THE THERMODYNAMICS OF SUPERCOOLED WATER: A CRITICAL REVIEW

Understanding the behavior of supercooled water is one of the most interesting open questions in the physics of liquids. Widespread interest dates back to the mid '70s, mainly as a result of the bold proposal that several thermodynamic and transport properties of supercooled water diverge at -45°C. Two scenarios have been proposed to interpret the anomalous increases in the response functions of supercooled water: the existence of a continuous stability boundary, or of a second critical point. A recently proposed extended van der Waals theory and a lattice model with strong orientation-dependent interactions suggest that these interpretations are not mutually exclusive. The generality of these models suggests that similar anomalies may occur in other network-forming liquids, such as SiO₂.