Some aspects of the correlation between peaks on surfaces

A view of surface contact as the parallel interactions between surfaces does not conform to the customary random processes models inherited from communications theory. One aspect of the interactions is the effect of local deformations on neighbouring parts of the surfaces. These correlations are distinguished as geometrical and physical. The geometrical interaction is considered in this paper, resulting in a discrimination between degrees of peaks interaction. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.