Each inertia tensor is diagonalized by a rotational transformation 
to the body coordinate system:
  | 
(11.14) | 
 
The transformation matrix 

 is used to initialize rotational 
variables such that 

=

.  Values for the 
body-frame coordinates 

 of group elements are obtained by
  | 
(11.15) | 
 
The net force and torque acting on each body are determined by 
summing the force and torque acting on each of its constituent atoms.  
Center-of-mass variables are initialized with a two-step process.  The 
initial center-of-mass velocities are determined from the 
atom properties VX,VY,VZ:
  | 
(11.16) | 
 
These velocities are then used to advance the center-of-mass coordinates
  | 
(11.17) | 
 
The more stable Euler-Cayley 
parameters (also referred to as quaternions) 
are used as rotational variables instead of the Euler angles 
, 
, 
 (cf. Goldstein (1980)). 
They are defined in 
Eq. 2.1.
The quaternions
are initialized using a first-order approximation to their equation of 
motion:
  | 
(11.18) | 
 
where 

 is the four-vector (

,

,

,

), 

 is the four-vector (0,

,

,

), and 

 is the matrix that gives their time evolution:
  | 
(11.19) | 
 
Thus one obtains
  | 
(11.20) | 
 
The initial angular velocity 

 follows directly from the 
initial angular momentum, which is determined by
  | 
(11.21) | 
 
where 

 is the momentum of the 

 atom of the rigid body.
The initial half-step advanced angular momentum can be expressed as
  | 
(11.22) | 
 
and the first advancement of the center-of-mass coordinates
can be written as
  | 
(11.23) | 
 
Xplor-NIH  2025-03-21