Sukanya Chakrabarti
Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti 601 Campbell Hall
University of CA, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office: 531 Campbell
Fax: (510) 642-3411
sukanya@astro.berkeley.edu
Welcome! I am a UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of CA, Berkeley. My work centers around the dynamical evolution of galaxies, with the goal of developing astrophysical probes of fundamental physics. I work on galaxy evolution by performing hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations of galaxies combined with radiative transfer calculations.
I work with Leo Blitz on characterizing dark-matter dominated dwarf galaxies via analysis of their tidal gravitational imprints on the gas disks of galaxies. The goal here is to develop methods to find dwarf galaxies purely from analysis of observed disturbances in the outskirts of galaxies, without requiring knowledge of their optical light. I work with Barbara Whitney on developing numerical radiative transfer methodology, and with Chris McKee on developing analytic radiative transfer methods.
Broadly speaking then -- I use dynamical signatures of interactions to characterize galaxies that are too dark to be easily seen, and their emitted spectral energy distribution (from the optical to the IR) to characterize galaxies from the panoramic sequence of normal spirals to ULIRGs.