Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines

Nicholas Metropolis, Arianna W. Rosenbluth, Marshall N. Rosenbluth, Augusta H. Teller, and Edward Teller
Citation: J. Chem. Phys. 21, 1087 (1953); doi: 10.1063/1.1699114
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THE 0 R Y

0 F

T RAe KEF FEe T SIN

(a) The excitation energy is lost without dissociation

into radicals (by collision, or possibly radiation, as in
aromatic hydrocarbons).
(b) The molecules dissociate, but the resulting radicals recombine without escaping from the liquid cage.
(c) The molecules dissociate and escape from the
cage. In this case we would not expect them to move
more than a few molecular diameters through the dense
medium before being thermalized.
In accordance with the notation introduced by
Burton, Magee, and Samuel,22 the molecules following
Burton, Magee, and Samuel,

THE JOURNAL

OF

J.

Chern. Phys. 20, 760 (1952).

CHEMICAL

0 F

W ATE R

1087

paths (a) and (b) can be designated H 20* and those

following path (c) can be designated H 20t. It seems
reasonable to assume for the purpose of these calculations that the ionized H 20 molecules will become the
H 20t molecules, but this is not likely to be a complete
correspondence.
In conclusion we would like to emphasize that the
qualitative result of this section is not critically dependent on the exact values of the physical parameters
used. However, this treatment is classical, and a correct
treatment must be wave mechanical; therefore the
result of this section cannot be taken as an a priori
theoretical prediction. The success of the radical diffusion model given above lends some plausibility to the
occurrence of electron capture as described by this
crude calculation. Further work is clearly needed.

instead, only water molecules with different amounts of

excitation energy. These may follow any of three paths:

22

R A D I 0 L Y SIS

PHYSICS

VOLUME

21,

NUMBER

JUNE,

1953

Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines

NICHOLAS METROPOLIS, ARIANNA W. ROSENBLUTH, MARSHALL N. ROSENBLUTH, AND AUGUSTA H. TELLER,
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
AND
EDWARD TELLER, * Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
(Received March 6, 1953)
A general method, suitable for fast computing machines, for investigatiflg such properties as equations of
state for substances consisting of interacting individual molecules is described. The method consists of a
modified Monte Carlo integration over configuration space. Results for the two-dimensional rigid-sphere
system have been obtained on the Los Alamos MANIAC and are presented here. These results are compared
to the free volume equation of state and to a four-term virial coefficient expansion.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. THE GENERAL METHOD FOR AN ARBITRARY

POTENTIAL BETWEEN THE PARTICLES

HE purpose of this paper is to describe a general

method, suitable for fast electronic computing
machines, of calculating the properties of any substance
which may be considered as composed of interacting
individual molecules. Classical statistics is assumed,
only two-body forces are considered, and the potential
field of a molecule is assumed spherically symmetric.
These are the usual assumptions made in theories of
liquids. Subject to the above assumptions, the method
is not restricted to any range of temperature or density.
This paper will also present results of a preliminary twodimensional calculation for the rigid-sphere system.
Work on the two-dimensional case with a LennardJones potential is in progress and will be reported in a
later paper. Also, the problem in three dimensions is
being investigated.

In order to reduce the problem to a feasible size for

numerical work, we can, of course, consider only a finite
number of particles. This number N may be as high as
several hundred. Our system consists of a squaret containing N particles. In order to minimize the surface
effects we suppose the complete substance to be periodic,
consisting of many such squares, each square containing N particles in the same configuration. Thus we
define dAB, the minimum distance between particles A
and B, as the shortest distance between A and any of
the particles B, of which there is one in each of the
squares which comprise the complete substance. If we
have a potential which falls off rapidly with distance,
there will be at most one of the distances AB which
can make a substantial contribution; hence we need
consider only the minimum distance dAB.

* Now at the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California, Livermore, California.

t We will use thl~ two-dimensional nomenclature here since it

is easier to visualize. The extension to three dimensions is obvious.

