I'm pursuing some research into molecular dynamics and a common concept that comes up is the notion of a manifold that represents the free energy with respect to the degrees of freedom in a system. However the nomenclature particularly refers to these manifolds as 'landscapes'.
This usually comes up when the author refers to factors that 'change the shape' of the landscapes (i.e temperature). Is there a formal definition of landscape or is it a loose term referring to a general class of manifolds?
Example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2143098/pdf/7613459.pdf
Instead of german word "Landschaft" ,the english "landscape" is also used. The terms is used and related in analytic 'Landschaft',analytic relief,modulus surface.The geometric image of the modulus |f(z)| of the analytic function f(z),where z=x+iy.The analytic'landschaft' of a function f(z) is the surface over the (x,y) plane with z-co-ordinate |f(z)|.An analytic 'landschaft' sometimes provides a good illustration of the behavior of specific functions.