Sepehr Ebadi, Pappalardo Fellow

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Area of Physics

Experimental Nuclear & Particle Physics/Atomic Physics

Research Interests

The Standard Model, a triumph of physics in the twentieth century, fails to explain some cosmological observations such as the origin of dark matter or matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe, hence motivating a broad search for physics beyond the standard model. While the energy frontier directly studies high energy particles (e.g. LHC at CERN), the precision frontier aims to indirectly access the effects of heavy particles with smaller experiments. Sepehr is broadly interested in using techniques from the field of atomic, molecular, and optical physics, combined with recent advances in nuclear physics to push the experimental precision frontier in search for new physics.

At MIT, I aim to develop techniques for laser-cooling of molecules with heavy, deformed nuclei to dramatically increase the sensitivity of future physics searches and the study of so-far unexplored nuclear and particle physics with tabletop experiments. These molecules, for instance Radium Fluoride (RaF), benefit from large enhancements stemming from large intramolecular electric fields, and large intrinsic sensitivity of the nucleus to symmetry-violating moments. Once laser-cooled, a few ultracold molecules can act as a quantum sensor in search of physics at 100TeV scale.

Biographical Sketch

Sepehr was born in Iran, and later immigrated to Toronto, Canada where he finished high school. He then received his bachelor of engineering science (physics option) at University of Toronto. 

During his bachelor’s degree, he came to MIT for a professional experience year (PEY), working towards creating an ultracold gas of the lightest bi-alkali molecule. He later returned to Boston, where he obtained his PhD in physics from Harvard, working on quantum simulation and quantum information processing with neutral atom arrays.

Outside of physics, Sepehr is interested in phase transitions of complex organic matter in extreme environments — otherwise known as the science of cooking.

Selected Publications

• S. Ebadi, T. T. Wang, H. Levine, et. al.  Quantum phases of matter on a 256-atom programmable quantum simulator, Nature, volume 595, pages 227–232 (July 2021)
• S. Ebadi*, A. Keesling*, M. Cain*, et. al. Quantum Optimization of Maximum Independent Set using Rydberg Atom Arrays, Science Vol 376, Issue 6598, pp. 1209-1215 (May 2022)
• S. J. Evered$^$*, D. Bluvstein$^$*, M. Kalinowski$^$*, S. Ebadi, et. al., High-fidelity parallel entangling gates on a neutral atom quantum computer, Nature, volume 622, pages 268-272 (October 2023)
• T.M. Rvachov, H. Son, A. T. Sommer, S. Ebadi, J. J. Park, M. W. Zwierlein, W. Ketterle, A. O. Jamison, Long-Lived Ultracold Molecules with Electric and Magnetic Dipole Moments, Physical Review Letters 119, 143001 (October 2017)