What is the Universe made of?
What is the nature of dark matter?
What lies beyond the Standard Model?
My research seeks the answers at the most powerful particle collider we’ve built — the Large Hadron Collider.
Particle Physicist
Credit: Sam Mackenzie Armstrong
Research
Precision physics
Can we break the Standard Model?
Our most successful theory is astoundingly accurate, but precision measurements may expose cracks that point to new physics.
Dark Matter
Quantum computing
Can quantum computers accelerate discovery? Poised to be transformative, quantum computers may help tackle the most challenging problems in particle physics.
What is the nature of dark matter?
This invisible substance accounts for a quarter of the Universe, yet its true identity remains one of science’s greatest mysteries.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE
(and our place in it)
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE (and our place in it) takes us on a journey through the many discoveries that have overturned what we know and forced us to rewrite the story of the universe and our place in it.
“Sarah Alam Malik’s book was a thrilling reminder of how much we know about the universe and what a marvelous journey it has been to discover it….this is a sweeping tour of the laws of physics, the scope of the universe, and the place of life within it.”
— Sean M. Carroll
“A bold and fast-paced history of the cosmos from Babylon to life beyond Earth. Sarah Alam Malik captures the wonder and mystery of life in the Universe in a style reminiscent of Carl Sagan”
— Jeff Forshaw
Publications
Quantum Computing
LArTPC hit-based topology classification with quantum machine learning and symmetry, Callum Duffy, Marcin Jastrzebski, Stefano Vergani, Leigh H. Whitehead, Ryan Cross, Andrew Blake, Sarah Malik, John Marshall (2025).
Unsupervised Beyond-Standard-Model Event Discovery at the LHC with a Novel Quantum Autoencoder, Callum Duffy, Mohammad Hassanshah, Marcin Jastrzebski, Sarah Malik (2024), Quantum Machine Intelligence 7 (2025) 1, 41
A quantum-enhanced support vector machine for galaxy classification, Mohammad Hassan Hassanshahi, Marcin Jastrzebski, Sarah Malik, Ofer Lahav (2023), RAS Tech.Instrum. 2 (2023) 1, 752-759
Reconstructing charged particle track segments with a quantum-enhanced support vector machine, Philippa Duckett, Gabriel Facini, Marcin Jastrzebski, Sarah Malik, Sebastien Rettie and Tim Scanlon, arXiv:2212.07279,Phys.Rev.D 109 (2024) 5, 052002
Quantum walks for simulating parton showers, Sarah Malik, Nature Reviews Physics (2022), https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00528-1.
A quantum walk approach to parton showers,
S. Williams, S. Malik, M. Spannowsky, K. Bepari, arxiv: 2109.13975, Phys. Rev. D 106, 056002 (2022).Towards a Quantum Computing Algorithm for Helicity Amplitudes and Parton Showers,
K. Bepari, S. Malik, M. Spannowsky, S. Williams, arxiv:2010.00046, Phys. Rev. D 103, 076020 (2021).
Dark matter
Interplay and Characterization of Dark Matter Searches at Colliders and in Direct Detection Experiments,
S. Malik et. al., Physics of the Dark Universe, 10.1016/j.dark.2015.03.003.Characterising dark matter searches at colliders and direct detection experiments: Vector mediators,
Oliver Buchmueller, Matthew J. Dolan, Sarah A. Malik, and Christopher McCabe, arXiv:1407.8257, JHEP 01 (2015) 037,Constraining Dark Matter Interactions with Pseudoscalar and Scalar Mediators Using Collider Searches for Multi-jets plus Missing Transverse Energy,
Oliver Buchmueller, Sarah A. Malik, Christopher McCabe, Bjoern Penning, arXiv:1505.07826, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 181802 (2015)Search for dark matter and large extra dimensions in monojet events in pp collisions at 7 TeV, CMS Collaboration, arXiv:1206.5663; JHEP 09 (2012) 094
Search for dark matter, extra dimensions, and unparticles in monojet events in proton–proton collisions at 8 TeV, CMS Collaboration, Eur. Phys. J. C 75 (2015) 5, 235, CMS-EXO-12-048
Search for New Physics with a Monojet and Missing Transverse Energy in pp collisions at 7 TeV, CMS Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 201804 (2011)
Dark Matter Benchmark Models for Early LHC Run-2 Searches: Report of the ATLAS/CMS Dark Matter Forum, Abercrombie et. al., arXiv:1507.00966, Phys. Dark Univ. 26 (2019) 100371
Recent talks
Sept 2023 “Quantum computing for reconstructing particle trajectories and simulating parton showers“, talk at Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Seminar on Simulations of Quantum Field Theories.
