TY - THES A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - Conformational Dynamics: Modelling, Theory, Algorithm, and Application to Biomolecules N2 - The function of many important biomolecules comes from their dynamic properties and their ability to switch between different {\em conformations}. In a conformation, the large scale geometric structure of the molecule is understood to be conserved, whereas on smaller scales the system may well rotate, oscillate or fluctuate. In a recent article [J. Comp. Phys., 151,1 (1999)], the present author and coworkers demonstrated that (a) conformations can be understood as almost invariant sets of some Markov chain being defined via the Hamiltonian system governing the molecular dynamics and that (b) these sets can efficiently be computed via eigenvectors of the corresponding Markov operator. The persent manuscript reviews the mathematical modelling steps behind the novel concept, includes a rigorous analytical justification of this approach and especially of the numerical details of the algorithm, and illustrates its performance when applied to realistic molecular systems. T3 - ZIB-Report - SC-99-18 KW - biochemical conformation KW - almost invariant set KW - Markov chain KW - Hamiltonian system KW - Markov operator KW - quasi-compact operator KW - Perron root KW - Perron- Y1 - 1999 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-4063 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Leimkuhler, Benedict A1 - Reich, Sebastian T1 - The Numerical Solution of Constrained Hamiltonian Systems. N2 - A Hamiltonian system subject to smooth constraints can typically be viewed as a Hamiltonian system on a manifold. Numerical computations, however, must be performed in $ R^n$. In this paper, canonical transformations from ``Hamiltonian differential--algebraic equations'' to ODEs in Euclidean space are considered. In \S2, canonical parameterizations or local charts are developed and it is shown how these can be computed in a practical framework. In \S3 we consider the construction of unconstrained Hamiltonian ODE systems in the space in which the constraint manifold is embedded which preserve the constraint manifold as an integral invariant and whose flow reduces to the flow of the constrained system along the manifold. It is shown that certain of these unconstrained Hamiltonian systems force Lyapunov stability of the constraint--invariants, while others lead to an unstable invariant. In \S4, we compare various projection techniques which might be incorporated to better insure preservation of the constraint--invariants in the context of numerical discretization. Numerical experiments illustrate the degree to which the constraint and symplectic invariants are maintained under discretization of various formulations. {\bf Keywords:} differential--algebraic equations, Hamiltonian systems, canonical discretization schemes. {\bf AMS(MOS):} subject classification 65L05. T3 - ZIB-Report - SC-92-16 KW - differential algebraic equations KW - Hamiltonian system KW - canonical discretization schemes Y1 - 1992 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-868 ER -