Indian Institute of Astrophysics Annual Report 2019-2020 INDIAN INSTITUTE of ASTROPHYSICS

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Indian Institute of Astrophysics Annual Report 2019-2020 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF ASTROPHYSICS

ANNUAL REPORT 2019-2020 c

Edited by: Maheswar. G & G. C. Anupama c Published on behalf of: The Director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Sarjapura Road, Bengaluru 560034, INDIA c Front Cover: Center: The twin telescopes of the Ulta-Violet Imaging Tele- scope (UVIT). Images obtained with the UVIT, Clockwise from the top: The Jellyﬁsh Galaxy, JO201; The Barred Spiral Galaxy, NGC 2336; The Spiral Galaxy, NGC 300 (Caldwell 70); The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy, NGC 1365; The Globular Cluster, NGC 5466; The Dwarf Spiral Galaxy, IC 2574. (The UVIT project is led by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, in collaboration with the Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, the Tata Institute of Fun- damental Research, Mumbai, several centers of ISRO and the Canadian Space Agency. Image Credit: UVIT team and the Payload operations centre at IIA). c Back Cover: The 1.0 m class Thermo-Vac facility at Prof. M. G. K. Menon Laboratory for Space Sciences, CREST Campus (IIA), Hosakote. Image credit: VELC Team. c Cover design: Anand. M. N Printed & Processed by: Vykat Prints Private Limited, Bangalore Contents

Page

Governing Council (2019–2020) 1

1 Year-In-Review 6

2 Research 10 2.1 The Sun and the Solar System ...... 10 2.2 Stellar and Galactic Astrophysics ...... 11 2.3 Cosmology and Extragalactic Astronomy ...... 16 2.4 Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics ...... 20 2.5 Experimental Astrophysics and Instrumentation ...... 23

3 Student Programmes and Training Activities 25 3.1 PhD Degree Awarded ...... 25 3.2 PhD Theses Submitted ...... 27 3.3 Completion of MTech programme ...... 28 3.4 School in Physics and Astrophysics ...... 28 3.5 Visiting Students Programme ...... 30 3.6 Student participation in National Meetings / Workshops / Conferences ..... 30 3.7 Awards and Recognition ...... 33

4 Instruments and Facilities 34 4.1 System Engineering Group ...... 34 4.2 Observatories ...... 35 4.2.1 Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) ...... 35 4.2.2 Merak site at Ladakh ...... 36 4.2.3 Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) 37 4.2.4 Kodaikanal Observatory ...... 38 4.2.5 Vainu Bappu Observatory ...... 38 4.2.6 Gauribidanur Radio Observatory ...... 41 4.3 Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope ...... 42 4.4 Computational Facilities ...... 42 4.5 Library ...... 44

i 4.6 Facilities Developed for Other Organisations ...... 46

5 Future Facilities 48 5.1 The Thirty Meter Telescope ...... 48 5.2 Visible Emission Line Coronagraph on Aditya-L1 ...... 53 5.3 Seed Funded Project: Indian Spectroscopic and Imaging Space Telescope .... 58 5.4 National Large Solar Telescope ...... 59 5.5 National Large Optical - Near Infrared Telescope ...... 60 5.6 Prototype segmented mirror telescope ...... 60 5.7 Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer ...... 62

6 Public Outreach 63 6.1 Annular Solar Eclipse on 26 December 2019 ...... 63 6.2 National Science Day Celebrations ...... 63 6.3 Joint Outreach Programmes ...... 66 6.4 Teacher Training programme ...... 67 6.5 Visits of school students and general public to IIA campuses ...... 67

7 Other scientific activities 69 7.1 Talks given in National/International Meetings outside IIA ...... 69 7.2 Awards, Recognition, Professional Membership, Editorship etc...... 75 7.3 Externally Funded Projects ...... 75 7.4 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) ...... 76 7.5 Workshops, Conferences and Schools ...... 77

8 Publications 80 8.1 In Journals ...... 80 8.2 Conference Proceedings ...... 91 8.3 Technical Reports, Monographs, Circulars, ATel ...... 94 8.4 HCT Publications by non-IIA Users ...... 95

9 Colloquia/Seminars Given By Visitors 97 9.1 Colloquia ...... 97 9.2 Seminars ...... 97 9.3 Special Lectures ...... 101

10 Miscellaneous 102 10.1 Oﬃcial Language Implementation (OLI) ...... 102 10.2 Welfare of SC/ST Staﬀ & Physically Challenged ...... 103 10.3 Committee against Sexual Harassment ...... 103

11 People 104

12 Auditors’ Report & Statement Of Accounts 106

ii Governing Council (2019–2020)

Prof. A. C. Pandey Chairman Director, IUAC, New Delhi

Shri V. Koteswara Rao Member Former Director ASTROSAT, ISRO

Prof. S. K. Ghosh Member Former Centre Director, NCRA, Pune

Dr. Anil Bhardwaj Member Director, PRL, Ahmedabad

Dr. Anil K. Pandey Member Former Director, ARIES, Nainital

Dr. Somak Raychaudhury Member Director, IUCAA, Pune

Secretary, DST or his nominee Member

FA, DST or his nominee Member

Director, IIA Member Secretary

1 Honorary Fellows

Dr. K. KASTURIRANGAN Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India

Professor B. V. SREEKANTAN (until demise on 27.10.2019) National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus Bangalore 560 012, India

Professor DAVID L LAMBERT Department of Astronomy, RLM 16.204 University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712-1083, USA

Professor Sir. ARNOLD WOLFENDALE, FRS Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

Professor P. BUFORD PRICE Physics Department, University of California Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

†Professor S. CHANDRASEKHAR, Nobel Laureate (1995)

†Professor R. M. WALKER, FRS (2004)

†Professor HERMANN BONDI, FRS (2005)

†Professor V. RADHAKRISHNAN (2011)

†Professor M. G. K. MENON, FRS (2016)

†deceased

2 Institute Functionaries

Empty Empty Empty Empty Director Professor Annapurni Subramaniam Empty Empty Empty Empty Dean Professor G. C. Anupama Empty Empty Empty Empty Chairperson: GC-I: Sun and Solar System Professor S. P. Rajaguru Empty Empty Empty Empty Chairperson: GC-II: Stars and Galaxies Professor Aruna Goswami Empty Empty Empty Empty Chairperson: GC-III: Theoretical Astrophysics Professor Arun Mangalam

3 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Empty Empty Empty Empty Head: System Engineering Group Mr. P. K. Mahesh Empty Empty Empty Empty Chairperson: Board of Graduate Studies Dr. U. S. Kamath Empty Empty Empty Empty Administrative Officer Mr. Shripathi. K Empty Empty Empty Empty First Appellate Authority Professor R. Ramesh Empty Empty Empty Empty Central Public Information Officer Mr. P. K. Mahesh Empty Empty Empty Empty Vigilance Officer Dr. U. S. Kamath

4 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Empty Empty Empty Chairperson: Internal Complaints Committee against Sexual Harassment & Grievance Cell Professor Aruna Goswami Empty Empty Empty Empty Chairperson: Outreach Committee Dr. Chrisphin Karthick

IIA Campus at Bengaluru

5 1 Year-In-Review

As the Director of the Institute from Octo- white dwarf companions to stars in open and ber 2019, it gives me great pleasure to sum- globular clusters, abundance of lithium, car- marise the highlights of the Institute dur- bon and slow neutron capture elements in ing 2019-20. The institute with its facilities stars in relation to their evolution are some spread across the country and sky, is engaged of the highlights. in scientific research and developments in as- In extragalactic astronomy and cos- tronomy, astrophysics and related fields, as- mology, generating a catalog containing the tronomical instrumentation, student training, largest collection of spectroscopically con- engaging with the public at large and partic- firmed quasars, quenching of star formation ipation in mega-projects. in bars of galaxies, dynamical mass estima- Research: In Solar Physics, studies of tion of face-on galaxies, young radio galaxies, the Solar magnetic field were carried out in star formation in dwarf galaxies are some active regions on the Sun. The spectropo- of the highlights. The researchers obtained larimeter at the Tunnel Telescope of the data from the ground based telescopes of the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory was used to Institute, as well as ASTROSAT, the first study the structure and height variations of Indian space observatory, supplemented with sunspots. Using the Multi-Application Solar multi-wavelength data from other national Telescope at the Udaipur Solar Observatory and international facilities. Interesting re- and employing the Fizeau Mark Interfer- sults were obtained with the GROWTH-India ometry of Solar Features, high-resolution telescope as the facility successfully followed observations of the Sun were performed. up a few gravitational wave alerts from On the theoretical front, an iterative tech- LIGO-VIRGO collaboration. Theoretical nique was developed to solve the problem modelling of the observations using state of of polarized line formation in a magnetized the art models/codes were also carried out. isothermal atmosphere. The theoretical group carried out re- In stellar and Galactic astrophysics, search in black hole astrophysics, quantum ejection of protostars from their site of forma- chemistry, exo-planets, MHD theory of so- tion, interaction of ejecta of Supernova with lar flux tubes and pulsar emission mecha- the surrounding medium, modelling spectra nisms. New grid of transmission spectra for of novae, parameterisation of supernova pro- hot Jupiters, a model to explain the evolution genitors, study of kilonova candidates, ejecta of black holes, the diverse polarization proper- properties of planetary nebulae, detection of ties of radio pulsars in terms of their viewing

6 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

space based instrumentation, maintenance of our established facilities, participation in TMT mega-project and human resource development.

Figure 1.1: Prof. V. K. Gaur delivering the Founder’s Day lecture.

Figure 1.2: Indian delegation led by Prof. geometry etc. are the highlights. Annapurni Subramaniam and Prof. G. Student training: The IIA-Pondicherry C. Anupama meeting Her Royal Highness University PhD program has achieved a Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn at the in- 10 year completion and continues with the auguration ceremony of a new headquarter of renewed MoU. The unique and success- NARIT in Chiang Mai, Thailand on the 27th ful MTech-PhD program on Astronomical of January Instrumentation with Calcutta University has completed more than a decade and A new online proposal management system continues with a renewed MoU. The current was developed in-house for the Institute op- student strength stands at 75. A total of 14 erated observing facilities. The upgrade of students were awarded the PhD degree, the the telescope control system and the drive highest over the past ﬁve years and ten more of the secondary mirror of the HCT is pro- submitted their theses. gressing well. To carry out tests of the space 17 students participated in the yearly 2- payloads, a new environmental testing facil- week long summer school in Kodaikanal Ob- ity is being added to the Prof. MGK Menon servatory, followed by a 6-week long project Laboratory for space Sciences, located in the at various IIA campuses. 47 students par- CREST Campus. ticipated in our visiting students programme. A new thermo-electrically cooled CCD was 15 students performed Summer Research Fel- procured, tested and calibrated for its use lowship Programme of the Indian Academies with the OMR spectrograph. A near-infrared and carried out projects under the guidance photometer was designed and fabricated to of IIA faculty, apart from a number of short use with the 40-inch telescope at VBO. A so- term projects by undergraduate students. lar spectrograph designed and developed by Astronomical Instrumentation: Mem- the Institute for the graduate and undergrad- bers of the System Engineering Group (SEG) uate level students was installed at the In- are involved in infrastructure creation, sci- dian Institute of Space Science and Technol- entiﬁc projects related to ground based and ogy, Thiruvananthapuram.

