  The dragging velocity of a model solid lubricant confined between sliding
periodic substrates exhibits a phase transition between two regimes,
respectively with quantized and with continuous lubricant center-of-mass
velocity. The transition, occurring for increasing external driving force F_ext
acting on the lubricant, displays a large hysteresis, and has the features of
depinning transitions in static friction, only taking place on the fly.
Although different in nature, this phenomenon appears isomorphic to a static
Aubry depinning transition in a Frenkel-Kontorova model, the role of particles
now taken by the moving kinks of the lubricant-substrate interface. We suggest
a possible realization in 2D optical lattice experiments.
