(Current Contact Information) Email: mamin@stanford.edu Phone: 650.450.3589 Address: 2091 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306 Related Links: Mustafa Amin's Home Page Current Pappalardo Fellows Biographies Area of Physics: Theoretical Astrophysics

Research Interests

Mustafa Amin has a broad range of interests in theoretical astrophysics, gravitation and cosmology, ranging from astrophysical probes of dark matter to understanding the nature of gravity on cosmological scales.

His current interests include constructing a cosmological counterpart to the parameterized post-Newtonian framework developed for testing gravity on solar system scales. A parameterized, scale dependent framework will provide a valuable theoretical tool for comparing the consequences of different theories. For observers, it will provide a streamlined approach for constraining gravity/dark energy in a scale dependent manner.

With regard to the early universe, he is interested in understanding the era of explosive particle production after inflation: (p)reheating and its observational consequences.

In the past, he has worked on a variety of projects that include obtaining kinematical constraints on cosmic acceleration as well as exploring the existence of geometric patterns in black hole accretion discs. He has also worked on understanding the effect of a velocity dependent cross section on the annihilation signal for dark matter from the galactic center.

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Biographical Sketch

Mustafa was born in Surat, India. After moving to the U. S. in 1999, he received his undergraduate education in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Texas at Arlington (2003). He is currently in the final year of his Ph.D at Stanford University under Professors Roger Blandford and Robert Wagoner.

Along with research he enjoys painting and is passionate about teaching and public outreach.

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Selected Publications

M. A. Amin, T. Wizansky, Relativistic dark matter at the Galactic center, (submitted to Phys. Rev. D) [arXiv:0710.5517v1].

M. A. Amin, R. V. Wagoner, R. D. Blandford, A sub-horizon framework for testing the relationship between cosmological matter distribution and metric perturbations, (submitted to MNRAS) [arXiv:0708.1793v1].

D. Rapetti, S. Allen, M. Amin, R. D. Blandford, A kinematic approach to dark energy studies, MNRAS, 375:1510-1520, 2007 [arXiv:astro-ph/0605683v2].

M. A. Amin, A. Frolov, Persistent patterns in black hole accretion disks, MNRAS Lett. 370 : L42-L45, 2006 [arXiv:astro-ph/0603687v1].

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