Calculation of consistent neutron-weighted total structure factors from coarse-grained simulation data

Abstract

The combined use of neutron scattering experiments with molecular simulation is increasingly being used to study multi-scale structures in molecular biology and soft matter physics. Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) can provide experimental data at the length scale from 1 to 100’s of nm, an order of magnitude larger than the typical atomistic simulations. In this context, coarse-grained (CG) simulation can be used to reduce computational costs, explore system polydispersity, and overcome slow dynamics. The mathematical expression to calculate SANS curves from molecular models is well defined for atomistic systems, but further approximations are needed to analyse CG models, where the atomistic resolution is lost. Here, we present the MuSSIC tool, which is a code to compute the neutron-weighted total structure factor, FCG(Q), directly from CG simulation trajectories, based on the methodology proposed by [Soper and Edler, Biochimica et biophysica acta, 2017, 1861, 6]. We validate the approximations by comparing the results against the atomistic pseudo-CG data to decouple force-field effects. We demonstrate the scientific usefulness and understanding provided by the code, by comparison of CG simulations to the experimental scattering data for archetypal soft matter systems, SDS and CTAB solutions. We were able to use the marked differences with experimental SANS data to give a detailed understanding of the appropriateness of the CG simulation methodologies used for predicting structure. This forms a first step towards new approaches in SANS data analysis, particularly in allowing refinement of models against one or more experimental data sources.