Parallel Replica Method (Voter’s Method)
Establish several configurations with same coordinates, but different initial momenta
Specify criterion for departure from current “basin” in phase space
- e.g., location of energy minimum
evaluate with steepest-descent or conjugate-gradient methods
Perform simulation dynamics in parallel for different initial systems
Continue simulations until one of the replicas is observed to depart its local basin
Advance simulation clock by sum of simulation times of all replicas
Repeat beginning all replicas with coordinates of escaping replica