A question about the number of neighbors for each atom in pair_airebo.cpp

Hi all,
I start to read the codes of LAMMPS recently and I have a question when I’m reading pair_airebo.cpp. As is known, a new neighbor list is built from the main neighbor list to calculate the REBO potential in pair_airebo.cpp. This neighbor list is built in REBO_neigh(). To understand this subroutine, I build two layers of graphene with AB stacking as the initial configuration to do some tests. I set periodic boundary condition both in x and y directions. What I want to know is how many neighbors for each atom. To do this, I add a line in pair_airebo.cpp (Bold) to output the results. The subroutine REBO_neigh() is like follows:

/* ----------------------------------------------------------------------
create REBO neighbor list from main neighbor list
REBO neighbor list stores neighbors of ghost atoms
------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
void PairAIREBO::REBO_neigh()
{
int i,j,ii,jj,n,allnum,jnum,itype,jtype;
double xtmp,ytmp,ztmp,delx,dely,delz,rsq,dS;
int *ilist,*jlist,*numneigh,**firstneigh;
int *neighptr;

double **x = atom->x;
int *type = atom->type;

if (atom->nmax > maxlocal) {
maxlocal = atom->nmax;
memory->destroy(REBO_numneigh);
memory->sfree(REBO_firstneigh);
memory->destroy(nC);
memory->destroy(nH);
memory->create(REBO_numneigh,maxlocal,“AIREBO:numneigh”);
REBO_firstneigh = (int **) memory->smalloc(maxlocal*sizeof(int *),
“AIREBO:firstneigh”);
memory->create(nC,maxlocal,“AIREBO:nC”);
memory->create(nH,maxlocal,“AIREBO:nH”);
}
allnum = list->inum + list->gnum;

ilist = list->ilist;
numneigh = list->numneigh;
firstneigh = list->firstneigh;
// store all REBO neighs of owned and ghost atoms
// scan full neighbor list of I
ipage->reset();
for (ii = 0; ii < allnum; ii++) {
i = ilist[ii];
n = 0;
neighptr = ipage->vget();
xtmp = x[i][0];
ytmp = x[i][1];
ztmp = x[i][2];
itype = map[type[i]];
nC[i] = nH[i] = 0.0;
jlist = firstneigh[i];
jnum = numneigh[i];

for (jj = 0; jj < jnum; jj++) {
j = jlist[jj];
j &= NEIGHMASK;
jtype = map[type[j]];
delx = xtmp - x[j][0];
dely = ytmp - x[j][1];
delz = ztmp - x[j][2];
rsq = delxdelx + delydely + delz*delz;
if (rsq < rcmaxsq[itype][jtype]) {
neighptr[n++] = j;
if (jtype == 0)
nC[i] += Sp(sqrt(rsq),rcmin[itype][jtype],rcmax[itype][jtype],dS);
else
nH[i] += Sp(sqrt(rsq),rcmin[itype][jtype],rcmax[itype][jtype],dS);
}
}
REBO_firstneigh[i] = neighptr;
REBO_numneigh[i] = n;
fprintf (screen,"%d %d %d %d %d %d %d %d %d %f %f %f %f\n",allnum,list->inum,n,i,j,type[i],type[j],itype,jtype,rsq,delx,dely,delz);
ipage->vgot(n);
if (ipage->status())
error->one(FLERR,“Neighbor list overflow, boost neigh_modify one”);
}

The total number of atoms in my configuration is 1760 and the number of neighbors for each atom is n. If I understand correctly, allnum is the number of atoms on each proc plus its ghost atoms.
I run lammps with one core so inum=1760. I found that when i&j < 1760, n = 3. While for i,j > 1760, the typical output is like follows:
allnum,list->inum,n,i,j,type[i],type[j],itype,jtype,rsq,delx,dely,delz

4086 1760 2 1976 2028 2 2 0 0 5.861532 0.000000 -2.421060 0.000000
4086 1760 1 2016 2033 1 2 0 0 13.310768 0.698900 -1.210540 -3.370000
4086 1760 1 2021 2081 1 1 0 0 5.861532 0.000000 -2.421060 0.000000

From these output, it seems that the number of neighbors for the gohst atom is less than 3. But this result confuses me since I set PBC in x and y directions and the number of neighbors for each atom should be always 3.
Maybe I misunderstand the meaning of ghost atom? Could anybody tell me what’s the reason?

Any input in greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

Best,
Huang

Ghost atoms only extend a finite distance (the potential cutoff),

do there have to be some ghost atoms that do not have a full

set of neighbors, b/c those neighbors are beyond the cutoff.

I don’t know if that is the effect you are seeing, but regardless

the AIREBO code is dealing with the ghost neighbors correctly.

Otherwise you would get (wildly) different results for varying

numbers of processors.

Steve