Interatomic potentialInteratomic potentials are mathematical functions to calculate the potential energy of a system of atoms with given positions in space. Interatomic potentials are widely used as the physical basis of molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations in computational chemistry, computational physics and computational materials science to explain and predict materials properties.
Interpretations of quantum mechanicsAn interpretation of quantum mechanics is an attempt to explain how the mathematical theory of quantum mechanics might correspond to experienced reality. Although quantum mechanics has held up to rigorous and extremely precise tests in an extraordinarily broad range of experiments, there exist a number of contending schools of thought over their interpretation. These views on interpretation differ on such fundamental questions as whether quantum mechanics is deterministic or stochastic, local or non-local, which elements of quantum mechanics can be considered real, and what the nature of measurement is, among other matters.