English

A discrete model of water with two distinct glassy phases

Soft Condensed Matter 2015-05-19 v2 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We investigate a minimal model for non-crystalline water, defined on a Husimi lattice. The peculiar random-regular nature of the lattice is meant to account for the formation of a random 4-coordinated hydrogen-bond network. The model turns out to be consistent with most thermodynamic anomalies observed in liquid and supercooled-liquid water. Furthermore, the model exhibits two glassy phases with different densities, which can coexist at a first-order transition. The onset of a complex free-energy landscape, characterized by an exponentially large number of metastable minima, is pointed out by the cavity method, at the level of 1-step replica symmetry breaking.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1006.1750,
  title  = {A discrete model of water with two distinct glassy phases},
  author = {Andrea Pagnani and Marco Pretti},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.1750},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

expanded version: 6 pages, 7 figures