Force fluctuation in a driven elastic chain.pdf

a r X i v : c o n d - m a t / 0 0 0 7 3 0 8 v 2 [ c o n d - m a t .s t a t - m e c h ] 2 5 J u l 2 0 0 0 Force fluctuation in a driven elastic chain Fre?de?ric Lacombe1, Stefano Zapperi1,2 and Hans J. Herrmann1 1 PMMH-ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France 2 INFM, Dipartimento di Fisica, E. Fermi, Universita? ”La Sapienza”, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy We study the dynamics of an elastic chain driven on a disordered substrate and analyze numer- ically 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 τ 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 con- stant 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. PACS numbers: 64.60, 05.70.Ln, 81.40.Pq I. INTRODUCTION The dissipative motion of an elastic line in a random potential is an interesting example of a nonequilbrium interacting system and is relevant for several phenom- ena in condensed matter physics. Examples are numer- ous and include the motion of magnetic interfaces in fer- romagnetic materials [1,2], solid friction [3–5], wetting [6,7], charge density waves [8], fluids in porous media [9], vortex dynamics in high temperature superconduc- tors [10–12], cracks and dislocations. These systems are characterized by a dynamic phase transition ruled by the interplay between quenched disorder and elastic interac- tions. Due to the effect of the disorder, an elastic chain at zero