Dipole precessing in Electric Field

Hi,

I have performed a simple test to check the behavior of point dipoles in electric fields and the outcome seems to indicate that there is something wrong.

Basically, I run a simulation with one point dipole initially directed along the Z-direction in a static field directed along the Y-direction. The particle starts with zero velocity and I run the simulation in the nve ensemble (see below). I would expect a precession about the Y-axis, but instead I get a partial precession about the X-axis. By “partial precession” I mean that the moment rotates 180 degrees and then goes backwards. Both, the direction of precession and the trajectory seem to be unphysical.

I didn’t find any reference to this problem in the mailing list.

I define the atom using:

atom_style hybrid sphere dipole bond

The field is given by:
fix 0 dip1 efield 0.0 10.0 0.0

I use the integrator:
fix 2 all nve/sphere update dipole

The whole script is:

units lj
atom_style hybrid sphere dipole bond
bond_style harmonic
dimension 3

read_data input

pair_style lj/cut/dipole/cut 10.0

pair_coeff 1 1 1.0 1.0 5.0 10.0
bond_coeff 1 1.0 4.0

group dip1 type 1

velocity all zero linear

fix 0 dip1 efield 0.0 10.0 0.0
fix 2 all nve/sphere update dipole

timestep 0.05
compute t1 all temp/sphere
thermo_modify temp t1

thermo 500

dump 0 dip1 custom 100 dump.dipole id type x y z mux muy muz

dump 1 all atom 1000 dump.lammpstrj

timestep 0.0001
thermo 50
run 1000000

Stan can likely look into this (CCd).

Steve

Hi,
Have you tried to simulate the case of a single dipole in a static magnetic field? Do you obtain the Larmor precession?
Thank you,
Carles

Hi,
Have you tried to simulate the case of a single dipole in a static
magnetic field? Do you obtain the Larmor precession?

​that would be somewhat difficult, since there currently is no feature in
the LAMMPS distribution that can model a static magnetic field. i know some
people are working on it (and ​many more have promised), but this is far
from trivial to implement properly.

axel.

Dear axel,

Isn’t it equivalent to the case of a single electric dipole in a static electric field?

I was making reference to a prior question that I raised on the behavior of electric dipoles on static fields:

“Basically, I run a simulation with one point dipole initially directed along the Z-direction in a static field directed along the Y-direction. The particle starts with zero velocity and I run the simulation in the nve ensemble (see below). I would expect a precession about the Y-axis, but instead I get a partial precession about the X-axis. By “partial precession” I mean that the moment rotates 180 degrees and then goes backwards. Both, the direction of precession and the trajectory seem to be unphysical.”

I would expect Larmor precession about the applied field, but this is not what I obtain.

Thank you,
C

Dear axel,

Isn't it equivalent to the case of a single electric dipole in a static
electric field?

​no. assume for simplicity, you represent a dipole by two point charges. in
the case of the electric field​ the force on the point charges depends on
the charge and the field vector. in the case of a magnetic field, however,
it also depends on the velocity of the point particle.

I was making reference to a prior question that I raised on the behavior
of electric dipoles on static fields:

"Basically, I run a simulation with one point dipole initially directed
along the Z-direction in a static field directed along the Y-direction. The
particle starts with zero velocity and I run the simulation in the nve
ensemble (see below). I would expect a precession about the Y-axis, but
instead I get a partial precession about the X-axis. By "partial
precession" I mean that the moment rotates 180 degrees and then goes
backwards. Both, the direction of precession and the trajectory seem to be
unphysical."

I would expect Larmor precession about the applied field, but this is not
what I obtain.

​Larmor precession happens when you place a *magnetic* moment into a
*magnetic* field.​

​axel.​