Wang-Landau method
The Wang-Landau method was proposed by F. Wang and D. P. Landau (Ref. 1) to compute the density of states, Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \Omega (E) } , of Potts models; where Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \Omega(E) } is the number of microstates of the system having energy Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle E } .
The Wang-Landau method in its original version is a simulation technique designed to reach an uniform sampling of the energies of the system in a given range. In a standard Metropolis Monte Carlo in the canonical ensemble the probability of a given microstate, Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X } is given by:
Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle P(X) \propto \exp \left[ - E(X)/k_B T \right] } ;
whereas for the Wang-Landau procedure we can write:
Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle P(X) \propto \exp \left[ - f(E(x)) \right] } ;
where Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle f(E) } is a function of the energy. Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle f(E) } changes during the simulation in order get a prefixed distribution of energies (usually a uniform distribution); this is done by modifying the values of Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle f(E) } to reduce the probability of the energies that have been already visited.
References
- Fugao Wang and D. P. Landau "Determining the density of states for classical statistical models: A random walk algorithm to produce a flat histogram", Physical Review E 64 056101 (2001)
- D. P. Landau, Shan-Ho Tsai, and M. Exler "A new approach to Monte Carlo simulations in statistical physics: Wang-Landau sampling", American Journal of Physics 72 pp. 1294-1302 (2004)
- Georg Ganzenmüller and Philip J. Camp "Applications of Wang-Landau sampling to determine phase equilibria in complex fluids", Journal of Chemical Physics 127 154504 (2007)
- R. E. Belardinelli and V. D. Pereyra "Wang-Landau algorithm: A theoretical analysis of the saturation of the error", Journal of Chemical Physics 127 184105 (2007)
- R. E. Belardinelli and V. D. Pereyra "Fast algorithm to calculate density of states", Physical Review E 75 046701 (2007)