RESEARCH INTERESTS

A brief summary of my research areas is enclosed below.

ASTROBIOLOGY

Over the past few years, most of my work has been in the realm of astrobiology. Broadly speaking, I am interested in exploring and modeling the (astro)physical and chemical constraints on the habitability of planets and moons.

In addition to the existence of liquid water and organic compounds, life-as-we-know-it requires free energy flows and nutrients. Thus, much of my work has been devoted to analyzing how putative organisms and ecosystems are constrained by the available fluxes of these resources. For example, I have explored whether "ocean planets" (with no landmasses) or icy moons (e.g., Europa) have adequate access to limiting nutrients such as phosphorus. I have also investigated how the incident flux of visible photons derived from host stars governs the propensity of planets & moons to sustain photosynthetic biospheres, accumulate molecular oxygen in the atmosphere, and thereby potentially pave the way for the emergence of complex multicellular life.

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Another major component of my research concerns the influence of stellar properties on exoplanetary habitability. Stars emit electromagnetic radiation, high-energy charged particles, and stellar winds. Each of these processes govern essential aspects of planetary habitability such as the presence of an atmosphere and oceans, the levels of atmospheric oxygen and ozone, the doses of radiation reaching the surface, etc. On account of these reasons, my collaborators and I have undertaken some research on star-planet interactions and their ramifications for habitability.

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In recent times, I have begun studying how dynamical processes may shape the distribution of life across the Galaxy either via suppressing habitability on the one hand or amplifying the number of inhabited planets via lithopanspermia (transfer of life by rocky ejecta) on the other. I am also interested in the search for technosignatures (i.e., markers of technological intelligence) as it opens up alternative avenues for detecting extraterrestrial life and arguably constitutes a high-risk, high-reward venture.

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SPACE AND ASTROPHYSICAL PLASMAS

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With my collaborators, I have worked on developing models of magnetic reconnection; the latter entails changes in magnetic field topology and the release of magnetic energy. In particular, I am intrigued by how fast magnetic reconnection mediated by a dynamical instability (the plasmoid instability) may serve to explain explosive phenomena such as solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and relativistic jets.

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In addition, we have undertaken some research on turbulence in the solar wind across multiple scales, the generation of large-scale magnetic fields via the dynamo mechanism, and the interplay of magnetic reconnection and turbulence.

BASIC PLASMA PHYSICS

My Ph. D. dissertation focused on elucidating Hamiltonian and Lagrangian methods for plasma fluid models as well as mathematically modeling dissipation using a dynamical systems approach.

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In developing plasma models via the kinetic approach, it is essential to self-consistently account for the effect of two-particle Coulomb collisions. To this end, my collaborators and I have formulated multi-moment models that include collisional effects (e.g., non-linear plasma resistivity), the latter of which have also been used in numerical simulations.