String-like propagation of the 5-coordinated defect state in supercooled water: molecular origin of dynamic and thermodynamic anomalies

Abstract

We find that at low temperature water, large amplitude (∼60°) rotational jumps propagate like a string, with the length of propagation increasing with lowering temperature. The strings are formed by mobile 5-coordinated water molecules which move like a Glarum defect (J. Chem. Phys., 1960, 33, 1371), causing water molecules on the path to change from 4-coordinated to 5-coordinated and again back to 4-coordinated water, and in the process cause the tagged water molecule to jump, by following essentially the Laage–Hynes mechanism (Science, 2006, 311, 832–835). The effects on relaxation of the propagating defect causing large amplitude jumps are manifested most dramatically in the mean square displacement (MSD) and also in the rotational time correlation function of the O–H bond of the molecule that is visited by the defect (transient transition to the 5-coordinated state). The MSD and the decay of rotational time correlation function, both remain quenched in the absence of any visit by the defect, as postulated by Glarum long time ago. We establish a direct connection between these propagating events and the known thermodynamic and dynamic anomalies in supercooled water. These strings are found largely in the regions that surround the relatively rigid domains of 4-coordinated water molecules. The propagating strings give rise to a noticeable dynamical heterogeneity, quantified here by a sharp rise in the peak of the four-point density response function, χ₄(t). This dynamics heterogeneity is also responsible for the breakdown of the Stokes–Einstein relation.