Configurational Temperature in Membrane Simulations Using Dissipative Particle Dynamics

The use of excessively long timesteps in dissipative particle dynamics simulations may produce simulation artifacts due to the generation of configurations which are not representative of the desired canonical ensemble. The configurational temperature, amongst other quantities, may be used to assess the extent of the deviation from equilibrium. This paper presents results for simulations of models of water, and lipid bilayer membranes, to illustrate the nature of the problems.