arXiv subjects

Salvatore Torquato

Publications and source records attributed to Salvatore Torquato.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Ultradense Sphere Packings Derived From Disordered Stealthy Hyperuniform Ground States

Disordered stealthy hyperuniform (SHU) packings are an emerging class of exotic amorphous two-phase materials endowed with novel physical properties. Such packings of identical spheres have been created from SHU point patterns via a modified collective-coordinate optimization scheme that includes a soft-core repulsion, besides the standard `stealthy' pair potential. Using the distributions of minimum pair distances and nearest-neighbor distances, we find that when the stealthiness parameter $χ$ is lower than 0.5, the maximal values of $ϕ$, denoted by $ϕ_{\max}$, decrease to zero on average as the particle number $N$ increases if there are no soft-core repulsions. By contrast, the inclusion of soft-core repulsions results in very large $ϕ_{\max}$ independent of $N$, reaching up to $ϕ_{\max}=1.0, 0.86, 0.63$ in the zero-$χ$ limit and decreasing to $ϕ_{\max}=1.0, 0.67, 0.47$ at $χ=0.45$ for $d=1,2,3$, respectively. We obtain explicit formulas for $ϕ_{\max}$ as functions of $χ$ and $N$ for a given $d$. For $d=2,3$, our soft-core SHU packings for small $χ$ become configurationally very close to the jammed hard-particle packings created by fast compression algorithms, as measured by the pair statistics. As $χ$ increases beyond $0.20$, the packings form fewer contacts and linear polymer-like chains. The resulting structure factors $S(k)$ and pair correlation functions $g_2(r)$ reveal that soft-core repulsions significantly alter the short- and intermediate-range correlations in the SHU ground states. We also compute the spectral density $\tildeχ_{_V}(k)$, which can be used to estimate various physical properties (e.g., electromagnetic properties, fluid permeability, and mean survival time) of SHU two-phase dispersions. Our results offer a new route for discovering novel disordered hyperuniform two-phase materials with unprecedentedly high density.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2025

From point patterns to networks: to what extent does the Delaunay triangulation reproduce key spatial and density information?

It is important that a spatial network's construction algorithm reproduces the structural properties of the original physical embedding. Here, we assess the Delaunay triangulation as a spatial network construction algorithm for seven different types of 2D point patterns, including hyperuniform systems. The latter are characterized by completely suppressed normalized infinite-wavelength density fluctuations. We demonstrate that the quartile coefficients of dispersion of multiple centrality measures are capable of rank-ordering hyperuniform and nonhyperuniform systems independently, but they cannot distinguish a system that is nearly hyperuniform from hyperuniform systems. Thus, we investigate the local densities of the point pattern and of the network. We reveal that there is a strong correlation between local densities in the point pattern and network in nonhyperuniform systems, but there is no such correlation in hyperuniform systems. When calculating the pair-correlation function and local density covariance function on the point pattern and network, the point pattern and network functions are similar only in nonhyperuniform systems. In hyperuniform systems, the triangulation has a positive covariance of local network densities in pairs of nodes that are close together that is not present in the point patterns. Thus, we demonstrate that the Delaunay triangulation accurately captures the density fluctuations of the point pattern only when the point pattern possesses a positive local density covariance at small distances. Such positive correlation is seen in most real-world systems, so the Delaunay triangulation is generally an effective tool for building a spatial network from a 2D point pattern, but there are situations (i.e., disordered hyperuniform systems) where we caution that the Delaunay triangulation would not be effective at capturing the underlying physical embedding.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2025

Accurate Formula for the Effective Conductivity of Highly Clustered Two-Phase Materials

Two-phase heterogeneous materials arising in a variety of natural and synthetic situations exhibit a wide-variety of microstructures and thus display a broad-spectrum effective physical properties. Given that such properties of disordered materials generally depend on an infinite-set of microstructural correlation functions that are typically unobtainable, in practice, one must consider rigorous bounds and approximations on the effective properties that depend on a limited set of nontrivial microstructural information. Torquato derived [Random Heterogeneous Materials, Microstructure and Macroscopic Properties (2002)] such an approximation for the effective thermal/electrical conductivity of two-phase microstructures that perturb about those that realize the well-known self-consistent formula; a key feature of such microstructures being phase-inversion symmetry which can be observed in certain cellular, bicontinuous, and porous materials. Here, we show via extensive numerical simulations that this virtually unexamined approximation, which depends on up to three-point correlations, predicts accurately the effective conductivities of various two- and three-dimensional two-phase microstructures across phase volume fractions in which both phases can form large and well-connected clusters; including certain phase-inversion symmetric microstructures as well as phase-inversion asymmetric dispersions of certain fully penetrable particles. We also highlight the accurate sensitivity of this approximation to phase-connectedness properties by showing that it predicts percolation thresholds that are in good quantitative and/or qualitative agreement with known thresholds for the models considered here. Finally, we discuss how this formula can be used to design materials with desirable effective conductivity properties and thus aid in materials by design.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Anomalous suppression of large-scale density fluctuations in classical and quantum spin liquids

