A Child of Prediction. On the History, Ontology, and Computation of the Lennard-Jonesium

Abstract

The Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid, named after mathematician-physicist-chemist Sir John Lennard-Jones (1894–1954), occupies a special place among fluids. It is an ideal entity, defined as the fluid whose particles interact according to the Lennard-Jones potential. This paper expounds the history of the LJ fluid to throw light on the tensions between theory and computational practice. The paper argues for the following claims. Firstly, the computational approach—even prior to the computer—pragmatically aims at prediction, not truth. Secondly, computer simulation methods, especially “molecular dynamics” (MD), triggered a change in epistemology. Now, simulated model fluids became targets of investigation in their own right. The urge for prediction turned the LJ fluid into the most investigated fluid in engineering thermodynamics. Thirdly, MD took a huge upswing in the 1990s, due to exploratory options in simulation. We discuss how, under these conditions, predictive success might be fraught with problems of reproducibility.