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arXiv · 2509.09462

Isotopic Fingerprints of Proton-mediated Dielectric Relaxation in Solid and Liquid Water

Alexander Ryzhov·Pavel Kapralov·Mikhail Stolov·Anton Andreev·Aleksandra Radenovic·Viatcheslav Freger·Vasily Artemov
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Abstract

We report cross-validated measurements of the isotope effect on dielectric relaxation for four isotopologues of ice and water, including the 1-10^5 Hz region, in which only sporadic and inconsistent measurements were previously available. In ice, the relaxation rates exhibit an activated temperature dependence with an isotope-independent activation energy. Across 248-273 K, the H_2O/D_2O relaxation rate ratio remains constant at 2.0 \pm 0.1. This scaling agrees with Kramers' theory in the high-friction limit if the moving mass is the proton or deuteron, indicating that dielectric relaxation is governed by a classic proton transfer over an energy barrier rather than molecular reorientation.

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Alexander Ryzhov, Pavel Kapralov, Mikhail Stolov, Anton Andreev, Aleksandra Radenovic, Viatcheslav Freger, Vasily Artemov. 2025-09-11. Isotopic Fingerprints of Proton-mediated Dielectric Relaxation in Solid and Liquid Water. https://doi.org/10.1103/rh2v-4h9s

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