Commentaries and discussion on seminal papers in molecular simulation.


Hyperuniformity in active matter


Hartmut Löwen1; Erdal C. Oğuz2
1Institut für Theoretische Physik II: Weiche Materie, Department of Physics, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
2Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China


Commentary on

Q. L. Lei, M. P. Ciamarra, and R. Ni, “Nonequilibrium strongly hyperuniform fluids of circle active particles with large local density fluctuations”, Science Advances, 5:eaau7423 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau7423

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Statement of Significance

Disordered hyperuniform systems are characterized by an anomalously strong suppression of long-wavelength density fluctuations. As a result, these unusual materials behave as though virtually incompressible, even though the particle arrangement itself can remain fully disordered at short range. This peculiar state of matter has been the topic of intense research in physics and mathematics in recent years. Another flourishing research arena is active matter, composed of self-propelled agents that convert energy into motion. While the two fields remained largely disjunct for a long time, the paper by Lei and coworkers (2019) created a link between hyperuniformity and active matter by demonstrating that interacting circle swimmers self-organize into disordered hyperuniform structures. Inspired by this work, many other examples of hyperuniformity in active matter have been identified. We shall describe the impact and outgrowth of this development, and give a brief perspective on further links between hyperuniformity and active matter.


How to cite

Cite the commentary as:

H. Löwen, E. C. Oğuz, "Hyperuniformity in active matter",
KIM REVIEW, Volume 4, Article 05, 2026. DOI: 10.25950/e86d3fca