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 near-infrared 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 kilonovae: the optical counterparts of 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 led the student team that automated the telescope's operations. GIT is now a fully robotic telescope, thanks to the hard-working team of students and the very helpful mentors, 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.