Abstract
We discover in simulations of sliding coaxial nanotubes an unanticipated example of dynamical symmetry breaking taking place at the nanoscale. While both nanotubes are perfectly left-right symmetric and nonchiral, a nonzero angular momentum of phonon origin appears spontaneously at a series of critical sliding velocities, in correspondence with large peaks of the sliding friction. The nonlinear equations governing this phenomenon resemble the rotational instability of a forced string. However, several new elements, exquisitely “nano” appear here, with the crucial involvement of umklapp and of sliding nanofriction.
- Received 17 December 2008
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.125502
©2009 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Turning one way
Published 23 March 2009
Molecular dynamics simulations unveil an example of dynamical symmetry breaking at the nanoscale.
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