  We explore the mathematical and numerical aspects of reconstructing a
potential energy profile of a molecular bond from its rupture time
distribution. While reliable reconstruction of gross attributes, such as the
height and the width of an energy barrier, can be easily extracted from a
single first passage time (FPT) distribution, the reconstruction of finer
structure is ill-conditioned. More careful analysis shows the existence of
optimal bond potential amplitudes (represented by an effective Peclet number)
and initial bond configurations that yield the most efficient numerical
reconstruction of simple potentials. Furthermore, we show that reconstruction
of more complex potentials containing multiple minima can be achieved by
simultaneously using two or more measured FPT distributions, obtained under
different physical conditions. For example, by changing the effective potential
energy surface by known amounts, additional measured FPT distributions improve
the reconstruction. We demonstrate the possibility of reconstructing potentials
with multiple minima, motivate heuristic rules-of-thumb for optimizing the
reconstruction, and discuss further applications and extensions.