7 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

undergone environmental tests. A web-based VELC observation proposal submission platform has also been developed. Upcoming projects: A seed funding was awarded by ISRO for a proposed 1-metre class UV-Optical Indian Spectroscopic and Imag- ing Space Telescope (INSIST) for a joint mission with Canada. The project completed a conceptual design as well as a preliminary design and has reached maturity to start the Figure 1.3: Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam final design phase. felicitating Dr. V. S. Ramamurthy (former The official procedure to lease the land in DST secretary) who was the chief guest for the Merek, Ladakh for the National Large Solar conference organized to celebrate 150 years of Telescope project is in progress. The final ap- the Periodic Table at IIA. proval of the project is expected soon. A request for an initial budget for the preparation of a detailed project report for the Ongoing Projects: Many activities National Large Optical-Near Infrared Tele- were carried out as part of the TMT mega- scope (NLOT), was submitted to the Depart- project. The Optics Fabrication Facility ment of Science and Technology in June 2019. (ITOFF), which will carry out polishing of The Institute conducted several confer- M1 segments, is nearing its completion in the ences and schools. A conference to cele- CREST campus. A set of 18 glass blanks brate the 150 years of the Periodic table titled, were received from National Astronomical "Chemical Elements in the Universe: Origin Observatory of Japan and are currently and Evolution", saw good participation of sci- stored at ITOFF. The Common Software entists from various fields. This was inaugu- which forms the backbone skeletal commu- rated by Dr. V. S. Ramamurthy (former DST nication system of the whole observatory secretary). A conference of engineers in as- software architecture has been successfully tronomy, titled, "Modern Engineering Trends delivered. The work packages led by India in Astronomy" was organised by the Institute, in telescope hardware components such jointly with NCRA and RRI. Prof. Vinod K. as segment support assembly, actuators, Gaur presented a talk on "Plate Tectonics and edge sensors and development of science the Making of Himalaya: An ongoing Pro- instruments are also progressing well. cess", on the occasion of the Founder’s day. The optics for the Visible Emission Line The Institute has a number of Memo- Coronagraph (VELC), the most important randa of Understanding (MoU) with payload onboard India’s solar space mission various national institutions such as BARC, Aditya-L1, are getting tested at the Prof. TIFR, 4th Paradigm Institute, etc. This MGK Menon Laboratory for Space Sciences. year an MoU with ISRO was signed on space Realization of optical bench of VELC has also situational awareness. The MoU with the been successfully completed here. Several of Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) the optics have been integrated into their re- and the GRANTECAN, (GTC), Spain is spective opto-mechanical systems and have being pursued. Effort are on to strengthen

8 Indian Institute of Astrophysics the ongoing collaborations with Thailand as- plementation of the official language and con- tronomical community through the National tinued efforts to make equitable work envi- Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand ronment by safeguarding the interests of SCs, (NARIT). STs, the differently-abled and women. Outreach activities: This year, the I would like to end with a few awards and public outreach team of IIA organized several recognition. Prof. Dipankar Banerjee was programmes for students and the general elected as a fellow of the Indian Academy public in and around Bengaluru and else- of sciences. He took charge as Director of where in the country to promote science and the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Obser- astronomy. Several events were organized vational Sciences (ARIES) in December 2019. at Leh under the IIA-Cambridge Academics I was awarded the Sir. C.V. Raman Young joint outreach programme and IIA-SALT scientist award of the Karnataka state for the outreach programme. year 2018, in field of physical sciences. An IIA-IAU training programme was The Institute has seen continued growth organised for school teachers in rural Ben- and excellent performance in the last decade. galuru. During the annular eclipse on 26 I extend my best wishes to the Institute to December 2019, a few hundred people par- produce outstanding scientific research and ticipated in viewing the event at Bengaluru technological development in the next decade and Kodaikanal campuses. The National with the generous support and guidance of the Science day activities were conducted in all Department of Science and Technology and field stations, with programme and compe- the Government of India. titions for students of schools in the nearby areas. There was high public participation in the Vigyan Samagam events during May 2019 - March 2020, showcasing the Indian participation in mega-projects. Other notable points: The IIA archives organized a two days programme as a part of International Archives Week. Several experts delivered a series of lectures on aspects of scientific work and the history of science in India with a focus on the Institute’s archives. Annapurni Subramaniam The Institute initiated various steps for im- Director

9 2 Research

Scientists at IIA together with research nm) and Hα (656.3 nm) spectral lines, re- scholars and post doctoral fellows are engaged spectively. The structure and height variation in research in the fields related to Astron- of sunspot magnetic fields have been studied, omy and Astrophysics. Highlights of some of with an estimate of vertical field gradient of 1 the results obtained during the period from 1 Gkm− that is consistent with many ≈− April 2019 to March 2020 in the topics such published results. In a related study, chromo- as the Sun & the solar system, stellar & galac- spheric spectropolarimetry of small-scale en- tic astrophysics, cosmology and extragalactic ergetic events (SSEE) has been carried out us- astronomy, theoretical physics & astrophysics ing simultaneous observations in the Hα and and experimental astrophysics & instrumen- Ca II 854.2 nm lines. In a study that has im- tation are briefed below. plications for the solar irradiance, magnetic flux transfer and solar atmospheric dynamics, the extreme-UV (EUV) properties of solar 2.1 The Sun and the Solar chromospheric and transition region network System have been explored using spectroscopic data taken every day with the Coronal Diagnostic Studies of the Sun and its magnetism received Spectrometer (CDS) on board the Solar and most of the attention of the Sun and So- Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). lar System group members. The importance In solar instrumentation, efforts have been of evolving electric currents due to magnetic made to demonstrate high-resolution observa- shear in solar active regions (AR’s) has been tions of the solar atmosphere using spatial in- studied in detail to bring out differences in terferometry - this particular technique uses their roles in flaring-AR’s and Coronal Mass the Fizeau Mark Interferometry of Solar Fea- Ejection (CME)-producing AR’s. This work tures. This demonstration used the Multi- has utilised vector magnetic field observa- Application Solar Telescope (MAST) at the tions by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Im- Udaipur Solar Observatory. ager (HMI) onboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics In the theoretical and numerical computa- Observatory (SDO). An augmented spectro- tion front, an iterative technique to solve the polarimeter at the Tunnel Telescope of the problem of polarized line formation in a mag- Kodaikanal Solar Observatory has been used netized isothermal atmosphere taking into ac- for measuring the vector magnetic field in count scattering in a two-level atom with the photospheric and chromospheric layers as- hyperfine structure splitting (HFS) together sociated with sunspots using the Fe i (656.9

10 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

A novel semi-analytical model was developed to study the mass accretion by the protostars with the aim to explore whether some of the protostars can remain sufficiently low- mass and long-lived to survive to the present day. The calculations show, Population III protostars that initially form within a certain range of mass, and are ejected with velocity larger than the escape velocity may survive to the present day on the main sequence. The profile variations of interstellar Ca II H & K and Na I D lines were studied based on Figure 2.1: Vector magnetic field observa- high-resolution optical spectra of 15 stars in tions of solar active region NOAA 11429. The the direction of the Vela supernova remnant. observations are taken by Helioseismic Mag- The spectra were obtained during 2017-2019 netic Imager on board Solar Dynamics Ob- with the Southern African Large Telescope. A servatory. Transverse field vectors are shown comparison of the line profiles with those ob- with the red (green) arrows in north (south) tained during 1993-1996 by Cha & Sembach polarity regions. Background is the verti- shows that the changes in the line profiles are cal field image with contours at 150 G. ± more obvious in the Ca II K line than in the Blue curve represents sheared polarity inver- Na D line. These changes are attributed to sion line. Axis units are in pixels of 0.5 size. gas disturbed by interactions between the su- Courtesy: Vemareddy, P MNRAS, 2019. pernova ejecta and the surrounding interstellar medium. with PRD has been developed. This tech- As a part of “TRAO FUNS” project to nique provides a way to model polarized line survey the Gould Belt’s clouds in molecu- formation in the incomplete Paschen-Back ef- lar lines, the central region of the California fect regime and has been tested for a model molecular cloud L1478 was studied in detail. representing the D2 line of Na i. Using the Taeduk Radio Astronomy Obser- vatory 14 m single-dish telescope equipped with a 16 multi-beam, low-density clouds as 2.2 Stellar and Galactic well as the dense cores were observed. Ba- Astrophysics sic physical properties of filaments such as mass, length, width, velocity field, and ve- In stellar and Galactic astrophysics, the top- locity dispersion were derived and the forma- ics on which studies were conducted include tion mechanism of dense cores and filaments Population III stars, interstellar line profiles, are studied. Prestellar cores L1544, L1552, molecular clouds, novae, supernovae, globular L1689B, L694-2, and L1197 were mapped us- clusters, open clusters, infrared properties of ing two molecular lines, C34S (J=2-1) and + planetary nebulae, post-AGB stars, chemical N2H (J=1-0) with the NRO 45 m telescope. abundance studies of stars at different evolu- In most of the targets, the distribution of tionary stages, extreme helium stars, Li-rich C34S emission shows significant depletion of giants, and dwarf galaxies. CS molecules towards the centre of the cores.

11 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Sub-parsec-scale mapping of magnetic optical light curves were photometrically fields in the vicinity of a very-low-luminosity consistent with that of a kilonovae. Spectra object L1521F-IRS was conducted. The core- of these two candidates, however, revealed scale magnetic fields in the near vicinity of them to be young core-collapse supernovae. the VeLLO L1521F-IRS were obtained using High-cadence ultraviolet, optical, and sub-millimetre polarization measurements at near-infrared photometric and low-resolution 850 µm using JCMT POL-2. The magnetic spectroscopic observations of the peculiar fields are found to be ordered and very well Type II supernova (SN) 2018hna were used connected to the parsec-scale field geometry to study the properties of the object in de- seen in optical polarization observations and tail. The early-phase multi-band light curves the large-scale structure seen in the Planck (LCs) exhibited an adiabatic cooling envelope dust polarization. The magnetic energies are emission following the shock breakout up to found to be 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher 14 days from the explosion. Hydrodynamical than the nonthermal kinetic energies in the modeling of the cooling phase suggested a envelope and the core. progenitor with a radius 50 R , a mass ∼ Photoionization modelling of quiescence- of 14-20 M , and an explosion energy of ∼ phase optical spectra of novae T Coronae Bo- 1.7 2.9 1051 erg. The smaller inferred ∼ − × realis, GK Persei, RS Ophiuchi, V3890 Sagit- radius of the progenitor than a standard red tarii and V745 Scorpii, and the symbiotic star supergiant is indicative of a blue supergiant BX Monocerotis was performed. The spec- progenitor of SN 2018hna. A subsolar tra exhibit prominent low-ionization emission metallicity ( 0.3 Z ) was inferred for the ∼ features of hydrogen, helium, iron and oxygen host galaxy UGC 07534, concurrent with the and TiO absorption features resulting from low-metallicity environments of 1987A-like the cool secondary component. T Coronae events. Borealis and GK Persei show higher ioniza- Observational signatures of circumstellar tion lines. Using the photoionization code interaction and 56Ni-mixing in the Type II su- CLOUDY the spectra were modelled and con- pernova SN 2016gfy were studied using the tribution from the accretion disc was esti- optical and ultraviolet broadband photomet- mated. ric and spectroscopic observations of the Type Following the detection of the first binary II SN 2016gfy. Using strong-line diagnostics, neutron star merger, a dedicated follow-up a subsolar oxygen abundance was estimated campaign was undertaken with the Zwicky for the supernova H II region (12 + log(O/H) Transient Facility (ZTF) and Palomar = 8.50 0.11 Å). A star formation rate of ± 1 Gattini-IR telescopes to identify an optical 8.5 M yr− is estimated for NGC 2276 ∼ or infrared counterpart to a binary neutron using the archival GALEX FUV data. star merger. The initial skymap of the single- The observational behaviour of the highly detector gravitational wave (GW) trigger polarized Type IIn supernova SN 2017hcc spanned most of the sky observable from were studied based on photometric (Swift the Palomar Observatory. Two candidates, UVOT), broadband polarimetric (V and R- ZTF19aarykkb and ZTF19aarzaod, were band) and optical spectroscopic observations. found particularly compelling given that The study indicates a substantial variation their location, distance and age were con- in the degree of asymmetry in either the sistent with the GW event, and their early ejecta and/or the surrounding medium of

12 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

as compared to the other two groups wels-Pne and the PNe with hydrogen rich central stars. The average dust-to-gas mass ratio is found to be similar for the three groups of PNe. While there is a strong correlation of dust temperature, IR luminosity with the age for the three groups of PNe, their dust mass dust-to-gas mass ratios and IR excess are found to be non- varying as the PNe evolve. Medium resolution K-band spectra of 12 post-AGB candidates and related stars were studied. The Brγ line in emission was detected in seven objects indicating the onset of photo-ionization in these objects. Four objects show the presence of He I line. H2 emission line is detected in the spectra of Figure 2.2: Pseudo-bolometric light curve IRAS 06556+1623, IRAS 22023+5249, IRAS of SN 2018hna in comparison with 1987A- 18062 + 2411 and IRAS 20462 + 3416.H2 like events. Inset shows the adiabatic cooling emission line ratio 1-0 S(1)/2-1 S(1) indicate emission following shock breakout. Courtesy: that H2 is radiatively excited in two objects Singh, Avinash et al. ApJ, 2019. and by shocks in other two objects. The hot post-AGB stars IRAS 22495 + 5134, IRAS SN 2017hcc. 22023 + 5249, IRAS 18062 + 2411 and IRAS Studies on Type Ia supernovae SN 2009ig 20462 + 3416 seem to be evolving rapidly to and SN 2012cg were conducted based on op- young low excitation planetary nebula phase. tical and ultraviolet photometry and analysis The variable star population in the Her- of a series of optical spectra. Their early spec- cules globular cluster (M13; NGC 6205) and tra show high-velocity features in Si II and Ca Palomar 13 an evaporating globular cluster II lines. The strong Fe III, Si III, and weak were studied based on CCD time-series pho- Si II 5972 line during pre-maximum phase tometry. Fourier decomposition of the light are indicative of hot photosphere. The post- curves of three cluster member RRab stars maximum velocity evolution shows a plateau led to estimations of [Fe/H] = -1.65, and a like phase with velocities 13,000 km/sec for distance of 23.67 0.57 kpc for Palomar 13. ∼ ± SN 2009ig and 10,000 km/sec for SN 2012cg. The Fourier decomposition of the light curves ∼ Near-, mid- and far-IR photometric data of RRab and RRc stars in M13 gave an average metallicity of [Fe/H]zw = -1.58 0.09 from archives were used to derive the IR prop- ± erties of planetary nebulae (PNe). IR colour- for M13. The distance to this cluster was estimated as 7.1 0.1 kpc from independent colour diagrams of PNe were constructed us- ± ing measurements at 2MASS, IRAS, WISE methods related to the variable star families and Akari bands. A comparison of IR prop- RR Lyrae, SX Phe and W Virginis from the erties indicate that the [WR]PNe have a large luminosity of the theoretical ZAHB and from near-IR emission from the hot dust compo- the orbit solution of a newly discovered con- nent and also show a stronger 12 µm emission tact binary star.

13 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

tion (SED), the parameters of the blue straggler and the white dwarf (WD) were estimated. This post-mass transfer system was found to be fairly young with a hot (32,000 K) WD. This is a second detection of a mass transfer Blue straggler in a globular cluster and the first one with kinematic membership. The high energy properties of a relatively young open cluster NGC 2527 were studied using data from ground and space telescopes (XMM-UVOT-Gaia). The accurate fundamental parameters of the cluster including the distance to the cluster, inter-stellar reddening and age were estimated using their member stars. Five stars on the main-sequence are found to have large X-ray flux, likely to be Figure 2.3: Spectral energy distribution from coronal activity and/or chromospheric of NH 84 with a composite spectrum (gray activity. FK Comae type active red giants color) consisting of the Kurucz model (light- were also detected in this cluster suggesting red color) and the Koester WD model (green that such stars can be formed even younger color). The zoomed-in plot shows the FUV than 1 Gyr. The detection of active binaries part of the SED fitted with a single and com- suggests that binary stars as young as 630 posite spectrum, where the light-red empty tri- Myr could produce WUMa type active sys- angles indicate the Kurucz synthetic flux and tems. gray empty squares indicate the combined syn- The presence of low-mass White Dwarfs thetic flux. The residuals obtained with a were detected in the cluster M67 as com- single and composite spectrum fit are shown as light-red empty triangles and gray empty panions to Blue straggler stars and main- squares in the lower panel. Courtesy: Sahu, sequence stars. Parameters estimated using Snehalata et al. ApJ, 2019. spectral energy distribution were compared with predictions from the models to arrive at the properties of the detected low mass The formation pathway of blue stragglers, WDs. Some massive WDs were also detected which are stars with acquired mass, is thought probably formed as a result of evolution of to be mainly through stellar mergers. In the the Blue Stragglers themselves. These find- case of less dense star clusters and in outer ings suggest that the open star cluster M67 regions of the clusters, there still could be houses a relatively large number of systems some blue stragglers formed via mass trans- with such WDs, suggesting (1) a number of fer. A search for for such systems in the glob- systems have undergone mass transfer and (2) ular cluster NGC 5466, led to the identifica- mass transfer is one of the pathways for the tion of far-UV bright blue stragglers. A white formation of the Blue stragglers in M67. The dwarf companion to a Blue straggler star in stars with WDs as companions are likely to the outskirts of NGC 5466 was confirmed us- evolve to become binary WDs, which are po- ing the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) tential sources of gravitational waves. data. Modelling the spectral energy distribu-

14 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

A detailed chemical composition studies of derived from [Rb/Zr] ratios. a sample of twenty potential CH (CEMP-s) star candidates were conducted. Estimated metallicity [Fe/H] of these stars were found to be in the range 0.48 to 2.45. Carbon − − is found to be enhanced in all the stars with [C/Fe] in the range -0.43 to 2.19. The objects are found to exhibit the characteristic properties of CEMP-s stars as far as the enhancement of heavy s-process element abundances are concerned. Barium stars are extrinsic stars, where the observed s-process element abundances are believed to have an origin in the now invisible companions that produced these elements at their Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase of evolution. To understand the s-process nucleosynthesis as well as the physical properties of the companion stars, a detailed chemical composition study was performed for a sample of 10 barium stars. For these stars, estimates of abundances of several elements, C, N, O, Na, Al, α-elements, Fe-peak elements and neutron-capture elements Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Ba, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm and Eu were reported. A detailed comparison of observed elemental abundances with the predictions from AGB nucleosynthesis models FRUITY, clearly showed that the former companions responsible for the surface abundance peculiar- ities of these stars are low-mass AGB stars. Figure 2.4: The HR diagram showing Li- The [Rb/Zr] ratio is an important diagnos- rich giants’ positions (a) prior to extinc- tic to understand the average neutron den- tion correction, (b) with size of representa- sity at the s-process site and provide im- tive point proportional to extinction, and (c) post-extinction correction. Courtesy: Deepak & portant clues to the mass of the compan- Reddy, Becham E, MNRAS, 2019. ion AGB stars. Based on the high-resolution spectroscopic analysis of a sample of barium Overabundance of fluorine is a character- stars the estimates of [Rb/Zr] ratios were de- istic feature of cool Extreme Helium stars rived and characteristic properties including (EHes) and R Coronae Borealis stars and fur- mass of the companion AGB stars were deter- ther enforces their close connection. Whether mined. Analysis of the results obtained from a such a relationship exists between hot EHes parametric-model based study confirmed the and R Coronae Borealis stars was studied estimated mass of the companion AGB stars based on their fluorine abundance. Fluorine

15 Indian Institute of Astrophysics abundances were determined using the F II detection of 24 new super Li-rich (A(Li) 3.2) ≥ lines in two windows centered at 3505 Å and giants of He-core burning phase at the red 3850 Å for 10 stars. These fluorine abun- clump region. The two key parameters dances were compared with the other elemen- derived from Kepler data are an average tal abundances observed in these stars, which period spacing (∆p) between l=1 mixed provided an idea about the formation and evo- gravity-dominated g-modes and average lution of these stars. large frequency-separation (∆ν) l=0 acoustic Abundance analyses of Li-enriched and p-modes, which suggest that all the Li-rich normal giants in the GALAH survey were giants are in the He-core burning phase. The conducted and compositions of lithium- results provide strong evidence that the Li enriched and normal giants were compared. enhancement phenomenon is associated with Except for Li, the only detectable abundance giants in the He-core burning phase post difference between lithium-enriched and nor- He-flash. mal giants among the investigated elements from carbon to europium was found to occur for carbon. The Li-enriched and normal 2.3 Cosmology and Extra- giants were found to have similar projected galactic Astronomy rotational velocity, which suggests that Li enrichment in giants is not linked to scenarios The many themes that have been pursued in- such as mergers and tidal interaction between clude statistical properties of matter and weak binary stars. lensing effect on the microwave background The Li-rich classification of KIC 9821622, in cosmology, extraction of spectral line prop- the only bonafide red giant branch (RGB) gi- erties in active galaxies, galaxy morphology, ant with a He inert core to date was reviewed. magnetic fields in clusters, and star formation Estimated Li abundance was found to be in galaxies. A(Li)LTE = 1.42 0.05 dex and A(Li)NLTE ± The final Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV = 1.57 0.05 dex, which is significantly less ± (SDSS-IV) quasar catalog from Data Re- than the value reported earlier A(Li) = lease 16 of the extended Baryon Oscillation 1.80 0.2 dex. The derived abundance is ± Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) comprises normal for red giants undergoing dilution the largest selection of spectroscopically during the first dredge-up. Since all known confirmed quasars to date. The full catalog Kepler field Li-rich giants belong to the red includes two sub-catalogs: a superset of clump region, this clarification removes the all SDSS-IV/eBOSS objects targeted as anomaly and strengthens the evidence that quasars containing 1,440,627 observations Li enhancement in low-mass giants may be and a quasar-only catalog containing 750,426 associated only with the He-core burning quasars, including 225,082 new quasars phase. The origin of Li excess probably lies appearing in an SDSS data release for the during the He flash at the RGB tip, a phase first time, as well as known quasars from immediately preceding the red clump. SDSS-I/II/III. An automated identification A systematic search for Li-rich Giants of a and redshift information for these quasars large sample of about 12,500 giants common alongside data from visual inspections for to the LAMOST spectroscopic and Kepler 320,164 spectra was carried out. Automated time-resolved photometric surveys led to the and visual inspection redshifts are supple-

16 Indian Institute of Astrophysics mented by redshifts derived via principal barred galaxies from star forming main component analysis and emission lines, in- sequence galaxies was compared with the cluding those of Hα,Hβ, Mg II, C III, C IV, length of the bar, which is considered as a and Lyα. Identification and key characteris- proxy of bar-quenching (see Fig.2.5). An tics generated by automated algorithms are analysis of the star formation rate-stellar presented for 99,856 Broad Absorption Line mass plane of 2885 local Universe face-on quasars and 35,686 Damped Lyman Alpha strong barred disk galaxies (z<0.06) identi- quasars. In addition to SDSS photometric fied by Galaxy Zoo shows that the offset of data, multi-wavelength data for quasars the quenched barred galaxies from the main from GALEX, UKIDSS, WISE, FIRST, sequence relation is not dependent on the ROSAT/2RXS, XMM-Newton, and Gaia length of the stellar bar. This implies that were presented. Calibrated digital optical the bar quenching may not be contributing spectra for these quasars can be obtained significantly to the global quenching of star from the SDSS Science Archive Server. formation in barred galaxies. In the recent past, there have been many attempts to solve the tension between direct measurements of H0 and from the respective low redshift observables and indi- rect measurements of these quantities from the cosmic microwave background (CMB). A model independent approach was taken that boils down to different classes of cosmological models under suitable parameter choices. This parameterization is tested against the latest Planck CMB data combined with recent BAO, SNeIa datasets and the R16 direct H0 measurements, and compare among different cosmological models. The analysis reveals that a strong positive correlation between H0 and σ8 is more or less generic, irrespective of Figure 2.5: The offset of galaxies from the the choice of cosmological models. However, SFR-M relation is plotted against the scaled new cosmological models that attempt to re- length of the bar. The D4000n index strength of galaxies is shown with a color scale. Cour- solve one tension often worsen the other. A tesy: George, K et al. A& A, 2019. decaying dark matter (DDM) model was investigated as a solution to both tensions si- The decay of turbulence and magnetic multaneously. fields generated by fluctuation dynamo action The suppression of star formation in the was explored in the context of galaxy clus- inner kilo-parsec (kpc) regions of barred ters, where such a decaying phase can occur disk galaxies due to the action of bars is in the aftermath of a major merger event. known as bar-quenching. The significance Using idealized numerical simulations that of bar-quenching in the global quenching of start from a kinetically dominated regime, star formation in the barred galaxies and the decay of the steady state rms velocity transforming them into passive galaxies were studied. To do this, the offset of quenched and the magnetic field was studied for a