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1088

MET R 0 POL IS,

R 0 SEN B L U T H, R 0 SEN B L U T H, TEL L E R, AND TEL L E R

Our method in this respect is similar to the cell

method except that our cells contain several hundred
particles instead of one. One would think that such a
sample would be quite adequate for describing any onephase system. We do find, however, that in two-phase
systems the surface between the phases makes quite a
perturbation. Also, statistical fluctuations may be
sizable.
If we know the positions of the N particles in the
square, we can easily calculate, for example, the potential energy of the system,
N

E=!

L L

V(d ii)

(1)

;=lj=1
;~j

(Here V is the potential between molecules, and d ij is

the minimum distance between particles i and j as
defined above.)
In order to calculate the properties of our system we
use the canonical ensemble. So, to calculate the equilibrium value of any quantity of interest F,

F=[f FexP(-E/kT)d2NPd2Nq]/

[f

eXP(-E/kT)d2NPd2Nq}

(2)

where (d2 n pd2 nq) is a volume element in the 4N-dimensional phase space. Moreover, since forces between
particles are velocity-independent, the momentum integrals may be separated off, and we need perform only
the integration over the 2N-dimensional configuration
space. It is evidently impractical to carry out a several
hundred-dimensional integral by the usual numerical
methods, so we resort to the Monte Carlo method.t
The Monte Carlo method for many-dimensional integrals consists simply of integrating over a random
sampling of points instead of over a regular array of
points.
Thus the most naive method of carrying out the
integration would be to put each of the N particles at a
random position in the square (this defines a random
point in the 2N-dimensional configuration space), then
calculate the energy of the system according to Eq. (1),
and give this configuration a weight exp(-E/kT).
This method, however, is not practical for close-packed
configurations, since with high probability we choose a
configura tion where exp ( - E/ kT) is very small; hence
a configuration of very low weight. So the method we
employ is actually a modified Monte Carlo scheme,
where, instead of choosing configurations randomly,
then weighting them with exp ( - E/ kT), we choose
t This method has been proposed independently by J. E. Mayer
and by S. Ulam. Mayer suggested the method as a tool to deal
with the problem of the liquid state, while Ulam proposed it as a
procedure of general usefulness. B. Alder, J. Ki"kwood, S. Frankel,
and V. Lewinson discussed an application very similar to ours.

configurations with a probability exp ( - E/ kT) and

weight them evenly.
This we do as follows: We place the N particles in any
configuration, for example, in a regular lattice. Then
we move each of the particles in succession according
to the following prescription:
X~X+a~l

(3)

where a is the maximum allowed displacement, which

for the sake of this argument is arbitrary, and h and ~2
are random numbers between (-1) and 1. Then, after
we move a particle, it is equally likely to be anywhere
within a square of side 2a centered about its original
position. (In accord with the periodicity assumption,
if the indicated move would put the particle outside the
square, this only means that it re-enters the square from
the opposite side.)
We then calculate the change in energy of the system
b.E, which is caused by the move. If b.E<O, i.e., if
the move would bring the system to a state of lower
energy, we allow the move and put the particle in its
new position. If b.E>O, we allow the move with
probability exp( - b.E/kT); i.e., we take a random
number ~3 between 0 and 1, and if ~3 < exp ( - b.E/ kT),
we move the particle to its new position. If ~3
> exp( - b.E/kT) , we return it to its old position.
Then, whether the move has been allowed or not, i.e.,
whether we are in a different configuration or in the
original configuration, we consider that we are in a new
configuration for the purpose of taking our averages. So
M

