title: Dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in sliding nanotubes.
abstract: We discover in simulations of sliding coaxial nanotubes an unanticipated example of dynamical symmetry breaking taking place at the nanoscale. While both nanotubes are perfectly left-right symmetric and nonchiral, a nonzero angular momentum of phonon origin appears spontaneously at a series of critical sliding velocities, in correspondence with large peaks of the sliding friction. The nonlinear equations governing this phenomenon resemble the rotational instability of a forced string. However, several new elements, exquisitely "nano" appear here, with the crucial involvement of umklapp and of sliding nanofriction.
authors.affiliation: International School for Advanced Studies, Via Beirut 2-4, I-34014 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: X H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Santoro
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Tartaglino
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tosatti
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon