Hello, I’m Hanchen Liu.

Physics Ph.D. candidate — quantum information • statistical physics • high‑performance computing.

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About

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Physics at Boston College advised by Prof. Xiao Chen. My research focuses on quantum information and statistical physics, including measurement‑induced entanglement transitions and error‑correction phase transitions. On the computational side, I build large‑scale simulators with Python, C/C++ (C++20), MATLAB (C‑MEX, Parallel Computing Toolbox), and Julia on Linux/HPC clusters (SLURM). I’m proficient with Git/GitHub and performance‑minded implementation.

Previously, I earned an M.A. in Physics from Stony Brook University (advisor: Prof. Jennifer Cano) and a B.S. in Physics from Sichuan University, China.

Research

Random Plaquette Models

Statistical Mechanics • Entanglement Phase Transitions

Random plaquette model phase diagram

Introduced a random plaquette model and analyzed its ground-state phase diagram and phase transition behavior.

Entanglement Phase Transitions & Complexity via Ising Models

Quantum Entanglement • Ising Models

Entanglement entropy setup mapped to an Ising model

Connects measurement-induced entanglement transitions in random circuits to complex-weight Ising models, linking phase structure to computational complexity.

Projects

Bit‑Packed Z₂ Linear‑Algebra Library (C / MATLAB‑CMEX)

Memory‑efficient GF(2) matrix format (~×64 reduction) with optimized mat‑mul and bit‑rank routines; integrated into a MATLAB stabilizer simulator enabling 10k‑qubit simulations on 64‑core clusters.

GitHub

Large‑Scale Quantum Stabilizer Simulator (MATLAB / Shell / SLURM)

Parallel stabilizer‑state simulator for 10,000‑qubit systems; achieved ~8× speed‑ups via vectorization and parfor on HPC clusters.

GitHub

Kinetic Monte Carlo for Glassy Lattices (Julia / SLURM)

Rejection‑free KMC engine with a Fenwick‑tree (BIT) cumulative‑rate selector for O(log N) event draws/updates; scaled to 64 cores and ran 48‑hour production jobs on 4096‑site 2D lattices.

GitHub

C++20 Self‑Study Mini‑Projects

Differential‑testing harness for DSA problems (randomized generators, oracle vs. impl comparison, property checks), header‑only std::jthread pool with a lock‑free queue, and an LLVM‑IR redundant ϕ‑node elimination pass.

GitHub

Publications

  1. [LC25] , . Coherent error induced phase transition. arXiv:2506.00650 (2025). arXiv
  2. [LRC25] , , . Quantum entanglement phase transitions and computational complexity: Insights from Ising models. Physical Review B, 111(2):024312, 2025. DOI
  3. [LC24] , . Plaquette models, cellular automata, and measurement-induced criticality. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 57(43):435003, 2024. DOI
  4. [LZC22] , , . Measurement-induced entanglement transition in a two-dimensional shallow circuit. Physical Review B, 106(14):144311, 2022. DOI

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