17 Indian Institute of Astrophysics wide range of conditions that include varying lensing and hence can be easily distinguished. the compressibility of the flow, the forcing The Minkowski tensors of anisotropic fields wavenumber, and the magnetic Prandtl were evaluated that is applied to quantifying number. Irrespective of the compressibility of the effects of redshift space distortions in ob- the flow, both the rms velocity and the rms servations of the matter distribution in the magnetic field decay as a power law in time. Universe. In the subsonic case, the exponent of the One way to study the ionization history of power law is consistent with the 3/5 scaling the EoR is to study the morphology of ion- − reported in previous studies. However, in ized regions created by the radiation from the the transonic regime both the rms velocity luminous sources. At the beginning stages of and the magnetic field initially undergo rapid reionization, many such ionized bubbles ap- 1.1 decay with an t− scaling with time. This pear and grow in size until they start merging. ∼ is followed by a phase of slow decay where As reionization progresses, the shape and size the decay of the rms velocity exhibits an of these ionized regions change. This is qual- 3/5 scaling in time, while the rms magnetic itatively analyzed through the redshift evo- − field scales as 5/7. Furthermore, analysis of lution of the morphology of these fields that − the Faraday rotation measure (RM) reveals is traced by the brightness temperature field that the Faraday RM also decays as a power and its CMT and Betti numbers. 5/7 2/5 law in time t− , steeper than the t− ∼ A method was devised to calculate the dy- scaling obtained in previous simulations of namical mass of face-on galaxy disks using magnetic field decay in subsonic turbulence. their HI velocity dispersion, and the dynam- Apart from galaxy clusters, this work can ical disk mass of 7 nearby, gas rich galaxies, have potential implications for the study of including 4 large disk galaxies and 3 dark mat- magnetic fields in elliptical galaxies. ter dominated dwarf galaxies to determine the Weak gravitational lensing causes shearing stellar disk mass distributions. It was found and magnification of the hotspots and cold that in most low luminosity parts of galax- spots of the CMB fields. By understand- ies, there is dark matter associated with the ing the resulting distortion patterns, one may disk, and it helps to gravitationally bind the then, in principle, infer the integrated effect of HI gas layer. This is possible if the halo is the interaction between the CMB and the in- oblate rather than spherical or if the disk con- tervening matter distribution along each line tains dark matter accumulated from the ac- of sight. The morphological information en- cretion of smaller galaxies that leave behind coded in the Minkowski tensors makes them their dark matter in the disk, as they are swal- well suited to probe the size and shape distor- lowed up by the major galaxy. tions of the structures of the CMB. The struc- Radio observations of ultraluminous in- tures in the lensed field are more anisotropic frared galaxies (ULIRGs) using the GMRT compared to the structures in unlensed field. were combined with archival multi-frequency Using unlensed and lensed maps simulated us- observations to examine whether ULIRGs ing the publicly available code LENSPIX, the are the progenitors of the powerful radio loud effect of varying cosmology was studied, as galaxies in the local Universe. ULIRGs are well as a toy model of temperature field hav- generally thought to be the merger remnants ing hemispherical anisotropy, on morphologi- of gas rich galaxy mergers. They are char- cal properties of the structures. Each of these acterized by large infrared luminosities (LIR cases has effects that are distinct from that of

18 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

two in Argentina, two in Bulgaria, and one in Turkey to understand the nature of the source in the optical regime. A close inspection of variability patterns during the observation cycle revealed simultaneity among optical emissions from all passbands. During the complete monitoring period, a progressive in- crease in the amplitude of variability with frequency was detected.

Figure 2.6: The HI and stellar disk of the nearby galaxy NGC 628. Left: the extended HI disk. The data is from the THINGS survey (Walter et al. 2008) and the image was observed with the VLA. Right: 3.6 microns image of the stellar disk of the same galaxy at the same scale obtained from the Spitzer NASA data archive. Courtesy: Das, Mousumi et al. ApJ, 2020.

> 1012 L ), large dust masses (10 8M ) ∼ and vigorous star formation (star formation 1 rates 10 100M yr− ). Their luminosity − Figure 2.7: The FUV image of the galaxy IC can be due to both starburst activity and 2574 observed with the UVIT F148W filter. active galactic nuclei (AGN). Using a sample Courtesy: Mondal, Chayan et al. AJ, 2019. of 13 ULIRGs that have optically identified AGN characteristics with 1.28 GHz GMRT Dwarf galaxy IC 2574 was studied using observations, it was attempted to resolve the UVIT far-UV images to understand the any core-jet structures or nuclear extensions star formation characteristics. Many Far-UV and hence examine whether the ULIRGs bright regions were found to be located in the are evolving into radio loud ellipticals; the HI-shells, possibly created by supernovae ex- observations show marginal extension for plosions or heavy winds from OB stars. The only one source. Although most ULIRGs do study found that many regions in the inner not show kpc scale extended radio emission parts of the galaxy are found to be associated associated with a nuclear activity, their with the shells, whereas a large number of re- radio spectral energy distributions do show gions in the outer galaxy are not. Star forma- signatures of young radio galaxies. tion in the galaxy has been partly triggered The flat spectrum radio quasar, 3C 279 due to the expanding H I holes, whereas in was monitored in the optical B, V, R, and the majority of the sites, it is driven by other I passbands from 2018 February to 2018 July mechanisms. Irrespective of the location, for 24 nights, with a total of 716 frames, to larger star-forming complexes were found to study flux, color, and spectral variability on have multiple substructures, an indication of diverse time-scales. 3C 279 was observed us- turbulence. Two resolved components for the ing seven different telescopes: two in India, 19 Indian Institute of Astrophysics remnant cluster of the supergiant shell were J = 1, 0, 2 , a feature which can be verified { } reported and their masses were estimated. experimentally.

2.4 Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics

The themes pursued include black hole astrophysics, quantum chemistry, exoplanets, MHD theory applied to solar flux tubes and pulsar emission mechanisms. New grids of transmission spectra was presented for hot Jupiters by solving the multiple-scattering radiative transfer equa- Figure 2.8: Comparison of model transmis- tions with non-zero scattering albedo instead sion spectra with and without the effect of haze of using the Beer-Bouguer-Lambert law and with the observed data (red) for HAT-P- for the change in the transmitted stellar 1b. Courtesy: Sengupta, Sujan et al., ApJ, intensity. The scattering plays a double 2020. role in determining the optical transmission spectra: increasing the total optical depth Adaptation of improved virtual orbital of the medium and adding the diffused complete active space configuration interac- radiation due to scattering to the transmitted tion functions in state-specific multi reference stellar radiation. For a cloudless planetary perturbation theory motivated by the atmosphere, Rayleigh scattering albedo alters Brillouin-Wigner perturbation scheme is ex- the transmission depth up to about 0.6 µm, amined. This approach yields size-extensive but the change in the transmission depth energy and avoid intruder-state problems due to forward scattering by cloud or haze in a natural manner. It allows relaxation is significant throughout the optical and of the reference space wave function in the near-infrared regions. The model is com- presence of the perturbation, which produces pared with observational data for a few hot an important differential effect on the energy Jupiters, which may help with constructing and cannot be neglected for quasi-degenerate better retrieval models in the future. electronic states. The Auger and Coster-Kronig transitions A mechanism for pulsar radio emission was (related to double ionization potentials) of no- developed which takes into account of the de- ble gas elements have been analyzed using tailed viewing geometry of pulsars and dipo- the relativistic coupled cluster method. The lar magnetic field configuration. The model resulting Auger and Coster-Kronig lines are can explain the enhanced radiation and most found to be in accord with the experimen- of the diverse polarization properties of radio tal data and with other reference theoreti- pulsars. The estimated brightness tempera- cal estimates. Interestingly, the coupled clus- ture of 1025 K seems to agree with the ob- ∼ ter and the multi - configuration Dirac- Fock servations. The polarization angle predicted calculations exhibit an inversion in the triple by the model is in good agreement with the P energy levels of the Xenon atom where rotating vector model. the triplet state energies appear in the order 20 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

An evolution model of the central black 40, M82 X-1, XTEJ 1550-564, 4U 1630-47, hole was built that depends on the processes and GRS 1915+105, to extract the parame- of gas accretion, the capture of stars, mergers, ters {e, rp, a, Q}, where rp is the periastron and electromagnetic torque (see Figure 2.9). distance of the orbit, and a is the spin of the In the case of gas accretion in the presence black hole (see Figure 2.10). The results com- of cooling sources, the flow is momentum- pare well with the model of fluid flow in the driven, after which the black hole reaches a general relativistic thin accretion disk in the saturated mass; subsequently, it grows only edge region, which is suggested as responsible by stellar capture and mergers. The evolu- for the launch of the QPOs. tion of the mass and spin with the initial seed The conditions for a non-equatorial eccen- mass and spin in ΛCDM cosmology is mod- tric bound orbit to exist around a Kerr black eled. For stellar capture, a power-law density hole in two-parameter spaces, are derived in profile for the stellar cusp was assumed in a terms of the energy, angular momentum of framework of relativistic loss cone theory that the test particle, spin of the black hole, and includes the effects of black hole spin, Carter’s Carter’s constant space (E, L, a, Q), and ec- constant, loss cone angular momentum, and centricity, inverse-latus rectum space (e, µ, a, capture radius. Based on this, the predicted Q). These conditions distribute various kinds 5 6 1 capture rates of 10− to 10− yr− are closer of bound orbits in different regions of the (E, to the observed range. Merger activity is ef- L) and (e, µ) planes, depending on which fective for z 4, and the Blandford–Znajek pair of roots of the effective potential forms a torque was included. Before saturation, accre- bound orbit. These are useful inputs to study tion dominates the black hole growth ( 95% bound trajectory evolution in various astro- ∼ of the final mass), and subsequently, stellar physical applications like simulations of gravi- capture and mergers take over with roughly tational wave emission from the extreme-mass equal contributions. The simulations of the ratio in spirals, relativistic precession around evolution of the M –σ relation using these black holes, and the study of gyroscope pre- • effects are consistent with available observa- cession as a test of general relativity. tions. The model is evolved backward in time A magnetohydrostatic (MHS) equilibrium to retrodict the parameters at formation; this model was constructed of a vertical axisym- theory will provide useful inputs for building metric flux tube with a twisted magnetic field demographics of the black holes and in forma- that expands as it spans from the photo- tion scenarios involving stellar capture. sphere to the transition region in a strati- The Relativistic Precession (RP) model is fied solar atmosphere subject to solar grav- expanded to include non-equatorial and ec- ity. Using a self-similar formulation and a centric trajectories and apply it to Quasi- quadratic form of the flux function for the gas periodic oscillations (QPOs) in black hole X- pressure and poloidal current, expressed as a ray binaries (BHXRB) and associate their second order polynomial of the flux function frequencies with the fundamental frequencies for the magnetic shape function, the Grad- of the general case of non-equatorial (with Shafranov equation (GSE) was solved analyt- Carter’s constant, Q =0) and eccentric (e = ically. Incorporating the appropriate bound- 0) particle trajectories, around a Kerr black ary conditions, a closed field configuration hole. The cases of BHXRB with either two of the flux tube was built. Using the in- or three simultaneous QPOs in their Fourier put parameter space, which is consistent with power spectrum are studied, e.g. GROJ 1655-

21 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 2.9: Important radii corresponding to all the processes contributing to the growth of the black hole are shown for M = 104 106M Courtesy: Bhattacharyya & Mangalam, ApJ, • − 2020.

