Noise influence on solid-liquid transition of ultrathin lubricant film

TL;DR

This study investigates how additive noise in shear stress, strain, and temperature affects the phase transitions of ultrathin lubricant films, revealing that increased strain noise can induce melting at low temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a noise-based model to analyze phase diagrams of ultrathin lubricant films, highlighting the role of strain noise in melting phenomena.

Findings

Strain noise promotes lubricant melting at low temperatures.

Phase diagram includes sliding, stick-slip, and dry friction domains.

Noise influences the transition boundaries between different friction regimes.

Abstract

The melting of ultrathin lubricant film by friction between atomically flat surfaces is studied. The additive noises of the elastic shear stress and strain, and the temperature are introduced for building a phase diagram with the domains of sliding, stick-slip, and dry friction. It is shown that increase of the strain noise intensity causes the lubricant film melting even at low temperatures of the friction surfaces.