Research

After joining the Berger group at Harvard, I developed an interest in superluminous supernovae, especially the hydrogen-poor ones.  Here at CFA | Harvard & Smithsonian, I am working to solve the mystery of bumps in their light curve. I am also trying to find traces of helium in their NIR spectra to answer the question of whether a star retaining helium prior to explosion can explode as a superluminous supernova. Please find my recent work on superluminous supernovae on the ADS link at the end of this page. 

Image Credit: BBC Science Focus Magazine

One of my primary science interests in astronomy is kilonova: the optical counterpart of the gravitational wave merger events. When compact objects merge, they produce detectable gravitational waves. If one of the objects is a neutron star, it also produces electromagnetic emission. With the help of this EM emission, especially the optical counterpart kilonova, I am trying to answer the long-standing mystery of the origin of heavy elements in the Universe. 

Image Credit: NASA.

Since my first year of PhD, I have been a part of the core team of GROWTH-India. During my second year, I worked on the data reduction pipeline of this telescope. In parallel, I was leading the student team that automated the operations of the telescope. GIT is now a fully robotic telescope, all thanks to the hard-working team of students and very helpful mentors in the form of Prof. Varun Bhalerao and Prof. G.C. Anupama. Please find detailed work on GIT automation and regular operations here.

Image Credit:  Subham Srivastava

Gamma-ray bursts are fascinating, powerful jets of high energy. These are some of the brightest events since the popular Big Bang. At IIT Bombay, I studied the optical afterglow of these events with the GROWTH-India Telescope. This work includes the rapid triggering of GIT on such events to get very early insights into such events and study their complex behavior. I discovered the most delayed time flaring from a Gamma-ray burst event to date. I am continuing the GRB research at Harvard University. The details of this work can be found here

Image Credit: NASA GSFC.