Since July 2024, I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Physics and the Energy Sciences Institute (ESI) at Yale University. Besides Applied Physics and ESI, I am also affiliated with the Yale Quantum Institute (YQI) and Yale’s Institute for Foundations of Data Science (FDS). From July 2023 to June 2024, I was an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Before that I was a Gordon & Betty Moore Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, before which I was a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University. I obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2019.
My research focus lies in the fields of condensed matter, quantum physics and artificial intelligence (AI). One way to view these seemingly disparate areas is through the lens of study of systems with large number of degrees of freedom in which correlations act to stabilize novel behavior, with functionalities which can be utilized in future-generation technologies, such as energy materials and energy-efficient learning systems. The goal of this research is to gain a general, unifying understanding of interacting statistical systems. I progress in this effort by studying model systems that capture experiment in some instances, or by identifying universal features common amongst many experiments in others. I am particularly interested in correlated quantum matter (quantum materials and ultracold matter) and dynamical non-linear systems (optically driven quantum systems and models of neural learning). My approach to researching these systems relies on a carefully tailored combination of numerical and analytical techniques.
When not working, I enjoy running, sometimes biking and absorbing culture.
Announcements: I am actively looking for students and postdocs. Yale is very interdisciplinary, so students and postdocs are often able to work with faculty in other departments. I am currently building a group with students and postdocs working on physics, AI or both. You may just fit into one area or the other; you don’t need to know or work on both (nonetheless interaction with different group members and interdisciplinary work will always be encouraged).
Minorities including but not limited to students from underrepresented nations (such as in the Middle East and Africa) are encouraged to reach out.
Ph.D., Theoretical Physics, 2019
The University of British Columbia
M.Sc., Chemical Physics, 2013
University of Waterloo
Fractons, as a new type of exotic quasiparticle, have attracted immense attention due to their unique properties. Here, we construct a connection between fractons and polarons. We derive microscopic situations in which polarons and their two-body bound states, known as bipolarons, map exactly on to fractons and their two-body counterparts, dipoles. Highlighted as Editor’s Suggestion.
Frustrated fractons: Fractons, a new type of quasiparticles, have attracted attention due to their unusual mobility constraints. But, where can we find fractons in the lab? We show that frustration of the background due to hole motion in hole-doped antiferromagnets produces fractonic quasiparticles.
Rydberg Fermi polaron? We show that an atom excited to a Rydberg state in an atomic Fermi gas realizes an exotic state, dubbed Rydberg Fermi superpolaron, in which the Rydberg atom encircles the background atoms in the space between its nucleus and it Rydberg electron, and the Pauli principle manifests as a rotional blockade to excitations. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rydberg_polaron for more information about Rydberg polarons.
Machine learning is a powerful tool to analyze complex data, but can it help reveal unexplored domains of knowledge? We answer this question in the affirmative, showing in this work that one can predict phase transitions using Gaussian process extrapolation across parameter space.
Bipolarons shed off extra weight: Normally two polarons form a bipolaron by increasing their net potential energy. As a result, the two polarons tend to remain spatially close to each other, and the bipolaron becomes heavy. Here, we show that polarons can bind by increasing their kinetic energy, leading to light bipolarons and a possible new mechanism for high-temperature superconductivity.
Quantum mechanics freezes a hot plasma: We show that Rydberg molecules in a quenched molecular plasma interfere to form a stable long-lived localized state. Randomness in the Rydberg plasma acts decisively to freeze the dynamics of Rydberg excitations in a process suggestive of many-body localization, explaining recent experimental observations.
Thoughts shared with the world