I have calculated the energies of a molecule by varying two parameters (Data points are here data). I want to find the minimum energy path from the point (180.0, 179.99, 21.132) to (124.5, 124.49, 0) using Mathematica.

Smooth Equations

Let $varphi colon mathbb{R}^d to mathbb{R}$ denote a potential function (e.g., from OP's data file).

We attempt to solve the system
$$
left{
begin{aligned}
gamma(0) &= p,\
operatorname{grad}(varphi)|_{gamma(t)} &= lambda(t) , gamma'(t)quad text{for all $t in [0,1]$,}\
operatorname{grad}(varphi)|_{gamma(1)} &= 0,\
|gamma'(t)| & = mu quad text{for all $t in [0,1]$,}\
mu &= mathcal{L}(gamma).
end{aligned}
right.
$$

Here $gamma colon [0,1] to mathbb{R}^d$ is the curve that we are looking for, $p in mathbb{R}^d$ is the starting point, $mathcal{L}(gamma)$ denotes arc length of the curve, and $mu in mathbb{R}$ and $lambda colon [0,1] to mathbb{R}$ are dummy variables. For the interested reader who wonders why the last two equations are not joined to the single equation $|gamma'(t)| = mathcal{L}(gamma)$: This is done in order to enforce that the linearization of the discretized system (see below) is a sparse matrix. Moreover, these two equations are added for stability and in order to have as many degrees of freedom as equations in the discretized setting.

Discretized equations

Next, we discretize the system. We replace the curve $gamma$ by a polygonal line with $n$ edges and vertex coordinates given by $x_1,x_2,dotsc,x_{n+1}$ in $mathbb{R}^d$ and the function $lambda$ by a sequence $lambda_1,dotsc,lambda_n$ (one may think of this as function that is piecewise constant on edges). Replacing derivatives $gamma'(t)$ by finite differences $frac{x_{i+1}-x_i}{n}$ and by evaluating $operatorname{grad}(varphi)$ on the first $n-1$ edge midpoints, we arrive at the discretized system

$$
left{
begin{aligned}
x_1 &= p,\
operatorname{grad}(varphi)|_{(x_i+x_{i+1})/2} &= lambda_i , tfrac{x_{i+1}-x_{i}}{n}quad text{for all $i in {1,dotsc,n-1}$,}\
operatorname{grad}(varphi)|_{x_{n+1}} &= 0,\
left| tfrac{x_{i+1}-x_{i}}{n} right| & = mu quad text{for all $i in {1,dotsc,n-1}$,}\
mu &= sum_{i=1}^{n} left|x_{i+1}-x_{i}right|.
end{aligned}
right.
$$

Implementation

These are routines for the system and its linearization. While ϕ denotes the potential, Dϕ and DDϕ denote its first and second derivative, respectively. n is the number of edges and d is the dimension of the Euclidean space at hand.

The code is already optized for performance (direct initialization of SparseArray from CRS data), so hard to read. Sorry.

ClearAll[F, DF];

F[X_?VectorQ] := 

  Module[{x, λ, μ, p1, p2, tangents, midpts, speeds},

   x = Partition[X[[1 ;; (n + 1) d]], d];

   λ = X[[(n + 1) d + 1 ;; -2]];

   μ = X[[-1]];

   p1 = Most[x];

   p2 = Rest[x];

   tangents = (p1 - p2) n;

   midpts = 0.5 (p1 + p2);

   speeds = Sqrt[(tangents^2).ConstantArray[1., d]];

   Join[

    x[[1]] - p,

    Flatten[Dϕ @@@ Most[midpts] - λ Most[tangents]],

    Dϕ @@ x[[-1]],

    Most[speeds] - μ,

    {μ - Total[speeds]/n}

    ]

   ];



DF[X_?VectorQ] := 

  Module[{x, λ, μ, p1, p2, tangents, unittangents, midpts, id, A1x, A2x, A3x, A4x, A5x, buffer, A2λ, A, A4μ, A5μ}, 

   x = Partition[X[[1 ;; (n + 1) d]], d];

   λ = X[[(n + 1) d + 1 ;; -2]];

