Main Research Areas: Fast Radio Bursts; Pulsars; Deep Learning.
Biography:
Ajay did his B.Sc.(Hons.) in Physics from Ramjas College, University of Delhi. He then obtained an M.Sc. in Physics from IIT-Madras, Chennai. During his M.Sc., he was a VSRP student at NCRA-TIFR, working on the timing of millisecond pulsars with GMRT data. He joined NCRA-TIFR for his doctoral studies in July 2019, and is currently in the fifth year of his graduate studies. His research is primarily focused on understanding the enigmatic Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). He employs deep learning and other statistical techniques to gain insight into the origins of FRBs. He also uses the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope to study different observational properties of FRBs.
Research description:
Broadly my research interests are in understanding the nature of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) s and pulsars and gaining insights into their origins. Fast Radio Bursts are bright (~Jy) dispersed radio pulses originating far away from the Milky Way. Currently, FRBs are classified as one-off events and repeaters. A small fraction of FRBs are active repeaters, which emit bursts regularly. My research interests are particularly focused on studying these active repeaters and interesting non-repeating FRBs. My collaborators and I have used deep learning models trained by our simulated dataset to automate the classification of FRBs based on the morphology of the dynamic spectra i.e. intensity vs time and frequency. We are also working towards improving the current performance and extending the applicability. This will allow integration into real-time FRB detection pipelines for prioritising follow-up of rare and anomalous FRB morphologies and gaining insights into their origins.
Some active repeaters in their highly active state emit hundreds of bursts within a few hours presenting an excellent opportunity to study a single FRB source in detail. I use the upgraded GMRT (one of the most sensitive telescopes in the world at frequencies below 1 GHz) to observe these active repeaters at low radio frequencies and study their emission properties and host environments. I am also a member of the CHIME/FRB and CHIME/SPS collaboration. I have contributed to the RFI mitigation framework for the CHIME/SPS system, which will be a pipeline for automating the detection of pulsars (periods > 10ms ) by piggybacking the CHIME/FRB system data. This survey will look for pulsars in the whole of the northern sky daily, while power spectra will be stacked for searches over multiple days.
Selected publications:
