Ben Safdi
@bensafdi.bsky.social
Theoretical particle physicist at UC Berkeley looking for dark matter. Let me know if you find it! When not not-finding dark matter, I like to climb.
Fun times at PLANCK 2025 in Padua
May 29, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Fun times at PLANCK 2025 in Padua
Such a pleasure to have lunch with Georg Raffelt today in Berkeley after the “Baha Balantekin and George Fuller Fest.” He is an inspiration and has been doing axion physics since well before it was cool 😎. Also very neat to hear stories about his time in Berkeley in the 80’s.
January 19, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Such a pleasure to have lunch with Georg Raffelt today in Berkeley after the “Baha Balantekin and George Fuller Fest.” He is an inspiration and has been doing axion physics since well before it was cool 😎. Also very neat to hear stories about his time in Berkeley in the 80’s.
I had lots of fun today giving a blackboard talk at #kitp on “What is axion theory?” Any talk followed by surfing in the sunshine is a success 🏄♂️
January 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM
I had lots of fun today giving a blackboard talk at #kitp on “What is axion theory?” Any talk followed by surfing in the sunshine is a success 🏄♂️
Josh Ruderman doing a heroic job on the “Joy of Dark Matter” at KITP
January 10, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Josh Ruderman doing a heroic job on the “Joy of Dark Matter” at KITP
Less than 2 weeks ago we were hiking in Malibu and playing on the beach in Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica. Absolutely tragic to see what is happening down there and especially surreal being in Santa Barbara, which is so close but also feeling — for now — very normal.
January 10, 2025 at 5:40 AM
Less than 2 weeks ago we were hiking in Malibu and playing on the beach in Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica. Absolutely tragic to see what is happening down there and especially surreal being in Santa Barbara, which is so close but also feeling — for now — very normal.
We hosted Matt Baumgart today for our last seminar of the semester on his paper from yesterday, 2412.13192, on how to falsify string theory by finding higher-dimensional electroweak representations. It's reassuring to know the 9-plet is likely in the swampland :-)
December 19, 2024 at 12:52 AM
We hosted Matt Baumgart today for our last seminar of the semester on his paper from yesterday, 2412.13192, on how to falsify string theory by finding higher-dimensional electroweak representations. It's reassuring to know the 9-plet is likely in the swampland :-)
One of the best parts of my day: mornings working outside on my office balcony. This is unique but very cool aspect of our BCTP office space.
December 10, 2024 at 5:22 PM
One of the best parts of my day: mornings working outside on my office balcony. This is unique but very cool aspect of our BCTP office space.
Fun having Peter Graham visiting from Stanford today to tell us about constraining the DM power spectrum through the dynamical heating of stars in dwarf galaxies by sub halos. Also he brought out our biggest BCTP speaker dinner of the semester with around 14 people!
December 5, 2024 at 4:46 AM
Fun having Peter Graham visiting from Stanford today to tell us about constraining the DM power spectrum through the dynamical heating of stars in dwarf galaxies by sub halos. Also he brought out our biggest BCTP speaker dinner of the semester with around 14 people!
Had a nice visit to UW today for a particle theory seminar on astrophysical signatures of axions and axion cosmology sims. It’s a beautiful place with a great group!
December 4, 2024 at 1:47 AM
Had a nice visit to UW today for a particle theory seminar on astrophysical signatures of axions and axion cosmology sims. It’s a beautiful place with a great group!