Hi, I am Yi-Hsien (Sherry) Du, a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Simons Collaboration on Ultra-Quantum Matter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I earned my Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Chicago in 2024. I was a finalist for the Pappalardo Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT and was selected for the Berkeley Futures in Physics distinction from the University of California, Berkeley. I also received both the KITP Graduate Fellowship in 2023 at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and the Plotnick Physics Fellowship at the University of Chicago in 2021. 

Research Interests 

I am a theoretical physicist studying quantum many-body systems using analytical and numerical methods. My research focuses on emergent collective phenomena in quantum Hall states, moiré quantum materials, and (non-)Fermi liquids, with particular emphasis on quantum field theory and the construction of physically transparent models. A central theme of my work is to connect abstract theoretical structures to experimentally accessible phenomena and to sharpen physical intuition for complex many-body behavior. My research also interfaces with quantum information and high-energy theory, and I am particularly interested in problems closely connected to experiment and quantum computation.

Recent and Upcoming News and Events

• April 2026: Invited group seminar, Harvard University.

• May 2026: Ultra-quantum matter seminar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• July 2026: Invited participant, Aspen Center for Physics Summer Program.

• September-October 2026: Visiting Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

• October 2026: Invited participant, KITP program on Engineering Fractionalization in Quantum Many-Body Systems: From New Quantum Materials to Quantum Simulators.

• March 2027: Invited participant, KITP program on Quantum Geometry Meets Correlation, Symmetry Breaking, and Topology.

Selected Publications 

• Controlled Theory of Skyrmion Chern Bands in Moiré Quantum Materials: Quantum Geometry and Collective Dynamics
  Yi-Hsien Du
  https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15016

—See also the media coverage in Quantum Zeitgeist

• Chiral Graviton Theory of Fractional Quantum Hall States
  Yi-Hsien Du

https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04408

• Quantum vortex lattice: Lifshitz duality, topological defects and multipole symmetries

Yi-Hsien Du, Ho Tat Lam, Leo Radzihovsky

Phys.Rev.B 110, 035164,   https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.13794

• Nonlinear Lifshitz Photon Theory in Condensed Matter Systems

Yi-Hsien Du, Cenke Xu, Dam Thanh Son

Phys.Rev.B 109 (2024) 3, 035135,   https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.03946

• Noncommutative Field Theory of the Tkachenko Mode: Symmetries and Decay Rate

Yi-Hsien Du, Sergej Moroz, Dung Xuan Nguyen, Dam Thanh Son

Phys.Rev.Res. 6 (2024) 1, L012040,   https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.08671

• Nonlinear bosonization of Fermi surfaces: The method of coadjoint orbits

Luca V. Delacretaz, Yi-Hsien Du, Umang Mehta, Dam Thanh Son

Phys. Rev. Research 4, 033131 (2022),   https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.05004

• Noncommutative gauge symmetry in the fractional quantum Hall effect

Yi-Hsien Du, Umang Mehta, Dam Thanh Son

JHEP 08 (2024) 125,   https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.13875

• Volume-preserving diffeomorphism as nonabelian higher-rank gauge symmetry,

Yi-Hsien Du, Umang Mehta, Dung Xuan Nguyen, Dam Thanh Son

SciPost Phys. 12, 050 (2022),   https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.09826

• Rotons in Anyon Superfluids

Yi-Hsien Du, Umang Mehta, Dam Thanh Son

JHEP 03 (2021) 101,   https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.07991

Research Positions and Education 

• 2024 - : Postdoctoral Fellow of Simons Collaboration on Ultra-Quantum Matter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• PhD from the University of Chicago, working with Dam Thanh Son. 

• KITP Graduate Fellow, University of California, Santa Barbara; mentors: Cenke Xu and Leon Balents.

• MSc from Imperial College London, working with Arkady Tseytlin.