Sept 2022 “Quantum computing for particle physics”, seminar as part of Joint UCLQ-NPL seminar series.
Mar 2022 “Quantum computing for simulating high energy collisions”, seminar given to QuantHEP Lisbon group.
Nov 2021 “Pushing the precision frontier of LHC physics with the measurement of the Z invisible width at CMS”, Nuclear and Particle Physics Colloquium at MIT
Apr 2021 Quantum Computing for simulating high energy collisions, University of Cambridge.
Jan 2021 Quantum Computing for High Energy Physics, seminar at High Energy Physics group, Warwick University.
Nov 2020 Quantum Computing for simulating high energy collisions, seminar at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Oct 2020 Quantum computing for High Energy Physics, seminar at University College London
Jul 2020 Electroweak and QCD aspects in V+jets in CMS, talk given at ICHEP 2020 conference.
Jul 2019 Searching for dark matter with AION, talk at PASCOS 2019 International symposium, Manchester.
Jun 2018 Dark Matter at the LHC: Overview, Dark Matter 2018: From the Smallest to the Largest Scales, Santander.
Apr 2018 Beyond the Standard Model in Generators : CMS perspective, Monte Carlo for Beyond the Standard Model workshop, Durham.
Mar 2018 Probing QCD with EWK bosons, Standard Model at Large Hadron Collider workshop, Berlin.
Mar 2018 New directions in dijet searches, Dark Matter at the Large Hadron Collider workshop, Heidelberg.
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Jan 2017 Status of dark matter searches at colliders, DMUK meeting, London.
Apr 2012-Feb2017 Shedding light on dark matter, seminars given across institutions in US, Europe and UK: University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of California at Irvine, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Imperial College London, University of Southampton, University College London, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Sussex University, Nottingham University, University of Warwick.
Nov 2016 “Dark matter searches at colliders“, Dark Matter from aeV to ZeV: 3rd IBS-MultiDark-IPPP Workshop, Durham, UK.
Mar 2016 “Dark Matter Forum summary“, Dark Matter at the Large Hadron Collider 2016, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Sept 2014 “Status, prospects, and interpretation of dark matter searches at the LHC“, Physics Challenges in the face of LHC-14, Madrid, Spain.
June 2014 “DM searches at LHC“, Dark Matter UK meeting, IPPP, Durham, UK.
Sept 2013 “Search for dark matter using monojet events at 8 TeV“, Dark Matter at the LHC, University of Chicago/KICP, Chicago, USA.
May 2013 “Theoretical motivations for measuring the ratios of W and Z cross sections at large boson transverse momentum“, Phenomenology symposium 2013, Pittsburgh, USA.
May 2013 “Searches for new physics with leptons and photons“, Phenomenology symposium 2013, Pittsburgh, USA.
May 2013 “Theoretical Motivations for W/Z ratio at large boson transverse momentum“, Brookhaven Forum 2013, BNL, NY, USA.
July 2012 “CMS physics results“, 8th Patras workshop on Axions, Wimps and Wisps, Chicago, USA.
July 2012 “Search for the pair production of dark matter particles at CMS“, ICHEP, Melbourne, Australia.
June 2012 Lectures on “Beyond the Standard Model Physics at the LHC” at the 37th International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs, Nathiagali, Pakistan.
May 2012 “Search for dark matter in monojet and monophoton events at CMS“, USCMS 2012 meeting, Boulder, Colorado.
April 2012 “Dark Matter searches at colliders“, Chicagoland and Midwest Dark Matter Workshop, Fermilab, USA.
March 2012 “Search for Dark Matter at the LHC using Missing Transverse Energy“, Moriond Cosmology, La Thuile, Italy.
2011 “Search for New Physics with Mono-Jet and Missing Transverse Energy in 7 TeV pp collisions at CMS“, Division of Particles and Fields (DPF), Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
2008 “PDF Constraints from CDF“, Deep Inelastic Scattering, London, UK
2007 “W Mass and Width from the Tevatron“, Munich, Germany.
“Precision Measurement of the Width of the W Boson“, Institute of Physics conference, Guildford, UK