+\label{subsection:interact_pot}
+
+The potential energy of $N$ interacting atoms can be written in the form
+\begin{equation}
+U(\{{\bf r}\}) = \sum_i U_1({\bf r}_i) + \sum_i \sum_{j>i} U_2({\bf r}_i,{\bf r}_j) + \sum_i \sum_{j>i} \sum_{k>j>i} U_3({\bf r}_i,{\bf r}_j,{\bf r}_k) \ldots
+\end{equation}
+where $U$ is the total potential energy.
+$U_1$ is a single particle potential describing external forces.
+Examples of single particle potentials are the gravitational force or an electric field.
+$U_2$ is a two body pair potential which only depends on the distance $r_{ij}$ between the two atoms $i$ and $j$.
+If not only pair potentials are considered, three body potentials $U_3$ or multi body potentials $U_n$ can be included.
+Mainly these higher order terms are avoided since they are not easy to model and it is rather time consuming to evaluate potentials and forces originating from these many body terms.
+
+Ordinary pair potentials have a close-packed structure like face-centered cubic (FCC) or hexagonal close-packed (HCP) as a ground state.
+A pair potential is thus unable to describe properly elements with other structures than FCC or HCP.
+Silicon and carbon for instance, have a diamand/zincblende structure with four covalent bonded neighbours, which is far from a close-packed structure.
+A three body potential has to be included for these types of elements.
+
+In the following, relevant potentials for this work are discussed.
+
+%\subsubsection{The Lennard-Jones potential}
+%
+%The L-J potential is a realistic two body pair potential and is of the form
+%\begin{equation}
+%U^{LJ}(r) = 4 \epsilon \Big[ \Big( \frac{\sigma}{r} \Big)^{12} - \Big( \frac{\sigma}{r} \Big)^6 \Big] \, \textrm{,}
+%\label{eq:lj-p}
+%\end{equation}
+%where $r$ denotes the distance between the two atoms.
+%
+%The attractive tail for large separations $(\sim r^{-6})$ is essentially due to correlations between electron clouds surrounding the atoms. The attractive part is also known as {\em van der Waals} or {\em London} interaction.
+%It can be derived classically by considering how two charged spheres induce dipol-dipol interactions into each other, or by considering the interaction between two oscillators in a quantum mechanical way.
+%
+%The repulsive term $(\sim r^{-12})$ captures the non-bonded overlap of the electron clouds.
+%It does not have a true physical motivation, other than the exponent being larger than $6$ to get a steep rising repulsive potential wall at short distances.
+%Chosing $12$ as the exponent of the repulsive term it is just the square of the attractive term which makes the potential evaluable in a very efficient way.
+%
+%The constants $\epsilon$ and $\sigma$ are usually determined by fitting to experimental data.
+%$\epsilon$ accounts to the depth of the potential well, where $\sigma$ is regarded as the radius of the particle, also known as the van der Waals radius.
+%
+%Writing down the derivative of the Lennard-Jones potential in respect to $x_i$ (the $i$th component of the distance vector ${\bf r}$)
+%\begin{equation}
+%\frac{\partial}{\partial x_i} U^{LJ}(r) = 4 \epsilon x_i \Big( -12 \frac{\sigma^{12}}{r^{14}} + 6 \frac{\sigma^6}{r^8} \Big)
+%\label{eq:lj-d}
+%\end{equation}
+%one can easily identify $\sigma$ by the equilibrium distance of the atoms $r_e=\sqrt[6]{2} \sigma$.
+%Applying the equilibrium distance into \eqref{eq:lj-p} $\epsilon$ turns out to be the negative well depth.
+%The $i$th component of the force is given by
+%\begin{equation}
+%F_i = - \frac{\partial}{\partial x_i} U^{LJ}(r) \, \textrm{.}
+%\label{eq:lj-f}
+%\end{equation}
+%
+%\subsubsection{The Stillinger Weber potential}
+%
+%The Stillinger Weber potential \cite{stillinger_weber} \ldots
+%
+%\begin{equation}
+%U = \sum_{i,j} U_2({\bf r}_i,{\bf r}_j) + \sum_{i,j,k} U_3({\bf r}_i,{\bf r}_j,{\bf r}_k)
+%\end{equation}
+%
+%\begin{equation}
+%U_2(r_{ij}) = \left\{
+% \begin{array}{ll}
+% \epsilon A \Big( B (r_{ij} / \sigma)^{-p} - 1\Big) \exp \Big[ (r_{ij} / \sigma - 1)^{-1} \Big] & r_{ij} < a \sigma \\
+% 0 & r_{ij} \ge a \sigma
+% \end{array} \right.
+%\end{equation}
+%
+%\begin{equation}
+%U_3({\bf r}_i,{\bf r}_j,{\bf r}_k) =
+%\epsilon \Big[ h(r_{ij},r_{ik},\theta_{jik}) + h(r_{ji},r_{jk},\theta_{ijk}) + h(r_{ki},r_{kj},\theta_{ikj}) \Big]
+%\end{equation}
+%
+%\begin{equation}
+%h(r_{ij},r_{ik},\theta_{jik}) =
+%\lambda \exp \Big[ \gamma (r_{ij}/\sigma -a)^{-1} + \gamma (r_{ik}/\sigma - a)^{-1} \Big] \Big( \cos \theta_{jik} + \frac{1}{3} \Big)^2
+%\end{equation}
+
+\subsubsection{The Tersoff potential}