Recently, Wang Shuting , a 2021 undergraduate student supervised by Professor Xia Hui from the School of Materials Science and Physics, has published a first-authored research paper titled "Emergence in kinetic roughening with long-range temporal correlations" in the internationally renowned physics journal Physical Review E (S. Wang and H. Xia*, Phys. Rev. E 111, 024124 (2025), JCR Q1). This achievement stems from her National Undergraduate Innovation Training Program project, with Professor Xia Hui serving as the corresponding author.

The study investigates emergent behaviors in discrete growth models incorporating long-range temporal correlations. Through systematic analysis using Hellinger distance and novelty detection methodologies, the research reveals that systems exhibit emergent phenomena when the temporal correlation exponent exceeds a critical threshold. These findings align with observed scaling exponents and surface morphology evolution under long-range temporal correlations.

In recent years, Professor Xia Hui has guided undergraduates to multiple research advances in surface growth kinetics, exploring themes including long-range spatiotemporal correlations, transition effects, quenched disorders, and competitive growth mechanisms. Several SCI-indexed papers authored by undergraduates under his mentorship have been published in international physics journals.