Professor Peng Ye's Homepage

School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University

Bio

Peng Ye (Family/Last name: Ye/叶/葉; Given/First name: Peng/鹏/鵬) is Professor of Physics (2018-present) at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. He works on fundamental problems in quantum many-body systems from the interdisciplinary perspectives including quantum field theory, quantum information, condensed matter theory, mathematical physics, and related areas.

Peng Ye received his B.S. degree in Physics from the Department of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University in June 2007. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University in June 2012. From September 2012 to August 2015, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada. From August 2015 to August 2018, he was a postdoctoral research associate and a Gordon & Betty Moore Fellow in the Department of Physics and the Anthony J. Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC). In November 2015, he visited the Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications at Harvard University as an Associate. In August 2018, he joined the School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University as Professor of Physics. He currently serves as an Editorial Board Member of Physical Review Research of the American Physical Society (APS), and is an affiliated faculty member of the State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Magnetoelectric Physics & Devices.

Peng Ye has received research support from national oversea (2018), provincial (2019), and university (2018, 2023) talent-recruitment programs, as well as from provincial funding agencies and the NSFC. He welcomes applications from motivated prospective students and postdoctoral researchers interested in quantum many-body theory, topological phases of matter, quantum field theory, and quantum information.

Professor Peng Ye

Research

My research focuses on fundamental theoretical problems in quantum many-body systems. I aim to understand novel quantum phases of matter and their universal structures from the intersecting perspectives of quantum field theory and quantum information. My work draws on topological quantum field theory, lattice gauge theory, conformal field theory, the theory of strongly correlated electron systems, and quantum information. My primary research interests include higher-dimensional topological order, symmetry-protected topological phases, fracton physics, correlated topological phases, and quantum entanglement in fermionic systems. My long-term goal is to bridge continuum field theories, microscopic lattice models, and quantum-information structures, thereby developing systematic theoretical frameworks and tools for understanding and discovering novel strongly correlated topological quantum phases.

Field theory and lattice models of higher-dimensional topological phases of matter

I have developed topological gauge theories for three-dimensional symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases and projective constructions for SPT phases in two and three dimensions. I have studied higher-dimensional strongly correlated topological orders and develop low-energy effective theories based on BF-type topological field theories and their twisted topological terms. I have extended these frameworks from three to four spatial dimensions and from bosonic to fermionic systems. My work uncovered Borromean-rings braiding statistics and their description in terms of BF+AAB-type TQFTs, systematically characterized the braiding statistics and non-Abelian fusion of point-particle, loop, and membrane excitations, and introduced and developed the hierarchical shrinking structure of extended excitations. Building on these results, I established a diagrammatic formalism for higher-dimensional topological orders, together with pentagon equations and fusion-shrinking hexagon consistency equations. I have also investigated symmetry enrichment in higher-dimensional topological orders and established correspondences between continuum topological field theories in the infrared (IR) and microscopic lattice models in the ultraviolet (UV).

Fractonic superfluidity, conserved higher-moments, and beyond.

I study how higher-moment conservation laws, such as dipole-moment conservation, fundamentally modify conventional theories of superfluidity and phase transitions. I established a continuum perturbative quantum-field-theory framework for fractonic superfluids and introduced and systematically developed the concept of the “fractonic superfluid.” This work revealed off-diagonal long-range order, unconventional Goldstone modes, and hierarchical Kosterlitz–Thouless topological transitions under higher-moment conservation laws. I further explore the implications of these conservation laws for equilibrium phases, quantum phase transitions, anomalous transport, and nonequilibrium dynamics.

Quantum information and correlated topological phases

I have constructed exactly solvable models of fracton topological order, including generalized X-cube models, and quantum-circuit constructions applicable to arbitrary spatial dimensions. Using higher-order cellular automata (HOCA), I established a unified framework for generating subsystem symmetry-protected topological (SSPT) phases and developed HOCA-based algorithms for constructing strange correlators and spurious topological entanglement entropy in SSPT phases. I have also applied cellular-automaton methods to statistical-physics problems such as directed percolation on hyperbolic lattices. Together, these studies promote deeper connections among quantum many-body physics, quantum information, mathematics, computer science, and systems science.

Entanglement in fermion systems

From a quantum-information perspective, I systematically investigate entanglement entropy, entanglement spectra, and their universal scaling laws in complex non-Euclidean geometries—including fractal and hyperbolic lattices—as well as in non-Hermitian systems, which generalized the traditional Widom scaling laws of translationally invariant Euclidean lattices. My objective is to uncover the fundamental connections among fermionic statistics, complex geometry, non-Hermitian effects, and quantum entanglement.

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Publications

The bracketed identifiers preceding each publication indicate the arXiv posting order, where [25a] refers to the first paper posted on arXiv in 2025, followed by [25b], [25c], etc.