F= (l/M) L

Fh

(4)

i=1

where F i is the value of the property F of the system

after the jth move is carried out according to the complete prescription above. Having attempted to move a
particle we proceed similarly with the next one.
We now prove that the method outlined above does
choose configurations with a probability exp(-E/kT).
Since a particle is allowed to move to any point within
a square of side 2a with a finite probability, it is clear
that a large enough number of moves will enable it to
reach any point in the complete square.11 Since this is
true of all particles, we may reach any point in configuration space. Hence, the method is ergodic.
Next consider a very large ensemble of systems. Suppose for simplicity that there are only a finite number of
states~ of the system, and that IIr is the number of
It might be mentioned that the random numbers that we
used were generated by the middle square process. That is, if ~u
is an m digit random number, then a new random number en+!
is ~iven as the middle m digits of the complete 2m digit square of ~n.
II In practice it is, of course, not necessary to make enough
moves to allow a particle to diffuse evenly throughout the system
since configuration space is symmetric with respect to interchange
of particles.
'\I A state here means a given point in configuration space.

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1089

CALCULATION OF STATE BY FAST MACHINES

systems of the ensemble in state r. What we must

prove is that after many moves the ensemble tends to a
distribution
Vra: exp( - Er/kT).
Now let us make a move in all the systems of our
ensemble. Let the a priori probability that the move
will carry a system in state r to state s be P r [By the
a priori probability we mean the probability before
discriminating on exp(-LlE/kT).] First, it is clear that
Prs=P." since according to the way our game is played
a particle is equally likely to be moved anywhere within
a square of side 2a centered about its original position.
Thus, if states rand s differ from each other only by the
position of the particle moved and if these positions
are within each other's squares, the transition probabilities are equal j otherwise they are zero. Assume
E r > E . Then the number of systems moving from state
r to state s will be simply v,P rs , since all moves to a
state of lower energy are allowed. The number moving
from s to r will be v.P.,exp(-(Er-E.)/kT), since
here we must weigh by the exponential factor. Thus the
net number of systems moving from s to r is

Pr.(v s exp(- (E,-E.)/kT)-v r).

So we see that between any two states rand s, if

I
I

I
I
---------1
I
I
I
I
I

LC

FIG. 1. Collisions of rigid spheres.

sity of other particles at the surface of a particle.

Let Xpot) and Xpnt) represent the total and the internal
force, respectively, acting on particle i, at a position
rio Then the virial theorem can be written

(I: X/tot). ri)Av= 2PA +(I: X;<int). ri)Av= 2Ekin .

(5)

(v,/ v. [exp( - E,/kT)/exp( - E./kT)],

(6)
on the average more systems move from state r to
state s. We have seen already that the method is ergodic;
i.e., that any state can be reached from any other,
albeit in several moves. These two facts mean that our
ensemble must approach the canonical distribution. It
is, incidentally, clear from the above derivation that
after a forbidden move we must count again the initial
configuration. Not to do this would correspond in the
above case to removing from the ensemble those systems which tried to move from s to r and were forbidden.
This would unjustifiably reduce the number in state s
relative to r.
The above argument does not, of course, specify how
rapidly the canonical distribution is approached. It may
be mentioned in this connection that the maximum displacement a must be chosen with some care; if too large,
most moves will be forbidden, and if too small, the configuration will not change enough. In either case it will
then take longer to come to equilibrium.
For the rigid-sphere case, the game of chance on
exp( - LlE/kT) is, of course, not necessary since LlE is
either zero or infinity. The particles are moved, one at
a time, according to Eq. (3). If a sphere, after such a
move, happens to overlap another sphere, we return it
to its original position.
III. SPECIALIZATION TO RIGID SPHERES
IN TWO DIMENSIONS

A. The Equation of State

The virial theorem of Clausius can be used to give
an equation of state in terms of ii, the average den-

~J

vcoscp~t

(7)

Here P is the pressure, A the area, and E kin the total

kinetic energy,

Ekin=Nmfl/2
of the system of N particles.
Consider the collisions of the spheres for convenience
as represented by those of a particle of radius do, twice
the radius of the actual spheres, surrounded by ii point
particles per unit area. Those surrounding particles in
an area of 21rd ov cOs<PLlt, traveling with velocity v at
an angle 4> with the radius vector, collide with the central particle provided 14> 1< 1r/2. (See Fig. 1.) Assuming
elastic recoil, they each exert an average force during
the time Llt on the central particle of

2mv cos<P/ Llt.