   μ = X[[-1]];

   p1 = Most[x];

   p2 = Rest[x];

   tangents = (p1 - p2) n;

   unittangents = tangents/Sqrt[(tangents^2).ConstantArray[1., d]];

   midpts = 0.5 (p1 + p2);

   id = IdentityMatrix[d, WorkingPrecision -> MachinePrecision];

   A1x = SparseArray[Transpose[{Range[d], Range[d]}] -> 1., {d, d (n + 1)}, 0.];

   buffer = 0.5 DDϕ @@@ Most[midpts];

   A2x = With[{

      rp = Range[0, 2 d d (n - 1), 2 d],

      ci = Partition[Flatten[Transpose[ConstantArray[Partition[Range[d n], 2 d, d], d]]], 1],

      vals = Flatten@Join[

         buffer - λ ConstantArray[id n, n - 1],

         buffer + λ ConstantArray[id n, n - 1],

         3

         ]

      },

     SparseArray @@ {Automatic, {d (n - 1), d (n + 1)}, 0., {1, {rp, ci}, vals}}];

   A3x = SparseArray[Flatten[Table[{i, n d + j}, {i, 1, d}, {j, 1, d}], 1] -> Flatten[DDϕ @@ x[[-1]]], {d, d (n + 1)}, 0.];

   A = With[{

      rp = Range[0, 2 d n, 2 d],

      ci = Partition[Flatten[Partition[Range[ d (n + 1)], 2 d, d]], 1],

      vals = Flatten[Join[unittangents n, -n unittangents, 2]]

      },

     SparseArray @@ {Automatic, {n, d (n + 1)}, 0., {1, {rp, ci}, vals}}];

   A4x = Most[A];

   A5x = SparseArray[{-Total[A]/n}];

   A2λ = With[{

      rp = Range[0, d (n - 1)],

      ci = Partition[Flatten[Transpose[ConstantArray[Range[n - 1], d]]], 1],

      vals = Flatten[-Most[tangents]]

      },

     SparseArray @@ {Automatic, {d (n - 1), n - 1}, 0., {1, {rp, ci}, vals}}

     ];

   A4μ = SparseArray[ConstantArray[-1., {n - 1, 1}]];

   A5μ = SparseArray[{{1.}}];

   ArrayFlatten[{

      {A1x, 0., 0.}, 

      {A2x, A2λ, 0.}, 

      {A3x, 0., 0.}, 

      {A4x, 0., A4μ}, 

      {A5x, 0., A5μ}

     }]

   ];

Application

Let's load the data and make an interpolation function from it. Because DF assumes that ϕ is twice differentiable, we use spline interpolation of order 5.

data = Developer`ToPackedArray[N@Rest[

     Import[FileNameJoin[{NotebookDirectory[], "data-e.txt"}], "Table"]

     ]];



p = {180.0, 179.99};

q = {124.5, 124.49};



Block[{x, y},

  ϕ = Interpolation[data, Method -> "Spline", InterpolationOrder -> 5];

  Dϕ = {x, y} [Function] Evaluate[D[ϕ[x, y], {{x, y}, 1}]];

  DDϕ = {x, y} [Function] Evaluate[D[ϕ[x, y], {{x, y}, 2}]];

  ];

Now, we create some initial data for the system: The straight line from $p$ to $q$ as initial guess for $x$ and some educated guesses for $lambda$ and $mu$. I also perturb the potential minimizer q a bit, because that seems to help FindRoot.

d = Length[p];

n = 1000;

tlist = Subdivide[0., 1., n];

xinit = KroneckerProduct[(1 - tlist), p] + KroneckerProduct[tlist , q + RandomReal[{-1, 1}, d]];



p1 = Most[xinit];

p2 = Rest[xinit];

tangents = (p1 - p2) n;

midpts = 0.5 (p1 + p2);



λinit = Norm /@ (Dϕ @@@ Most[midpts])/(Norm /@ Most[tangents]);

μinit = Norm[p - q];

X0 = Join[Flatten[xinit], λinit, {μinit}];

Throwing FindRoot onto it:

sol = FindRoot[F[X] == 0. F[X0], {X, X0}, Jacobian -> DF[X]]; // AbsoluteTiming //First

Xsol = (X /. sol);

