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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
Liquid polymorphism, order-disorder transitions and anomalous behavior: A Monte Carlo study of the Bell-Lavis model
Carlos E Fiore1, Marcia M Szortyka, Marcia C Barbosa
1Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal do Parana, Caixa Postal 19044, Curitiba 81531, PR, Brazil. fiore@fisica.ufpr.br
Abstract:
The Bell-Lavis model for liquid water is investigated through numerical simulations. The lattice-gas model on a triangular lattice presents orientational states and is known to present a highly bonded low density phase and a loosely bonded high density phase. We show that the model liquid-liquid transition is continuous, in contradiction with mean-field results on the Husimi cactus and from the cluster variational method. We define an order parameter which allows interpretation of the transition as an order-disorder transition of the bond network. Our results indicate that the order-disorder transition is in the Ising universality class. Previous proposal of an Ehrenfest second order transition is discarded. A detailed investigation of anomalous properties has also been undertaken. The line of density maxima in the HDL phase is stabilized by fluctuations, absent in the mean-field solution.
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