The quantum phase-transitions of water

Abstract

It is shown that hexagonal ices and steam are macroscopically quantum condensates, with continuous spacetime-translation symmetry, whereas liquid water is a quantum fluid with broken time-translation symmetry. Fusion and vaporization are quantum phase-transitions. The heat capacities, the latent heats, the phase-transition temperatures, the critical temperature, the molar volume expansion of ice relative to water, as well as neutron scattering data and dielectric measurements are explained. The phase-transition mechanisms along with the key role of quantum interferences and that of Hartley-Shannon's entropy are enlightened. The notions of chemical bond and force-field are questioned. 66 perature probed via projective measurements. It is differ-67 ent in nature, but not necessarily different in value, from 68 the thermodynamic temperature of the surroundings, T. 69 At thermal equilibrium, the condensate is stable, that is 70 immune to decoherence, as long as E is lower than the 71 Helmholtz energy of the statistical analogue [10]. There is 72 no upper limit in temperature, insofar as the continuous 73 spacetime translation symmetry is preserved. 74 At the microscopic level, an incoming wave breaking 75 the continuous translation-symmetry realizes a transitory 76 state that is not an eigenstate of the condensate. The 77 condensate as a whole is virtually unaffected by a single 78 event and spontaneous decay of the induced instability de-79 stroys quantum correlations with the outgoing wave. The 80 condensate is, therefore, immune to decoherence induced 81 by a measurement, or by the environment. As long as 82 the probability for an incoming wave to entangle with a 83 state previously realized is insignificant, the outcome of 84 a measurement is independent of previous events. Every 85 single realization can be projected onto the eigenstates 86 of a context-dependent operator. On the one hand, the 87 outcome of elastic scattering events breaking the continu-88 ous space-translation symmetry yields the static probabil-89 ity densities in the "x-space" of the nuclear coordinates, 90 while the time variable and the vibrational states remain 91 indefinite. On the other hand, energy transfer breaking 92 the time-translation symmetry realizes eigenstates of the 93

A unified quantum-classical theory of the thermal properties of ice, liquid water and steam

“…For D 2 O ice, ∆W F D ≈ 14.34 is comparable [7]. The 14 states can be translated into symbolic graphs of nonlocal pairwise correlations.…”

“…Converging evidences of nuclear quantum effects in ice [3], liquid water [4,5] and steam [6], demonstrate that the workings of these phases is quantum in nature, hence nonlocal, so a network of H-bonded molecules locally subject to the ice-rules is not a pertinent model [7]. Then, the question of what is the root level of reality for the quan-tum substrate of water and how thermal properties relate to this reality emerges.…”

Structural manifestation of partial proton ordering and defect mobility in ice Ih

“…The nature of the partial ordering in ice, whether it consists of small ordered domains or perhaps a macroscopic superposition of quantum states is not clear. 53 The degree of long-range correlated behaviour of the proton fluid suggest that a (cold) plasma might be a more useful analogy than an ordinary liquid, 54 as there are both geometric constraints and long-range electrostatic interactions involved. In this case, the orientational order-disorder transition may share interesting phenomenology with the melting of plasma crystals, 55 where 'islands' of short-range-ordered material co-exist within 'streams' of disordered material, similar perhaps to the nanodomains reported in back-transformed ice.…”

Quantum crystals are at odds with the laws of thermodynamics

“…For crystals, the most stringent counterfact to decoherence of the bulk is observation, via neutron diffraction, of nuclear quantum-interferences from cryogenic to above room temperature, in addition to regular Braggpeaks [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Such interferences witness to continuous spacetime-translation symmetry and give support to a pure-state representation, referred to as a "condensatein-a-box" (see below) [18][19][20].…”

“…For crystals, the most stringent counterfact to decoherence of the bulk is observation, via neutron diffraction, of nuclear quantum-interferences from cryogenic to above room temperature, in addition to regular Braggpeaks [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Such interferences witness to continuous spacetime-translation symmetry and give support to a pure-state representation, referred to as a "condensatein-a-box" (see below) [18][19][20]. In previous works it has been shown that, in addition to quantum interferences, the condensate accounts for the quantum phase-transitions of potassiumdihydrogenphosphate (KH 2 PO 4 ) [18] and water [20], as well as for the proton relaxation rates reported for KH 2 PO 4 [18], benzoic acid (C 6 H 5 COOH) [19] and ordinary water ice Ih [20].…”