Collective effects in molecular motions in liquids

The collective effects in water were studied by investigating the spatial distribution of long-living hydrogen bonds and revealing correlations in molecular motions. The existence of extended clusters, whose molecules are linked by long-living bonds, suggests the existence of correlations between the motions of its molecules. The mean scalar products of the shift vectors of two molecules were calculated using the narrow ranges (DP) of intermolecular distances in the initial configuration. The average correlation coefficients (the cosines of angles between the shift vectors of two molecules) were also calculated. The DP and cosine values were averaged over all pairs with this intermolecular distance. The DP values increased with time and formed a plateau after a few hundred picoseconds. The plateau was attributed to the existence of molecular vortices that cover large (several nanometers) volumes of the liquid. The conclusion was drawn that hydrophobic species, for example, noble gas atoms incorporated in the water net could be involved in collective motions.