Communication: Dielectric properties of condensed systems composed of fragments

The dielectric properties of molecules and nanostructures are usually modified in a complex manner, when assembled into a condensed phase. We propose a first-principles method to compute polarizabilities of sub-entities of solids and liquids, which accounts for multipolar interactions at all orders and is applicable to semiconductors and insulators. The method only requires the evaluation of induced fields in the condensed phase, with no need of multiple calculations for each constituent. As an example, we present results for the molecular polarizabilities of water in a wide pressure and temperature range. We found that at ambient conditions, the dipole-induced-dipole approximation is sufficiently accurate and the Clausius-Mossotti relation may be used, e.g., to obtain molecular polarizabilities from experimental refractive indexes. However with increasing pressure, this approximation becomes unreliable and in the case of ice X the Clausius-Mossotti relation is not valid.