1.0 agreement with the observations for magnetic bright points (MBPs). The obtained closed 0.8 field model can be used to construct a realistic structure like a magnetic canopy. The 3D 0.6 Horizon configuration of the magnetic field lines are a Light radius shown in Figure 2.11. 0.4 MBCO Tidal disruption events (TDEs) can be ISCO 0.2 used to build the black hole mass function (BHMF) using the inferred TDE rates from

0.0 various surveys. A steady accretion models 1 2 3 4 5 6 with time-varying accretion rate is used to rp obtain the peak bolometric luminosity Lp at Figure 2.10: The equatorial eccentric or- time tp. Assuming a trend for subsequent 5/3 bit solutions for QPOs observed in BHXRB luminosity to be L = Lp(t/tp)− , steady loss GROJ 1655-40 (purple), XTEJ 1550-564 cone model for the theoretical capture rate ˙ (cyan), 4U 1630-47 (brown), and GRS of stars Nt, the Schechter luminosity func- α1 Q =0 tion Φ(L)=Φ(L/L)− exp ( L/L), the 1915+105 (orange) for . − Faber-Jackson law and the M σ relation, • − the TDE detection rates for ASAS-SN, PTF, the observations, the magnetic and thermo- iPTF, PS-MDS and GALEX are estimated. dynamic structure of the ﬂux tube was cal- Based on a statistical survey of TDE host culated, which is found to be in reasonable properties and black hole mass and redshift

22 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

4 1 theory ( 10− yr− ) can be explained by a ∼ statistical average of N˙ t over BHMF.

2.5 Experimental Astro- physics and Instrumen- tation

A Near-Infrared photometer for the 40- inch telescope: A near-infrared (0.9-1.85 microns) photometer for studying bright variable stars has been designed, developed and tested on the 40-inch Carl Zeiss telescope. This instrument is optimized for its use at a low altitude site like Kavalur and will cater to observations of bright sources which satu- Figure 2.11: The 3D geometry of 10 differ- rate conventional infrared detectors. The in- ent magnetic field lines for self-similar closed strument uses an InGaAs PIN photoodiode field flux tube model. The left and right (Hamamatsu-G12181-203K) detector, IRWG columns show the side and top view of the con- filters from Omega Opticals, and optome- figuration. The domain of the simulation box chanical components from Edmund Optics. is 0.5 x 0.5, 0.5 y 0.5, where the − ≤ ≤ − ≤ ≤ InGaAs sensors provide low dark currents x and y axes are scaled in units of 500 km. even without thermoelectric cooling, making The vertical domain is 0 z 1 where the ≤ ≤ the photometer simple, light-weight and easy z axis is scaled in units of 2 Mm. Courtesy; to operate. Sen, Samrat & Mangalam, A, ApJ, 2019. The optical design of the collimator- camera type re-imaging system was done distributions and considering four priors re- using Zeemax. An uncooled electrometer- sulting from the combinations of two variants amplifier was designed and fabricated to for the form of M = kσn, where k and n are • amplify the signal coming from the photo- constants, and two variants for the form of the diode. A stepper motor controller for the duty cycle and comparing with the observed filter slider mechanism and data aquisition rates, the Schechter parameters are found to 3 1 system were also developed. A CAD model be φ(Mpc− ),α1,L(erg s− ) = 3.01 {4 46 } { × of the complete instrument was constructed 10− , 0.718, 2.49 10 for n =4.86 4 × } 46 before fabrication. The entire optomechan- and 1.12 10− , 0.859, 5.35 10 for { × × } ical system was assembled in-house. Some n =4.38. The useful by-products of this components such as the mounting flange and method designed to build the black hole mass the side walls were machined to the desired functions are intermediate formulae which are specification in the VBO workshop. survey (in)dependent and can be applied for Various sub-systems of the instrument were larger data sets that will be soon available in tested and fine-tuned in our laboratory at the future. It is shown that the rate tension 5 1 Bengaluru. The instrument was then taken to between the observations ( 10− yr− ) and ∼

23 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Kavalur and mounted on the 40-inch (1.02m) telescope on February 12th, 2020 for on-site tests. The photometer had its ﬁrst light observations on the star Sirius on February 25th. Currently, standard stars are being observed for better characterization of the instrument capabilities. The photometer should be ready for use by observers during the upcoming winter season. This instrumentation project is the Ph.D thesis work of Anwesh Kumar Mishra.

Figure 2.12: A cross-sectional view of the photometer mounted on the 40-inch telescope showing various components.

24 3 Student Programmes and Training Activities

Student programmes at the institute are was first signed in 2008, and has been re- carried out by the Board of Graduate Studies. newed twice – in 2014 and 2020. This collab- The Ph.D. programme in collaboration with oration was done to combine the strength of Pondicherry University, Puducherry and the Department of Applied Optics and Pho- M.Tech.-PhD. programme in collaboration tonics of CU with the astronomy expertise of with the University of Calcutta, Kolkata are IIA in order to progress in the area of Astro- the major academic pillars of IIA. nomical Instrumentation. The student intake The MoU with Pondicherry University happens once a year, in July. The process (PU) for collaboration in areas of Astronomy and results are similar to that given above and Astrophysics was first signed in 2009, (four students have joined in July 2019). The and was renewed for another 10 years in M.Tech courses are taught at IIA and CU. For 2019. Student intake happens twice every practical experience, students have to carry year – in January and August. Student out internships at various field stations of IIA selection is done on the basis of academic and undertake a project. Only those students record, performance in national screening scoring above a certain grade are eligible to tests, and interview. The competition being study further for their Ph.D. The research high, only around 4-5 students join in each work for Ph.D is carried out under the su- session (three and two students have joined in pervision of a faculty member of IIA and the August 2019 and January 2020, respectively). degree is awarded by CU. Our student attrition rate is low, so a similar Some students of the Joint Astronomy Pro- number submit and successfully defend their gramme carry out their research under the thesis. Students joining the programme carry guidance of our faculty. We also train stu- out their pre-Ph.D coursework at IIA. Then dents through short term programmes such they join their thesis supervisor, who is a as the Visiting Students Programme, Summer faculty at IIA. The research work is carried School and Summer Project. out at IIA and the degree is awarded by PU. Under the MoU, IIA faculty undertake some teaching and training of students of the M.Sc 3.1 PhD Degree Awarded Astrophysics specialisation of PU. The MoU with University of Calcutta (CU) Joice Mathew successfully defended (on April 17, 2019) his thesis titled “Ultra Violet

25 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Space Instrumentation and Studies of Astro- Astronomy" submitted to the University of nomical Objects” submitted to the University Calcutta. He carried out this work under the of Calcutta. He carried out this work under supervision of R. Ramesh. the supervision of Jayant Murthy. Sandeep K Kataria successfully defended Ambily S successfully defended (on June 18, (on December 2, 2019) his thesis titled "The 2019) his thesis titled "Development of Detec- formation and Evolution of Bars, and its tors for Space Missions and Balloon Flights" Impact on Glalaxy Dynamcs" submitted to submitted to the University of Calcutta. She the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore. carried out this work under the supervision of He carried out this work under the super- Jayant Murthy. vision of Mousumi Das and Tarun Deep Saini, I.I.Sc. under the Joint Astronomy Avinash Surendran successfully defended Programme (JAP), IISc., Bangalore. (on July 12, 2019) his thesis titled "Develop- ment of a scalable generic platform for adap- Subhamoy Chatterjee successfully de- tive optics real time control" submitted to fended (on December 24, 2019) his thesis the University of Calcutta. He carried out titled "Characterizing Image Quality of Solar this work under the supervision of Padmakar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope On Board Singh Parihar & A. N. Ramprakash, IUCAA, Aditya L1-Mission and Long-term Study of Pune. The Sun" submitted to the University of Calcutta. He carried out this work under the Nancy Narang successfully defended (on supervision of Dipankar Banerjee. August 22, 2019) her thesis titled "Study of Small-Scale Features observed in Solar Atmo- Ramya M Anche successfully defended (on sphere" submitted to Pondicherry University. January 13, 2020) her thesis titled "Determi- She carried out this work under the supervi- nation of Polarimetric Capabilities of Astro- sion of Dipankar Banerjee. nomical Telescopes" submitted to the Univer- sity of Calcutta. She carried out this work Sindhu N successfully defended (on August under the supervision of G. C. Anupama. 28, 2019) her thesis titled "Multiwavelength study of old open clusters: NGC188 and M67" Priyanka Rani successfully defended (on submitted to the Vellore Institute of Technol- January 21, 2020) her thesis titled "Temporal ogy (VIT), Vellore. She carried out this work and Spectral Characteristics of Active Galac- under the supervision of Annapurni Subrama- tic Nuclei in X – rays using NuSTAR" submit- niam & Anuradha C, VIT, Vellore. ted to Pondicherry University. She carried out this work under the supervision of C.S.Stalin. Joby P.K. successfully defended (on Septem- ber 18, 2019) his thesis titled "Confronting Rubinur Khatun successfully defended (on physics of the early Universe with cosmologi- February 12, 2020) her thesis titled "A Ra- cal observations" submitted to the University dio and Ultraviolet Study of Dual Nuclei in of Calicut. He carried out this work under the Galaxies" submitted to Pondicherry Univer- supervision of Pravabati Chingangbam. sity. She carried out this work under the supervision of Mousumi Das. V. Mugundhan successfully defended (on November 20, 2019) his thesis titled "Design Singam Srikanth Panini successfully de- of Digital Receivers for low Frequency Radio

26 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Table 3.1: Number of PhD degrees awarded Hemanth Pruthvi submitted his thesis over the past ﬁve years. titled "Design and Development of Chromo- spheric Vector Magnetograph for Sunspot Year No. Studies" to the University of Calcutta on May April 2015 - March 2016 10 14, 2019. The research was done under the April 2016 - March 2017 5 supervision of B.Ravindra and K.Nagaraju. April 2017 - March 2018 7 April 2018 - March 2019 9 Sireesha Chamarathi submitted her thesis April 2019 - March 2020 14 titled "High Precision Radial Velocity Studies Total 45 on VBT Echelle Spectrograph" to the Uni- versity of Calcutta on August 21, 2019. The research was done under the supervision of fended (on February 20, 2020) his thesis ti- Ravinder K Banyal and Gajendra Pandey. tled "Design and development of multilayer X-ray optics” submitted to the University of Sreekanth Reddy V submitted his thesis Calcutta. He carried out this work under the titled “Development of High Resolution Sys- supervision of P. Sreekumar. tem for Stellar Imaging" to the University of Calcutta on August 21, 2019. The research was done under the supervision of Ravinder K Banyal and B. Ravindra.

Snehalata Sahu submitted her thesis titled "UV stellar populations in Globular Clus- ters: Horizontal Branch Morphology and Blue Straggler Stars" to the Pondicherry Univer- sity on September 27, 2019. The research was done under the supervision of Annapurni Sub- ramaniam.

Figure 3.1: Number of PhD degrees awarded Chayan Mondal submitted his thesis titled over the past ﬁve years. "Multi-wavelength Study of star Formation in Nearby Galaxies" to the Pondicherry Univer- sity on September 27, 2019. The research was done under the supervision of Annapurni Sub- 3.2 PhD Theses Submitted ramaniam.

The following students have submitted their Anshu Kumari submitted her thesis titled Ph.D. thesis: "Radio Polarimetric Imaging of the Solar Corona at Low Frequencies" to the Univer- Avrajit Bandyopadhyay submitted his sity of Calcutta on December 19, 2019. The thesis titled "Study of Milky Way Halo research was done under the supervision of stars and connection to globular clusters" to C. Kathiravan. Pondicherry University on April 25, 2019. The research was done under the supervision Avinash Singh submitted his thesis titled of T.Sivarani. "Observational study of a Core-Collapse

27 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Supernovae" to the Indian Institute of Sci- ance of S Sriram, submitted his thesis titled ences, Bangalore on January 10, 2020. The "Study on the Eﬀects of Mount Induced Er- research was done under the supervision of rors, Tmeperature Induced Errors and Baisc G.C.Anupama and Prateek Sharma, I.I.Sc. Alignment Errors of TMT Primary Mirror under the Joint Astronomy Programme Segments on the Image Quality Using PSSN (JAP), IISc., Bangalore. Metric".