Classical spin liquids (CSLs) are intriguing states of matter that do not exhibit long-range magnetic order and are characterized by an extensive ground-state degeneracy. Adding quantum fluctuations, which induce dynamics between these different classical ground states, can give rise to quantum spin liquids (QSLs). QSLs are highly entangled quantum phases of matter characterized by fascinating emergent properties, such as fractionalized excitations and topological order. One such exotic quantum liquid is the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ QSL, which can be regarded as a resonating valence bond (RVB) state formed from superpositions of dimer coverings of an underlying lattice. In this work, we unveil a \textit{hidden} large-scale structural property of archetypal CSLs and QSLs known as hyperuniformity, i.e., normalized infinite-wavelength density fluctuations are completely suppressed in these systems. In particular, we first demonstrate that classical ensembles of close-packed dimers and their corresponding quantum RVB states are perfectly hyperuniform in general. Subsequently, we focus on a ruby-lattice spin liquid that was recently realized in a Rydberg-atom quantum simulator, and show that the QSL remains effectively hyperuniform even in the presence of a finite density of spinon and vison excitations, as long as the dimer constraint is still largely preserved. Moreover, we demonstrate that metrics based on the framework of hyperuniformity can be used to distinguish the QSL from other proximate quantum phases. These metrics can help identify potential QSL candidates, which can then be further analyzed using more advanced, computationally-intensive quantum numerics to confirm their status as true QSLs.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Can one hear the shape of a crystal?

Isospectrality is a general fundamental concept often involving whether various operators can have identical spectra, i.e., the same set of eigenvalues. In the context of the Laplacian operator, the famous question ``Can one hear the shape of a drum?'' concerns whether different shaped drums can have the same vibrational modes. The isospectrality of a lattice in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$ is a tantamount to whether it is uniquely determined by its theta series, i.e., the radial distribution function $g_2(r)$. While much is known about the isospectrality of Bravais lattices across dimensions, little is known about this question of more general crystal (periodic) structures with an $n$-particle basis ($n \ge 2$). Here, we ask, What is $n_{\text{min}}(d)$, the minimum value of $n$ for inequivalent (i.e., unrelated by isometric symmetries) crystals with the same theta function in space dimension $d$? To answer these questions, we use rigorous methods as well as a precise numerical algorithm that enables us to determine the minimum multi-particle basis of inequivalent isospectral crystals. Our algorithm identifies isospectral 4-, 3- and 2-particle bases in one, two and three spatial dimensions, respectively. For many of these isospectral crystals, we rigorously show that they indeed possess identical $g_2(r)$ up to infinite $r$. Based on our analyses, we conjecture that $n_{\text{min}}(d) = 4, 3, 2$ for $d = 1, 2, 3$, respectively. The identification of isospectral crystals enables one to study the degeneracy of the ground-state under the action of isotropic pair potentials.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2025

Local order metrics for many-particle systems across length scales

Formulating order metrics that sensitively quantify the degree of order/disorder in many-particle systems in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$ across length scales is an outstanding challenge in physics, chemistry, and materials science. Since an infinite set of $n$-particle correlation functions is required to fully characterize a system, one must settle for a reduced set of structural information, in practice. We initiate a program to use the local number variance $σ_N^2(R)$ associated with a spherical sampling window of radius $R$ (which encodes pair correlations) and an integral measure derived from it $Σ_N(R_i,R_j)$ that depends on two specified radial distances $R_i$ and $R_j$. Across the first three space dimensions ($d = 1,2,3$), we find these metrics can sensitively describe and categorize the degree of order/disorder of 41 different models of antihyperuniform, nonhyperuniform, disordered hyperuniform, and ordered hyperuniform many-particle systems at a specified length scale $R$. Using our local variance metrics, we demonstrate the importance of assessing order/disorder with respect to a specific value of $R$. These local order metrics could also aid in the inverse design of structures with prescribed length-scale-specific degrees of order/disorder that yield desired physical properties. In future work, it would be fruitful to explore the use of higher-order moments of the number of points within a spherical window of radius $R$ [S. Torquato {\it et al}., Phys. Rev. X, \textbf{11}, 021028 (2021)] to devise even more sensitive order metrics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Hyperuniformity scaling of maximally random jammed packings of two-dimensional binary disks

Jammed (mechanically rigid) polydisperse circular-disk packings in two dimensions (2D) are popular models for structural glass formers. Maximally random jammed (MRJ) states, which are the most disordered packings subject to strict jamming, have been shown to be hyperuniform. The characterization of the hyperuniformity of MRJ circular-disk packings has covered only a very small part of the possible parameter space for the disk-size distributions. Hyperuniform heterogeneous media are those that anomalously suppress large-scale volume-fraction fluctuations compared to those in typical disordered systems, i.e., their spectral densities $\tildeχ_{_V}(\mathbf{k})$ tend to 0 as the wavenumber $k\equiv|\mathbf{k}|$ tends to 0 and are described by the power-law $\tildeχ_{_V}(\mathbf{k})\sim k^α$ as $k\rightarrow0$ where $α$ is the hyperuniformity scaling exponent. In this work, we generate and characterize the structure of strictly jammed binary circular-disk packings with disk-size ratio $β$ and a molar ratio of 1:1. By characterizing the rattler fraction, the fraction of isostatic configurations in an ensemble with fixed $β$, and the $n$-fold orientational order metrics of ensembles of packings with a wide range of $β$, we show that size ratios $1.2\lesssim β\lesssim 2.0$ produce MRJ-like states, which we show are the most disordered packings according to several criteria. Using the large-length-scale scaling of the volume fraction variance, we extract $α$ from these packings, and find the function $α(β)$ is maximized at $β$ = 1.4 (with $α= 0.450\pm0.002$) within the range $1.2\leqβ\leq2.0$, and decreases rapidly outside of this range. The results from this work can inform the experimental design of disordered hyperuniform thin-film materials with tunable degrees of orientational and translational disorder. (abridged)

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2024

Three-Dimensional Construction of Hyperuniform, Nonhyperuniform and Antihyperuniform Random Media via Spectral Density Functions and Their Transport Properties

Rigorous theories connecting physical properties of a heterogeneous material to its microstructure offer a promising avenue to guide the computational material design and optimization. We present here an efficient Fourier-space based computational framework and employ a variety of analytical ${\tilde χ}_{_V}({k})$ functions that satisfy all known necessary conditions to construct 3D disordered stealthy hyperuniform, standard hyperuniform, nonhyperuniform, and antihyperuniform two-phase heterogeneous material systems at varying phase volume fractions. We show that a rich spectrum of distinct structures within each of the above classes of materials can be generated by tuning correlations in the system across length scales. We present the first realization of antihyperuniform two-phase heterogeneous materials in 3D, which are characterized by a power-law autocovariance function $χ_{_V}(r)$ and contain clusters of dramatically different sizes and morphologies. We also determine the diffusion spreadability ${\cal S}(t)$ and estimate the fluid permeability $k$ associated with all of the constructed materials directly from the corresponding ${\tilde χ}_{_V}({k})$ functions. We find that varying the length-scale parameter within each class of ${\tilde χ}_{_V}({k})$ functions can also lead to orders of magnitude variation of ${\cal S}(t)$ at intermediate and long time scales. Moreover, we find that increasing solid volume fraction $ϕ_1$ and correlation length $a$ in the constructed media generally leads to a decrease in the dimensionless fluid permeability $k/a^2$. These results indicate the feasibility of employing parameterized ${\tilde χ}_{_V}({k})$ for designing composites with targeted transport properties.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Multiscale Physics-Informed Neural Networks for the Inverse Design of Hyperuniform Optical Materials

In this article, we employ multiscale physics-informed neural networks (MscalePINNs) for the inverse design of finite-size photonic materials with stealthy hyperuniform (SHU) disordered geometries. Specifically, we show that MscalePINNs can capture the fast spatial variations of complex fields scattered by arrays of dielectric nanocylinders arranged according to isotropic SHU point patterns, thus enabling a systematic methodology to inversely retrieve their effective dielectric profiles. Our approach extends the recently developed high-frequency homogenization theory of hyperuniform media and retrieves more general permittivity profiles for applications-relevant finite-size SHU systems, unveiling unique features related to their isotropic nature. In particular, we numerically corroborate the existence of a transparency region beyond the long-wavelength approximation, enabling effective and isotropic homogenization even without disorder-averaging, in contrast to the case of uncorrelated Poisson random patterns. The flexible multiscale network approach introduced here enables the efficient inverse design of more general effective media and finite-size optical metamaterials with isotropic electromagnetic responses beyond the limitations of traditional homogenization theories.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Structural Properties of Hyperuniform Networks

Disordered hyperuniform many-particle systems are recently discovered exotic states of matter, characterized by a complete suppression of normalized infinite-wavelength density fluctuations and lack of conventional long-range order. Here, we begin a program to quantify the structural properties of nonhyperuniform and hyperuniform networks. In particular, large two-dimensional (2D) Voronoi networks (graphs) containing approximately 10,000 nodes are created from a variety of different point configurations, including the antihyperuniform HIP, nonhyperuniform Poisson process, nonhyperuniform RSA saturated packing, and both non-stealthy and stealthy hyperuniform point processes. We carry out an extensive study of the Voronoi-cell area distribution of each of the networks through determining multiple metrics that characterize the distribution, including their higher-cumulants. We show that the HIP distribution is far from Gaussian; the Poisson and non-stealthy hyperuniform distributions are Gaussian-like distributions, the RSA and the highest stealthy hyperuniform distributions are also non-Gaussian, with diametrically opposite non-Gaussian behavior of the HIP. Moreover, we compute the Voronoi-area correlation functions $C_{00}(r)$ for the networks [M. A. Klatt and S. Torquato, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 90}, 052120 (2014)]. We show that the correlation functions $C_{00}(r)$ qualitatively distinguish the antihyperuniform, nonhyperuniform and hyperuniform Voronoi networks. We find strong anticorrelations in $C_{00}(r)$ (i.e., negative values) for the hyperuniform networks.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Correlations in interacting electron liquids: Many-body statistics and hyperuniformity

Disordered hyperuniform many-body systems are exotic states of matter with novel optical, transport, and mechanical properties. These systems are characterized by an anomalous suppression of large-scale density fluctuations compared to typical liquids, i.e., the structure factor obeys the scaling relation $S(k)\sim \mathcal{B}k^α$ with $\mathcal{B}, α>0$ in the limit $k$\,$\rightarrow$\,$ 0$. Ground-state $d$-dimensional free fermionic gases, which are fundamental models for many metals and semiconductors, are key examples of \textit{quantum} disordered hyperuniform states with important connections to random matrix theory. However, the effects of electron-electron interactions as well as the polarization of the electron liquid on hyperuniformity have not been explored thus far. In this work, we systematically address these questions by deriving the analytical small-$k$ behaviors (and associatedly, $α$ and $\mathcal{B}$) of the total and spin-resolved structure factors of quasi-1D, 2D, and 3D electron liquids for varying polarizations and interaction parameters. We validate that these equilibrium disordered ground states are hyperuniform, as dictated by the fluctuation-compressibility relation. Interestingly, free fermions, partially polarized interacting fermions, and fully polarized interacting fermions are characterized by different values of the small-$k$ scaling exponent $α$ and coefficient $\mathcal{B}$. In particular, partially polarized fermionic liquids exhibit a unique form of \textit{multihyperuniformity}, in which the net configuration exhibits a stronger form of hyperuniformity (i.e., larger $α$) than each individual spin component.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Hole Statistics of Equilibrium 2D and 3D Hard-Sphere Crystals

The probability of finding a spherical "hole" of a given radius $r$ contains crucial structural information about many-body systems. Such hole statistics, including the void conditional nearest-neighbor probability functions $G_V(r)$, have been well studied for hard-sphere fluids in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$. However, little is known about these functions for hard-sphere crystals for values of $r$ beyond the hard-sphere diameter, as large holes are extremely rare in crystal phases. To overcome these computational challenges, we introduce a biased-sampling scheme that accurately determines hole statistics for equilibrium hard spheres on ranges of $r$ that far extend those that could be previously explored. We discover that $G_V(r)$ in crystal and hexatic states exhibits oscillations whose amplitudes increase rapidly with the packing fraction, which stands in contrast to $G_V(r)$ for fluid states that is monotonic in $r$. The oscillations in $G_V(r)$ for 2D crystals are strongly correlated with the local orientational order metric in the vicinity of the holes, and variations in $G_V(r)$ for 3D states indicate a transition between tetrahedral and octahedral holes, demonstrating the power of $G_V(r)$ as a probe of local coordination geometry. To further study the statistics of interparticle spacing in hard-sphere systems, we compute the local packing fraction distribution $f(ϕ_l)$ of Delaunay cells, and find that for $d\leq 3$, the excess kurtosis of $f(ϕ_l)$ switches sign at a certain transitional global packing fraction. Our investigation facilitates the study of structural and bulk properties of materials that involve the creation of rare large holes, such as the solubility of alloys.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2024

