I am a senior research fellow (Stephen Hawking Fellow) working on theoretical quantum physics at University College London.
Previously, I was a EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow at the University of Leeds.
My PhD supervisor was Dr. Z. Papić, expert in many-body localisation and the fractional quantum Hall effect.
My research centres around ergodicity, chaos and thermalisation in the quantum setting; and the consequences of these for quantum materials, devices and technology.
A significant component of my research involves large-scale numerical simulations of quantum systems alongside analytical techniques.
Preprint:
Operator-space fragmentation and integrability in Pauli-Lindblad models
—
D. Paszko,
C. J. Turner,
D. Rose,
A. Pal
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arXiv:2506.16518
(June 2025)
Preprint:
Exact quantum many-body scars tunable from volume to area law
—
B. Mukherjee,
C. J. Turner,
M. Szyniszewski,
A. Pal
—
arXiv:2501.14024
(January 2025)
Preprint:
Exact generalized Bethe eigenstates of the non-integrable alternating Heisenberg chain
—
R. Melendrez,
B. Mukherjee,
M. Szyniszewski,
C. J. Turner,
A. Pal,
H. J. Changlani
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arXiv:2501.14017
(January 2025)
Preprint:
Measurement-induced Lévy flights of quantum information
—
I. Poboiko,
M. Szyniszewski,
C. J. Turner,
I. V. Gornyi,
A. D. Mirlin,
A. Pal
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arXiv:2501.12903
(January 2025)
Preprint:
Operator space fragmentation in perturbed Floquet-Clifford circuits
—
M. D. Kovács,
C. J. Turner,
L. Masanes,
A. Pal
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arXiv:2408.01545
(August 2024)
Preprint:
Stable infinite-temperature eigenstates in SU(2)-symmetric nonintegrable models
—
C. J. Turner,
M. Szyniszewski,
B. Mukherjee,
R. Melendrez,
H. J. Changlani,
A. Pal
—
arXiv:2407.11956
(July 2024)
Article:
Renormalization view on resonance proliferation between many-body localized phases
—
J. Jeyaretnam,
C. J. Turner,
A. Pal
—
Physical Review B 108, 094205 (2023)doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.108.094205
preprint (January 2023)
arXiv:2301.08738
Article:
Proposal for Realising Quantum Scars in the Tilted 1D Fermi-Hubbard Model
—
J.-Y. Desaules,
A. Hudomal,
C. J. Turner,
Z. Papić
—
Physical Review Letters 126, 210601 (2021)doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.210601
preprint (February 2021)
arXiv:2102.01675
Article:
Correspondence Principle for Many-Body Scars in Ultracold Rydberg Atoms
—
C. J. Turner,
J.-Y. Desaules,
K. Bull,
Z. Papić
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Physical Review X 11, 021021 (2021)doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021021
preprint (June 2020)
arXiv:2006.13207
Article:
Stabilizing two-dimensional quantum scars by deformation and synchronization
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A. A. Michailidis,
C. J. Turner,
Z. Papić,
D. A. Abanin,
M. Serbyn
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Physical Review Research 2, 022065(R) (2020)doi:10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.022065
preprint (March 2020)
arXiv:2003.02825
Article:
Slow quantum thermalization and many-body revivals from mixed phase space
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A. A. Michailidis,
C. J. Turner,
Z. Papić,
D. A. Abanin,
M. Serbyn
—
Physical Review X 10, 011055 (2020)doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011055
preprint (May 2019)
arXiv:1905.08564
Article:
Emergent SU(2) Dynamics and Perfect Quantum Many-Body Scars
—
S. Choi,
C. J. Turner,
H. Pichler,
W. W. Ho,
A. A. Michailidis,
Z. Papić,
M. Serbyn,
M. D. Lukin,
D. A. Abanin
—
Physical Review Letters 122, 220603 (2019)doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.220603
preprint (December 2018)
arXiv:1812.05561
Article:
Quantum scarred eigenstates in a Rydberg atom chain: entanglement, breakdown of thermalization, and stability to perturbations
—
C. J. Turner,
A. A. Michailidis,
D. A. Abanin,
M. Serbyn,
Z. Papić
—
Physical Review B 98, 155134 (2018)doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.98.155134
preprint (June 2018)
arXiv:1806.10933
Article:
Machine learning entanglement freedom
—
S. Spillard,
C. J. Turner,
K. Meichanetzidis
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International Journal of Quantum Information Vol. 16, No. 08, 1840002 (2018)doi:10.1142/S0219749918400026
preprint (March 2018)
arXiv:1803.01035
Article:
Weak ergodicity breaking from quantum many-body scars.
—
C. J. Turner,
A. A. Michailidis,
D. A. Abanin,
M. Serbyn,
Z. Papić
—
Nature Physics 14, 745-749 (2018)doi:10.1038/s41567-018-0137-5
preprint (November 2017)
arXiv:1711.03528
Article:
Free-fermion descriptions of parafermion chains and string-net models.
