Research


For all your days, prepare,

And meet them ever alike.

When you are the anvil - Bear,

When you are the hammer - Strike.

What do I do?

I work on the time-series analysis of radio frequency pulsar data. 


Pulsars: These are spinning neutron stars whose magnetic pole passes through our line of sight every once in a while. Pulsars are formed when a star, much heavier(8-20 times) than our sun explodes. With impeccable periodicity, these are often called astronomical clocks. BUT we don't know how they emit!

With the data I get at radio frequencies, I study the emission of pulsar and try to deduce new science.

A pulsar rotating along it's rotation axis with light beams emanating from either of its magnetic poles.

Credits: M. Kramer

In more technical terms ...

I study single pulse emission from  a variety of pulsars using numerous pulsar emission models. Recently I've got some wonderful pulsar data from uGMRT (upgraded-Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope, Pune, India) and MWA (Murchison Widefield Array, Western Australia).  

I'll be writing about it in more details after I publish my research.

Publications

Revisiting the sub-pulse drifting phenomenon in PSR J1822-2256: Drift Modes, Sparks, and Emission Heights

In this work, we studied the subpulse drifting phenomenon in the pulsar J1822-2256.  In this phenomenon, systematic shifts are observed in the pulse phases of substructures within the main pulse, which shows as slanted drift bands when the pulses are stacked together. With our analysis, we found multiple drifting modes in this pulsar and calculated the emission heights for each of the modes. Click here to read the full publication. 

Single -pulse analysis and average emission characteristics of PSR J1820-0427 from observations made with the MWA and uGMRT

This paper explores the pulse-to-pulse variability in the pulsar J1820-0427. Pulsars are extremely precise clocks from which we observe radiation at equal intervals. This radiation is an (approximately) direct measure of the plasma activity in the pulsar magnetosphere. Therefore, studying single pulses provides an instantaneous window into the dynamic pulsar magnetosphere. However, given that pulsars are not bright sources, it is difficult to observe every single pulse. In this work, we observed the pulsar J1820-0427 with an impeccable signal-to-noise ratio of ~100. To find out what pulsar emission physics we unravelled from the seemingly random data, click here to read the full publication. 

PSR J0026-1955: A curious case of evolutionary subpulse drifting and nulling

Subpulse drifting is a well-known phenomenon in long-period pulsars; however, the physics behind it is debated. In this paper, we have studied the newly discovered pulsar J0026-1955 with the uGMRT for the first time and found the extremely rare phenomenon of evolutionary subpulse drifting. The figure shows how the drift rate globally evolves over time in a drift sequence while also exhibiting local variabilities. In addition to this, the pulsar also shows drift memory across nulls, another rare phenomenon with great implications. To read the full publication, click here.

Observing Proposals

Conferences and Workshops

Talks

Keep checking this website to know more about my ongoing/published work.