Philipp Wilhelm Klein

Welcome to my page! I am a theoretical condensed matter physicist working in quantitative finance. I am a quantitative alpha researcher at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

My main interests in physics are centred around the mathematical exploration of a novel class of materials - so-called topological insulators and superconductors - that might play a crucial role in the development of a new generation of computing devices.

Short CV:

PhD in Theoretical Physics, École Polytechnique, Paris, France (2021)
MSc in Economics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland (2018)
MSc in Physics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany (2018)
BSc in Physics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany (2014)

selected publications

PhysRevB

Interacting stochastic topology and Mott transition from light response

Klein, Philipp W., Grushin, Adolfo G., and Le Hur, Karyn

Physical Review B Jan 2021

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We develop a stochastic description of the topological properties in an interacting Chern insulator. We confirm the Mott transition’s first-order nature in the interacting Haldane model on the honeycomb geometry, from a mean-field variational approach, supported by density matrix renormalization group results and Ginzburg-Landau arguments. From the Bloch sphere, we make predictions for circular dichroism of light related to the quantum Hall conductivity on the lattice and in the presence of interactions. This analysis shows that the topological number can be measured from the light response at the Dirac points. Electron-electron interactions can also produce a substantial number of particle-hole pairs above the band gap, which leads us to propose a "stochastic Chern number" as an interacting measure of the topology. The stochastic Chern number can describe disordered situations with a fluctuating staggered potential and we build an analogy between interaction-induced particle-hole pairs and temperature effects. Our stochastic approach is physically intuitive, easy to implement and leads the way to further studies of interaction effects.