Energy dissipation accompanying atomic-scale friction: Nonlocality and memory

Abstract

It has been shown that, in spite of the success achieved in describing atomic-scale friction, serious problems concerning friction force microscopy remain unsolved. The traditional theoretical approach, which, on default, ignores possible effects of nonlocality and memory, leads to a number of contradictions. Proceeding from the general concepts of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, rigorous analysis, and simple atomistic simulation, it has been shown that the phonon mechanism of energy dissipation upon friction is essentially nonlocal with the prevalence of memory effects.