New Members

New members in the Theory group

October 8, 2025

Theory Division

Saarik Kalia and Pablo Sesma joined the Theory group at IFAE

S.Kalia

Saarik Kalia received his PhD in Physics from Stanford University and completed his first postdoctoral position at the University of Minnesota. He has now joined the GravNet collaboration at IFAE for his second postdoc. His research primarily focuses on ultralight dark matter detection, particularly through the use of quantum sensing techniques, and he is also interested in various aspects of early Universe cosmology.

P.Sesma

Pablo Sesma completed his PhD at Université Paris-Saclay and IPhT Saclay under the supervision of R. T. D’Agnolo, where he developed cosmology-based approaches to longstanding particle physics problems, including the weak scale hierarchy problem, the strong CP problem, and the doublet–triplet splitting problem in grand unified theories. His work also explored axion physics and non-perturbative phenomena in gauge theories. His current research uses cosmological dynamics to address additional questions in particle physics and applies ideas from generalized symmetries to concrete issues in particle physics phenomenology, such as the confining dynamics of QCD and QCD-like theories. He is joining Alex Pomarol’s group as a Postdoc.

Welcome Saarik and Pablo!

Latest Group News

Publication

A new approach to searching for ultraheavy dark matter

September 9, 2026

The study “First Search for Ultraheavy Dark Matter Using a Magnetically Levitated Particle” , co-authored by IFAE researcher Dorian Amaral and collaborators, explores a new experimental approach to probing interactions of ultraheavy dark matter. The work has been reported on Phys.org

New publication

New Theory Group paper on gravitational-wave detection

February 13, 2026

Covariant eigenmode overlap formalism for gravitational wave signals in electromagnetic cavities

New Member

New member in the Theory Group

January 22, 2026

Antonio Rivera joined the Theory group at IFAE as a PhD student