Max[Abs[F[Xsol]]]

0.120724

6.15813*10^-10

Partitioning the solution and plotting the result:

xsol = Partition[Xsol[[1 ;; (n + 1) d]], d];

λsol = Xsol[[(n + 1) d + 1 ;; -2]];

μsol = Xsol[[-1]];

curve = Join[xsol, Partition[ϕ @@@ xsol, 1], 2];



{x0, x1} = MinMax[data[[All, 1]]];

{y0, y1} = MinMax[data[[All, 2]]];



Show[

 Graphics3D[{Thick, Line[curve]}],

 Plot3D[ϕ[x, y], {x, x0, x1}, {y, y0, y1}]

 ]

Interesting problem. Decided to treat it as a graph problem, rather than fitting an InterpolatingFunction to it and getting descent directions from there. If I knew the graph packages better, I'd do it differently. But this works...

Bring in the data, dropping the header, and plot the grid along with the two points. Note I converted it to a CSV file in Excel first.

data = Import["C:\data-e.csv"] // Rest

ListPointPlot3D[{data, {{180.0, 179.99, 21.132}, {124.5, 124.49, 0}}},

PlotStyle -> {Red, {PointSize[Large], Blue}}

]

Partition your data so it is 181 x 201 points on a grid.

datpar = Partition[data, 201];

Dimensions[datpar]

(* {181, 201, 3} *)

Put it on a regularized grid, to simplify a few things. Now the first two elements of each point will also be its coordinates.

datNorm = Table[{x, y, datpar[[x, y, 3]]}, {x, 181}, {y, 201}];

Here's a messy function that looks at the 9 points in vicinity (includes itself) and finds the lowest value of them (best point). Then it returns that coordinate of that best point. Some checks in there to keep the search with the boundaries. (Cleaned this up in an edit).

bn[{a1_, a2_}] := Most@First@SortBy[

                  Flatten[

                   datNorm[[Max[1,a1-1];;Min[181,a1+1], Max[1,a2-1];;Min[201,a2+1]]], 

                         1], 

                    Last]

Now just let it loose from a start point and run it as a fixed point until it stops changing. This will be the steepest descent path to a minimum.

path = FixedPointList[bn[#] &, {1, 201}, 200];

Get back to the orginal problem space

trajectory = datpar[[First@#, Last@#]] & /@ path

Take a look

ListPointPlot3D[{data, trajectory},

 PlotStyle -> {Blue, {PointSize[Large], Red}}

 ]

Using Interpolation, we can look at the streamline...

interp = Interpolation@({{#[[1]], #[[2]]}, #[[3]]} & /@ data)



 StreamPlot[

   Evaluate[-D[interp[x, y], {{x, y}}]], {x, 90, 180}, {y, 79.99, 179.99},

   StreamStyle -> "Segment",

   StreamPoints -> {{{{179, 179.9}, Red}, Automatic}},

   GridLines -> {Table[i, {i, 90, 180, 1}], Table[i, {i, 80, 180, 1}]},

   Mesh -> 50] 

If I understand the problem correctly, we just need to extract the path from StreamPlot, don't we?

If you have difficulty in accessing the data in dropbox in the question, try the following:

Import["http://halirutan.github.io/Mathematica-SE-Tools/decode.m"]["http://i.stack.imgur.

com/eDzXT.png"]

SelectionMove[EvaluationNotebook[], Previous, Cell, 1];

dat = Uncompress@First@First@NotebookRead@EvaluationNotebook[];

NotebookDelete@EvaluationNotebook[];



func = Interpolation@dat;



{vx, vy} = Function[{x, y}, #] & /@ Grad[func[x, y], {x, y}];



begin = {180.0, 179.99};

end = {124.5, 124.49};



plot = StreamPlot[{vx[x, y], vy[x, y]}, {x, #, #2}, {y, #3, #4}, StreamPoints -> {begin},

     StreamStyle -> "Line", Epilog -> Point@{begin, end}] & @@ Flatten@func["Domain"]

path = Cases[Normal@plot, Line[a_] :> a, Infinity][[1]];



ListPlot3D@dat~Show~Graphics3D@Line[Flatten /@ ({path, func @@@ path}[Transpose])]