Microstructural and Transport Characteristics of Triply Periodic Bicontinuous Materials

3D bicontinuous two-phase materials are increasingly gaining interest because of their unique multifunctional characteristics and advancements in techniques to fabricate them. Due to their complex topological and structural properties, it still has been nontrivial to develop explicit microstructure-dependent formulas to predict accurately their physical properties. A primary goal of the present paper is to ascertain various microstructural and transport characteristics of five different models of triply periodic bicontinuous porous materials at a porosity $ϕ_1=1/2$: those in which the two-phase interfaces are the Schwarz P, Schwarz D and Schoen G minimal surfaces as well as two different pore-channel structures. We ascertain their spectral densities, pore-size distribution functions, local volume-fraction variances, and hyperuniformity order metrics and then use this information to estimate certain effective transport properties via closed-form microstructure-property formulas. Specifically, we estimate the recently introduced time-dependent diffusion spreadability exactly from the spectral density. Moreover, we accurately estimate the fluid permeability of such porous materials from the second moment of the pore-size function and the formation factor, a measure of the tortuosity of the pore space. We also rigorously bound the permeability from above using the spectral density. For the five models with identical cubic unit cells, we find that the permeability, inverse of the specific surface, hyperuniformity order metric, pore-size second moment and long-time spreadability behavior are all positively correlated and rank order the structures in exactly the same way. We also conjecture what structures maximize the fluid permeability for arbitrary porosities and show that this conjecture must be true in the extreme porosity limits by identifying the corresponding optimal structures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Hyperuniformity Classes of Quasiperiodic Tilings via Diffusion Spreadability

Hyperuniform point patterns can be classified by the hyperuniformity scaling exponent $α> 0$, that characterizes the power-law scaling behavior of the structure factor $S(\mathbf{k})$ as a function of wavenumber $k\equiv|\mathbf{k}|$ in the vicinity of the origin, e.g., $S(\mathbf{k})\sim|\mathbf{k}|^α$ in cases where $S(\mathbf{k})$ varies continuously with $k$ as $k\rightarrow0$. In this paper, we show that the spreadability is an effective method for determining $α$ for quasiperiodic systems where $S(\mathbf{k})$ is discontinuous and consists of a dense set of Bragg peaks. We first transform quasiperiodic and limit-periodic point patterns into two-phase media by mapping them onto packings of identical nonoverlapping disks, where space interior to the disks represents one phase and the space in exterior to them represents the second phase. We then compute the spectral density of the packings, and finally compute and fit the long-time behavior of their excess spreadabilities. Specifically, we show that the excess spreadability can be used to accurately extract $α$ for the 1D limit-periodic period doubling chain and the 1D quasicrystalline Fibonacci chain to within $0.02\%$ of the analytically known exact results. Moreover, we obtain a value of $α= 5.97\pm0.06$ for the 2D Penrose tiling, which had not been computed previously. We also show that one can truncate the small-$k$ region of the scattering information used to compute the spreadability and still obtain an accurate value of $α$. The methods described here offer a simple way to characterize the large-scale translational order present in quasicrystalline and limit-periodic media in any space dimension that are self-similar. Moreover, the scattering information extracted from these two-phase media encoded in the spectral density can be used to estimate their physical properties. (abridged)

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Local number fluctuations in ordered and disordered phases of water across temperatures: Higher-order moments and degrees of tetrahedrality

