Research Interests

The physics that keeps me up at night

A longer look at the problems I find most compelling — from the chromosphere of the Sun to the magnetosphere of Jupiter, and from neutron star interiors to the mathematics of curved spacetime.

01 — Current Research

Solar Wind & the
Jovian Magnetosphere

Jupiter hosts the largest magnetosphere in the solar system, shaped not only by its own rapid rotation and volcanic moon Io, but also by the ever-changing pressure of the solar wind. Understanding how these two drivers interact is central to planetary space weather.

[Write a short paragraph here about what you are doing at LIRA — bKOM radio emissions, Juno/Waves data, MMESH solar wind model, dynamic pressure as a proxy, the Cyclotron Maser Instability, Poynting flux scaling etc. This is where you describe the actual science in your own words.]

✦  This section is reserved for your detailed write-up. Replace the bracketed text above and below with your own description of the science. Keep it conversational but precise.
Open Questions
  • How exactly does the dynamic pressure of the solar wind modulate the occurrence rate and intensity of Jovian kilometric radiation (bKOM)?
  • What is the relative contribution of solar wind compression vs. rotational effects in triggering auroral radio emissions?
  • Can Juno/Waves in-situ measurements be used to directly calibrate solar wind propagation models like MMESH?
Jovian magnetosphere bKOM Solar wind Cyclotron Maser Instability Juno/Waves MMESH JSE coordinates Poynting flux
02 — Extension of Current Work

Exoplanetary
Magnetospheres

The same physical mechanisms that govern radio emission from Jupiter may be at work around planets orbiting distant stars. Detecting and characterising exoplanetary magnetic fields via radio emission is one of the most exciting frontiers in modern observational astrophysics.

[Write about the natural extension from Jovian radio physics to exoplanetary radio emission — star-planet interactions, the analogy between Jupiter-Io and hot Jupiter systems, what facilities like LOFAR and SKA are looking for, and what scaling laws (like Zarka 2007) predict for exoplanetary radio flux.]

Open Questions
  • Can the Jovian Poynting flux scaling law be reliably extended to predict radio emission from exoplanetary systems?
  • What stellar wind conditions are required to produce detectable radio emission from an Earth-like exoplanet?
  • How does a strong planetary magnetic field affect atmospheric retention and long-term habitability?
Exoplanets Star-planet interaction Radio emission LOFAR SKA Magnetic fields Habitability
03 — Computational Interest

MHD & Fluid Dynamics
Simulations

Magnetohydrodynamics is the language in which much of plasma astrophysics is written. From the convection zone of the Sun to the magnetotail of Jupiter, numerical MHD simulations are an indispensable tool for connecting theory to observation.

[Write about your hands-on experience with MHD simulations — Pencil Code for the spicule work, PLUTO from the IISc workshop, what you found interesting about each, what physical regimes they cover (compressible vs incompressible, resistive vs ideal MHD), and where you want to go with this.]

Open Questions
  • How do we correctly model the transition from the collisional solar interior to the collisionless solar wind in a single simulation framework?
  • What is the role of magnetic reconnection in heating the solar corona to millions of degrees?
  • How do turbulent MHD cascades behave in anisotropic, strongly magnetised plasmas like those found near compact objects?
MHD Pencil Code PLUTO Plasma instabilities Magnetic reconnection Turbulence Numerical methods
04 — Lead Author Work

Solar Spicules &
Chromospheric Dynamics

Spicules are needle-like jets of magnetised plasma that pepper the solar chromosphere at any given moment — ubiquitous, short-lived, and surprisingly poorly understood despite decades of observation. Their role in mass and energy transport between the photosphere and corona remains an open question.

[Describe your IIA internship work and the resulting ApJ paper. What was the key question — how does the imposed magnetic field strength affect spicule height, velocity, lifetime? What did you find — the scaling relations, which properties were most sensitive to field strength? What code did you use (Pencil Code) and at what resolution (16 km)?]

Open Questions
  • Do spicules carry enough energy flux to sustain coronal heating, or is their contribution marginal compared to wave-based mechanisms?
  • What is the precise physical trigger for type II spicules — ambipolar diffusion, torsional Alfvén waves, or something else?
  • How do spicule properties vary systematically across different magnetic regions of the Sun (active regions, quiet Sun, coronal holes)?
Solar spicules Chromosphere Radiative MHD Pencil Code Magnetoconvection Solar corona ApJ 973 49
05 — Compact Objects

Compact Stars & the
Buchdahl Limit

General relativity places a fundamental lower bound on the radius of a self-gravitating perfect fluid sphere — the Buchdahl limit at 9M/4. Objects approaching this limit represent some of the most extreme environments in the universe, sitting at the boundary between neutron stars and black holes.

[Describe your IUCAA internship — what you studied, what approach you used, what physically happens to a star as it approaches the Buchdahl limit, what your findings were. Who were your supervisors (Debarati Chatterjee, Naresh Dadhich) and how did this shape your interest in GR?]

Open Questions
  • Can a compact object exist stably arbitrarily close to the Buchdahl limit without crossing the event horizon?
  • What does the equation of state of ultra-dense nuclear matter actually look like — and can gravitational wave observations constrain it sufficiently?
  • Is there an observational signature that distinguishes a near-Buchdahl compact star from a black hole?
Compact stars Buchdahl limit General relativity TOV equation Neutron stars Gravitational waves Equation of state