Quantifying Artifacts in Ewald Simulations of Inhomogeneous Systems with a Net Charge

Ewald summation, which has become the de facto standard for computing electrostatic interactions in biomolecular simulations, formally requires that the simulation box is neutral. For non-neutral systems the Ewald algorithm implicitly introduces a uniform background charge distribution that e ectively neutralizes the simulation box. Because a uniform distribution of counter charges typically deviates from the spatial distribution of counterions in real systems, artifacts may arise, in particular in systems with an inhomogeneous dielectric constant. Here we derive an analytical expression for the e ect of using an implicit background charge instead of explicit counterions, on the chemical po…