Third year
What group are you in?
Randeria Group
Kolkata, India
The phenomenon of superconductivity fascinates me. One might ask what’s new in that as people have been studying it since 1911. New platforms like flat band and topological superconductors present a host of new possibilities. In flat band materials like twisted bilayer graphene, kinetic energy of electrons is almost entirely quenched, and the physics is dominated by interactions, giving rise to a plethora of exotic quantum phases of matter including superconductivity. On the other hand, topological superconductors can host charge neutral Majorana zero modes which can be used to do quantum computation. As a theorist I try to understand these new platforms and phases of matter and predict new outcomes.
I haven’t yet done anything to be proud of. Recently we have come up with a connection between pairing symmetry, which is one of the most fundamental characterizations of a superconductor, and the topological properties that it might have. This mathematical connection might help us learn about the pairing symmetry when some topological property is observed in an experiment. I also feel rather good about the work that I did for my masters’ thesis where we showed how an impurity inside a “quantum droplet” of a Bose-Einstein condensate would form a bound state.
I am a music enthusiast and have been part of an organization that promoted Indian classical music among young people by hosting concerts by eminent musicians which students could attend for free. It was overwhelming to see how people developed keen interest and deep love for this genre once they were exposed to it. For some of these people it has even been a life changing experience. I am proud to have been a part of something that had such a positive influence on people.
Really long-term goal would be to contribute to some meaningful research. A decent short-term goal would be to graduate. Everything else lies in between!