Is it okay to talk about a topic you want to research in but haven't done anything beforehand in your sop? Background
I am writing my sop for PhD Admissions. (Currently an undergraduate)
I want to mention a prof's name because I am really interested in his research but the issue is that I don't have any published work (or pre-prints) in his specific domain of research. I just have one project with very minor novelty.
But, I do have some good work done (around 4 pre-prints, 2 good conference papers, a few good projects) which aligns with his domain in a broad sense.
To clarify,

Profs domain: self-supervised learning
Majority of my papers: Supervised learning

Both are under &quot;Deep Learning for computer vision&quot;. Self-supervised learning is category which falls under Supervised Learning.
My question: Would it be okay to mention that &quot;I want to work with him because I am highly interested in his field of work?&quot;
This should be fine, since you seem to have the necessary background if not the specific experience. This would be especially true if this is in the US, where there is a lot to do in most programs prior to starting serious dissertation research. It will be different elsewhere, of course.
Again, for the US, the professor may have little actual influence over your acceptance.