—
K. Meichanetzidis,
C. J. Turner,
A. Farjami,
Z. Papić,
J. K. Pachos
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Physical Review B 97, 125104 (2018)doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.97.125104
preprint (May 2017)
arXiv:1705.09983
Article:
Optimal free descriptions of many-body theories.
—
C. J. Turner,
K. Meichanetzidis,
Z. Papić,
J. K. Pachos
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Nature Communications 8, 14926 (2017)doi:10.1038/ncomms14926
preprint (July 2016)
arXiv:1607.02679
Posters and talks
Invited Talk:
Ergodicity breaking: fragmentation and quantum scars
at TU Delft Many-Body Workshop Series: Non-equilibrium phenomena
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(April 2025, TU Delft)
download
Talk:
Operator-space fragmentation and integrability in Lindblad open quantum systems
at the APS March Meeting 2024
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(March 2024, Minneapolis)
download
Talk:
Correspondence principle for many-body scars in ultracold Rydberg atoms
at the APS March Meeting 2021
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(March 2021, Online)
download
Poster:
Correspondence principle for quantum many-body scars
at New perspectives on quantum many-body chaos,
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(February 2021, Royal Society Online Meeting)
link
Talk:
Weak ergodicity breaking and quantum many-body scars
at Entanglement in Strongly Correlated Systems
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(February 2020, Benasque)
download
Talk:
Discussion on quantum scars.
at Dynamics of Quantum Information
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(October 2018, KITP Santa Barbara)
Poster:
Weak ergodicity breaking from quantum many-body scars.
at Chaos and Dynamics in Correlated Quantum Matter
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(March 2018, Dresden)
download
Talk:
Non-ergodic Quantum Dynamics in Highly Excited States of a Kinematically Constrained Rydberg Chain.
at the APS March Meeting 2018
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(March 2018, Los Angeles)
download
Talk:
Interaction distance: patterns in entanglement.
at Quantum Techniques in Machine Learning
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(November 2017, Verona)
download
Seminar:
Between localisation and quantum chaos in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model.
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(January 2017, Leeds)
Poster:
Optimal free models of many-body interacting theories.
at Entanglement in Strongly Correlated Systems
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(June 2016, Benasque)
download
Seminar:
Fermionic freedom and the entanglement spectrum.
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(May 2016, Leeds)
Quantum scars: a new form of ergodicity breaking
This project started from examining a curious phenomena observed in a recent experiment on a 51-qubit quantum simulator1. There it was found that in a particular setup the system would undergo periodic quantum revivals but without any clear reason that this should be so. In our work we suggest that this feature is due the presence of a quantum many-body scar2 which strongly modifies the dynamics of particular initial configurations. This is the first example of such an effect in the many-body setting, which bears resemblance the quantum scars found in single-body physics.
[1] H. Bernien et al.Nature, 551(7682), 579–584 (2017).[2] C. J. Turner et al.Nature Physics 14, 745-749 (2018).
Teaching
Mentoring and student supervision
Master's student project:
Samuel Spillard
(2018)
Summer student supervision:
Graphene and Haldane's model for Chern Insulators.
—
Theo Breeze
(2017)
Summer student supervision:
Many Body localization and Renormalization Group Methods.
—
J. Gretton
(August 2016)
Class teaching
Undergraduate workshop tutoring and marking:
Physics 4 (quantum mechanics and condensed matter physics).
(2nd Year, Leeds, Spring 2017 and Spring 2018)
Undergraduate workshop tutoring:
Maths 4 (ordinary and partial differential equations).
(2nd Year, Leeds, Spring 2017 and Spring 2018)
Undergraduate workshop tutoring and marking:
Maths 3 (linear algebra, vector calculus and multiple integrals).
(2nd Year, Leeds, Autumn 2016 and Autumn 2017)
Undergraduate marking:
Physics 4: Quantum Mechanics, Condensed Matter Physics, and Nuclear & Particle Physics.
(2nd Year, Leeds, Spring 2016)
Seminar:
Introduction to matrix product states and quantum entanglement.
(Jan 2016, Leeds)
Discussed the future societal impact of quantum technology with a focus group formed of members of the public and answered their questions on quantum technology.
This was organised by Kantar Public and commissioned by EPSRC to help develop their case for future government funding.
The purpose of this event was for A-level students to hear about the new and exciting areas of research happening at the University of Leeds, and the opportunities available to both pre-university and undergraduate students to not just learn physics, but to do physics.
The event showcased the active research environment at the University of Leeds that enables us to offer exciting courses taught by experts who are leaders in their fields.
I participated in this event by presenting some of research during the poster session and answered the students' questions about physics and studying at Leeds.
The event involved 130 students (year 12 and 13).
