%0 Journal Article
%T Stabilizing stick-slip friction
%A Rosario Capozza
%A Shmuel M. Rubinstein
%A Itay Barel
%A Michael Urbakh
%A Jay Fineberg
%J Physics
%D 2011
%I arXiv
%R 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.024301
%X 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.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.1950v1