Static dielectric constants and molecular dipole distributions of liquid water and ice-Ih investigated by the PAW-PBE exchange-correlation functional.

The static dielectric constants, ε(s), of ice-Ih and liquid water were calculated using density functional theory with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange-correlation functional and the projector-augmented-wave (PAW) approach. Proton disordered ice configurations and uncorrelated liquid configurations were sampled with the electrostatic switching method using force fields specially designed to facilitate the ab initio free energy perturbation calculations. Our results indicate that PAW-PBE underestimates the ε(s) of both ice-Ih and liquid water but predicts the ratio of ice and water ε(s) in good agreement with experimental measurements.