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: How did the universe first get populated with particles during the hot big bang (reheating after inflation)? What is the nature of dark matter (with focus on axions, vector and higher spin dark matter)? Can we probe the intrinsic spin of dark matter from astrophysics? 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 [recent Solar Eclipse Talk, 2024 ] (slides)

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.

Academic History

  • 2021-              Associate Professor (with tenure) 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]

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)
  • Hong-Yi Zhang (Rice U., 2019 -- postdoc@La Sapienza, U of Rome)
  • Kaloian Lozanov (U. of Cambridge, 2013-17, currently postdoc at IPMU, Japan)
  • Postdocs:
  • Dr. Mudit Jain (Rice U., 2020-present --> postdoc@Kings College London 2023)
  • Dr. Enrico Schiappacase (Rice U, 2022-23 --> faculty(non-ternuretrack) at Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences, Chile)
  • Dr. Marcos Garcia (Fall 2016 -19 --> faculty @UNAM, Mexico)
  • Dr. Zong-Gang Mou (Rice U., visitor for 2020 --> postdoc@U of Southhampton, UK)
  • Undergraduate Students:
  • Current: Benjamin Schussler, Wisha Wanichwecharungruang, Jonathan Thomas
  • Past: Anamitra Paul (--> UT Austin), Rohith Karur (--> UC Berkeley), Tim Skaras (--> Oxford), Alex Wikner (--> U. of Maryland), Scott Carleston (--> Princeton), Osmond Wen (--> Caltech)
Theoretical Cosmology and Particle Physics Group@Rice
at Cooking Girl
HongYi’s farewell
Scott Carlsten, Osmond Wen & Kaloian Lozanov in my office
end of summer presentations
end of summer presentations
end of summer presentations
Dr. Marcos Garcia
Dr. Zong-Gang Mou
Dr. Mudit Jain
Enrico Schiappacasse
authors of the kinetic nucleation paper
Dr. HongYi Zhang
Anamitra Paul
at lunch: Mudit Jain, Mustafa Amin, Andrew Long, Siyang Ling, HongYi Zhang
Wisha Wanichwecharungruang
Jonathan Thomas
Ray Hagimoto
Rohith Karur
Benjamin Schussler
at Flowers and Cream
at Flowers and Cream

Talks

Here is where have been giving talks in the recent past (2023-24 only), and will be doing so in the near future:
  • MIT/Tufts Cosmology Seminar, Oct 2024
  • Trottier Space Institute, McGill U, Oct 2024
  • USC Colloquium, Sept 2024
  • IISc Begaluru, India July 2024
  • RRI Begaluru, India July 2024
  • MIAPbP, Germany, June 2024
  • U of Cambridge, UK June 2024
  • QuarkNet, Houston June 2024
  • KITP, Santa Barbara, June 2024
  • CASCA-Tornonto, June 2024
  • Perimeter Institute, June 2024
  • Mitchell Conference, May 2024
  • Stanford University, Jan 26, 2024
  • University of Oregon, Jan 25, 2024
  • MEPA 2023, Beiging, Oct 21, 2023
  • Columbia U, Oct 16, 2023
  • Brookhaven National Labs, Aug 3, 2023
  • Tohoku U, Japan, June 19, 2023
  • QUP & KEK, Japan, June 16, 2023
  • RIKEN iTHEMS, Japan, June 15, 2023
  • IPMU, Japan, June 14, 2023
  • Simons Center (After Inflation Workshop), Stony Brook, June 6, 2023
  • University of Chicago, KICP colloquium Oct 5, 2022
  • ICTP Trieste, Italy, July 7, 2022 (video part 1, and part 2)

Here are the slides from some selected recent talks.

  • A Lower Bound on Dark Matter Mass, Stanford University (2024) (download)
  • A Spin on Wave Dark Matter, IPMU/KEK/QUP/iThems/Tohoku (2023) (download)
  • A Lower Bound on Dark Matter Mass +, Simons Center, Stony Brook (2023) (download)
  • A Spin on Wave Dark Matter, U of Toronto (2023) (download)
  • A Spin on Wave Dark Matter, KICP Colloquium, University of Chicago (2022)
  • 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]
  • Light's Straight Path (2024), slides [public talk]
There are some videos of public talks on YouTube too. See for example, Origins, Light's Straight Path, 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 413/513 (2023)
ASTR 452 (2023)
ASTR 452 (2022)
PHYS 111 (2021)
PHYS 111 (2021)
PHYS 111 (2021)
PHYS 622 (2019)
ASTR 452 (2018)
ASTR 452-2018
PHYS 622 (2018)
KAST Pokhara, Nepal (2019)
ASTR 452 (2016)
PHYS 622 (2016)
AIMS South Africa (2014)
AIMS Senegal (2013)

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.