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arXiv · 2602.07067

Experimentally controlling scattering of water waves in correlated disorder

Angélique Campaniello·Rémi Carminati·Marcel Filoche·Emmanuel Fort
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Abstract

Wave propagation in complex media is a universal problem spanning optics, acoustics, mechanics, and condensed matter physics. While disorder usually causes strong scattering, recent theory predicts that a special class of correlated disorder, known as stealthy hyperuniformity, can suppress scattering at long wavelengths, making a material transparent despite remaining structurally disordered and far from a simple homogenization regime. Experimental evidence of this remarkable transport regime within a medium has, however, remained limited. Here we report a direct, spatially resolved experimental observation of a transition between scattering and non-scattering wave transport induced by hyperuniform correlations. Using water waves as a model platform, we image both the amplitude and phase of the wavefield as it propagates through a two-dimensional disordered structure. This enables us to extract quantitative transport observables, including extinction lengths, statistical fluctuations, and energy-flow patterns, and to directly identify the boundary of the hyperuniform transparency regime. Our results provide a quantitative experimental validation of the transport regimes predicted for stealthy hyperuniform disorder and demonstrate that correlated disorder offers a powerful and practical route to control wave propagation in realistic systems across wave physics.

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Angélique Campaniello, Rémi Carminati, Marcel Filoche, Emmanuel Fort. 2026-02-05. Experimentally controlling scattering of water waves in correlated disorder. https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.07067

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