607 research outputs found
Rack-and-pinion effects in molecular rolling friction
Rolling lubrication with spherical molecules working as 'nanobearings' has
failed experimentally so far, without a full understanding of the physics
involved and of the reasons why. Past model simulations and common sense have
shown that molecules can only roll when they are not too closely packed to jam.
The same type of model simulations now shows in addition that molecular rolling
friction can develop deep minima once the molecule's peripheral 'pitch' can
match the substrate periodicity, much as ordinary cogwheels do in a
rack-and-pinion system. When the pinion-rack matching is bad, the driven
molecular rolling becomes discontinuous and noisy, whence energy is dissipated
and friction is large. This suggests experiments to be conducted by varying the
rack-and-pinion matching. That could be pursued not only by changing molecules
and substrates, but also by applying different sliding directions within the
same system, or by applying pressure, to change the effective matching.Comment: 5 figure
Comment on "Soliton ratchets induced by excitation of internal modes"
Very recently Willis et al. [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 69}, 056612 (2004)] have used
a collective variable theory to explain the appearance of a nonzero energy
current in an ac driven, damped sine-Gordon equation. In this comment, we prove
rigorously that the time-averaged energy current in an ac driven nonlinear
Klein-Gordon system is strictly zero.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Substrate-induced pairing of Si ad-dimers on the Si(100)surface
The interaction between Si ad-dimers on the Si(100) surface has been studied by total-energy calculations with a three-particle Stillinger-Weber potential. We have found a strong attractive interaction between neighboring Si ad-dimers located in neighboring on-top and deep-channel positions in adjacent substrate dimer rows. This should result in a four-atomic block consisting of two dimers as an important elementary object of the Si(100) kinetics
Dynamical transitions in correlated driven diffusion in a periodic potential
The diffusion of a two-dimensional array of particles driven by a constant
force in the presence of a periodic external potential exhibits a hierarchy of
dynamical phase transitions when the driving force is varied. This behavior can
be explained by a simple phenomenological approach which reduces the system of
strongly interacting particles to weakly interacting quasi-particles (kinks).
The richness of the strongly coupled system is however not lost because,
contrary to a single-Brownian particle, the array shows an hysteretic behavior
even at non-zero temperature. The present investigation can be viewed as a
first step toward understanding nanotribology.Comment: 4 pages, 3 pictures, revtex to appear in Phys Rev. Let
Solitonic-exchange mechanism of surface~diffusion
We study surface diffusion in the framework of a generalized
Frenkel-Kontorova model with a nonconvex transverse degree of freedom. The
model describes a lattice of atoms with a given concentration interacting by
Morse-type forces, the lattice being subjected to a two-dimensional substrate
potential which is periodic in one direction and nonconvex (Morse) in the
transverse direction. The results are used to describe the complicated
exchange-mediated diffusion mechanism recently observed in MD simulations [J.E.
Black and Zeng-Ju Tian, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 71}, 2445-2448(1993)].Comment: 22 Revtex pages, 9 figures to appear in Phys. Rev.
Dynamical phase diagram of the dc-driven underdamped Frenkel-Kontorova chain
Multistep dynamical phase transition from the locked to the running state of
atoms in response to a dc external force is studied by MD simulations of the
generalized Frenkel-Kontorova model in the underdamped limit. We show that the
hierarchy of transition recently reported [Braun et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78,
1295 (1997)] strongly depends on the value of the friction constant. A simple
phenomenological explanation for the friction dependence of the various
critical forces separating intermediate regimes is given.Comment: 12 Revtex Pages, 4 EPS figure
The role of lubricant molecular shape in microscopic friction
With the help of a simple two-dimensional model we simulate the tribological
properties of a thin lubricant film consisting of linear (chain) molecules in
the ordinary soft-lubricant regime. We find that friction generally increases
with chain length, in agreement with their larger bulk viscosity. When
comparing the tribological properties of molecules which stick bodily to the
substrates with others carrying a single sticking termination, we find that the
latter generally yield a larger friction than the former.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures, in print in Phys. Rev.
{\phi}^4 Solitary Waves in a Parabolic Potential: Existence, Stability, and Collisional Dynamics
We explore a {\phi}^4 model with an added external parabolic potential term.
This term dramatically alters the spectral properties of the system. We
identify single and multiple kink solutions and examine their stability
features; importantly, all of the stationary structures turn out to be
unstable. We complement these with a dynamical study of the evolution of a
single kink in the trap, as well as of the scattering of kink and anti-kink
solutions of the model. We see that some of the key characteristics of
kink-antikink collisions, such as the critical velocity and the multi-bounce
windows, are sensitively dependent on the trap strength parameter, as well as
the initial displacement of the kink and antikink
Metastable Vacua in Flux Compactifications and Their Phenomenology
In the context of flux compactifications, metastable vacua with a small
positive cosmological constant are obtained by combining a sector where
supersymmetry is broken dynamically with the sector responsible for moduli
stabilization, which is known as the F-uplifting. We analyze this procedure in
a model-independent way and study phenomenological properties of the resulting
vacua.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures; v2: matches version published in JHE
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