Memory Control of Ice Growth During Non-Equilibrium Freezing of Water
Abstract
Freezing of supercooled water is a classic non-equilibrium problem, yet the influence of thermal history on crystallization remains unclear. Using molecular dynamics simulations with the TIP4P/Ice model, we investigate how the initial temperature Ti shapes freezing following rapid quenching to 250 K. By monitoring the evolution of hydrogen-bonded ring structures, we find a non-monotonic dependence of the freezing time tF on Ti, with the slowest crystallization occurring near 300 K. Remarkably, this means that initially hotter water can freeze faster than cooler water, a molecular-scale analogue of the Mpemba effect. A non-stationary generalized Langevin equation framework shows that two-time memory kernels retain information about the system's thermal past, directly influencing crystallization dynamics. Structural analysis further reveals that five-membered rings act as kinetic traps, while correlations among ring types regulate the accessibility of ice-like motifs. These results uncover a molecular origin of memory-driven freezing and establish structural memory as a key driver of non-equilibrium phase transitions.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{hazarika2026memory,
title = {{Memory Control of Ice Growth During Non-Equilibrium Freezing of Water}},
author = {Abhigyan Hazarika and Sudeep N. Punnathanam and Biman Bagchi and Prabal K. Maiti},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.08535},
eprint = {2609.08535},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.08535},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Memory Control of Ice Growth During Non-Equilibrium Freezing of Water
AU - Abhigyan Hazarika
AU - Sudeep N. Punnathanam
AU - Biman Bagchi
AU - Prabal K. Maiti
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.08535
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.08535
AB - Freezing of supercooled water is a classic non-equilibrium problem, yet the influence of thermal history on crystallization remains unclear. Using molecular dynamics simulations with the TIP4P/Ice model, we investigate how the initial temperature T_i shapes freezing following rapid quenching to 250 K. By monitoring the evolution of hydrogen-bonded ring structures, we find a non-monotonic dependence of the freezing time t_F on T_i, with the slowest crystallization occurring near 300 K. Remarkably, this means that initially hotter water can freeze faster than cooler water, a molecular-scale analogue of the Mpemba effect. A non-stationary generalized Langevin equation framework shows that two-time memory kernels retain information about the system's thermal past, directly influencing crystallization dynamics. Structural analysis further reveals that five-membered rings act as kinetic traps, while correlations among ring types regulate the accessibility of ice-like motifs. These results uncover a molecular origin of memory-driven freezing and establish structural memory as a key driver of non-equilibrium phase transitions.
ER -