Can Statistical Physics Concepts Shed Some Light on the 73 Anomalies of Liquid Water?*

We focus on recent progress in understanding the 73 anomalies of water, by combining information provided by recent experiments and simulations on water in bulk, nanoconfined and biological environments designed to test the hypothesis that liquid water has behavior consistent with the novel phenomenon of “liquid polymorphism” in that low-temperature water can exist in two distinct phases [1,2]. We will utilize the properties of the Widom line—the locus of maximum correlation length—which can be measured experimentally at temperatures well above the critical temperature. Finally, we will discuss how the general concept of liquid polymorphism is proving useful in understanding anomalies in other liquids, such as silicon, silica, and carbon which have in common that they are characterized by two characteristic length scales in their interactions.

[1] H. E. Stanley, Editor, Liquid Polymorphism, Vol. 152 in Advances in Chemical Physics, S. A. Rice, Series Editor (Wiley, New York, 2013).
[2] P. Gallo and H. E. Stanley, Science 358, 1543 (2017).