Sushan Konar
Visiting Scientist
National Centre for Radio Astrophysics
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Savitribai Phule Pune University Campus,
Pune 411 007
Maharashtra, INDIA
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Savitribai Phule Pune University Campus,
Pune 411 007
Maharashtra, INDIA
Status: Left
Main Research Areas: Magnetic fields; Neutron Stars.
Biography:
Sushan Konar did her B.Sc. (Hons.) in Physics at Presidency College, Calcutta, in 1986, and then her M.Sc. in Physics at the Indian Insitute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1989. She joined the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for her doctoral studies, obtaining her Ph.D. degree in 1998. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, between 1998 and 2002, she joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, as an Assistant Professor, working there from 2002 to 20 07. She was a long-term visitor at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, in 2007-2008, and then joined the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, as a Visiting Scientist in 2008. She moved to the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics as a Visiting Scientist in 2012.Research description:
It is close to half a century since the first detection of a neutron star, in the form of a radio pulsar. Thanks to the technological advancements some 2000+ neutron stars have now been detected with emission spanning almost the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum. And we are faced with the task of making sense of a large number of disparate observational classes of neutron stars. The magnetic field, ranging from 108 G to 1015 G is central to this challenge. It plays an important role in determining the evolution of the spin, the radiative properties and the interaction of a neutrons star with its surrounding medium. Consequently, it is the evolution of the magnetic field which links these classes. Some of the evolutionary pathways have now become well established through decades of investigation. For example, the connection between the ordinary radio pulsars with their millisecond cousins via binary processing is an established paradigm. On the other hand, a theory of magneto-thermal evolution in neutron stars is being developed only in the last few years to understand the connection between different types of isolated neutron stars. My current research activity focuses entirely upon investigating various aspects of such evolutionary processes linking different classes of neutron stars.Selected publications:
1. Magnetic Fields of Neutron Stars (Konar S. 2017, JoAA, 38, 47) 2. Gravitational waves from surface inhomogeneities of neutron stars (Konar, S., Mukherjee, D., Bhattacharya, D. & Sarkar, P. 2016, Phys. Rev. D, 94, 4036) 3. Strong constraints on magnetized white dwarfs surpassing the Chandrasekhar mass limit (Nityananda, R. & Konar S. 2014, Phys. Rev. D, 89, 3017) 4. The magnetic fields of millisecond pulsars in globular clusters (Konar, S. 2010, MNRAS, 409, 259) 5. Diamagnetic screening of the magnetic field in accreting neutron stars - II. The effect of polar cap widening (Konar, S. & Chaudhuri, A. R. 2004, MNRAS, 348, 461) 6. Diamagnetic screening of the magnetic field in accreting neutron stars (Chaudhuri, A. R. & Konar, S. 2002, MNRAS, 332, 933) 7. Faraday effect: A field theoretical point of view (Ganguly, A.K., Konar, S. & Pal, P.B. 1999, Phys. Rev. D, 60, 105014) 8. Evolution of the multipolar magnetic field in isolated neutron stars (Mitra, D., Konar, S. & Bhattacharya, D. 1999, MNRAS, 307, 459) 9. Magnetic field evolution of accreting neutron stars - II (Konar, S. & Bhattacharya, D. 1999, MNRAS, 303, 588) 10. Magnetic field evolution of accreting neutron stars (Konar, S. & Bhattacharya, D. 1997, MNRAS, 284, 311)
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