Relationship between equilibrium fluctuations and shear-coupled motion of grain boundaries.

We derive general analytical expressions relating the equilibrium fluctuations of a grain boundary to key parameters governing its motion coupled to shear deformation. We validate these expressions by molecular dynamics simulations for symmetrical tilt boundaries and demonstrate how they can be used to extract the misorientation dependence of the grain-boundary mobility. The results shed light on fundamental relationships between equilibrium and nonequilibrium grain-boundary properties and provide new means to predict those properties.