Analytical theory for proton correlations in common water ice $I_h$

TL;DR

This paper develops an analytical microscopic theory for proton correlations in water ice I_h, accurately predicting neutron scattering data and offering insights into its topological phase nature.

Contribution

It introduces a fully analytical microscopic model for proton correlations in water ice I_h, matching experimental and simulation results without fitting parameters.

Findings

Excellent agreement with neutron scattering data

Quantitative match with Monte Carlo simulations

Insights into topological phase of water ice

Abstract

We provide a fully analytical microscopic theory for the proton correlations in water ice $I_h$. We compute the full diffuse elastic neutron scattering structure factor, which we find to be in excellent quantitative agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. It is also in remarkable qualitative agreement with experiment, in the absence of any fitting parameters. Our theory thus provides a tractable analytical starting point to account for more delicate features of the proton correlations in water ice. In addition, it directly determines an effective field theory of water ice as a topological phase.