One can see that all 4>'s are equally probable, since for
any velocity-independent potential between particles
the velocity distribution will just be Maxwellian,
hence isotropic. The total force acting on the central
particle, averaged over 4>, over time, and over velocity, is
(8)

The sum

(I: X,unt). ri)AV

i

is

-t I: {I: rijF,j},
j

i
i'i"i

with Fij the magnitude of the force between two particles and rij the distance between them. We see that

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1090

MET R 0 POL IS, R 0 SEN B L U T H,

,
-~

-4~

-r-

X
X

X
X

X
X

X
X

'1

,V

>I

R 0 SEN B L U T H, TEL L E R, AND TEL L E R

~___ L_x____x___x___x_--_.~l [:J

FIG. 2. Initial trigonal lattice.

FIG. 3. The close-packed arrangement for determining Ao.

rii=d o and LiFii is given by Eq. (8), so we have

Substitution of (9) into (7) and replacement of

(N /2)mfP by E kin gives finally
PA = E kin (1+7l'db1/2) =NkT(I+7l'd o2ii/2).

(10)

This equation shows that a determination of the one

quantity ii, according to Eq. (4) as a function of A,
the area, is sufficient to determine the equation of
state for the rigid spheres.

B.The Actual Calculation of n

d= (1/14),

We then had the machine calculate for each configuration the number of pairs of particles N m (m= 1, 2, .. 64)
separated by distances r which satisfy
(12)

We set up the calculation on a system composed of

N = 224 particles (i= 0, 1 .. 223) placed inside a square
of unit side and unit area. The particles were arranged
initially in a trigonal lattice of fourteen particles per
row by sixteen particles per column, alternate rows
being displaced relative to each other as shown in Fig. 2.
This arrangement gives each particle six nearest neighbors at approximately equal distances of d= 1/14
from it.
Instead of performing the calculation for various
areas A and for a fixed distance do, we shall solve the
equivalent problem of leaving A = 1 fixed and changing
do. We denote by A 0 the area the particles occupy in
close-packed arrangement (see Fig. 3). For numerical
convenience we defined an auxiliary parameter P, which
we varied from zero to seven, and in terms of which the
ratio (A/ Ao) and the forbidden distance do are defined
as follows:
do= d(l- 2.- 8),

The unit cell is a parallelogram with interior angle 60,

side do, and altitude 3t do/2 in the close-packed system.
Every configuration reached by proceeding according
to the method of the preceding section was analyzed in
terms of a radial distribution function N(r2). We chose
a K> 1 for each P and divided the area between 7l'd02
and K 27l'd o2 into sixty-four zones of equal area ~A2,

(lla)

(A/ Ao)= 1/ (3 i d oW /2)= 1/0.98974329(1- 2v-8)2. (llb)

The N m were averaged over successive configurations

according to Eq. (4), and after every sixteen cycles (a
cycle consists of moving every particle once) were extrapolated back to r2=d o2 to obtain Nt. This Nt differs
from ii in Eq. (10) by a constant factor depending on
li and K.
The quantity K was chosen for each p to give reasonable statistics for the N m. It would, of course, have been
possible by choosing fairly large K's, with perhaps a
larger number of zones, to obtain N (r 2) at large distances. The oscillatory behavior of N (r2) at large distances is of some interest. However, the time per cycle
goes up fairly rapidly with K and with the number of
zones in the distance analysis. For this reason only the
behavior of N(r2) in the neighborhood of d02 was investigated.
The maximum displacement a of Eq. (3) was set to
(d-d o). About half the moves in a cycle were forbidden
by this choice, and the initial approach to equilibrium
from the regular lattice was fairly rapid.

