Phys.org has reported:

A team led by Haruki Watanabe, a professor in the Department of Physics and the Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has developed a unified theory of when two states of matter are distinct and when they are the same.

The work was done with Yukitoshi Motome, a professor, and Sena Watanabe, a graduate student, both from the University of Tokyo. The source headline describes the framework as linking magnetic phase boundaries to string-like defects in spin ice.