PEOPLE Faculty
Pallavi Bhat (She/Her)
ICTS-TIFR, Bengaluru
Area of Research:  Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, Plasma Astrophysics
  +91 80 4653 6240    
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  pallavibhat  ictsresin
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Academic Profile:

Faculty (Reader) : ICTS-TIFR, Bengaluru, India (Present)
Postdoctoral research fellow : School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, UK (2019 - 2020)
Postdoctoral associate : PSFC, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (2016 - 2019)
Postdoctoral researcher : PPPL, Princeton University, USA (2015-2016)
Ph.D. : Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, India (2010-2015)

Research:

Much of the universe is in plasma state. The plasma in astrophysical objects like the Sun, stars, galaxies and galaxy-clusters tend to be turbulent and are observed to host dynamically significant coherent magnetic fields. The question of the origin and evolution of these magnetic fields ties in with the understanding of several physical processes in astrophysics.

My research program centers on understanding how coherent magnetic fields originate, evolve and affect the dynamics in astrophysical systems. In particular, my work focuses on

(i) Turbulent dynamo theory applied to the Sun, galaxies and galaxy-clusters
(ii) Magnetic reconnection
(iii) Magneto-rotational instability in accretion disks

This involves - magnetohydrodynamic or kinetic equations for analytical study and/or direct numerical simulations.

Selected/Recent Publications:

  • Pallavi Bhat, Muni Zhou and Nuno F. Loureiro (2020), “Inverse transfer in decaying three dimensional non-helical magnetohydrodynamic turbulence due to magnetic reconnection”, to be published in MNRAS (arXiv:2007.07325).
  • Pallavi Bhat, Fatima Ebrahimi and Eric G. Blackman (2016), “Large-scale dynamo action precedes tur- bulence in shearing box simulations of the magnetorotational instability”, MNRAS, 462, 818-829, (arXiv:1605.02433).
  • Pallavi Bhat, Kandaswamy Subramanian and Axel Brandenburg (2016), “Unified large-scale/small-scale dynamo in helical turbulence”, MNRAS, 461, 1, 240-247 (arXiv:1508.02706).
  • Pallavi Bhat and Kandaswamy Subramanian (2014) “Fluctuation Dynamo at Finite Correlation Times and the Kazantsev Spectrum”, ApJ Letters, 791, L34 (arXiv: 1406.4250).