Negative Thermal Expansivity of Ice: Comparison of the Monatomic mW Model with the All-Atom TIP4P/2005 Water Model

Abstract

We calculate the thermal expansivity of ice I for the monatomic mW model using the quasi-harmonic approximation. It is found that the original mW model is unable to reproduce the negative thermal expansivity experimentally observed at low temperatures. A simple prescription is proposed to recover the negative thermal expansion by re-adjusting the so-called tetrahedrality parameter, λ. We investigate the relation between the λ value and the Gruneisen parameter to explain the origin of negative thermal expansion in the mW model and compare it with an all-atom water model that allows the examination of the effect of the rotational motions on the volume of ice.