{"693515":{"#nid":"693515","#data":{"type":"event","title":"AI for probing Dark Matter: Hierarchical World Models for Cosmology,\u00a0RL Agents for Experimental Signatures.","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIbrahim Elsharkawy is a PhD student at the University of Toronto and the Vector Institute, and a researcher affiliated with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u0027s\u0026nbsp;National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center\u0026nbsp;(NERSC). His research interests surround generative models for physical systems. How can such models be used as unique tools for physics discovery? Does learning a distribution of physical data imply learning the underlying physical laws? Can such models be constrained and interpretable by construction?\u0026nbsp; Can methods developed for interpretability for these physical models be applied to generative models?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThere are two routes to probe DM. The first involves purpose-built\u0026nbsp;experiments\u0026nbsp;that\u0026nbsp;assume dark matter\u0026nbsp;does indeed interact\u0026nbsp;non-gravitationally with the non-dark universe. The second treats gravity as the only probe. In this talk, we present two projects aligned with\u0026nbsp;each perspective.\u0026nbsp;In the first, we build hAIthem, a framework composed of a non-literature-biased RL agent that, when coupled to LLM swarms, is capable of proposing novel DM experimental signatures. In the second, we introduce Astrolabe, a hierarchical world model for cosmology, capable of cheaply simulating the structure of the universe across a large dynamic range of scales for many dark matter models, without\u0026nbsp;the need for\u0026nbsp;fine-tuning.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Dark Matter (DM) comprises a large fraction of the universe\u0027s energy density, yet its description remains a major open problem in the foundations of physics."}],"uid":"36562","created_gmt":"2026-10-27 14:35:13","changed_gmt":"2026-10-27 14:37:38","author":"tnevels9","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-11-12T15:30:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2026-11-12T16:30:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-11-12T16:30:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-11-12 20:30:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-11-12 21:30:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-11-12 21:30:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Molecular Science and Engineering Building, Room 3201 (courtesy Foundations of AI seminar series at CoC)","extras":[],"hg_media":{"681570":{"id":"681570","type":"image","title":"IMG_3826.jpg","body":null,"created":"1793111798","gmt_created":"2026-10-27 14:36:38","changed":"1793111798","gmt_changed":"2026-10-27 14:36:38","alt":"Ibrahim Elsharkawy","file":{"fid":"265991","name":"IMG_3826.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/27\/IMG_3826.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/27\/IMG_3826.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":161381,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/27\/IMG_3826.jpg?itok=QKUxKZfI"}}},"media_ids":["681570"],"groups":[{"id":"126011","name":"School of Physics"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"177814","name":"Postdoc"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}