In physics, a pair potential is a function that describes the

potential energy In physics, potential energy is the energy held by an object because of its position relative to other objects, stresses within itself, its electric charge, or other factors. Common types of potential energy include the gravitational potentia ...

of two interacting objects solely as a function of the distance between them. Examples of pair potentials include the Coulomb's law in electrodynamics, Newton's law of universal gravitation in mechanics, and the

Lennard-Jones potential The Lennard-Jones potential (also termed the LJ potential or 12-6 potential) is an intermolecular pair potential. Out of all the intermolecular potentials, the Lennard-Jones potential is probably the one that has been the most extensively studied ...

and the Morse potential in

computational chemistry Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computer simulation to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses methods of theoretical chemistry, incorporated into computer programs, to calculate the structures and properties of m ...

. Pair potentials are very common in physics and computational chemistry and biology; exceptions are very rare. An example of a potential energy function that is ''not'' a pair potential is the three-body Axilrod-Teller potential. Another example is the Stillinger-Weber potential for silicon, which includes the angle in a triangle of silicon atoms as an input parameter.

References

Mechanics Electricity Computational chemistry Intermolecular forces Quantum mechanical potentials Theoretical chemistry {{physics-stub