Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Annu Rev Chem Biomol Eng. 2012;3:369-94. doi: 10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-062011-081032. Epub 2012 Apr 5.
One of the central problems in statistical mechanics is that of finding the density of states of a system. Knowledge of the density of states of a system is equivalent to knowledge of its fundamental equation, from which all thermodynamic quantities can be obtained. Over the past several years molecular simulations have made considerable strides in their ability to determine the density of states of complex fluids and materials. In this review we discuss some of the more promising approaches proposed in the recent literature along with their advantages and limitations.
统计力学中的一个核心问题是找到系统的态密度。系统的态密度的知识等同于其基本方程的知识，从该基本方程可以获得所有热力学量。在过去的几年中，分子模拟在确定复杂流体和材料的态密度方面取得了相当大的进展。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了最近文献中提出的一些更有前途的方法，以及它们的优点和局限性。
