Stick-slip motion can be observed in earthquakes, frictional motion, avalanches, and many other systems. Two theoretical physicists from NCU Physics (Prof. Pik-Yin Lai and Prof. Hsuan-Yi Chen) collaborated with the experimental team (led by Prof. Penger Tong) at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology discovered that the stick-slip dynamics in solid friction and contact line motion can be described by a common set of statistical laws of avalanche dynamics. The force needed to trigger the local slips obeys the generalized extreme value distribution, whereas the slip lengths are well-characterized by a power-law distribution with the power-law exponent explained by the analytical or numerical solution of a simple model. These studies captured the essential physics of the stick-slip dynamics at the mesoscale, providing a long-sought physical mechanism for the avalanche dynamics in stick-slip motion. These research results were published in Nature Communications (dry friction) and Physics Review Letters (contact line dynamics, selected as editor’s suggestion).
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