Jamming, Friction and Unsteady Rheology

The connection between friction and jamming in granular media, molecular glasses, and complex fluids is explored. The paper first reviews the way friction is measured, the types of results that are observed, and what is known about the geometry of contacts between macroscopic surfaces. Then simple models for the origin of static friction are described. These are unable to explain the universal observation of static friction between macroscopic objects. The effects of surface roughness and chemical heterogeneity are discussed, and shown to yield exponentially weak static friction in our three dimensional world. In contrast, jamming of the "third bodies" that are present between most surfaces is shown to produce static friction that is consistent with macroscopic measurements. Experimental and simulation studies of jamming of molecularly thin fluid films are described and compared to studies of bulk glass transitions. The paper concludes by considering the unsteady stick-slip motion that often arises when systems become unjammed by sufficiently large stress. Different types of stick-slip motion are identified, and some of its origins are explored.