High-dimensional order parameters and neural network classifiers applied to amorphous ices

Amorphous ice phases are key constituents of water’s complex structural landscape. This study investigates the polyamorphic nature of water, focusing on the complexities within low-density amorphous ice (LDA), high-density amorphous ice (HDA), and the recently discovered medium-density amorphous ice (MDA). We use rotationally-invariant, high-dimensional order parameters to capture a wide spectrum of local symmetries for the characterisation of local oxygen environments. We train a neural network (NN) to classify these local environments, and investigate the distinctiveness of MDA within the structural landscape of amorphous ice. Our results highlight the difficulty in accurately differentiating MDA from LDA due to structural similarities. Beyond water, our methodology can be applied to investigate the structural properties and phases of disordered materials.