  A modification of the nudged elastic band (NEB) method is presented that
enables stable optimisations to be run using both the limited-memory
quasi-Newton (L-BFGS) and slow-response quenched velocity Verlet (SQVV)
minimisers. The performance of this new `doubly nudged' DNEB method is analysed
in conjunction with both minimisers and compared with previous NEB
formulations. We find that the fastest DNEB approach (DNEB/L-BFGS) can be
quicker by up to two orders of magnitude. Applications to permutational
rearrangements of the seven-atom Lennard-Jones cluster (LJ7) and highly
cooperative rearrangements of LJ38 and LJ75 are presented. We also outline an
updated algorithm for constructing complicated multi-step pathways using
successive DNEB runs.
