Diagnosing the hyperuniformity of two-dimensional jammed packings of spheres*

In the colloidal domain, ascertaining the degree to which disordered jammed structures are hyperuniform is gaining interest because the hyperuniformity property (vanishing of infinite-wavelength density fluctuations) seems to endow the jammed structure with novel physical properties. Indeed, it has recently been shown that hyperuniform disordered structures can be produced to exhibit a complete photonic bandgap. However, determining whether a 2D packing of spheres is hyperuniform or not is non-trivial, especially from experimental datasets where imperfection exists. In this talk, we will use numerical simulations and experimental investigations to show how we can diagnose whether a packing is hyperuniform or not.