Samrat Sen submitted his thesis titled Sarthak Choudhary, under the guidance "Twisted Magnetic Fluxtubes in the Sun" to of B Ravindra, submitted his thesis titled Pondicherry University on Jaunary 13, 2020. "Study and Design of a Soft X-ray Imager and The research was done under the supervision Spectrometer for Observation of Non-Flaring of Arun Mangalam. Sun".

Dipanweeta Bhattacharyya submitted her Surayadevara Pruthvi, under the guidance thesis titled "Cosmic evolution of black holes of B Raghavendra Prasad, submitted his the- and the M.- sigma relation" to Pondicherry sis titled "Calibration of Subsystems of Visi- University on January 13, 2020. The research ble Emission Line Coronagraph". was done under the supervision of Arun Man- galam. Vishnu M, under the guidance of Dipankar Banerjee, submitted his thesis titled "Calibra- tion of spectral channels for VELC onboard 3.3 Completion of MTech ADITYA-L1 and preparing datapipeline". programme 3.4 School in Physics and All seven students from the 11th batch of the IIA-CU integrated M.Tech-Ph.D programme Astrophysics have completed their M.Tech. Course in July 2019. The Summer School held at Kodaikanal Solar Observatory is a yearly activity coordinated Bharat Chandra P, under the guidance of by the Board of Graduate Studies, IIA. The Jayant Murthy, submitted his thesis titled main aim of the school is to introduce stu- "Development of 6U Spectrograph Payload dents of M.Sc, B.E./B.Tech. degree courses for NUV Studies". to the ﬁeld of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and to motivate them to take up a career in Bane Kshitij Suhas Trupti, under the Astronomy and Astrophysics. M.Sc students guidance of R Ramesh, submitted his thesis of Pondicherry University who have opted for titled "Development of radio antenna array the Astrophysics specialisation also partici- and receiver system for observations of Pul- pate in this activity. The school consists of sars at Low Radio Frequencies". a series of lectures covering various topics in Harsh Mathur, under the guidance of K Astronomy and Astrophysics, tutorials, visits Nagaraju, submitted his thesis titled "Single to labs and science facilities in the observa- Shot Solar Spectroscopic Design Aspects". tory and other academic interactions. This year the school was held during May 20 to Soumya Bandyopadhyay, under the guid- June 2, 2019 and had thirty ﬁve participants

28 Indian Institute of Astrophysics from all over India. under the guidance of Smitha Subrama- A subset of the participants are selected to nian. carry out month-long projects at Bangalore or Sachin P - "Evaluation of Plane- other field stations. This year seventeen stu- tary Boundary Layer (PBL) height dents did their summer projects during June using multi-reanalysis data against the 2019. CALIOP observations over Hanle and [1] Summer Projects carried out at Merak sites" under the guidance of N. S. IIA, Bangalore Shantikumar. Shikhar Asthana - "Automatic [2] Summer Projects carried out at Ko- sigmoid detection from Carrington daikanal Solar Observatory maps" under the guidance of Dipankar Aiswarya Ramachandran - “Deter- Banerjee. mining the sunspot group number for Himanshu Grover - "Why galaxies the solar cycle 19 to 24 using Kodikanal stop forming stars?" under the guidance Observatory White-Light Images” un- of Sudhanshu Barway. der the guidance of B. Ravindra & P. Kumaravel. Mrinalini Singh - "Mining and analysis of GALEX and SDSS photometric data" Richita Ghosh - “Solar filaments and its under the guidance of Jayant Murthy. Cycle” under the guidance of B. Ravindra & P. Kumaravel. Antareep Gogoi - "Ultra-violet View of Globular Clusters" under the guidance of Susrisangita Patra – “Fourier filtering Gajendra Pandey. technique to remove fringes from Ca II K spectral data recorded using the Ko- Eshita Banerjee - "Accretion proper- daikanal Tower Tunnel telescope (KTT)” ties of Pre-main sequence stars of Orion under the guidance of K. Nagaraju. cluster with future UV mission" under the guidance of Maheswar Gopinathan. Valliamai R. M – “Variation of photospheric and chromospheric magnetic field Sowmya Bhowmick - “Chemical abun- v/s sunspot radius” under the guidance dances in nova ejecta” under the guidance of K.Nagaraju. of U. S. Kamath. Archana Aravindan – “Helicity storage Mayukh Chowdhury - "Automated as a flux rope formation and its eruption Technique for the Detection of Sigmoidal from solar active regions” under the guid- filaments from Carrington Maps" under ance of Vemareddy Panditi. the guidance of Dipankar Banerjee. Shifana Koya - "Cross-correlation [3] Summer Projects carried out at tracking vs Centroid tracking for im- VBO, Kavalur age stabilization systems" under the Abhay Hareendran – “Estimation of guidance of R. Sridharan. radial velocity of a star using High Res- Arabinda Sahoo - "Search for massive olution Echelle Spectrograph” under the compact relic galaxies in local universe" guidance of G. Selvakumar.

29 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Teja Vardhan Reddy – “High Reso- terization of the correlation between op- lution Spectroscopic data analysis tech- tical and gamma-ray flux variations in niques” under the guidance of G. Sel- bright flat spectrum radio quasars.” vakumar. Vikrant Jadhav gave a talk on "UVIT catalog of open clusters with machine 3.5 Visiting Students Pro- learning based membership probability" gramme Partha Pratim Goswami gave a talk on "Metal-poor stars and neutron- This is conducted with an aim to promote capture nucleosynthesis". scientific research interest in college and uni- Ritesh Patel gave a talk on “CMEs versity students. Selected students work on identification in Inner Solar Corona” specific projects that form a part of ongoing research at IIA, either at the main campus in Saraswathi Kalyani presented a poster Bangalore or our field stations. Students car- "Correlation interferometer set-up for rying out their Ph.D. in Universities, and will- observing the Sun in Ku band". ing to visit IIA for collaborative research are Deepak presented a poster “Evolution of also encouraged to apply for this programme. lithium in the Milky Way” During 2019 – 2020, forty seven (47) students did their projects under the guidance of the Indrani Pal presented a poster titled various academic staff members. ’Coronal temperature variation in Active Fifteen students selected under the Sum- Galactic Nuclei’ mer Research Fellowship Programme of the Anirban Dutta gave a talk ‘Obser- Indian Academy of Sciences did their projects vational’Studies of Type Ia Supernovae under the guidance of IIA faculty at various SN2017hpa” times during May to July 2019. Chayan Mondal presented a poster titled ’Tracing young star forming clumps 3.6 Student participation in the earby flocculent spiral galaxy NGC in National Meetings / 7793 with UVIT’ Workshops / Confer- Kshitij Bane Suhas presented a poster “Instrumentation for observations of Pul- ences sars at Low Radio Frequencies.”

[1] Following students participated in Sioree Ansar presented a poster “Mod- the 38th meeting of the Astronom- eling Observations of Galaxy Halos with ical Society of India held at IISER Simulations” Tirupati, Tirupati during 1 Febru- Shejeelammal J gave a talk “Chemical ary 2020: and kinematic analysis of metal-deﬁcient Jyoti presented a poster “UVIT study of barium stars”. star forming regions in spiral galaxies.” Piyali Saha gave a talk “A census of Bhoomika presented a poster “Charac- young stellar population associated with the Herbig Be star HD 200775” 30 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[2] Following students participated in Dipanweeta Bhattacharyya gave a the Young Astronomers Meet held talk "Spin and mass evolution of the at Kodaikanal during 23-27 Septem- black hole" ber 2019: Indrani Pal presented a poster titled Ankit Kumar gave a talk “Effect of ’Coronal temperature variation in AGN’ Flyby Interactions on the Bulges of the Galaxies” [4] Following students participated in the IRIS -10 meeting held during Sandeep K Kataria gave a talk "The November 4-10, 2019 in Bengaluru: effect of bulges on bar formation and bar pattern speed in disk galaxies " Harsh Mathur presented a poster "Morphologic dynamics of an evolving Sandeep K Kataria presented on "Can pore observed by GREGOR" bars erode cuspy halos?" Manoj Varma S.V gave a talk on Partha Pratim Goswami gave a talk "Testing the flare localization algorithm on " CEMP-r/s stars and intermediate for Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope neutron-capture process". (SUIT), using AIA and IRIS images" Kshitij Bane Suhas gave a talk “Devel- Sahel Dey gave a talk “Modeling the So- opment od radio antenna array and re- lar Spicule Forest” ceiver system for observations of Pulsars at Low Radio“ [5] Following students participated Sioree Ansar gave a talk “Enhanced 21- in the meeting “MODEST-20” at cm Power Spectrum due to inhomoge- TIFR, Mumbai during 4-Feb-2020: neous CMB heating of gas during Dark Vikrant Jadhav gave a talk "Evidence Ages” of post-mass transfer binaries containing extremely low mass white dwarfs in the Deepthi S Prabhu presented a poster open cluster M67" “Exploring the Enigmatic Hot Stellar Population in Globular Cluster NGC Deepthi S Prabhu gave a talk "The 2808 using UVIT". She won the second first extensive exploration of UV bright prize. stars in the globular cluster NGC 2808"

Fazlu Rahman P.P gave a talk “Gaus- [6] Following students participated sianity and Statistical Isotropy of Haslam in the international conference 408 MHz Map” ‘150 years of the periodic table: Chemical elements in the Universe: [3] Following students participated in origin and evolution’ held from the conference ’REcent Trends in December16 to 19, 2019 at Indian the study of Compact Objects - IV’ Institute of Astrophysics: during 17 - 20 April 2019, at IU- CAA, Pune, India: Partha Pratim Goswami gave a talk Prerna Rana gave a talk ‘A dynamical "i-process nucleosynthesis: observational model for QPO frequencies in BHXRB” evidences from CEMP stars”

31 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Anirban Bhowmick gave a talk titled and Ground based Instruments” held at ’Fluorine in Extreme Helium Stars’ Kodaikanal Solar Observatory during January 6, 2020 to 17 January 2020. Shejeelammal J, gave a talk “[Rb/Zr] ratio in Ba stars as a diagnostics of the Chayan Mondal attended the work- companion AGB star nucleosynthesis” shop ’WStars’ at MG University, Kerala, between 10 - 12 January 2020. Sharmila Rani, gave a talk “Exploring the formation mechanism of extreme hor- Dipanweeta Bhattacharyya and izontal branch stars” Prerna Rana attended the discussion meeting on ‘Astrophysics of Supermas- [7] Following students delivered talks sive Black Holes’ during 17 December at various institutions within the 2019, at ICTS, Bangalore, India. country: Vikrant Jadhav gave a talk " Study of Indrani Pal participated in a confer- Star clusters in the Magellanic Bridge” at ence on Transient Astronomy during 11- the Magellanic Clouds meeting, IIA 19 12 November 2019, organised by Space December 2019. Astronomy Group, U R Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru. Fazlu Rahman P.P gave a talk on “Gaussianity and Statistical Isotropy of [8] Student participation in Interna- Galactic Synchrotron at 408 MHz” at the tional Meetings/ Conferences / Workshop on Geometric and Topological Workshops and collaborative visits Methods for Cosmological Data Analysis, Fazlu Rahman P.P presented a poster 20-23 July 2019, NISER Bhubaneswar, “Statistical Isotropy and Gaussianity of Odisha Haslam 408 MHz Map” in the ‘B-mode Partha Pratim Goswami gave a talk from Space’ Conference, Max Planck In- "Nucleosynthesis in Carbon Enhanced stitute for Astrophysics, Garching, Mu- Metal Poor Stars " at the One day nich. Indo-Thai Workshop on "Investigating Megha A gave a talk at the Solar Polar- the Stellar Variability and Star Forma- ization Workshop-9, at Max Planck In- tion" held on March 02, 2020 at ARIES, stitute for Solar System Research, Ger- Nainital. many, from from 26-30 August, 2019. Anirban Dutta presented a poster Megha A participated in an inter- ‘Photometric and Spectroscopic Obser- national school on Solar Spectropo- vations of type Ia Supernovae’ at the larimetry from September 9 to 14, 2019, conference “Applications of Data Science Lugano, Switzerland. in Astrophysics and Gravitational Wave research” held at IIIT, Allahabad on 1 Harsh Mathur participated in Solarnet Nov 2019. School: Solar spectropolarimetry: From virtual to real observations from Sept. 9- Samriddhi Sankar Maity attended 14, 2019 at Lugano, Switzerland. the COSPAR Capacity Building Work- shop “Coronal and Interplanetary M. Pavana gave an oral presentation Shocks: Analysis of Data from Space on "Geometry of nova ejecta" at the

