Hyperuniform Structures Formed by Shearing Colloidal Suspensions

Journal Article · Wed Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.125.148001· OSTI ID:1801367

Wilken, Sam ^[1]; Guerra, Rodrigo E. ^[2]; Pine, David J. ^[2]; Chaikin, Paul M. ^[2]

---

1. New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States); OSTI
2. New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States)

In periodically sheared suspensions there is a dynamical phase transition, characterized by a critical strain amplitude $$γ_c$$, between an absorbing state where particle trajectories are reversible and an active state where trajectories are chaotic and diffusive. Repulsive nonhydrodynamic interactions between “colliding” particles’ surfaces have been proposed as a source of this broken time reversal symmetry. A simple toy model called random organization qualitatively reproduces the dynamical features of this transition. Random organization and other absorbing state models exhibit hyperuniformity, a strong suppression of density fluctuations on long length scales quantified by a structure factor $S(q → 0) ~q^α$ with $$\textit{α}$$ > 0, at criticality. In this work, we show experimentally that the particles in periodically sheared suspensions organize into structures with anisotropic short-range order but isotropic, long-range hyperuniform order when oscillatory shear amplitudes approach $$γ_c$$.

• Research Organization: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science (CBES); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0000989
• OSTI ID: 1801367
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 14 Vol. 125; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
Physics