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Hi,

I am Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad Rather, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. I completed my Ph.D. in Nuclear Astrophysics at the Physics Department, Aligarh Muslim University (2022), under the supervision of Prof. A. A. Usmani. During my doctoral research, I focused on studying the Neutron Star Equation of State (EoS), exploring the impact of exotic degrees of freedom such as quarks and hyperons in the high-density regimes of neutron stars.

Following my Ph.D., I pursued my first postdoctoral position at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Lisbon, Portugal, where I worked on the strong magnetized EoS, investigating exotic phases. I also explored the inclusion of Delta baryons in neutron star EoS and analyzed the radial profiles and oscillations of compact objects, specifically from the intriguing mass-radius analysis of HESS J1731-347.

Currently, as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at Goethe University, I am focused on studying color-superconducting phases in neutron stars, such as the 2SC and CFL phases, using the RG-consistent NJL model. My research involves examining how these phases evolve with changes in various parameters and extending this study by simulating binary neutron star mergers to identify potential signatures of color superconductivity and phase transitions.

I am particularly interested in the hadron-quark phase transition, the influence of magnetic fields on the hadronic and hyperonic EoS, and how these factors affect properties of neutron star matter, such as mass, radius, and tidal deformability. I am also interested in how these properties satisfy the current astrophysical constraints from several measurements, such as LIGO/Virgo, NICER, etc. My ongoing research aims to investigate the neutron star EoS in the context of dark matter and its phase transitions.