Hyperuniformity and density fluctuations at a rigidity transition in a model of biological tissues

Abstract

The suppression of density fluctuations at different length scales is the hallmark of hyperuniformity. Here, we explore the presence of this hidden order in a manybody interacting model of biological tissue, known to exhibit a transition, or sharp crossover, from a solid to a fluid like phase. We show that the density fluctuations in the rigid phase are only suppressed up to a finite lengthscale. This length scale monotonically increases and grows rapidly as we approach the fluid phase reminiscent to divergent behavior at a critical point, such that the system is effectively hyperuniform in the fluid phase. Furthermore, complementary behavior of the structure factor across the critical point also indicates that hyperuniformity found in the fluid phase is stealthy.