The University of St Andrews

Current Group

The Hooley Group is comprised of Chris Hooley, PhD students Peter Leith (co-supervised with Keith Horne and David Dritschel), Francisco Zúñiga Frias, Joe Crossley, Thomas Sheerin and Felipe Arevalo Escobar, and Summer/Master's students Lewis Bissett, Luis Koester, Joe Marshall and Louise Sandland.






Peter Leith

In progress.

Email: pl27@st-andrews.ac.uk

Francisco Zúñiga Frias

In progress.

Email: fzf1@st-andrews.ac.uk

Joe Crossley

My research is on the many different methods for finding exact and approximate solutions to Hamiltonians describing interacting spins on a lattice. The grand aim of the PhD is to help develop the 'path integral over entangled states' description of these spin systems. This particular tool is designed to combine insights from field theory with the efficient tensor-network description of many-body quantum states. Aside from this, I have spent lots of time on small cluster techniques for calculating the heat capacity of the Kagome bilayer compound Ca10Cr7O28.

Email: jc413@st-andrews.ac.uk

Thomas Sheerin

My research is centred on non-Fermi liquids. These exotic phases occur in a number of metals at low temperature and are notoriously difficult to describe theoretically. I seek to develop robust functional renormalization group schemes, based on exact identities provided by symmetries and anomalies, for studying these metals. I am also interested in charge-density-wave formation in monolayer vanadium diselenide.

Email: tps3@st-andrews.ac.uk

Lewis Bissett

In progress.

Email: lbb3@st-andrews.ac.uk

Luis Koester

I'm working on developing numerical and analytical methods to solve the coupled Einstein-Dirac system in a model that allows for multiple layers of quantum matter. These self-attracting matter wave solitons may provide greater insight into the structure of elementary particles and quantum black holes. This project combines many of my interests, including gravity and particle physics!

Email: lsk3@st-andrews.ac.uk

Joe Marshall

My work within the Hooley group has involved studying the propagation of spin-currents in a lattice, in particular describing their interactions with phonons, as part of my master's project. We made use of perturbative diagrammatic theory to find contributions to the spin-current conductivity tensor, provided by calculating the current-current correlator in the presence of electron-phonon coupling. Additionally, I have worked on developing theoretical predictions for the spin-wave dispersion in iron telluride, aiming to improve on previous estimates of the coupling constants in the crystal.

Email: jm410@st-andrews.ac.uk

Louise Sandland

I am a summer project student studying Linear Spin Wave theory in order to describe quantum fluctuations in the ground state of calcium chromate (Ca10Cr7O28). Calcium chromate is a quantum spin liquid candidate, meaning it does not display long-range magnetic order even at zero temperature. I hope to describe the transition between the classically ordered state to the spin-liquid state and thus add to our overall description of exotic quantum phases of matter.

Email: ls282@st-andrews.ac.uk









































Group Alumni



PhD students

  • Matthew Dowens ( - )
  • Matthew Trott ( - )
  • Maximilian Schulz ( - )
  • Scott Taylor ( - )
  • Alasdair Dorkenoo Leggat ( - )
  • Sam Ridgway ( - )

Master's/Summer students

  • In progress ( - )
  • In progress ( - )
  • In progress ( - )
  • In progress ( - )
  • In progress ( - )










Group Photos


















  2022 Group Photo (reduced numbers due to Covid). Left  to right: Thomas Sheerin, Chris Hooley, Joe Crossley,  Francisco Zúñiga Frias.















2019 Group Photo. Left to right: Matthew Trott, Chris Hooley, Adam McRoberts, Yian Liu, Peter Leith, Myles Oliver, Jack Stevens.















2017 Group Photo. Left to right: Maximilian Schulz, Chris Hooley, Alasdair Dorkenoo Leggat, Scott Taylor, Matthew Dowens, Matthew Trott, Carlos Perez Pardavila.
2022 (Partial) Group Photo
2022 (Partial) Group Photo
2019 Group Photo
2019 Group Photo
2017 Group Photo
2017 Group Photo