Efficient kinetic Monte Carlo simulation

  • Authors:
  • Tim P. Schulze

  • Affiliations:
  • Mathematics Department, University of Tennessee, 121 Ayres Hall 1403, Circle Drive Knoxville, TN 37996-1300, USA

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computational Physics
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

This paper concerns kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) algorithms that have a single-event execution time independent of the system size. Two methods are presented-one that combines the use of inverted-list data structures with rejection Monte Carlo and a second that combines inverted lists with the Marsaglia-Norman-Cannon algorithm. The resulting algorithms apply to models with rates that are determined by the local environment but are otherwise arbitrary, time-dependent and spatially heterogeneous. While especially useful for crystal growth simulation, the algorithms are presented from the point of view that KMC is the numerical task of simulating a single realization of a Markov process, allowing application to a broad range of areas where heterogeneous random walks are the dominate simulation cost.