In March this year JPCM launched a new section: Computational and experimental methods. This was in response to a need in the community for a platform to showcase novel methodologies. There has been a good reaction to the new section and we’ve received many submissions, both computational and experimental.

Here are a couple of highlights:

In their paper On the validity of empirical potentials for simulating radiation damage in graphite: a benchmark, Christopher Latham et al provide a benchmark for carbon potentials that is applicable to simulations of radiation damage in graphite at the atomic scale. The aim is that this can be used to both test the validity of potentials, and guide their construction.

Alice Dufresne et al propose a general methodology to derive tight-binding potentials accounting for spd hybridization in transition metals, dealing simultaneously with electronic structure and energy properties in How to derive tight-binding spd potentials? Application to zirconium.

We have a number of exciting articles waiting to be published so please do check our latest issues to keep up-to-date with the newest methods in condensed matter physics.

Figures from articles:  C D Latham et al 2015 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 316301 and Alice Dufresne et al 2015 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 336301.  Copyright IOP Publishing.

Categories: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, JPhys+

Tags: Computational physics, Condensed matter physics, Electronic structure, Methods in physics