32 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

IAU 357 symposium on White Dwarfs as Surveys, Shanghai, China. probes of fundamental physics and trac- Sahel Dey presented a poster titled, ers of planetary, stellar and galactic evo- "Dynamics of chromospheric jets in the lution at Hilo, Hawaii, USA from 21-25 realistic solar atmospheric simulation" at October 2019. XXXI Canary Islands Winter School of Ankit Kumar presented a poster “The Astrophysics, Universe in a Box, La La- Evolution of Galaxy Bulges in Minor In- guna, Tenerife, Spain 9th-19th Novem- teractions” at IAUS 353: Galactic Dy- ber, 2019. namics in the Era of Large Surveys held during June 28 - July 07, 2019 at Shang- hai, China. 3.7 Awards and Recogni- Ritesh Patel presented a poster tion “Onboard automated CME detection algorithm for Visible Emission Line Fazlu Rahman P.P won the best poster Coronagraph in Aditya-L1” at the con- award for his poster “Statistical Isotropy and ference “Towards Future Research on Gaussianity of Haslam 408 MHz Map” at the Space Weather Drivers” held at San Tonale Winter School on Cosmology, 9-13 De- Juan, Argentina, 2-7 July 2019. cember 2019, Passo de Tonale, Italy. Ritesh Patel selected for the SCOSTEP Vis- Sandeep K Kataria presented a poster iting Scholar program which is a capacity "Can bars erode cuspy halos?" at "Galac- building activity of SCOSTEP, NASA God- tic Dynamics in the Era of Large Sur- dard Space Flight Center, USA, Duration: vey" conference organised by SHAO and October-December 2019. SJTU from June 30th to July 5th, 2019 at Shanghai, China. Satabdwa Majumdar received the "Best Poster Award from the Indian Academy of Deepak gave a talk on “ Lithium en- Sciences for the discipline Sun and the Solar richment in the Galaxy: A study using System" on the 38th meeting of the Astro- the GALAH and Gaia surveys” at the nomical Society of India, 2020 held at IISER meeting ‘Lithium in the Universe: to Be Tirupati. The poster titled: "Connecting 3D or Not to Be’ at Observatory of Rome, Kinematics of slow and fast CMEs to their Monte Porzio Catone, Italy from 18th to source regions: A preparatory study for the 22nd November 2019. ADITYA L1 mission". Deepak presented a poster titled, Deepthi S. Prabhu received the 2nd Prize "Lithium enrichment in the Galaxy: A in the poster presentation competition at study of RGB stars using the GALAH YAM-2019 held at Kodaikanal during 23-27 and Gaia survey" at the International September 2019. The poster titled: "Explor- Astronomical Union Symposium 353: ing the Enigmatic Hot Stellar Population in Galactic Dynamics in the Era of Large Globular Cluster NGC 2808 Using UVIT".

33 4 Instruments and Facilities

4.1 System Engineering (VELC) payload on Aditya satellite, at Indian Space Research Organization Group (ISRO), and development of a detector system and digital mirror device (DMD) The System Engineering Group (SEG) is sup- controller for the INSIST project. porting major activities of the Institute like infrastructure creation, involvement in sci- The Electrical Engineering and Services • entific projects related to ground based and Section was involved in the installation of space based instrumentation and their main- new LT metering panel and up-gradation tenance activities. The SEG consists of en- of old energy meters into digital me- gineers and technical staff belonging to Elec- ters at the staff quarters at Banasawadi tronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Elec- road, Bengaluru and work on office rooms trical, Civil and Optics Divisions who provide which were refurbished at IIA, Koraman- support in the design, development, operation gala, in addition to the regular mainte- and maintenance of telescopes, their instru- nance work ensuring electrical power sup- ments and peripherals. ply round the clock. Highlights of major activities carried out by the SEG during the year 2019 -2020 are:

The optics division was involved in the • design of a Multi-Object Slit Spectro- graph for proposed future UV mission, Indian Spectroscopic and Imaging Space Telescope (INSIST) and the design of the primary mirror for the National Large Optical Telescope and Maunakea Spec- troscopic Explorer (MSE). Figure 4.1: The installation of new LT me- The Electronics and Instrumentation • tering panel at the staﬀ quarters at Bana- Division team participated in the realiza- sawadi raod, Bengaluru. tion of the detector system hardware for the Visible Emission Line Coronograph

34 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Civil Engineering Section carried out the Institute (CEERI), Pilani. Members • renovation of the 2nd floor of the UPS from the Electronics and Instrumenta- Building for India Thirty Meter Tele- tion division and Electrical Engineering scope (I-TMT) project office and reno- and Services Section participated in this vation of two guest rooms for the Aditya programme. and the TMT projects at IIA, Koraman- gala. 4.2 Observatories The barbed wire fencing around the Cen- • tre for Research & Education in Sci- 4.2.1 Indian Astronomical Ob- ence & Technology (CREST) campus at Hosakote, is getting replaced with a stone servatory (IAO) compound wall to enhance safety. Half of the perimeter has been completed and Himalayan Chandra Telescope the rest will be taken up shortly. The 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope Campus survey work of the Vainu (HCT) at Indian Astronomical Observatory • Bappu Observatory (VBO) at Kavalur (IAO) Mt. Saraswati, Digpa-ratsa Ri, Hanle was taken up and completed. is located at an altitude of 4500 m (15000 ft) above mean sea level. It is remotely operated Concrete road work inside Kodaikanal • using a dedicated satellite communication link Solar Observatory (KSO) campus of IIA, from the CREST campus, Hosakote, which is Kodaikanal was also done. located about 35 km northeast of Bengaluru. The mechanical engineering division was With a low atmospheric water vapour con- • involved in the design and analysis of the tent, Hanle is one of the best sites in the world mechanical configuration of the INSIST, for observations in infrared wavelengths. Cur- development of M1 system of the MSE rently three instruments are available for the which includes the analysis of subsystems scientific community - the Hanle Faint Ob- such as the segment support assembly, ject Spectrograph Camera (HFOSC), the NIR and design and fabrication of a new filter Imaging Spectrograph (TIRSPEC), and the wheel system for the 0.7m GIT. Hanle Echelle Spectrograph (HESP). The HCT has been a very productive In order to improve the quality of hu- telescope in the country. Because of its capa- • man resources, members of the division bilities of medium and high resolution optical were provided training in technical and spectroscopy, imaging and low resolution management subjects. The management spectroscopy in near infrared band, a large training programme titled: “Emotional number of astronomers submit proposals for Intelligence at Workplace for Scien- telescope time to make observations with tists/Technologists” was conducted at the instruments. During May 2019 – April the Centre for Organization Develop- 2020, on an average, the telescope time was ment (COD), Hyderabad in February over subscribed by a factor of 2.5, while 2020. The technical training programme the dark moon period was over subscribed on FPGA was arranged at the centre by a factor of 3. For 2019-Cycle2 (2019 for electronics engineering and research May–August) 55 proposals, 2019-Cycle3

35 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

(2019 September–December) 52 proposals dor iKon-XL-230, thermoelectrically cooled and 2020-Cycle1 (2020 January–April) 45 CCD is installed at one of the ports along proposals were received. with a filter-wheel of wide field imaging ca- Annual maintenance of the 2m HCT, the pabilities in u ,g ,r ,i ,z filters. GIT can be vacuum coating plant and other auxiliary sys- operated in either robotic or manual mode. tems at IAO was carried out during August The default mode is the robotic mode with 2019. queue-based observations. The data acquired The process for upgrade of the telescope is stored at IAO and is downloaded in real- control system and the drive of the secondary time at the processing unit situated at IIT mirror of the HCT is progressing. In re- Bombay via the satellite link to the CREST sponse to the call for expression of interest to Campus of IIA. As soon as the data is down- carry out the feasibility study of the telescope loaded, the automated processing is done in refurbishment, a good number of proposals real-time. Apart from the usual queue-based were received. One vendor was identified to mode, GIT also has a Target of Opportunity conduct the feasibility study. The feasibility (ToO) mode of observation. study was carried out and a detailed report The last one year has been very fruitful received. The evaluation of feasibility study for GIT in terms of scientific results. With report and defining the final strategy for the the automated observation and data reduc- upgrade is in progress. tion capacities, GIT has successfully followed An online proposal management system up a few gravitational wave alerts from Laser (IPS) was developed in-house for IIA’s observ- Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observa- ing facilities (VBO and IAO). The proposal tory (LIGO-VIRGO) collaboration, gamma management system was deployed and it is ray bursts (GRBs) afterglow search in opti- being used since 2019-Cycle3 (2019 Septem- cal bands and young supernovae. ber–December). This system has streamlined the proposal submission and evaluation pro- 4.2.2 Merak site at Ladakh cess. The location of Merak, a place near the Pan- GROWTH India Telescope gong Tso lake in the Ladakh which is situated at an elevation of 4,225 m (13,862 ft), is iden- Located at the IAO, the Global Relay of tified as the site for the National Large Solar Observatories Watching Transients Happen Telescope. A number of instruments mainly (GROWTH) India Telescope (GIT) is India’s for the site characterization are installed here. first fully robotic optical telescope and is part Instruments such as an automatic weather of an international collaboration. The tele- station, an all-sky camera, a Solar Differen- scope was installed and commissioned in the tial Image Motion Monitor (SDIMM), and summer of 2018. The project is funded by a Shadow Band Ranger (SHABAR) Scintil- DST-SERB and administered by Indo-U.S. lometers are in operational and continue to Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) un- obtain data. The SDIMM and SHABAR in- der the Partnerships for International Re- struments have made the observations for 654 search & Education (PIRE) programme. The hours spanning over the 10 months (from June GIT is a 70 cm CDK-700 Alt-Az telescope 2019 – April 2020). with focal ratio f/6.5, developed by Planewave Instruments. It has two Nasmyth ports, An- An Hα telescope, identical to the Ko-

36 Indian Institute of Astrophysics daikanal Hα telescope, is also operational the CREST campus is also being upgraded to here. The Hα telescope made observations of ﬁber network. For the security of the Campus, the chromosphere of the Sun from April 2019 CCTV cameras were installed during previ- till December 2020 spanning over 112 days. ous years, in a stand alone mode. The optical ﬁber network within the campus is being used to integrate these CCTV cameras. To strengthen the security of the Campus, construction of an ‘L’ shaped (two wings) boundary wall around the Campus is completed. The construction of the remaining two wings of the boundary wall is planned during the next year.

Figure 4.2: Hα images of a small region on the Sun taken from the Merak site.

4.2.3 Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) The observations with the HCT located at Hanle is carried out from the CREST using the point-to-point satellite link between the CREST and the IAO. The observers who have Figure 4.3: Stone wall construction around been allotted time at HCT visit the CREST the CREST campus at Hosakote. Campus for making observations. However, since mid of March 2020, due to the COVID- A Green House Gas (GHG) measurement 19 pandemic situation, it was decided to con- facility is now operational at the CREST tinue the observations in “service mode”. The Campus under an MoU signed between observers were requested to send the details CSIR–4th-Paradigm (4PI), Bengaluru and of their plan, observations were carried out IIA. This facility, established under the 12th by the observing staﬀ at the CREST and the Five Year Plan project of the CSIR consists data was sent to the proposers. of a gas calibration unit and an Automated The grid power at CREST campus is be- Weather Station installed on a 32 m tall ing augmented to meet the demands of the tower. This station is also used as a reference ITOFF in the future. In order to improve the station for calibration of the secondary internet connectivity of the CREST Campus, cylinders and other GHG instruments set the NPLS internet link was replaced with a up in the country. The facility continues to BSNL ﬁber broad-band, with a data rate of produce important data for research on green 10 Mbps. The Local Area Network (LAN) at house gases.

