Towards understanding water: simulation of modified water models

The unusual properties of liquid water have been attributed to factors including hydrogen bonds, the presence of a local tetrahedral network, or the high number density. Most of the properties of water can be reproduced in simulations using simple potential models with site-site pairwise interactions. Although in real water the factors listed above cannot be separated, one may construct liquids from modified water models ('not-waters') in which these factors are altered independently in a controlled way. With various collaborators we have studied the changes in liquid properties, anomalies and solvation which result from various modifications.