Phononic frictional losses of a particle crossing a crystal: Linear response theory

Sliding friction, caused by phonons elicited by a weakly interacting slider, is accessible to a quantitative analytic formula through linear-response theory unlike most other solid-solid sliding problems, such as Coulomb friction. Here, the authors present an analytic formula, whose practical advantage is to offer an accurate evaluation which is much faster than molecular-dynamics simulations, with which it strikingly agrees.