Research

I am an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University in Houston, Texas (USA).

I want to understand the origin of structure and matter in our cosmos. Some questions that interest me include: (i) How did the universe first get populated with particles during the hot big bang (reheating after inflation)? (ii) What is the nature of dark matter (especially, in regards to its spin)? My expertise lies in exploring the nonlinear dynamics of cosmological fields — both in the context of the early universe and the contemporary universe. On the mathematical side, I am fascinated by solitons, their interactions and their relevance to cosmology. I have also delved into problems related to understanding aspects of Hubble tension, dark energy, gravitational waves, CMB spectral distortions, black hole accretion discs and exoplanets.

I tend to get really excited about teaching and public outreach.

Publications

My detailed CV can be found here (download). You can find most of my publications here: Inspire-HEP and NASA(ADS)

Here are one-slide visual summaries of some of my recent publications.

 

My Group at Rice (past and present)

Information about the larger Relativisitic Astro-particle physics and Cosmology Group at Rice can be found here. My own group (which has significant overlap with Prof. Andrew Long‘s group) includes

  • Graduate Students: Ray Hagimoto (Rice U., 2020-present) Hongyi Zhang (Rice U., 2019 — present), Kaloian Lozanov (U. of Cambridge, 2013-2017)
  • Postdocs: Dr. Enrico Schiappacase (Rice U, 2022-), Dr. Zong-Gang Mou (Rice U., 2020), Dr. Mudit Jain (Rice U., 2020-present), Dr. Marcos Garcia (Fall 2016 – 2019)
  • Undergraduate Students: Benjamin Schussler (Rice U), Wisha Wanichwecharungruang (Rice U), Jonathan Thomas (Rice U), Anamitra Paul (–> UT Austin), Rohith Karur (–> UC Berkeley), Tim Skaras (–> Oxford), Alex Wikner (–> U. of Maryland), Scott Carleston (–> Princeton), Osmond Wen (–> Caltech)
Scott Carlsten, Osmond Wen & Kaloian Lozanov in my office
end of summer presentations
end of summer presentations
end of summer presentations
Dr. Marcos Garcia
HongYi Zhang
Anamitra Paul
Dr. Mudit Jain
Dr. Zong-Gang Mou
group dinner
in the 3rd floor lounge
at lunch
Wisha Wanichwecharungruang
Jonathan Thomas
Ray Hagimoto
Rohith Karur
Enrico Schiappacasse
Benjamin Schussler
Mudit & Brandon’s going away dinner/icecream
Mudit & Brandon’s going away dinner/icecream

Talks

Here is where have been giving talks in the recent past (2022-23 only), and will be doing so in the near future:

  • University of Toronto, Feb 27, 2023
  • Southern Methodist University (TACOS workshop), Oct 11, 2022
  • University of Chicago, KICP colloquium Oct 5, 2022
  • ISSI Game Changer Seminars (virtual), Sept 29
  • UNAM, Mexic Sept 9, 2022
  • ICTP Trieste, Italy, July 7, 2022 (video part 1, and part 2)
  • University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, June 26, 2022
  • University of Manchester, United Kingdom, June 24, 2022
  • University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, June 20, 2022
  • Physics of the Early Universe Workshop (virtual), June 15, 2022
  • Physics of this Universe Workshop, Johns Hopkins U., May 30, 2022
  • Carnegie Mellon University, May 16, 2022
  • Max Planck Institute, Garching, Germany, May 10, 2022
  • Mega Dark Matter Workshop, Mainz, Germany, May 4, 2022
  • Inflation Bethe Forum, Bonn, Germany, April 4, 2022
  • University of Helsinki (virtual), March 23, 2022

Here are the slides from some selected recent talks.

  • A Spin on Wave Dark Matter, U of Toronto (2023) [download]
  • A Spin on Wave Dark Matter, KICP Colloquium, University of Chicago (2022) [download]
  • Small Scale Structure in Vector Dark Matter, ICTP, Trieste, Italy (2022) (download)
  • Small Scale Structure in Vector Dark Matter, DAMTP, Cambridge, UK (2022) (download)
  • A Spin on Wave Dark Matter ICHEP 21, Iran (download)
  • Inflation Ends, What’s Next, COSMO 21′, UIUC Plenary Talks (download)
  • Light from Dark Solitons (download), IPM Iran 2021 or UC Santa Cruz (download)
  • Smashing Solitons of Cosmology, Rice University Colloquium (video)
  • Smashing Solitons of Cosmology (download) MIT Pappalardo Lunch Talk 2020
  • A Complex Early Universe (download) Joint MIT/Tufts Cosmology Seminar 2020
  • The Violent Cosmic History of the Higgs (download) Joint Rice/IIT Kanpur Seminar 2020
  • Nonlinear Dynamics After Inflation (download) Cosmic Controversies Conference, U of Chicago 2019
  • Gravitational Aspects of Oscillons in Cosmology (download) Cosmic SITP Colloquium at Stanford University 2019
  • From Wires to Cosmology: Stochastic Particle Production in the Early Universe (download) Seminar at University of Pennsylvenia 2018
  • Cosmological Dynamics of Higgs Fine Tuning (download) Invited short talk at PASCOS 2018
  • Inflation Ends, What’s Next ? (download) Colloquium at the University of Texas at Dallas 2017
  • When Neutron Stars Collide (download) Informal talk at Rice about the first neutron star merger 2017
  • Inflation Ends, What’s Next ? (download) Short talk at MIT celebrating Alan Guth’s 70th birthday 2017
  • Nonlinear Dynamics of Cosmological Scalar Fields (download) Talk at the Post-Inflationary Workshop in Bologna, Italy 2017
  • How did the Hot Big Bang Begin ? (2016): slides
  • Wires to Cosmology (2016) slides.
  • Seeing the Invisible: Dark Matter and Dark Energy (2016): slides [public talk]

There are some videos of public talks on YouTube too. See for example, Origins, or Seeing the Invisible.

Teaching

I am currently teaching Galaxies and Cosmology at Rice which is taken by senior undergrads as well as graduate students. In the recent past, I have taught Honors Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory.  My past experience can be found here

PHYS 622 (2018)
ASTR 452 (2018)
PHYS 622
KAST Pokhara, Nepal (2019)
ASTR 452 (2016)
PHYS 622 (2016)
AIMS South Africa (2014)
AIMS Senegal (2013)
ASTR 452-2018
ASTR 452 (2023)
PHYS 111 (2021)
PHYS 111 (2021)
ASTR 452 (2022)
PHYS 111 (2021)

Academic History

  • 2021-              Associate Professor at Rice University
  • 2015-2021     Assistant Professor at Rice University
  • 2012-2015     Senior Kavli Fellow at the University of Cambridge
  • 2011-2012     Postdoctoral fellow at MIT
  • 2008-2011     Pappalardo Fellow at MIT
  • 2003-2008     Ph.D in Physics from Stanford University [Phd Advisors: Profs. Roger Blandford and Bob Wagoner]
  • 1999-2003     Bachelors in Physics and Mathematics UT Arlington [mentors: Profs. Kaushik De, Zdislaw Musielak, Barbara Shipman]

Recent Workshop: CAP@RICE

We recently held a workshop on Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics at Rice. You can see slides from talks and such here.