Citation

Capozza R, Rubinstein SM, Barel I, Urbakh M, Fineberg J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2011; 107(2): 024301.

Affiliation

School of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, American Physical Society)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

21797608

Abstract

Even the most regular stick-slip frictional sliding is always stochastic, with irregularity in both the intervals between slip events and the sizes of the associated stress drops. Applying small-amplitude oscillations to the shear force, we show, experimentally and theoretically, that the stick-slip periods synchronize. We further show that this phase locking is related to the inhibition of slow rupture modes which forces a transition to fast rupture, providing a possible mechanism for observed remote triggering of earthquakes. Such manipulation of collective modes may be generally relevant to extended nonlinear systems driven near to criticality.

Language: en