physics

Vedika Khemani

Vedika Khemani is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Vedika Khemani rather than just read about it. In short: Vedika Khemani (born 1988) is a theoretical physicist and Associate Professor at Stanford University. Her research lies at the intersection of many-body quantum condensed matter physics and quantum information theory.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

Vedika Khemani (born 1988) is a theoretical physicist and Associate Professor at Stanford University. Her research lies at the intersection of many-body quantum condensed matter physics and quantum information theory.

Early life and education Khemani was born in India and was educated through high-school at La Martiniere Calcutta. She moved to the United States to study physics at Harvey Mudd College, where she completed a senior thesis on gravitational holography. Her undergraduate thesis was awarded the Thomas Benjamin Brown Memorial Award. Alongside her physics courses, Khemani completed courses in mathematics, computer science, economics, linguistics and creative writing. She also took part in robotics programs and competed at national robotics competitions. After completing her undergraduate degree in 2010, she went on to graduate studies at Princeton University. There, she worked with doctoral advisor Shivaji Sondhi. Following her PhD studies, Khemani was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows.

Research and career Khemani's research focuses on non-equilibrium many-body quantum dynamics. As part of her doctoral research, Khemani identified a novel non-equilibrium phase of matter known as a Floquet time-crystal. Such crystals demonstrate spontaneous breaking of time translation symmetry. In conventional crystals, atoms are arranged in regular and ordered patterns, whereas in time crystals they are arranged in both space and time. As a current Associate Professor in Physics at Stanford University, Khemani has served as an Executive Committee member at the Stanford Quantum Science and Engineering Initiative (Q-FARM) since 2022.

Awards and honours 2025 U.S. Department of Energy Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) 2025 University of Maryland Richard E. Prange Prize and Lectureship in Condensed Matter Theory and Related Areas 2024 Infosys Prize in Physical Sciences 2023 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award 2022 Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize 2020 Department of Physics at the University of Illinois McMillan Award 2020 American Physical Society George E. Valley Jr. Prize 2020 United States Department of Energy Early Career Award 2020 Sloan Research Fellowship

Select publications Khemani, Vedika; Lazarides, Achilleas; Moessner, Roderich; Sondhi, S. L. (2016-06-21). "Phase Structure of Driven Quantum Systems". Physical Review Letters. 116 (25) 250401. arXiv:1508.03344. Bibcode:2016PhRvL.116y0401K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.250401. PMID 27391704. Mi, Xiao; Ippoliti, Matteo...; Khemani, Vedika; Roushan, Pedram (2022). "Time-crystalline eigenstate order on a quantum processor". Nature. 601 (7894): 531–536. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04257-w. PMC 8791837. Choi, Jae-yoon; Hild, Sebastian; Zeiher, Johannes; Schauß, Peter; Rubio-Abadal, Antonio; Yefsah, Tarik; Khemani, Vedika; Huse, David A.; Bloch, Immanuel; Gross, Christian (2016-06-24). "Exploring the many-body localization transition in two dimensions". Science. 352 (6293): 1547–1552. arXiv:1604.04178. Bibcode:2016Sci...352.1547C. doi:10.1126/science.aaf8834. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 27339981. S2CID 35012132. Choi, Soonwon; Choi, Joonhee; Landig, Renate; Kucsko, Georg; Zhou, Hengyun; Isoya, Junichi; Jelezko, Fedor; Onoda, Shinobu; Sumiya, Hitoshi; Khemani, Vedika; von Keyserlingk, Curt (2017). "Observation of discrete time-crystalline order in a disordered dipolar many-body system". Nature. 543 (7644): 221–225. arXiv:1610.08057. Bibcode:2017Natur.543..221C. doi:10.1038/nature21426. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 5349499. PMID 28277511.

Personal life and education In 2013 Khemani married David Coats, whom she met at Harvey Mudd College.

References

External links Vedika Khemani on INSPIRE-HEP

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vedika Khemani

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Vedika Khemani claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Vedika Khemani before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Vedika Khemani ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Vedika Khemani

In research: Vedika Khemani appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Vedika Khemani in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Vedika Khemani is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1988 births, 21st-century American physicists, 21st-century American women physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vedika Khemani outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Vedika Khemani in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Vedika Khemani means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Vedika Khemani in simple terms?

Why does Vedika Khemani matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Vedika Khemani?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Vedika Khemani.