Unmoduloidun

Unmoduloidun is a fictional mineral class used in speculative fiction and theoretical materials science to illustrate a modular, non-periodic lattice. It is described as forming a solid composed of discrete modular units, or moduloids, that interconnect to create a network with long-range order but without translational symmetry. The term emphasizes a departure from conventional crystalline order and is often discussed in discussions of aperiodic tilings and metamaterials.

In modeled structures, moduloids act as polyhedral building blocks linked by hinge-like contacts. The resulting lattice resembles aperiodic tilings such as Penrose tilings, yielding unusual anisotropy in mechanical and optical properties. Physical properties are described as high stiffness-to-weight ratio, low density, and high thermal stability, with a photonic band structure that can support unconventional light propagation.

The concept originated in fiction and thought experiments; the name Unmoduloidun appears in works exploring modular design and non-periodic order. It has been used to illustrate how local modularity can support global non-repeating order and resilient architectures in hypothetical materials.

Within the narrative and theoretical discussions, unmoduloidun serves as a case study for metamaterials, architecture, and computational modeling of aperiodic networks. It is not known to exist outside fiction or speculative modeling, and no experimental synthesis has been reported.

See also quasicrystal, aperiodic tiling, metamaterial, modular design.