Particle Jumps in SiO$_2$: A Computer Simulation

We use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the aging dynamics of SiO$_2$ modeled by the BKS potential. The system is well equilibrated at temperature $T_{\rm high}$ and then quenched to $T_{\rm low}$. We characterize the dynamics by means of jumps in single-particle trajectories and measure the number of jump events, the number of jumping particles, and jump size. All measured quantities increase with increasing $T_{\rm low}$ and decrease with increasing waiting time. For the largest investigated temperatures $T_{\rm low}$ and for long enough waiting times the system reaches equilibrium and all measured quantities become independent of $T_{\rm high}$ and waiting time.