Abstract
The picture of liquid water as consisting of a mixture of molecules of two different structural states (structured, low-density molecules and unstructured, high-density ones) represents a belief that has been around for long time awaiting for a conclusive validation. While in the last years some indicators have indeed provided certain evidence for the existence of structurally different “species”, a more definite bimodality in the distribution function of a sound structural quantity would be desired. In this context, our present work combines the use of a structural parameter with a minimization technique to yield neat bimodal distributions in a temperature range within the supercooled liquid regime, thus clearly revealing the presence of two populations of differently structured water molecules. Furthermore, we elucidate the role of the inter-conversion between the identified two kinds of states for the dynamics of structural relaxation, thus linking structural information to dynamics, a long-standing issue in glassy physics.
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Appignanesi, G.A., Rodriguez Fris, J.A. & Sciortino, F. Evidence of a two-state picture for supercooled water and its connections with glassy dynamics. Eur. Phys. J. E 29, 305–310 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2009-10478-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2009-10478-6