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French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Visiting Fellow

Areas of research: Matière Quantique

Research Interests
My research interest lies in the study of quantum phases and phase transitions.

1. I studied exotic phases, such as topological ordered states and fracton phase, have non-trivial entanglement structure resulting in interesting behaviours, such as ground state degeneracy and anyonic statistics of excitations.

2. I am also interested in continuous phase transitions, which can be described by conformal field theories. I am also interested in the pseudo-critical behavior whose universal properties are attributed to the complex fixed point.

3. I am now working on (non-)Fermi liquid which has extensive zero modes. This largely increases the complexity of the system. I use the so-called field theoretical renormalization group to study them.
Positions Held
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 2019-present
  • PhD student, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, 2014-2019
Awards
  • Block Award, Aspen Center for Physics, 2018
Recent Publications
  • Ma, H. (2025). Fixed Point Stability Switches from Attractive to Repulsive at 2d Pomeranchuk/Stoner Instabilities via Field-Theoretical RG. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07180v2
  • Tang, Y., Ma, H., Tang, Q., He, Y. -C., & Zhu, W. (2024). Reclaiming the Lost Conformality in a Non-Hermitian Quantum 5-State Potts Model. Physical Review Letters, 133(7), 076504. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.133.076504
  • Liu, R., Lam, H. T., Ma, H., & Zou, L. (2024). Symmetries and anomalies of Kitaev spin-S models: Identifying symmetry-enforced exotic quantum matter. SciPost Physics, 16(4), 100. doi:10.21468/scipostphys.16.4.100
  • Liu, R., Lam, H. T., Ma, H., & Zou, L. (2024). Symmetries and anomalies of Kitaev spin-S models. doi:10.21468/scipost.report.8586
  • Liu, R., Lam, H. T., Ma, H., & Zou, L. (2024). Symmetries and anomalies of Kitaev spin-S models. doi:10.21468/scipost.report.8468
  • Liu, R., Lam, H. T., Ma, H., & Zou, L. (2024). Symmetries and anomalies of Kitaev spin-S models. doi:10.21468/scipost.report.8374
  • Ma, H., & Lee, S. -S. (2024). Fermi liquids beyond the forward-scattering limit: The role of nonforward scattering for scale invariance and instabilities. Physical Review B, 109(4), 045143. doi:10.1103/physrevb.109.045143
  • Song, H., Ma, H., Kallin, C., & Lee, S. -S. (2023). Anomalous quasiparticle lifetime in geometric quantum critical metals. https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.07539v1
  • Haldar, A., Tavakol, O., Ma, H., & Scaffidi, T. (2023). Hidden Critical Points in the Two-Dimensional O(n>2) Model: Exact Numerical Study of a Complex Conformal Field Theory. Physical Review Letters, 131(13), 131601. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.131.131601
  • Ma, H., & Lee, S. -S. (2023). Exact effective action for the O(N) vector model in the large N limit. SciPost Physics, 15(3), 111. doi:10.21468/scipostphys.15.3.111
  • Ma, H. (2023). Z2 Spin Liquids in the Higher Spin-S Kitaev Honeycomb Model: An Exact Deconfined Z2 Gauge Structure in a Nonintegrable Model. Physical Review Letters, 130(15), 156701. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.130.156701
  • Ma, H. (2023). Quenched random mass disorder in the large N theory of vector bosons. SciPost Physics, 14(3), 039. doi:10.21468/scipostphys.14.3.039
Seminars
  • Conformality in a non-Hermitian system, KITP, University of California, Santa Barbara, KITP, Santa Barbara, United States, 2024/05/13
  • Z2 spin liquids in the spin-S Kitaev honeycomb model, University of California, Santa Barbara, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, United States, 2023/08/22