Screening of an Electric Field in Water

The screening of an electric field in water has been studied taking into account correlations between protons, which are described by the ice rules. It is shown that the problem has two characteristic screening lengths l1 ≪ l2, which are determined by majority and minority charge carriers in water. The commonly accepted static dielectric constant of water about 83 at room temperature is applicable only in the distance range l1 ≪ x ≪ l2. At smaller distances, the dielectric constant is determined by the high-frequency dielectric constant and is ϵ∞ ≈ 3.2, whereas the dielectric constant at large distances tends to infinity, which corresponds to the complete screening of the electric field. The screening lengths have been numerically determined, their temperature dependences have been described, and an experiment has been proposed to test the results obtained.