Aydin Deger

Selected contributions

• Lee–Yang theory from fluctuations — I developed what is now known as the cumulant method, which extracts Lee–Yang zeros and critical behaviour from the high-order fluctuations of measurable observables. I established the method in Phys. Rev. E 97, 012115 (2018) (Editor's Suggestion) and extended it to determine universal critical exponents [Phys. Rev. Research 1, 023004 (2019)], rare fluctuations [Phys. Rev. Research 2, 033009 (2020)] and large-deviation statistics of the Ising model [Phys. Rev. B 102, 174418 (2020), Editor's Suggestion].
• Criticality in dynamics and open systems — I extended the cumulant framework to real-time dynamics, determining dynamical quantum phase transitions in strongly correlated systems [Phys. Rev. X 11, 041018 (2021)], and to driven open systems, locating a nonequilibrium phase transition in a single-electron micromaser [Phys. Rev. B 105, 155421 (2022)].
• Geometric entanglement — with Tzu-Chieh Wei, I established geometric entanglement as a probe of quantum phase transitions in generalized cluster-XY models [Quantum Inf. Process. 18, 326 (2019)].
• Emergent interaction geometry — with the Daley group at Oxford, I showed that the geometry of sparse long-range interactions drives phase transitions in cold-atom spin models [arXiv:2512.08709] and governs their low-energy phase structure through a unified effective-geometry principle [arXiv:2606.20387].

Selected contributions

• Constrained dynamics and ergodicity breaking — in two companion PRLs I showed that kinetic constraints can arrest many-body chaos [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 160601 (2022)] and that deterministic constrained dynamics falls into directed percolation universality [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 190601 (2022), Editor's Suggestion].
• Weak ergodicity breaking and localisation — I identified a weak ergodicity breaking transition in randomly constrained models [Phys. Rev. B 109, L220301 (2024)] and established Stark many-body localisation under periodic driving [Phys. Rev. B 110, 134205 (2024)].
• Black-hole lattice simulation — I developed a many-body simulator for a three-dimensional black hole built from Dirac fermions, and used it to probe key features of the AdS/CFT correspondence in a lattice model where observables can be defined and measured [Phys. Rev. B 108, 155124 (2023)].
• Measuring Hawking temperature — with the Schneider group (Cambridge), I designed a Floquet-driven optical-lattice experiment to measure Hawking temperature, turning black-hole physics into a protocol realistic for current cold-atom platforms [arXiv:2312.14058].

Selected contributions

• Persistent non-Gaussian correlations — I uncovered a mechanism by which strong interactions and kinetic constraints generate and protect non-Gaussian correlations in out-of-equilibrium Rydberg atom arrays, and introduced Wick-factorisation diagnostics that quantify this resource directly from experimental data [PRX Quantum 4, 040339 (2023)].
• Emergent Gaussianity — with collaborators, I showed how Gaussianity emerges in the thermodynamic limit of interacting fermions, clarifying when an interacting system admits an effective free description [Phys. Rev. B 104, L180408 (2021)].
• Code-compiled tensor networks — I led the development of a simulation method that uses symmetries of quantum error-correcting codes to map circuits with high entanglement, magic and non-Gaussianity into classically tractable tensor networks. This shows that magic alone is no guarantee of quantum advantage. The method also provides a practical benchmark for quantum hardware: a device executes a deep, nontrivial logical circuit while the efficiently simulated MPS supplies the classical reference needed to verify its output. These circuits can therefore test how faithfully NISQ and early fault-tolerant processors perform complex logical operations [arXiv:2607.08396].

Selected contributions

• Rydberg-qudit optimisation — with collaborators at Durham and Strathclyde, I showed how Rydberg qudits solve graph-colouring problems through quantum optimisation [Quantum Sci. Technol. 11, 025012 (2026)].
• Discovery mode on quantum processors (in preparation) — We developed an autonomous discovery framework that couples a superconducting quantum processor to a classical learning agent. Guided by quantum processor data, the agent explores circuit space and identifies structured many-body dynamics, including discrete time crystals and dual-unitary circuits (arXiv:2507.01013).
• Partially fault-tolerant logical computation (in preparation) — We are developing a framework for neutral atoms that replaces costly T-gate decompositions with direct analogue logical rotations on small-distance surface-code resource states and integrates pulse-level optimisation of the Rydberg gate to suppress the dominant undetectable logical error.
• Long-range connectivity for variational algorithms — with Helene Lösl and Andrew Daley, I identified when structured long-range connectivity is a genuine resource for variational quantum algorithms on reconfigurable neutral-atom and trapped-ion platforms [arXiv:2607.07547].