%0 Journal Article
%A Brener, Efim A.
%A Aldam, Michael
%A Barras, Fabian
%A Molinari, Jean-François
%A Bouchbinder, Eran
%T Unstable Slip Pulses and Earthquake Nucleation as a Nonequilibrium First-Order Phase Transition
%J Physical review letters
%V 121
%N 23
%@ 1079-7114
%C College Park, Md.
%I APS
%M FZJ-2019-00454
%P 234302
%D 2018
%X The onset of rapid slip along initially quiescent frictional interfaces, the process of “earthquake nucleation,” and dissipative spatiotemporal slippage dynamics play important roles in a broad range of physical systems. Here we first show that interfaces described by generic friction laws feature stress-dependent steady-state slip pulse solutions, which are unstable in the quasi-1D approximation of thin elastic bodies. We propose that such unstable slip pulses of linear size L∗ and characteristic amplitude are “critical nuclei” for rapid slip in a nonequilibrium analogy to equilibrium first-order phase transitions and quantitatively support this idea by dynamical calculations. We then perform 2D numerical calculations that indicate that the nucleation length L∗ exists also in 2D and that the existence of a fracture mechanics Griffith-like length LG<L∗ gives rise to a richer phase diagram that features also sustained slip pulses.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ pmid:30576171
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000452683000010
%R 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.234302
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/859605