Talks

Radio observations are essential for studying galaxy formation and evolution, yet analyzing low-frequency interferometric data is challenging due to radio frequency interference (RFI) contamination and other system issues. To streamline this process, we developed GARUDA, an automated pipeline for analyzing GMRT data, employing AI/ML-based algorithms for efficient RFI identification and artifact removal. GARUDA enables fast and consistent data reduction, handling ~10-12 GB GSB data in 20-30 minutes and ~400 GB GWB data in under three hours on standard servers. In this presentation, I will discuss GARUDA’s capabilities and showcase results, including some of the deepest GMRT radio continuum images at the L-band, HI emission in galaxies, and one of the most sensitive galactic HI absorption lines (using frequency switching observation with GWB).

Measurements of magnetic fields at the outskirts of galaxy clusters provide crucial insights into the evolution of cosmic magnetic fields. Radio relics are known to trace merger shocks in galaxy clusters propagating in the periphery of galaxy clusters. Many relics show a very high linear polarisation, which is puzzlingly aligned with the orientation of the relics. In this talk we will briefly review current research on radio relics and what these observations tell us about the structure and evolution of magnetic fields. We use Rotation Measure (RM) synthesis and QU fitting methods to spatially resolve the properties of the dominant components in Faraday space. I will show how these methods allow us to constrain the properties of the magnetic fields in the cluster outskirts through a combined analysis of Faraday depths and depolarisation.

In this talk, I will provide an update on the current status of the SKA Observatory, which is currently under construction. I will also describe the role of India in this project, and summarise the various activities going on in India, coordinated by the SKA India Consortium, towards India's participation in the SKAO.   

I will review few basic questions which can be addressed by future and present intensity mapping experiments in the post-reionization era. Most importantly: dark energy, neutrino masses and galaxy formation aspects.

Radio continuum emission is a highly promising tool for tracing star formation activity across cosmic time and environments, by virtue of being unbiased by dust and reaching high angular resolution in interferometric imaging. I will discuss recent results, but also some of the challenges associated with using GHz continuum surveys to characterize the evolution of the star-forming galaxy population from the final Gyr of the EoR to the present day.

It has been conjectured that the gravitational interaction may arise as an entropic force rather than as a result of virtual quanta exchange of a fundamental field. In this talk I will present a set of microscopic quantum models which realize this idea in detail. I will describe a simple mechanism by which Newton’s law of gravity arises from the extremization of the free energy of a collection of qubits. I will show both a local and non-local model version of the construction and discuss how to distinguish these entropic models from ordinary perturbative quantum gravity using existing observations and near term experiments. Based on 2502.17575 with Daniel Carney, Thilo Scharnhorst, Roshni Singh and Jacob M. Taylor.