STATISTICAL THEORY OF FRICTION IN INTERACTION
OF A NANOPROBE WITH THE SURFACE OF A SOLID BODY

S. Sh. Rekhviashvili

UDC 539.61

Consideration is given to the statistical theory of friction 
between the probe of an atomic-force microscope and the atomically 
smooth surface of a solid body. Based on the calculations performed 
it has been inferred that the process of friction in nanocontacts 
is fractal. It has been shown that the fractal integro-differentiation 
formalism can be applied to analysis of the processes of interaction 
in nanocontacts.

Institute of Applied Mathematics and Automation, Kabardino-Balkar 
Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nal'chik, Russia; 
email: rsergo@mail.ru. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, 
Vol. 76, No. 4, pp. 168-170, July-August, 2003. Original article 
submitted July 5, 2002; revision submitted November 26, 2002.