The isothermal compressibility (i.e., the asymptotic number variance) of equilibrium liquid water as a function of temperature is minimal near ambient conditions. This anomalous non-monotonic temperature dependence is due to a balance between thermal fluctuations and the formation of tetrahedral hydrogen-bond networks. Since tetrahedrality is a many-body property, it will also influence the higher-order moments of density fluctuations, including the skewness and kurtosis. To gain a more complete picture, we examine these higher-order moments that encapsulate many-body correlations using a recently developed, advanced platform for local density fluctuations. We study an extensive set of simulated phases of water across a range of temperatures (80 K to 1600 K) with various degrees of tetrahedrality, including ice phases, equilibrium liquid water, supercritical water, and disordered nonequilibrium quenches. We find clear signatures of tetrahedrality in the higher-order moments, including the skewness and excess kurtosis, that scale for all cases with the degree of tetrahedrality. More importantly, this scaling behavior leads to non-monotonic temperature dependencies in the higher-order moments for both equilibrium and non-equilibrium phases. Specifically, at near-ambient conditions, the higher-order moments vanish most rapidly for large length scales, and the distribution quickly converges to a Gaussian in our metric. However, at non-ambient conditions, higher-order moments vanish more slowly and hence become more relevant especially for improving information-theoretic approximations of hydrophobic solubility. The temperature non-monotonicity that we observe in the full distribution across length-scales could shed light on water's nested anomalies, i.e., reveal new links between structural, dynamic, and thermodynamic anomalies.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Ordered and disordered stealthy hyperuniform point patterns across spatial dimensions

In previous work [Phys. Rev. X 5, 021020 (2015)], it was shown that stealthy hyperuniform systems can be regarded as hard spheres in Fourier-space in the sense that the the structure factor is exactly zero in a spherical region around the origin in analogy with the pair-correlation function of real-space hard spheres. In this work, we exploit this correspondence to confirm that the densest Fourier-space hard-sphere system is that of a Bravais lattice. This is in contrast to real-space hard-spheres, whose densest configuration is conjectured to be disordered. We also extend the virial series previously suggested for disordered stealthy hyperuniform systems to higher dimensions in order to predict spatial decorrelation as function of dimension. This prediction is then borne out by numerical simulations of disordered stealthy hyperuniform ground states in dimensions $d=2$-$8$.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2024

Stealthy and hyperuniform isotropic photonic bandgap structure in 3D

In photonic crystals the propagation of light is governed by their photonic band structure, an ensemble of propagating states grouped into bands, separated by photonic band gaps. Due to discrete symmetries in spatially strictly periodic dielectric structures their photonic band structure is intrinsically anisotropic. However, for many applications, such as manufacturing artificial structural color materials or developing photonic computing devices, but also for the fundamental understanding of light-matter interactions, it is of major interest to seek materials with long range non-periodic dielectric structures which allow the formation of {\it isotropic} photonic band gaps. Here, we report the first ever 3D isotropic photonic band gap for an optimized disordered stealthy hyperuniform structure for microwaves. The transmission spectra are directly compared to a diamond pattern and an amorphous structure with similar node density. The band structure is measured experimentally for all three microwave structures, manufactured by 3D-Laser-printing for meta-materials with refractive index up to $n=2.1$. Results agree well with finite-difference-time-domain numerical investigations and a priori calculations of the band-gap for the hyperuniform structure: the diamond structure shows gaps but being anisotropic as expected, the stealthy hyperuniform pattern shows an isotropic gap of very similar magnitude, while the amorphous structure does not show a gap at all. The centimeter scaled microwave structures may serve as prototypes for micrometer scaled structures with bandgaps in the technologically very interesting region of infrared (IR).

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2024

Extraordinary Optical and Transport Properties of Disordered Stealthy Hyperuniform Two-Phase Media

Disordered stealthy hyperuniform (SHU) two-phase media are a special subset of hyperuniform structures with novel physical properties due to their hybrid crystal-liquid nature. We have previously shown that the strong-contrast expansion of a linear fractional form of the effective dynamic dielectric constant leads to accurate approximations for disordered two-phase composites when truncated at the two-point level for distinctly different microstructural symmetries in three dimensions. Here, we further elucidate the extraordinary optical and transport properties of disordered SHU media. Among other results, we prove in detail that SHU layered and transversely isotropic media are perfectly transparent (i.e., no Anderson localization, in principle) within finite wavenumber intervals through the third-order terms. Remarkably, the results for these SHU media imply that there can be no Anderson localization within the predicted perfect transparency interval in practice because the localization length is much larger than any practically large sample size. We further contrast and compare the extraordinary physical properties of SHU layered, transversely isotropic, and fully isotropic media to other model nonstealthy microstructures, including their attenuation characteristics, as measured by the imaginary part of effective dielectric constant, and transport properties, as measured by the time-dependent diffusion spreadability. We demonstrate cross-property relations between them: they are positively correlated as the structures span from nonhyperuniform, nonstealthy hyperuniform, and SHU media. Establishing cross-property relations for SHU media for other wave phenomena (e.g., elastodynamics) and transport properties will also be useful. Cross-property relations are generally useful because they enable one to estimate one property, given a measurement of another.

physics.optics↗