Revisiting waterlike network-forming lattice models

We revisit different three-dimensional network-forming lattice models proposed in the literature to investigate water anomalies. We perform a semianalytical calculation based on a cluster-variation technique, showing a quite good agreement with independent Monte Carlo results. The method allows us to clarify the structure of the phase diagrams, which turn out to exhibit different kinds of orientationally ordered phases. We point out that certain "waterlike" thermodynamic anomalies, claimed by previous studies, are indeed artifacts of a homogeneity assumption made in the analytical treatment. We argue that such a difficulty is common to a whole class of lattice models for water and suggest a possible way to overcome the problem in terms of "equivalent" models defined on random lattices.