TY - GEN A1 - Hartmann, Carsten A1 - Banisch, Ralf A1 - Sarich, Marco A1 - Badowski, Thomas A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - Characterization of Rare Events in Molecular Dynamics N2 - A good deal of molecular dynamics simulations aims at predicting and quantifying rare events, such as the folding of a protein or a phase transition. Simulating rare events is often prohibitive, especially if the equations of motion are high-dimensional, as is the case in molecular dynamics. Various algorithms have been proposed for efficiently computing mean first passage times, transition rates or reaction pathways. This article surveys and discusses recent developments in the field of rare event simulation and outlines a new approach that combines ideas from optimal control and statistical mechanics. The optimal control approach described in detail resembles the use of Jarzynski's equality for free energy calculations, but with an optimized protocol that speeds up the sampling, while (theoretically) giving variance-free estimators of the rare events statistics. We illustrate the new approach with two numerical examples and discuss its relation to existing methods. T3 - ZIB-Report - 13-51 KW - rare events KW - moleculare dynamics KW - optimal pathways KW - stochastic control KW - dynamic programming KW - change of measure KW - cumulant generating function Y1 - 2013 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-zib/frontdoor/index/index/docId/4241 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-42410 SN - 1438-0064 ER -