Resonantly induced friction in driven nanomechanical systems

Abstract: We propose a new mechanism of friction in resonantly driven vibrational systems. The form of the friction force follows from the time- and spatial-symmetry arguments. We consider a microscopic mechanism of this resonant force in nanomechanical systems. The friction can be negative, leading to an instability of forced vibrations of a nanoresonator and the onset of self-sustained oscillations in the rotating frame.