Analytic results and experiments in ultrahigh vacuum indicate that the static friction between two clean crystalline surfaces should almost always vanish, yet macroscopic objects always exhibit static friction. A simple and general explanation for the prevalence of static friction is proposed. "Third bodies," such as small hydrocarbon molecules, adsorb on any surface exposed to air and can arrange to lock two contacting surfaces together. The resulting static friction is consistent with experimental behavior, including Amontons' laws.

Optical absorption measurements for diamond cubic Sn x Ge 12x alloy films indicate strong interband transitions with a change in direct energy gap of 0.35 , E g , 0.80 eV for 0.15 . x . 0. The optical energy gap undergoes an indirect to direct transition in this composition range and decreases much faster with Sn content than predicted by tight binding and pseudopotential calculations in the virtual crystal approximation. [S0031-9007(97)

We present predictions for the statistical error due to finite sampling in the presence of thermal fluctuations in molecular simulation algorithms. Specifically, we establish how these errors depend on Mach number, Knudsen number, number of particles, etc. Expressions for the common hydrodynamic variables of interest such as flow velocity, temperature, density, pressure, shear stress and heat flux are derived using equilibrium statistical mechanics. Both volume-averaged and surface-averaged quantities are considered. Comparisons between theory and computations using direct simulation Monte Carlo for dilute gases, and molecular dynamics for dense fluids, show that the use of equilibrium theory provides accurate results.

Simulations of the kinetic friction due to a layer of adsorbed molecules between two crystalline surfaces are presented. The adsorbed layer naturally produces friction that is consistent with Amontons' laws and insensitive to parameters that are not controlled in experiments. The kinetic friction rises logarithmically with velocity as in many experimental systems. Variations with potential parameters and temperature follow variations in the static friction. This correlation is understood through analogy with the Tomlinson model and the trends are explained with a hard-sphere picture.

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