Giovambattista Nicolas, Stanley H Eugene, Sciortino Francesco
Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Sep 12;91(11):115504. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.115504. Epub 2003 Sep 9.
We study the potential energy landscape explored during a compression-decompression cycle for the simple point charge extended model of water. During the cycle, the system changes from low density amorphous (LDA) ice to high density amorphous ice. After the cycle, the system does not return to the same region of the landscape, supporting the interesting possibility that more than one significantly different configuration corresponds to LDA. We find that the regions of the landscape explored during this transition have properties remarkably different from those explored in thermal equilibrium in the liquid phase.
