Nearest-neighbor functions for disordered stealthy hyperuniform many-particle systems

Abstract

Disordered stealthy many-particle systems in d-dimensional Euclidean space are exotic amorphous states of matter that suppress any single scattering events for a finite range of wavenumbers around the origin in reciprocal space. They are currently the subject of intense fundamental and practical interest. We derive analytical formulas for the nearest-neighbor functions of disordered stealthy many-particle systems. First, we analyze asymptotic small-r approximations and expansions of the nearest-neighbor functions based on the pseudo-hard-sphere ansatz. We then consider the problem of determining how many of the standard n-point correlation functions are needed to determine the nearest neighbor functions, and find that a finite number suffice. Via theoretical and computational methods, we are able to compare the large-r behavior of these functions for disordered stealthy systems to those belonging to crystalline lattices. Such ordered and disordered stealthy systems have bounded hole sizes, and thus compact support for their nearest-neighbor functions. However, we find that the approach to the critical-hole size can be quantitatively different, emphasizing the importance of hole statistics in distinguishing ordered and disordered stealthy configurations. We argue that the probability of finding a hole close to the critical-hole size should decrease as a power law with an exponent only dependent on the space dimension d for ordered systems, but that this probability decays asymptotically faster for disordered systems, with either an increase in the exponent of the power law or a crossover into a decay faster than any power law. This implies that holes close to the critical-hole size are rarer in disordered systems. The rarity of observing large holes in disordered systems creates substantial numerical difficulties in sampling the nearest neighbor distributions near the critical-hole size. This motivates both the need for new computational methods for efficient sampling and the development of novel theoretical methods for ascertaining the behavior of holes close to the critical-hole size. We also devise a simple analytical formula that accurately describes these systems in the underconstrained regime for all r. These results provide a theoretical foundation for the analytical description of the nearest-neighbor functions of stealthy systems in the disordered, underconstrained regime, and can serve as a basis for analytical theories of material and transport properties of these systems.