English

Onset of sliding friction in incommensurate systems

Condensed Matter 2009-10-31 v2

Abstract

We study the dynamics of an incommensurate chain sliding on a periodic lattice, modeled by the Frenkel Kontorova hamiltonian with initial kinetic energy, without damping and driving terms. We show that the onset of friction at all velocities is due to a novel kind of dissipative parametric resonances, involving several resonant phonons which are driven by the (dissipationless) coupling of the center of mass motion to the phonons with wavevector related to the modulating potential. We establish quantitative estimates for their existence in finite systems and point out the analogy with the induction phenomenon in Fermi-Ulam-Pasta lattices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0002006,
  title  = {Onset of sliding friction in incommensurate systems},
  author = {L. Consoli and H. J. F. Knops and A. Fasolino},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0002006},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

RevTex, 4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett; text modified; references addes; minor changes in fig. 1