Academically Link to heading

This month, I spent my time doing a rotation with Mike Zaletel. I looked into Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) method and topological order in the fractional quantum hall effect. I started to see how computationally nice one dimensional models are, how computationally hard two dimensional models are, and how hard three dimensions is. It fills me with a little sadness to know how hard it is to model three dimensional models. Density functional theory (DFT) seems to be our best bet and even then it is hard to reliably predict using DFT. In fact, even if DFT is wrong its hard to diagnose what happened and most just shrug and say you used the wrong pseudopotential…not very helpful :(

I attended a really interesting talk on finding an analytical formula for the hall number by Assa Auerbach.

Socially Link to heading

Started going out regularly to Bobby G’s Pizzeria and playing trivia! We hardly win but its great fun and its a throwback to my old days in quiz bowl. I’ve started to really explore SF and the Berkeley/Oakland/East Bay area with my partner which is super duper fun.

Taiko Link to heading

Started learning Jambalaya, 5/2, and Techno in Jiten Daiko’s repertoire. Started teaching at Berkeley Buddhist Temple and getting my own practice time. Started taking lesson from Yuta Kato, Man Man Mui, and Isaku Kageyama in preparation for the LATI Solatidon conference!

Wrap-up Link to heading

Overall, things are going really well! Learning a lot, playing a lot, having a lot of fun:) -Koh