Partitioning space into cells with certain extreme geometrical properties is a central problem in many fields of science and technology. Here we investigate the Quantizer problem, defined as the optimisation of the moment of inertia of Voronoi cells, i.e., similarly-sized ‘sphere-like’ polyhedra that tile space are preferred. We employ Lloyd’s centroidal Voronoi diagram algorithm to solve this problem and find that it converges to disordered states associated with deep local minima. These states are universal in the sense that their structure factors are characterised by a complete independence of a wide class of initial conditions they evolved from. They moreover exhibit an anomalous suppression of long-wavelength density fluctuations and quickly become effectively hyperuniform. Our findings warrant the search for novel amorphous hyperuniform phases and cellular materials with unique physical properties.

We investigate a model of hard pear-shaped particles which forms the bicontinuous Ia[Formula: see text]d structure by entropic self-assembly, extending the previous observations of Barmes (2003, 021708. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.68.021708)) and Ellison (2006, 237801. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.237801)). We specifically provide the complete phase diagram of this system, with global density and particle shape as the two variable parameters, incorporating the gyroid phase as well as disordered isotropic, smectic and nematic phases. The phase diagram is obtained by two methods, one being a compression-decompression study and the other being a continuous change of the particle shape parameter at constant density. Additionally, we probe the mechanism by which interdigitating sheets of pears in these systems create surfaces with negative Gauss curvature, which is needed to form the gyroid minimal surface. This is achieved by the use of Voronoi tessellation, whereby both the shape and volume of Voronoi cells can be assessed in regard to the local Gauss curvature of the gyroid minimal surface. Through this, we show that the mechanisms prevalent in this entropy-driven system differ from those found in systems which form gyroid structures in nature (lipid bilayers) and from synthesized materials (di-block copolymers) and where the formation of the gyroid is enthalpically driven. We further argue that the gyroid phase formed in these systems is a realization of a modulated splay-bend phase in which the conventional nematic has been predicted to be destabilized at the mesoscale due to molecular-scale coupling of polar and orientational degrees of freedom.

Abstract. We describe the development of a new software tool, called "Pomelo", for the calculation of Set Voronoi diagrams. Voronoi diagrams are a spatial partition of the space around the particles into separate Voronoi cells, e.g. applicable to granular materials. A generalization of the conventional Voronoi diagram for points or monodisperse spheres is the Set Voronoi diagram, also known as navigational map or tessellation by zone of influence. In this construction, a Set Voronoi cell contains the volume that is closer to the surface of one particle than to the surface of any other particle. This is required for aspherical or polydisperse systems. Pomelo is designed to be easy to use and as generic as possible. It directly supports common particle shapes and offers a generic mode, which allows to deal with any type of particles that can be described mathematically. Pomelo can create output in different standard formats, which allows direct visualization and further processing. Finally, we describe three applications of the Set Voronoi code in granular and soft matter physics, namely the problem of packings of ellipsoidal particles with varying degrees of particle-particle friction, mechanical stable packings of tetrahedra and a model for liquid crystal systems of particles with shapes reminiscent of pears.The analysis of geometries and structures on a micro scale level is an important aspect of granular and soft matter physics to attain knowledge about many interesting properties of particle packings, including contact numbers, anisotropy, local volume fraction, etc. [1][2][3]. A well-established concept is the so called Voronoi Diagram. Here, the system is investigated by dividing the space into separate cells in respect to the positions of the center of the particles. A cell assigned to a certain particle is defined as the space (or region of space) that contains all the volume closer to the center of this specific particle than to any other one (see figure 1 left). This partition of space, however, only yields precise results for monodisperse spheres as the construction fails otherwise due to morphological properties of the objects. For nonspherical or polydisperse particles the classical Voronoi diagram is of limited usefullnes, as shown in figure 1 (center) for a system of bidisperse spheres. A generalized version of the Voronoi Diagram, the Set Voronoi Diagram [4], also known as navigational map [5] or tessellation by zone of influence [6], has to be applied. In this case the cells contain all space around the particle which is closer to the particle's surface than to the surface of any other particle. Figure 1 (right) shows the Set Voronoi Diagram of a mixture of differently shaped particles.