Ph.D. Student in Physics

Yifan Liu

Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo

My research explores universal phenomena in quantum many-body systems through the lens of (boundary) conformal field theory. I develop analytical field-theoretic descriptions and entanglement-based diagnostics that bridge microscopic lattice models and their continuum descriptions, with numerical tests carried out in collaboration. More broadly, I am interested in using quantum field theory to understand critical phenomena and dynamics in lattice systems, with particular interests in boundary criticality, quantum-information measures of many-body states, and non-Hermitian critical phenomena and biorthogonal quench dynamics.

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Current Position

Ph.D. student in physics at The University of Tokyo, officially supervised by Kohei Kawabata, with continued mentorship from Masaki Oshikawa, my former supervisor.

Doctoral Timeline

Ph.D. in Physics, October 2024 - expected September 2027.

Research Interests

More research details

Field-theoretic descriptions of critical phenomena and dynamics in quantum lattice systems.
Boundary conformal field theory, boundary criticality, and boundary renormalization-group flows.
Quantum-information measures and entanglement in many-body states, explored with field-theoretic methods.
Non-Hermitian and nonunitary critical phenomena and quantum quenches.

Selected Highlights

All publications

Biorthogonal Conformal Dynamics in Non-Hermitian Quantum Quenches Yifan Liu. arXiv:2608.20156, 2026.
Extracting Boundary Conformal Data from Periodic Non-Hermitian Critical Chains Yifan Liu, Haruki Shimizu, Dongchang Liu, and Kohei Kawabata. arXiv:2606.16785, 2026.
Boundary critical phenomena in the quantum Ashkin-Teller model Yifan Liu, Natalia Chepiga, Yoshiki Fukusumi, and Masaki Oshikawa. SciPost Physics 20, 130, 2026.

Recent Activity

Talks and visits

Upcoming seminar tour: Beginning in September 2026, I will visit several U.S. universities, including Boston University, Cornell University, The Ohio State University, and Princeton University, for seminars and scientific discussions.

Planned research visit: University of Oxford, late 2026, supported by GRASP, for collaboration on boundary entanglement and edge-coupling control in incommensurate critical chains using BCFT, with DMRG calculations provided by collaborators.

Research visit: Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, April-May 2024, during the program Correlated Gapless Quantum Matter, as an affiliate of Masaki Oshikawa.

Workshop organization: Co-organizer of the 2026 Japan Theoretical Physics Scholars Workshop at ISSP, The University of Tokyo.