Related papers: Kinks and Nanofriction: Structural Phases in Few-A…
A thermal model of kinetic friction is assigned to a classical loaded particle moving on a fluctuating smooth surface. A sinusoidal wave resembles surface fluctuations with a relaxation time. The Hamiltonian is approximated to the mean…
The properties of condensed matter are determined by single-particle and collective excitations and their interactions. These quantum-mechanical excitations are characterized by an energy E and a momentum \hbar k which are related through…
Kinks (or domain walls) are localized transitions between distinct ground states associated with a topological invariant, and are central to many phenomena across physics, from condensed matter to cosmology. While phonon (i.e.,…
Structural superlubricity is an intriguing physical phenomenon, whereby sliding at a structurally incommensurate, atomically flat interface yields vanishingly small friction forces. Despite its recent experimental validation, critical…
It is shown using the method of molecular dynamics that the motion of carbon nanoparticles (rectangular graphene flakes, spherical fullerenes of size $L<10$ nm) on the surface of a thermalized graphene sheet lying on a flat substrate can be…
Developing the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of friction is required for systematic design of low friction surfaces for a broad range of technological applications. Intuitively, the thermodynamic work done by a material sliding along a…
The pioneer work of Krim and Widom unveiled the origin of the viscous nature of friction at the atomic scale. This generated extensive experimental and theoretical activity. However, fundamental questions remain open like the relation…
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are well known for their exceptional thermal, mechanical and electrical properties. For many CNT applications it is of the foremost importance to know their frictional properties. However, very little is known about…
We study numerically the kink-fermion interactions in a 1+1 dimensional toy model, which describes sine-Gordon kinks coupled to the massless Dirac fermions with backreaction. We show that the spectrum of fermionic modes strongly depends on…
Friction is a major source of energy loss in mechanical devices. This energy loss may be minimized by creating interfaces with extremely reduced friction, i.e. superlubricity. Conventional wisdom holds that incommensurate interface…
Dynamic Mode III interfacial fracture in a dissimilar square-cell lattice, composed of two contrasting mass-spring lattice half-planes joined at an interface, is considered. The fracture, driven by a remotely applied load, is assumed to…
We experimentally probe the distribution of kink pairs resulting from driving a one-dimensional quantum Ising chain through the paramagnet-ferromagnet quantum phase transition, using a single trapped ion as a quantum simulator in momentum…
When a soft elastic cylinder is bent beyond a critical radius of curvature, a sharp fold in the form of a kink appears at its inner side while the outer side remains smooth. The critical radius increases linearly with the diameter of the…
Spatially separated bodies in relative motion through vacuum experience a tiny friction force known as quantum friction. This force has so far eluded experimental detection due to its small magnitude and short range. Quantitative details…
A quantitative model of the mobility of functionalized particles at the interface is pivotal to understanding important systems in biology and nanotechnology. In this work, we investigate the emerging dynamics of particles anchored through…
The conductance through a quantum point contact created by a sharp and hard metal tip on the graphite surface has features which to our knowledge have not been encountered so far in metal contacts or in nanowires. In this paper we first…
We investigate the velocity dependence of kinetic friction with a model which makes minimal assumptions on the actual mechanism of friction so that it can be applied at many scales provided the system involves multi-contact friction. Using…
Molecular dynamic (MD) simulations are applied to investigate the dependency of the kinetic friction coefficient on the temperature at the nano-scale. The system is comprised of an aluminum spherical particle consisting of 32000 atoms in an…
We investigate the deconfinement transition driven by excitations in long-range spin models. At low temperatures, these models exhibit a confined phase where domain-wall (or kinks) are localized. As temperature increases, kinks interact and…
We consider percolation and jamming transitions for particulate systems exposed to compression. For the systems built of particles interacting by purely repulsive forces in addition to friction and viscous damping, it is found that these…