Configurational-bias Monte Carlo

The original Metropolis Monte Carlo scheme was designed to perform single-particle trial moves. For most simulations, such moves are perfectly adequate. However, in some cases it is more efficient to perform moves in which the coordinates of many particles are changed. For instance, in the vicinity of a critical point, the Metropolis scheme becomes inefficient due to critical slowing down and it becomes advantageous to perform cluster moves, in which the coordinates (or spins) of particles belonging to the same ‘cluster’ are changed simultaneously