Masha Baryakhtar

Research Interests

I am primarily interested in understanding what lies beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, and trying to gain these insights in new ways. In the past I have worked on theories of new physics that can be tested at colliders, including supersymmetric and extra-dimensional theories -- that were thought to address the hierarchy problem -- and their signatures at the LHC. I am currently interested in pursuing novel, low-energy searches for weakly-coupled particles and forces (e.g. dark photons) that may make use of small-scale experimental techniques. Over the last several years have been studying what LIGO can teach us in the new era of gravitational-wave astronomy, and how we could potentially use it to search for new, ultralight particles around astrophysical black holes.

Positions Held

• 2010-2015, Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford University, Ph.D.

Awards

• Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Rising Stars in Physics, Selected Workshop Participant at MIT

Recent Publications

• Axion and hidden photon dark matter detection with multilayer optical haloscopes Masha Baryakhtar, Junwu Huang, Robert Lasenby Mar 28, 2018. 21 pp. Published in Phys.Rev. D98 (2018) no.3, 035006 , arXiv: 1803.11455
• Dark Kinetic Heating of Neutron Stars and An Infrared Window On WIMPs, SIMPs, and Pure Higgsinos, Masha Baryakhtar, Joseph Bramante, Shirley Weishi Li, Tim Linden, Nirmal Raj, arXiv: 1704.01577,Phys.Rev.Lett. 119 (2017) no.13, 131801
• Black hole superradiance signatures of ultralight vectors, Masha Baryakhtar, Robert Lasenby, Mae Teo, Phys. Rev. D 96, 035019, arXiv: 1704.05081
• Black Hole Mergers and the QCD Axion at Advanced LIGO, Asimina Arvanitaki, Masha Baryakhtar, Savas Dimopoulos, Sergei Dubovsky, Robert Lasenby, Phys. Rev. D 95, 043001, arXiv: 1604.03958

Seminars

• Physics at the LHC and Beyond, CERN Theory Institute, Geneva
• New Probes for Physics Beyond the Standard Model, KITP Santa Barbara, CA
• ALPS 2018, Tyrol, Austria
• APS April Conference, Columbus, OH
• Caltech, High Energy Physics Monday Seminar, Pasadena, CA
• The Particle Frontier, Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen, CO
• Ultralight Dark Matter and Axions, University of Michigan
• Dartmouth University, Particle and Cosmology Remote Seminar
• Brookhaven National Lab, HET Seminar, Upton, NY
• Columbia University, Theory Seminar, New York, NY
• Stanford University, SITP Wine & Cheese Seminar, Stanford, CA
• University of Washington, Dark Universe Science Center Seminar, Seattle, WA
• Light Dark World International Forum 2017, University of Pittsburgh
• Developing New Tools for Dark Matter Searches, Aspen Center for Physics
• DESY Theory Workshop on Fundamental Physics in the Cosmos, Hamburg
• Searching for Ultralight Particles with Black Hole Superradiance, Probing the dark sector and general relativity at all scales, Key Participant, CERN TH Institute, Geneva, Switzerland
• Strong Gravity Universe Workshop, Sao Miguel, Portugal
• Peyresq 22 Workshop, Peyresq, France
• New Lampposts for Dark Matter Workshop, Eugene, OR
• Cornell University University High Energy Physics Seminar, Ithaca, NY
• University of Carleton Theoretical Physics Seminar, Ottawa, ON
• University of Michigan High Energy Physics Seminar, Ann Arbor, MI
• University of Minnesota High Energy Physics Seminar, Minneapolis, MN
• Testing Gravity 2017 Conference, Vancouver, BC
• TRIUMF Seminar, Vancouver, BC
• University of Victoria Seminar, Victoria, BC
• Particle-Astro-Nuclear Physics Seminar at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
• McGill High Energy Seminar, Montreal, QC
• Experimental-Theory Remote Seminar at University of Washington
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Particle Theory Seminar, Berkeley, CA
• Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics Seminar, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA
• Princeton Pheno Group Seminar, Princeton, NJ
• Rising Stars in Physics Workshop, Selected Participant, MIT, Cambridge, MA
• Invisibles 16 Workshop, Padova, Italy
• TRIUMF Precision for New Discoveries Workshop, Vancouver, BC
• Fermilab Theoretical Physics Seminar, Fermilab, IL
• Argonne National Laboratory HEP Theory Seminar, Argonne, IL
• University of Chicago HEP Lunch Seminar, Chicago, IL
• Boston University Particle Physics Seminar, Boston, MA
• Harvard Particle Physics Seminar, Cambridge, MA
• MIT Nuclear and Particle Theory Seminar, Cambridge, MA
• PIRSA:18070034, Superradiance and Black Holes, 2018-07-13, Tri-Institute Summer School on Elementary Particles 2018
• PIRSA:18060047, Searching for Ultralight Particles with Gravitational Waves, 2018-06-11, Path to Kilohertz Gravitational-Wave Astronomy
• PIRSA:17020092, Observing Superradiance of Light Vector Particles, 2017-02-09, Strong Gravity
• PIRSA:14100049, Discovering the QCD Axion with Black Holes and Gravitational Waves, 2014-10-28, Particle Physics