The block orientation {...} returns the
same optimal rotation used in the rmsd component to
superimpose the coordinates
onto a set of
reference coordinates
. Such
component returns a four dimensional vector
, with
; this quaternion
expresses the optimal rotation
according to the formalism in
reference [50]. The quaternion
can also be written as
, where
is the angle and
the normalized axis of rotation; for example, a rotation
of 90
around the
axis is expressed as
``(0.707, 0.0, 0.0, 0.707)''. The script
quaternion2rmatrix.tcl provides Tcl functions for converting
to and from a
rotation matrix in a format suitable for
usage in VMD.
As for the component rmsd, the available options are atoms, refPositionsFile, refPositionsCol and refPositionsColValue, and refPositions.
Note: refPositionsand refPositionsFile define the set of positions from which the optimal rotation is calculated, but this rotation is not applied to the coordinates of the atoms involved: it is used instead to define the variable itself.
List of keywords (see also for additional options):
Tip: stopping the rotation of a protein. To stop the rotation of an elongated macromolecule in solution (and use an anisotropic box to save water molecules), it is possible to define a colvar with an orientation component, and restrain it through the harmonic bias around the identity rotation, (1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0). Only the overall orientation of the macromolecule is affected, and not its internal degrees of freedom. The user should also take care that the macromolecule is composed by a single chain, or disable wrapAll otherwise.
The block orientationAngle {...} accepts the same base options as
the component orientation: atoms, refPositions, refPositionsFile, refPositionsCol and refPositionsColValue.
The returned value is the angle of rotation
between the current and the reference positions.
This angle is expressed in degrees within the range [0
:180
].
List of keywords (see also for additional options):
The block orientationProj {...} accepts the same base options as
the component orientation: atoms, refPositions, refPositionsFile, refPositionsCol and refPositionsColValue.
The returned value is the cosine of the angle of rotation
between the current and the reference positions.
The range of values is [-1:1].
List of keywords (see also for additional options):
The complete rotation described by orientation can optionally be decomposed into two sub-rotations: one is a ``spin'' rotation around e, and the other a ``tilt'' rotation around an axis orthogonal to e. The component spinAngle measures the angle of the ``spin'' sub-rotation around e.
List of keywords (see also for additional options):
Note: the value of spinAngle is a continuous function almost everywhere, with the exception of configurations with the corresponding ``tilt'' angle equal to 180
(i.e. the tilt component is equal to
): in those cases, spinAngle is undefined. If such configurations are expected, consider defining a tilt colvar using the same axis e, and restraining it with a lower wall away from
.
The component tilt measures the cosine of the angle of the ``tilt'' sub-rotation, which combined with the ``spin'' sub-rotation provides the complete rotation of a group of atoms.
The cosine of the tilt angle rather than the tilt angle itself is implemented, because the latter is unevenly distributed even for an isotropic system: consider as an analogy the angle
in the spherical coordinate system.
The component tilt relies on the same options as spinAngle, including the definition of the axis e.
The values of tilt are real numbers in the interval
: the value
represents an orientation fully parallel to e (tilt angle = 0
), and the value
represents an anti-parallel orientation.
List of keywords (see also for additional options):