Academic

Academic

My academic research focuses on developing novel computational methods for quantum many-body systems, with applications ranging from ultracold atomic gases to neutron star physics. Through my PhD at UNC-Chapel Hill, I have contributed to advancing our understanding of quantum matter through innovative theoretical and computational approaches.

Research Areas

Quantum Many-Body Systems

PhD Research at UNC-Chapel Hill (2016-2022)

My primary research contribution has been the development of novel computational methods for simulating quantum matter, with particular focus on strongly correlated fermion systems.

Automated Algebra Method for Virial Expansion

  • Innovation: Created a semi-analytical computational framework that eliminates statistical errors in quantum many-body calculations
  • Impact: Achieved unprecedented accuracy in calculating higher-order virial coefficients (up to 5th order)
  • Technical Achievement: Implemented efficient algorithms using Python/Cython with multiprocessing and distributed computing on Open Science Grid
  • Breakthrough: Resolved long-standing discrepancies between theory and experiment in quantum gas thermodynamics

Key Accomplishments

  • Methodological Innovation: Developed scalable algorithms that reduced computation time from years to days for complex quantum calculations
  • Cross-disciplinary Impact: Methods applicable to both ultracold atomic gases and neutron star matter
  • International Collaboration: Worked with theoretical groups in Germany on quantum matter applications
  • Publications: 6 peer-reviewed papers including Editor’s Suggestion in Physical Review Letters

Machine Learning Applications in Physics

  • Physics-Informed Neural Networks: Explored ML-enhanced random field generation for quantum Monte Carlo methods
  • Transformer Models: Applied attention mechanisms to accelerate stochastic simulations
  • NLP in Scientific Computing: Developed event extraction methods for COVID-19 data analysis

Detailed Research Projects

Quantum virial expansion for quantum matter Aug, 2019 - Present
  • Develop a novel and analytical method to automate algebraic operation to evaluate the Quantum Virial Expansion
  • Implement codes and optimize performance for large-scale parallel deployment on Open Science Grid
  • Apply across multiple systems: homogeneous and harmonically trapped Unitary Fermi Gas, dilute neutron matter
  • Generalize to different observables: thermodynamics, Tan's contact, momentum distribution, structure factor and etc.
Energy of Bosonic droplets from quantum noise Jul, 2018 - May, 2019
  • Extracted ground-state energy of N-body Boson droplets from quantum noise using the cumulant expansion
Thermodynamics of quantum matter at finite temperature May, 2017 - Dec, 2018
  • Applied hybrid Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) and Complex Langevin (CL) to extract thermodynamics for SU(N) Fermi gas
  • Introduced higher-order symplectic integrators to reduce decomposition errors
  • Investigated the improvements on sampling efficiencies of auxiliary fields
Numerical simulation of acoustic field Mar, 2015 - Jun, 2015
  • Simulated acoustic field propagation using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method
Flow of granular material in 2D hopper Sep, 2013 - May, 2014
  • Performed image registration, boundary detection to identify and analysis granular particle flow
  • Reconstructed the stress information from image intensities to study jamming-flowing phase transition

Publications

Academic Publications

  1. Toward an Automated‑Algebra Framework for High Orders in the Virial Expansion of Quantum Matter†
    A. J. Czejdo, J. E. Drut, Y. Hou, K. J Morrell, Condensed Matter 7, 13 (2022)
    DOI: 10.3390/condmat7010013

  2. Fourth- and fifth-order virial expansion of harmonically trapped fermions at unitarity
    Y. Hou, K. J. Morrell, A. J. Czejdo, J. E. Drut, Phys. Rev. Research 3, 033099 (2021)
    DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.033099

  3. Pairing and the spin susceptibility of the polarized unitary Fermi gas in the normal phase
    L. Rammelmüller, Y. Hou, J. E. Drut, J. Braun, Phys. Rev. A 103, 043330 (2021)
    DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.103.043330

  4. Fourth- and Fifth-Order Virial Coefficients from Weak Coupling to Unitarity
    Y. Hou and J. E. Drut, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 050403 (2020) (Editor’s Suggestion)
    DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.050403

  5. Virial expansion of attractively interacting Fermi gases in one, two, and three dimensions, up to fifth order
    Y. Hou, J. E. Drut, Phys. Rev. A 102, 033319 (2020)
    DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.102.033319

  6. Virial coefficients of trapped and un-trapped three-component fermions with three-body forces in arbitrary spatial dimensions
    A. J. Czejdo, J. E. Drut, Y. Hou, J. R. McKenney, K. J. Morrell, Phys. Rev. A 101, 063630 (2019)
    DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.101.063630

  7. Leading-and next-to-leading-order semiclassical approximation to the first seven virial coefficients of spin-1/2 fermions across spatial dimensions
    Y. Hou, A. J. Czejdo, J. DeChant, C. R. Shill, J. E. Drut, Phys. Rev. A 100, 063627 (2019)
    DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.100.063627

  8. TEST_POSITIVE at W-NUT 2020 Shared Task-3: Joint Event Multi-task Learning for Slot Filling in Noisy Text
    C. Chen, C. Y. Huang, Y. Hou, Y. Shi, E. Dai and J. Wang.
    In Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Noisy User-generated Text at EMNLP (2020)
    DOI: 10.18653/v1/2020.wnut-1.76

  9. Thermal conductivity and thermoelectric performance of \(\mathrm{Sr}_x\mathrm{Ba}_{1-x}\mathrm{Nb}_2\mathrm{O}_6\) ceramics at high temperatures
    Y. Li, J. Liu, Y. Hou, Y. Zhang, Y. Zhou, W. Su, Y. Zhu, J. Li, C. Wang, Scripta Materialia 109, 80-83
    DOI: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2015.07.025
    (Undergraduate Works)

Presentations & Seminars

  1. Toward an Automated-Algebra framework for Quantum Matter with Quantum Virial Expansion and beyond (Invited Talk)
    Y. Hou, S-INT Seminar, University of Washington, Sep 22, 2022
    Event Details

  2. From few to many: thermodynamics with up to seventh-order virial coefficients
    Y. Hou and J. E. Drut, APS April Meeting 2021 S13.00007, Apr 19, 2021

  3. Fourth- and Fifth-Order Virial Coefficients from Weak Coupling to Unitarity
    Y. Hou and J. E. Drut, APS March Meeting 2021 M21.00008, Mar 17, 2021

  4. Fourth- and Fifth-Order Virial Coefficients from Weak Coupling to Unitarity
    Y. Hou and J. E. Drut, Southeastern Section of the APS 2020 F05.00002, Nov 05, 2020

Teaching Experience

I have been Graduate Teaching Assistant for both undergraduate courses and graduate courses including:

  • PHYS 114 - General Physics for non-physics major, led workshop as Teaching Assistant
  • PHYS 118 - General Physics for physics major, led workshop as Teaching Assistant
  • PHYS 331 - Introductory numerical techniques in physics, led lab session and gave mini-lectures as Teaching Assistant
  • PhD qualification exam recitation - statistical physics, led recitation session as Instructor

Recognition & Awards

  • UNC Dissertation Completion Fellowship Aug 2021 - May 2022
    Competitive fellowship supporting dissertation completion and recognizing outstanding academic achievement
  • UNC Dean’s Graduate Fellowship in the College of Arts & Sciences May 2021
    Prestigious award for exceptional scholarly work and research contributions

This research demonstrates the development of innovative computational methods that advance our fundamental understanding of quantum many-body systems, with applications across condensed matter physics and beyond.