Rintaro Masaoka

Research Assistant · Watanabe Group, Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Rintaro Masaoka (政岡凜太郎) is a graduate student specializing in condensed matter theory and statistical physics. He is interested in quantum phase transitions, particularly quantum critical phenomena characterized by non-trivial dynamic critical exponents.

Affiliation

Watanabe Group, Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Email

rmasaoka[at]ust.hk

Research Interests

Non-relativistic Critical Phenomena

At a quantum critical point, space and time need not scale in the same way. I am interested in quantum critical phenomena with anisotropic space-time scaling, including Lifshitz critical points. In particular, I study how the dynamical critical exponent is constrained and how it is reflected in low-energy excitations and correlations.

News

2026-04-01

Joined Watanabe group at HKUST

2026-03-24

Received the Dean's Award from the Graduate School of Engineering

2026-03-24

Received the Master of Engineering degree from the University of Tokyo

2026-03-01

Temporarily joined Motome group

2026-01-30

Received Shoji Tanaka Award (Outstanding Master's Thesis in Applied Physics)

2026-01-28

Renewed my website design with the help of Claude Opus 4.5

Recent Publications

View all
2025

c = -2 conformal field theory in quadratic band touching

Rintaro Masaoka

arXiv:2511.16496

2025

Frustration-free free fermions and beyond

Rintaro Masaoka, Seishiro Ono, Hoi Chun Po, Haruki Watanabe

arXiv:2503.12879

2025

Frustration-free free fermions

Seishiro Ono, Rintaro Masaoka, Haruki Watanabe, Hoi Chun Po

arXiv:2503.14312