correlations in Bulk

Accurate simulations of a condensed system of ions or polar molecules are concerned with proper handlings of the involved electrostatics. For such a Coulomb system at a charged planar interface, the Coulomb interaction averaged over the lateral directions with preserved symmetry serves as a necessary constraint in building any accurate handling that reconciles a simulated singlet charge density with the corresponding macroscopic charge/dielectric response. At present, this symmetry-preserving mean-field (SPMF) condition represented in the reciprocal space, is conjectured to be necessary for a simulated bulk system to reproduce correctly the charge structure factor of the macroscopic bulk, as well. In this work, we further examine analytically the asymptotic behavior of the charge structure factor at small wavenumbers for an arbitrary charge-charge interaction. In light of our theoretical predictions, simulations with a length of nearly 0.1 micron are carried out to demonstrate that, typical efficient methods violating the SPMF condition indeed fail to capture the exact charge correlations at small wavenumbers for both ionic and polar systems. However, for both types of systems, these existing methods can be simply amended to match the SPMF condition and subsequently to probe precisely the electrostatic correlations at all length scales.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2018

Analytic Theory of Finite-size Effects in Supercell Modelings of Charged Interfaces

The Ewald3D sum with the tinfoil boundary condition (e3dtf) evaluates the electrostatic energy of a finite unit cell inside an infinitely periodic supercell. Although it has been used as a {\it de facto} standard treatment of electrostatics for simulations of extended polar or charged interfaces, the finite-size effect on simulated properties has yet to be fully understood. There is, however, an intuitive way to quantify the average effect arising from the difference between the e3dtf and Coulomb potentials on the response of mobile charges to contact surfaces with fixed charges and/or to an applied external electric field. While any charged interface formed by mobile countercharges that compensate the fixed charges slips upon the change of the acting electric field, the distance between a pair of oppositely charged interfaces is found to be nearly stationary, which allows an analytic finite-size correction to the amount of countercharges. Application of the theory to solvated electric double layers (insulator/electrolyte interfaces) predicts that the state of complete charge compensation is invariant with respect to solvent permittivities, which is confirmed by a proper analysis of simulation data in the literature.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2017

Note: A pairwise form of the Ewald sum for non-neutral systems

Using an example of a mixed discrete-continuum representation of charges under the periodic boundary condition, we show that the exact pairwise form of the Ewald sum, which is well-defined even if the system is non-neutral, provides a natural starting point for deriving unambiguous Coulomb energies that must remove all spurious dependence on the choice of the Ewald screening factor.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2014

Rigorous Error Bounds for Ewald Summation of Electrostatics at Planar Interfaces

We present a rigorous Ewald summation formula to evaluate the electrostatic interactions in two-dimensionally periodic planar interfaces of three-dimensional systems. By rewriting the Fourier part of the summation formula of the original Ewald2D expression with an explicit order N2 complexity to a closed form Fourier integral, we find that both the previously developed electrostatic layer correction term and the boundary correction term naturally arise from the expression of a rigorous trapezoidal summation of the Fourier integral part. We derive the exact corrections to the trapezoidal summation in a form of contour integrals offering precise error bounds with given parameter sets of mesh size and system length. Numerical calculations of Madelung constants in model ionic crystals of slab geometry have been performed to support our analytical results.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2010

On the efficient and accurate short-ranged simulations of uniform polar molecular liquids

We show that spherical truncations of the 1/r interactions in models for water and acetonitrile yield very accurate results in bulk simulations for all site-site pair correlation functions as well as dipole-dipole correlation functions. This good performance in bulk simulations contrasts with the generally poor results found with the use of such truncations in nonuniform molecular systems. We argue that Local Molecular Field (LMF) theory provides a general theoretical framework that gives the necessary corrections to simple truncations in most nonuniform environments and explains the accuracy of spherical truncations in uniform environments by showing that these corrections are very small. LMF theory is derived from the exact Yvon-Born-Green (YBG) hierarchy by making physically-motivated and well-founded approximations. New and technically interesting derivations of both the YBG hierarchy and LMF theory for a variety of site-site molecular models are presented in appendices. The main paper focuses on understanding the accuracy of these spherical truncations in uniform systems both phenomenologically and quantitatively using LMF theory.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗
arXiv2010

Acetonitrile on silica surfaces and at its liquid-vapor interface: structural correlations and collective dynamics

Solvent structure and dynamics of acetonitrile at its liquid-vapor (LV) interface and at the acetonitrile-silica (LS) interface are studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We set up the interfacial system and treat the long-ranged electrostatics carefully to obtain both stable LV and LS interfaces within the same system. Single molecule (singlet) and correlated density orientational profiles and singlet and collective reorientational dynamics are reported for both interfaces. At the LS interface acetonitrile forms layers. The closest sublayer is dominated by nitrogen atoms bonding to the hydrogen sites of the silica surface. The singlet molecular reorientation is strongly hindered when close to the silica surface, but at the LV interface it relaxes much faster than in the bulk. Antiparallel correlations between acetonitrile molecules at the LV interface are even stronger than in the bulk liquid phase. This strong antiparallel correlation disappears at the LS interface. The collective reorientational relaxation of the first layer acetonitrile is much faster than the singlet reorientational relaxation but it is still slower than in the bulk. These results are interpreted with reference to a variety of recent experiments. We found that defining interface properties based on the distribution of positions of different choices of atoms or sites within the molecule leads to apparently different orientational profiles, especially at the LV interface. We provide a general formulation showing that this ambiguity arises when the size of the molecule is comparable to the interfacial width and is particularly significant when there is a large difference in density at the upper and lower boundaries of the interface. We finally analyze the effect of electrostatics to show the necessity of properly treating long-ranged electrostatics for simulations of interfacial systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2010

Efficient solutions of self-consistent mean field equations for dewetting and electrostatics in nonuniform liquids

We use a new configuration-based version of linear response theory to efficiently solve self-consistent mean field equations relating an effective single particle potential to the induced density. The versatility and accuracy of the method is illustrated by applications to dewetting of a hard sphere solute in a Lennard-Jones fluid, the interplay between local hydrogen bond structure and electrostatics for water confined between two hydrophobic walls, and to ion pairing in ionic solutions. Simulation time has been reduced by more than an order of magnitude over previous methods.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