Comment on "First order amorphous-amorphous transformation in silica"

Abstract

In a recent letter (Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4629 (2000)), Lacks presents evidence of a first order amorphous-amorphous transition in silica at T=0. He calculates the free energy along a path of compression and successive decompression of a sample of 108 SiO2 units. The free energy of the two branches cross each other, and this is interpreted as evidence of a first order transition. We show that this conclusion does not follow from the shown data, since qualitatively the same phenomenology is obtained in a model where a first order transition does not exist.