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CALCULATION OF STATE BY FAST MACHINES

10Or-

~
r-

'"-

'--

9 0 0 0 , - - - - - - . . , - - - - - - - - ._ _ _ _---,-_---.

I~

I-

--A

----8

--c

<11>Q.~

oI

~Q 0

(N",) -

r-

QO! 0.02

005

0.1

0.2

.'

'~'6. ,
..

'.,

..,'

400q---o'~.O'~6~-.+-----~------+--~
"

'l\

Ir~
r-

o2

. . .

o5

t,

I"
--- ~"~

1091

i ~ ..

~,

,"

.~

"
06b l

'"

0.5

11

10

(m)

40

60

70

(i.-I)

FIG. 4. A plot of (PA/NkT)-1 versus (A/Ao)-1. Curve A

(solid line) gives the results of this paper. Curves Band C (dashed
and dot-dashed lines) give the results of the free volume theory
and of the first four virial coefficients, respectively.

IV. NUMERICAL RESULTS FOR RIGID SPHERES

IN TWO DIMENSIONS

We first ran for something less than sixteen cycles in

order to get rid of the effects of the initial regular configuration on the averages. Then about forty-eight to
sixty-four cycles were run at

1'= 2, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.25, 6.5, and 7.

Also, a smaller amount of data was obtained at 1'=0, 1,
and 3. The time per cycle on the Los Alamos MANIAC
is approximately three minutes, and a given point on the
pressure curve was obtained in four to five hours of
running. Figure 4 shows (P A / N kT) - 1 versus (A / A 0) - 1
on a log-log scale from our results (curve A), compared
to the free volume equation of Wood l (curve B) and to
the curve given by the first four virial coefficients
(curve C). The last two virial coefficients were obtained
by straightforward Monte Carlo integration on the
MANIAC (see Sec. V). It is seen that the agreement
between curves A and B at small areas and between
curves A and C at large areas is good. Deviation from
the free volume theory begins with a fairly sudden break
at v=6(A/A~1.8).
A sample plot of the radial distribution function for
1'= 5 is given in Fig. 5. The various types of points represent values after sixteen, thirty-two, and forty-eight
cycles. For 1'= 5, least-square fits with a straight line
to the first sixteen N m values were made, giving extrapolated values of N!(l)=6367, N!(2) = 6160, and NI(3)
=6377, The average of these three was used in constructing PAl NkT. In general, least-square fits of the
first sixteen to twenty N m'S by means of a parabola, or,
where it seemed suitable, a straight line, were made.
1

William W. Wood,

J.

Chern. Phys. 20, 1334 (1952).

FIG. 5. The radial distribution function N .. for p=5, (A/Ao)

K = 1.5. The average of the extrapolated values of
Nt-in NI=6301. The resultant value of (PA/NkT)-1 is
64NI/N'(K2-1) or 6.43. Values after 16 cycles, .; after 32, X;
and after 48, O.

= 1.31966,

The errors indicated in Fig. 4 are the root-mean-square

deviations for the three or four Nt values. Our average
error seemed to be about 3 percent.
Table I gives the results of our calculations in numerical form. The columns are v, A/Ao, (PA/NkT)-l, and,
for comparison purposes, (P A / N kT - 1) for the free
volume theory and for the first four coefficients in the
virial coefficient expansion, in that order, and finally
PAo/NkT from our results.
V. THE VIRIAL COEFFICIENT EXPANSION

One can show2 that

(PA/NkT)-1 =Cl(Ao/ A)+C2(A o/ A)2

+C 3(Ao/ A)3+C4 (Ao/ A)4+0(Ao/A),
C 1 =1I'/3!, C2=411'2A a. 3/9,
C3=1I'3(6A 4, .-3A4, 4 - A 4, 6)/3',
C4 = (811'3/135) -e12A 6,6-60A 6,6' -10A 6, 6"
+ 30A 5,7' +60A 5, 7" + lOA 6.7'" - 30A 6, s'
-15A 6,S" + lOA 6, 9 - A 6,10].

