Active Hyperuniform Networks of Chiral Magnetic Micro-Robotic Spinners

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the self-assembly of active magnetic micro-robot networks into stable disorder hyperuniform structures, revealing new mechanisms for emergent order in active matter systems at unprecedented scales.

Contribution

It introduces a novel self-organization mechanism for stable disorder hyperuniform networks in active robotic systems with up to 1000 units.

Findings

Stable DHU networks emerge from magnetic and rotational interactions.

DHU networks are topological transformations of honeycomb structures.

The system achieves large-scale active self-assembly with robust hyperuniformity.

Abstract

Disorder hyperuniform (DHU) systems possess a hidden long-range order manifested as the complete suppression of normalized large-scale density fluctuations like crystals, which endows them with many unique properties. Here, we demonstrate a new organization mechanism for achieving stable DHU structures in active-particle systems via investigating the self-assembly of robotic spinners with three-fold symmetric magnetic binding sites up to a heretofore experimentally unattained system size, i.e., with $\sim 1000$ robots. The spinners can self-organize into a wide spectrum of actively rotating three-coordinated network structures, among which a set of stable DHU networks robustly emerge. These DHU networks are topological transformations of a honeycomb network by continuously introducing the Stone-Wales defects, which are resulted from the competition between tunable magnetic binding and local twist due to active rotation of the robots. Our results reveal novel mechanisms for emergent DHU states in active systems and achieving novel DHU materials with desirable properties.