About

I am a PhD candidate in Physics at Caltech working with Professor Nick Hutzler. My research focuses on developing quantum sensors for fundamental physics, particularly in the context of precision measurements and symmetry violation searches.

Recent News

  • Jan 5, 2026: I'll visit and give a talk at University of Okayama (@seminar)
  • Dec 25, 2025: I'll visit and give a talk at KEK (@seminar)
  • Dec 23, 2025: I'll visit and give a talk at Riken (@seminar)
  • Nov 20, 2025: I'll visit and give a talk at UC Berkeley (@seminar)
  • Oct 29, 2025: I'll visit and give a talk at Stanford (@Schleier-Smith group)
  • Oct 26-29, 2025: I'll visit friends at Bay area!
  • Oct 21, 2025: I'll visit and give a talk at UCLA (@seminar)
  • Sep 12, 2025: I'll visit and give a talk at University of Toronto (@seminar)
  • Aug 15, 2025: I'll visit and give a talk at MIT (@Ketterle group)
  • Aug 10-17, 2025: I'll attend IAIFI workshop at Harvard
  • Jul 22, 2025: I'll visit and give a talk at University of Tübingen (@Krenn group)

Selected Publications

Engineered Molecular Clock Transitions for Symmetry Violation Searches
Yuiki Takahashi, Harish D. Ramachandran, Arian Jadbabaie, Yi Zeng, Chi Zhang, Nicholas R. Hutzler
arXiv:2508.06787 (2025)
Demonstrated the first molecular clock transitions with simultaneous electric- and magnetic-field insensitivity while maintaining high sensitivity to fundamental new physics. Also, introduced and demonstrated the concept of co-electrometer and co-magnetometer, which is extremely useful resources to acheive high accuracy in precision measurements.
arXiv
Measuring the nuclear magnetic quadrupole moment of optically trapped ytterbium atoms in the metastable state
Ayaki Sunaga, Yuiki Takahashi, Amar Vutha, Yoshiro Takahashi
New Journal of Physics 26, 023023 (2024)
Introduced the concept of engineering transitions that are insensitive to magnetic fields and still highly sensitive to nuclear symmetry violation effects, using optically trapped Yb atoms.
Journal arXiv
Engineering field-insensitive molecular clock transitions for symmetry violation searches
Yuiki Takahashi, Chi Zhang, Arian Jadbabaie, Nicholas R. Hutzler
Physical Review Letters 131, 183003 (2023)
Introduced the theoretical conceopt to engineer molecular clock transitions that can drastically reduce electromagnetic field induced noise in new physics searches. Conducted optical spectroscopy to validate this concept. This approach turned out to be broadly applicable across many experimental systems.
Journal arXiv
Featured in: Physics Magazine, Chemistry World, Butsuri
Characterizing the Fundamental Bending Vibration of a Linear Polyatomic Molecule for Symmetry Violation Searches
Arian Jadbabaie*, Yuiki Takahashi*, Nickolas H. Pilgram, Chandler J. Conn, Yi Zeng, Chi Zhang, Nicholas R. Hutzler (*equal contribution)
New Journal of Physics 25, 073014 (2023)
Performed optical spectroscopy of the vibrational bending mode in YbOH polyatomic molecules, characterizing the key structure for symmetry violation searches.
Journal arXiv
Low-J transitions in A2Π(0,0,0)−X2Σ+(0,0,0) band of buffer-gas-cooled CaOH
Yuiki Takahashi, Masaaki Baba, Katsunari Enomoto, Ayami Hiramoto, Kana Iwakuni, Susumu Kuma, Reo Tobaru, Yuki Miyamoto
The Astrophysical Journal 936, 97 (2022)
Performed optical spectroscopy in low-J transitions in CaOH polyatomic molecules, which is receiving an increasing amount of attention from the astrophysics community due to its expected presence in the atmospheres of hot rocky super-Earth exoplanets as well as interstellar and circumstellar environments.
Journal arXiv
Simulation of cryogenic buffer gas beams
Yuiki Takahashi, David Shlivko, Gabriel Woolls, Nicholas R. Hutzler
Physical Review Research 3, 023018 (2021)
Developed a new computational method to model the buffer-gas-cooled molecular beam by capturing the complex interplay between buffer-gas particles and molecules. This would be useful for cold-molecule experiments utilizing buffer-gas-cooling.
Journal arXiv

Education

  • California Institute of Technology Oct 2019 – Present Ph.D. in Physics — Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy
  • The University of Tokyo Apr 2019 – Sep 2019 Graduate Research in Physics — Department of Basic Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  • Kyoto University Apr 2015 – Mar 2019 B.S. in Physics — Division of Physics, Faculty of Science

Teaching & Mentoring

  • Teaching Assistant for Ph137a Atoms & Photons (Fall 2024)

    Graduate course, Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, Caltech

  • Mentor for undergraduate students at Caltech

    Zitian Ye (2022, now PhD student at MIT), Adele Basturk (2022, now PhD student at Harvard)

Academic Service

  • Journal Reviewer, Physical Review Letters
  • Session Chair, Summer Undergraduate Research Seminar, Caltech (2025)

Others

  • Treasurer at Caltech Japanese Student Association (Oct 2024 - Present)
  • Won the third place at Mario Kart Tournament in Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, Caltech (Apr 2024)

    Received Trador Joe's gift card