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Mainak Mukhopadhyay

Mainak Mukhopadhyay — Postdoctoral Scholar — Postdoc — Former Member
Office: 320L Osmond Laboratory
Address: 104 Davey Laboratory University Park, PA 16802 US
mkm7190@psu.edu
Mainak Mukhopadhyay
Astronomy Physics Gravitational Waves Multimessenger Astrophysics Neutrinos CMA

Hello! I am a Postdoctoral scholar in the Physics department at Penn State. I completed my Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Arizona State University in 2022, with Cecilia Lunardini, where I worked on multi­-messenger astronomy, neu­trino physics, phenomenology of astrophysical neutrinos, and gravitational waves (GWs). During my Ph.D. I also worked on cosmology, field theory and topological defects with Tanmay Vachaspati. I completed my undergrad (Bachelor of Science - Physics (Honors)) at St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi in 2018. My current research interests include investigation into multi-messenger aspects of astrophysical neutrino sources such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, tidal disruption events, and related physics beyond the Standard Model, including heavy dark matter. I am also interested in quantum fields in time- and space-dependent background. Please visit https://sites.google.com/asu.edu/mainakm for links to my CV, other professional links, and details of my work.

ORCID: 0000-0002-2109-5315

Publications
  1. Mainak Mukhopadhyay, Zidu Lin, Cecilia Lunardini “Memory-triggered supernova neutrino detection.” Phys. Rev. D 106 4 (2022) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.106.043020
  2. Mainak Mukhopadhyay, Evangelos Sfakianakis, Tanmay Vachaspati, George Zahariade “Kink-antikink scattering in a quantum vacuum.” JHEP 04 (2022) doi:10.1007/JHEP04(2022)118
  3. Mainak Mukhopadhyay, Carlos Cardona, Cecilia Lunardini “The neutrino gravitational memory from a core collapse supernova: phenomenology and physics potential.” JCAP 07 (2021) doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2021/07/055
  4. Mainak Mukhopadhyay, Tanmay Vachaspati, George Zahariade “Quantum Formation of Topological Defects.” Phys. Rev. D 102 11 (2020) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.102.116002
  5. Mainak Mukhopadhyay, Cecilia Lunardini, F. Timmes, Kai Zuber “Presupernova neutrinos: directional sensitivity and prospects for progenitor identification.” Astrophys. J. 899 2 (2020) doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab99a6
  6. Mainak Mukhopadhyay, Tanmay Vachaspati, George Zahariade “Emergence of classical structures from the quantum vacuum.” Phys. Rev. D 102 5 (2020) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.102.056021
  7. Mainak Mukhopadhyay, Tanmay Vachaspati “Rolling classical scalar field in a linear potential coupled to a quantum field.” Phys. Rev. D 100 9 (2019) doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.100.096018
About our wordmark
Monica Rincon Ramirez

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez while she was a graduate student at the Institute. Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work included general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds; her thesis focused on effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope of research at the IGC. The base represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity — approaches studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle shows galaxies embedded in a smooth surface characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the larger physical scales studied at the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology. The top curves to an extreme representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet, with a binary black hole pair nearby — the high-energy phenomena studied at the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics.