Stability of the Minimum Energy Path

Xuanyu Liu, Huajie Chen, Christoph Ortner

Abstract: The minimum energy path (MEP) is the most probable transition path that connects two equilibrium states of a potential energy landscape. It has been widely used to study transition mechanisms as well as transition rates in the fields of chemistry, physics, and materials science. In this paper, we derive a novel result establishing the stability of MEPs under perturbations of the energy landscape. The result also represents a crucial step towards studying the convergence of various numerical approximations of MEPs, such as the nudged elastic band and string methods.