  The potential energy landscape (PEL) formalism is a valuable approach within
statistical mechanics for describing supercooled liquids and glasses. Here we
use the PEL formalism and computer simulations to study the pressure-induced
transformations between low-density amorphous ice (LDA) and high-density
amorphous ice (HDA) at different temperatures. We employ the ST2 water model
for which the LDA-HDA transformations are remarkably sharp, similar to what is
observed in experiments, and reminiscent of a first-order phase transition. Our
results are consistent with the view that LDA and HDA configurations are
associated with two distinct regions (megabasins) of the PEL that are separated
by a potential energy barrier. At higher temperature, we find that low-density
liquid (LDL) configurations are located in the same megabasin as LDA, and that
high-density liquid (HDL) configurations are located in the same megabasin as
HDA. We show that the pressure-induced LDL-HDL and LDA-HDA transformations
occur along paths that interconnect these two megabasins, but that the path
followed by the liquid is different than the path followed by the amorphous
solid. At higher pressure, we also study the liquid-to-ice-VII first-order
phase transition, and find that the behavior of the PEL properties across this
transition are qualitatively similar to the changes found during the LDA-HDA
transformation. This similarity supports the interpretation that the LDA-HDA
transformation is a first-order-like phase transition between
out-of-equilibrium states.
