BIO In the literature: contested

Are water's compressibility maxima at 1 bar a Widom line

In plain words

Measurements on tiny falling droplets of supercooled water found peaks in compressibility near 229 K at ordinary pressure. Whether these peaks are a sign of a critical point at higher pressure or have another cause is not settled.

Precise statement

X-ray scattering on evaporatively cooled micro-droplets (2017) reported maxima of the isothermal compressibility $\kappa_{T}$ and correlation length near 229 K at 1 bar. Determine whether these maxima lie on a Widom line (locus of response-function maxima emanating from an LLCP) by measuring $\kappa_{T}(T)$ and the correlation length along several isobars up to about $1e9\ \mathrm{dyn}/\mathrm{cm}^2$ and testing the growth of the maxima toward a critical point.

What would settle it

Isobaric measurements showing the response maxima growing and converging toward a critical point, or remaining finite and inconsistent with an LLCP.

Status in the literature

Unverified note

A 2026 ultrafast X-ray experiment (You et al., Science 2026) reported critical behavior near 210 K, consistent with the Widom-line reading, but isobaric tracking of the maxima toward the critical point has not been done.