(13)

1:ABLE I. Results of this calculation for (PA/NkT)-I=Xl

compared to the free volume theory (X 2) and the four-term virial
expansion (X.). Also (PAo/NkT) from our calculations.

2
4
5
'5.5
I)

6.25
6.5
7

(A/A.)

XI

X,

X,

(PA./NkT)

1.04269
1.14957
1.31966
1.4909
1.7962
2.04616
2.41751
4.04145

49.17
13.95
6.43
4.41
2.929
2.186
1.486
0.6766

47.35
13.85
6.72
4.53
2.939
2.323
1.802
0.990

9.77
7.55
5.35
4.02
2.680
2.065
1.514
0.667

48.11
13.01
5.63
3.63
2.187
1.557
1.028
0.4149

2 J. E. Mayer and M. G. Mayer, Statistical Mechanics (John

Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1940), pp. 277-291.

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1092

MET R 0 P 0 LI S,

R 0 SEN B L U T H,

R 0 SEN B L U T H,

TEL L E R,

AND

TEL L E R

were put down at random, subject to h2= f23= f34

= h5= 1. The number of trials for which f46= 1, divided
by the total number of trials, is just A 6, 5.
The data on A 4,6 is quite reliable. We obtained
A 4 61A 4 4 = 0.752 (0.002).

However, because of the relatively large positive and

negative terms in C 4 of Eq. (13), the coefficient C4 ,
being a small difference, is less accurate. We obtained
C4=8~(O.585)/135

('"'-'5 percent).

Our final formula is

(PAINkT)-l= 1.813799(AolA)
+2.57269(A ol A)2+3.179(Aol A)3
+3.38 (Ao/A)4+0 (Ao/A)6.

(14)

FIG. 6. Schematic diagrams for the various area integrals.

The coefficients A;. k are cluster integrals over configuration space of i particles, with k bonds between them.
In our problem a bond is established if the two particles
overlap. The cluster integral is the volume of configuration space for which the appropriate bonds are established. If k bonds can be distributed over the i particles
in two or more different ways without destroying the
irreducibility of the integrals, the separate cases are
distinguished by primes. For example, A33 is given
schematically by the diagram

and mathematically as follows: if we define f(r;j) by

f(r;j) = 1 if
f(r;j)=O

r;j<d,

if r;j>d,

then

A3. 3 -l-f
... !dXldX2dx3dYldY2dY3 (f12h3!31).
d
=

7r

2 4

The schematics for the remaining integrals are indicated

in Fig. 6.
The coefficients A 3. 3, A 4. 4, and Au were calculated
algebraically, the remainder numerically by Monte
Carlo integration. That is, for A 5, 5 for example, particle
1 was placed at the origin, and particles 2, 3, 4, and 5

This formula is plotted in curve C of Fig. 4 and tabulated for some values of (AI Ao) in column 5 of Table I.
It is seen in Fig. 4 that the curves agrees very well with
our calculated equation of state for (AI Ao) > 2.5. In
this region both the possible error in our last virial
coefficients and the contribution of succeeding terms in
the expansion are quite small (less than our probable
statistical error) so that the virial expansion should be
accurate.
VI. CONCLUSION

The method of Monte Carlo integrations over configuration space seems to be a feasible approach to
statistical mechanical problems which are as yet not
analytically soluble. At least for a single-phase system
a sample of several hundred particles seems sufficient.
In the case of two-dimensional rigid spheres, runs made
with 56 particles and with 224 particles agreed within
statistical error. For a computing time of a few hours
with presently available electronic computers, it seems
possible to obtain the pressure for a given volume and
temperature to an accuracy of a few percent.
In the case of two-dimensional rigid spheres our results are in agreement with the free volume approximation for AIAo< 1.8 and with a five-term virial expansion
for AIAo> 2.5. There is no indication of a phase
transition.
Work is now in progress for a system of particles with
Lennard-Jones type interactions and for three-dimensional rigid spheres.

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