Xiao Shen
Department of Mathematics
University of Utah
Email: xshen@math.utah.edu
Office: LeRoy E. Cowles Building (LCB), 202
I am a postdoc in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Utah. My faculty advisor is Firas Rassoul-Agha.
I received my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2021 under the supervision of Timo Seppäläinen.
My research lies at the intersection of probability and statistical physics, with a focus on advancing the understanding of both exactly solvable and non-solvable Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) models using general probabilistic methods, such as percolation and coupling.
Research:
Large deviations of geodesic midpoint fluctuations in last-passage percolation with general i.i.d. weights with Tom Alberts, Riddhipratim Basu, and Sean Groathouse. Preprint (2025).
Time correlations in the inverse-gamma polymer with flat initial condition. Preprint (2024).
Lower bound for large transversal fluctuations in exactly solvable KPZ models. Preprint (2024).
An upper bound on geodesic length in 2D critical first-passage percolation with Erik Bates, David Harper, and Evan Sorensen. Preprint (2023).
Independence property of the Busemann function in exactly solvable KPZ models. Ann. Appl. Probab. (2025).
Time correlations in KPZ models with diffusive initial conditions with Riddhipratim Basu. Preprint (2023).
Temporal correlation in the inverse-gamma polymer with Riddhipratim Basu and Timo Seppäläinen. Commun. Math. Phys. (2024).
Coalescence and total-variation distance of semi-infinite inverse-gamma polymers with Firas Rassoul-Agha and Timo Seppäläinen. J. Lond. Math. Soc. (2024).
On the number and size of holes in the growing ball of first-passage percolation with Michael Damron, Julian Gold, and Wai-Kit Lam. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. (2024).
Estimates for the empirical distribution along a geodesic in first-passage percolation with Michael Damron, Jack Hanson, Chris Janjigian and Wai-Kit Lam. Preprint (2020).
Coalescence estimates for the corner growth model with exponential weights with Timo Seppäläinen. Electron. J. Probab. (2020).