The interplay between liquid-liquid and ferroelectric phase transitions in supercooled water

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Izzo, Maria Grazia, Russo, John, Pastore, Giorgio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Izzo, Maria Grazia
Russo, John
Pastore, Giorgio
author_facet Izzo, Maria Grazia
Russo, John
Pastore, Giorgio
contents The distinctive characteristics of water, evident in its thermodynamic anomalies, have implications across disciplines from biology to geophysics. Considered a valid hypothesis to rationalize its unique properties, a liquid-liquid phase transition in water's supercooled regime has nowadays been observed in several molecular dynamics simulations and is being actively researched experimentally. Here, we highlight intriguing and far-reaching implications of water: the ferroelectric and liquid-liquid phase transitions can be designed as two facets of the same underlying phenomenon. Our results are based on the analysis of extensive molecular dynamics simulations and are explained in the context of a classical density functional theory in mean-field approximation valid for a polar liquid. The theory underpins the potential role of ferroelectricity in promoting the liquid-liquid phase transition. The existence of ferroelectric order in supercooled low-density liquid water is confirmed by the observation in molecular dynamics simulations of collective modes in polarization fluctuations dynamics, traceable to spontaneous breaking of continuous rotational symmetry. Our work opens the door to new experimental investigations of the static and dynamic behavior of water polarization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_14424
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The interplay between liquid-liquid and ferroelectric phase transitions in supercooled water
Izzo, Maria Grazia
Russo, John
Pastore, Giorgio
Soft Condensed Matter
The distinctive characteristics of water, evident in its thermodynamic anomalies, have implications across disciplines from biology to geophysics. Considered a valid hypothesis to rationalize its unique properties, a liquid-liquid phase transition in water's supercooled regime has nowadays been observed in several molecular dynamics simulations and is being actively researched experimentally. Here, we highlight intriguing and far-reaching implications of water: the ferroelectric and liquid-liquid phase transitions can be designed as two facets of the same underlying phenomenon. Our results are based on the analysis of extensive molecular dynamics simulations and are explained in the context of a classical density functional theory in mean-field approximation valid for a polar liquid. The theory underpins the potential role of ferroelectricity in promoting the liquid-liquid phase transition. The existence of ferroelectric order in supercooled low-density liquid water is confirmed by the observation in molecular dynamics simulations of collective modes in polarization fluctuations dynamics, traceable to spontaneous breaking of continuous rotational symmetry. Our work opens the door to new experimental investigations of the static and dynamic behavior of water polarization.
title The interplay between liquid-liquid and ferroelectric phase transitions in supercooled water
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.14424