2000/07/25 by F. Lacombe, Frédéric Lacombe, Stefano Zapperi +3
Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Condensed matter physics #Constant (computer programming) #Diagram #Exponent #Geometry #Material Dynamics and Properties #Mathematics #Physics #Power law #Quantum mechanics #Scaling #Slip (aerodynamics) #Statistical physics #Stochastic processes and statistical mechanics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.63.104104
8 pages
arxiv created 2000/07/25 · openalex publication_date 2001/02/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the dynamics of an elastic chain driven on a disordered substrate and analyze numerically the statistics of force fluctuations at the depinning transition. The probability distribution function of the amplitude of the slip events for small velocities is a power law with an exponent \ensuremathτ depending on the driving velocity. This result is in qualitative agreement with experimental measurements performed on sliding elastic surfaces with macroscopic asperities. We explore the properties of the depinning transition as a function of the driving mode (i.e., constant force or constant velocity) and compute the force-velocity diagram using finite-size scaling methods. The scaling exponents are in excellent agreement with the values expected in interface models and, contrary to previous studies, we found no difference in the exponents for periodic and disordered chains.