37 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

instrument during the eclipse period. Spectra centered around the Hα spectral line (656.28 nm) line were recorded at different phases of the eclipse. Ideally, the spectra from the region of the Sun covered by the shadow of the Moon should be devoid of any features. If any features are present, they are most likely due to stray light. The observations are expected to be useful to characterize the off-limb obser- Figure 4.4: Images taken with the WARM vations of the Sun with the KTT. telescope. (1) In G-band (430.5 nm), (2) In Ca-II K (393.3 nm). Solar north is straight up and east is to the left. The dark ’black’ 4.2.5 Vainu Bappu Observatory feature on the solar disk close to the east limb is the sunspot region NOAA 12738. The VBO is located in the Javadi hills of Tamilnadu, at an elevation of about 750 m above the mean sea level. Established in the 4.2.4 Kodaikanal Observatory 1970s, VBO hosts the 1 m Carl Zeiss Tele- Synoptic observations of the Sun are carried scope, the 1.3 m J.C. Bhattacharya Telescope out on daily basis using the Hα and the (JCBT) and the 2.3 m Vainu Bappu Tele- White-light Active Region Monitor (WARM) scope (VBT). At the prime focus of the VBT, telescopes in the Kodaikanal Observatory. CCD cameras are used for imaging in various The observations are in full-disk mode at optical wavelength bands. A high resolution 1-minute cadence. In the academic year Echelle spectrometer is in operation where 2019 - 2020 only three filament/prominence the light is fed through an optical fibre from eruptions and two small flare observations the prime focus directly to the spectrograph were carried out as there were not many slit. A spectral resolution of 70,000 has been active regions on the Sun. The total number achieved with the spectrograph in the visible of days observations were made with the wavelength range. At the Cassegrain focus, WARM telescope in this academic year an Optomechanics Research (OMR) spectro- is 216 and 62,539 images were obtained graph is used for low-to medium resolution in total. In addition to the above, daily spectroscopy. The field of view of the JCBT observations of the Sun in white light were is 30 minutes of arc and the plate scale is 20 carried out with the legacy 6-inch telescope arc sec/mm. It has three instrument ports using photographic plates. Latitudinal scan where instruments can be mounted for obser- of Ca II K (393.3 nm) spectrum of the Sun, vations. The 1m telescope is attached with a synoptic observational programme with an optical polarimeter and a medium resolu- the Kodaikanal Tower Tunnel Telescope tion Universal Astronomical Grating Spectro- (KTT) to study the long term variation graph (UAGS). of the magnetic activity on the Sun, were Observing proposals are invited from the continued. observers and based on the merit, observing The observatory witnessed an annular solar nights are scheduled. All the three telescopes eclipse on 26th of December 2019. The KTT were operated as per the allocated schedule was used to measure the stray light within the during the year 2019-2020. A severe light-

38 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 4.5: Wiring of the VBT console and replacement of the damaged components of the OMR spectrograph. ning struck on 5th May 2019 causing dam- stalled at the VBT and the older unit was ages to some of the components of the VBT. replenished to avoid break down. The guide The telescope was made fully functional after camera at 30-inch telescope developed tech- rectifying the issues with some of the console nical issues during the lightning strike which switches, control units of the telescope and was replaced with an another intensified CCD the instrument and auxiliary systems. The camera. The problems with UPS, TEK1K Fiber-fed Echelle Spectrograph setup with the CCD controller and Baldor Right Ascension telescope was restored for observations within drive amplifier were also rectified and the ob- ten days. The OMR Spectrograph, which was servations started in January, 2020. mounted during the lightning strike, suffered The Andor LUCA guide camera which was major damage to its electronic units. Grating used with the VBT Echelle spectrograph also encoder, DC-DC converter for source power malfunctioned in mid-January which was then supply, filter switch and other components replaced with the HAWK 216 EMCCD which also got damaged. The restoration of the op- is having an analog video output. The auto- eration of OMR was done by October 2019. guider setup was replaced with an indige- The JCBT used 2K 4K CCD system at nously developed Picolo card based system × the main port and ProEM CCD with the tip- along with a new software. Optics team ad- tilt instrument mounted at the west port for justed the guider alignment and fixed the ref- seeing measurements. The 4K 4K CCD203 erence point for the guiding operations. The × Red, used for the VBT Echelle observations, fibers used for the Echelle spectrograph setup was serviced recently in a clean room facil- were also relaid. ity available at the VBO by the VBO engi- Fabrication of a mounting flange, outer neering team. They also serviced the 2K 4K cover and machining of the filter holder, 45 × dewar used at the JCBT recently to rectify degree mirror holder and mounting assembly ground noise patterns seen on the images for a new near-infrared photometer was car- taken with it. A new dome drive was in-

39 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

ProEM CCD is the detector that will be used for the first phase and a server is the add-in to communicate with client with a separate data server application. The VBT Mirror Coating Plant sequential operation has been modified and tested. Cor- rections were made to improve the reading from Penning and Inficon vacuum gauges. Following the lighting strike at VBO in May 2019, technical team undertook several protective and maintenance activities to protect the facilities from such future events. The telescope buildings at VBO had employed early streamer emission air terminal (ESE) Figure 4.6: A new thermoelectrically cooled rods for protection from lightning. This was CCD Andor Newton DU920P attached with done in 2014 when the ESE rods were recom- the OMR spectrograph. mended by the designer of the building and dome for the JCBT. As per the 2016 revision of NEC/IS/IEC standards, the use of ESE rod ried out which was then mounted on to the 1 for protection of structures from lightning is m telescope for carrying out test observations. not recommended. Accordingly, the ESE rods A new thermoelectrically cooled CCD An- at the buildings of the VBT, the JCBT and dor Newton DU920P was procured for the the the 1 m Zeiss telescope were replaced with OMR spectrograph. Calibration was per- conventional Franklin rods. Reconditioning formed to estimate gain, read out noise and of old earth pits and addition of new earth dark noise for different settings of the CCD pits were carried out. Removal of roller as- in the VBO lab. After fixing the optimized sembly in the lightning down conductor path values for operation, the CCD was mounted in the VBT building and connection made on the OMR and test observations were per- through dome rail. Installation of equipoten- formed. The VBT console is now installed tial bonding of metallic structures in all tele- with two new split A/C units. scopes is being planned. Installation of Surge Two servers are planned for remote oper- protection devices at all the telescope build- ation of the JCBT, one to handle the data ings as per standard IEC 62305 has been initi- acquisition and another to handle the data ated. Maintenance and watering of earth pits transfer. The data acquisition has been tested and measurement of earth resistance periodi- for a remote client request. The data trans- cally following earthing standards and earth- fer is required at first hand to display the ing networks as per standard IS 3043. Earth image as early as possible and hence a test pits around VBT were renovated with new to get binned data at the client end from electrodes, GI pipes with copper plate and the data server was successfully done. The flats.

40 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

4.2.6 Gauribidanur Radio Ob- ception characteristics of the new antennas servatory were studied and were found to work satisfactorily. The other RF modules such as the analog front-end receivers, RF filters, Decli- Gauribidanur RAdioheliograPH nation control modules, etc. were also fab- (GRAPH) augmentation ricated in house, and are being tested. The development of FPGA based digital back end Measuring the magnetic field strength (B) system is also being carried out. in the solar corona and localizing it there is important since it plays a major role in the formation and evolution of coronal structures. Presently, the determination of B in the near-Sun corona is generally obtained by mathematical extrapolation of the observed line-of-sight component of the photospheric magnetic field. Since the circularly polarized radio emission associated with different types of non-thermal energy releases can be used to estimate B, a dedicated instrument to obtain two-dimensional images of the solar corona via its polarized radio emission would be very useful. To realize this, the existing GRAPH is currently being augmented with additional antennas having perpendicular (90 degrees) orientation with respect to the existing antennas. In this connection, 128 Log Periodic Dipole (LPD) antennas that work in the 30–120 MHz frequency range were recently fabricated in house. All of these were tested and mounted on to RCC poles in the North-South ’arm’ of the GRAPH. The orientations of the arms of Figure 4.7: GRAPH augmentation project: the new LPDs are perpendicular to those in Close-up view of the LPD antennas in mutu- the existing GRAPH array as mentioned ear- ally orthogonal orientation and the front end lier. Since the LPDs belong to the linearly po- modules. larized broadband antenna category, the new antennas shall receive the radio waves whose plane of vibration is in perpendicular direction to those received by the antennas in the Low frequency array for pulsar observa- old array. This arrangement is essential to tions measure the flux density of the polarized ra- The present understanding of Pulsars, the dio emission that are generated in the after- highly magnetized and rapidly rotating Neu- math of transient flares, Coronal Mass Ejec- tron stars, are primarily due to observations tions, etc. in the solar atmosphere. The re- at high radio frequencies. Due to various con-

41 Indian Institute of Astrophysics straints, observations of pulsars at low fre- Observations are routinely been carried out quencies are limited. In view of the above, it with the UVIT, currently in the far ultravio- was decided to explore the possibility to ob- let (FUV: 1300-1800 Å) and the visual (VIS: serve pulsars at radio frequencies < 100 MHz 3200-5500 Å) bands. Observations done in with the LPD antenna array in the Gauribida- the VIS channel are used for aspect correc- nur observatory. A new receiver setup was de- tion. During the period 01 April 2019 - 31 signed for this purpose. The signal received March 2020, a total of 273 sets of observations by the antennas are first high-pass filtered and (OBSIDs) were carried out with the UVIT. Of then amplified using low-noise amplifiers. The these 273 sets, level 1 (L1) data were received amplified signals are then combined using a at the payload operations center (POC, IIA) beam-former module and latter transmitted for a total of 95 OBSIDs. Of the 95 OB- to the receiver room via low-loss coaxial ca- SIDS, POC has processed 73 OBSIDS and bles. In the receiver room, a digital back end sent their science ready level 2 (L2) images system having a 4-channel broadband ADC to the Indian Space Science Data Center for and a FPGA with maximum 100 MHz band- archiving and dissemination. Initial calibra- width processing capability are used to pro- tion of UVIT was based on the data acquired cess the signal further. Also, since pulsar ob- at the ground. After the launch, new calibra- servations require very high spectral and tem- tion data was acquired through in-orbit obser- poral resolution, the receiver system is being vations. This was used to obtain (i) new pho- designed to give a spectral resolution of 10 tometric calibration (that includes, (a) zero- kHz and temporal resolution of 0.5 nsec. The points, (b) flat fields, and (c) saturation) (ii) estimated mean sensitivity of the system for variations in sensitivity and (iii) spectral cal- 30 MHz bandwidth (centered at 60 MHz) ibration of the near ultraviolet (NUV; 2000 ∼ and one hour integration is about 2 Jy (1 - 3000 Å) and FUV gratings. Using the data 26 2 Jy = 10− W/m /Hz). Testing and char- acquired over the last three years, it was found acterization of the new observing system is that the UVIT is performing well with no being carried out to realize the goal. Also reduction in the sensitivity in both the UV new software pipelines to process and analyze channels (Tandon et al. 2020, AJ). During the pulsar data are being developed. Once the the last one year period, a total of 14 papers full-fledged system is completed, trial observa- were published that uses the data from the tions with known Pulsars whose flux density UVIT, which includes 6 papers in the refer- are above the sensitivity limit will be carried eed international journals and 8 papers in the out with the new system. conference proceedings.

4.3 Ultra-Violet Imaging 4.4 Computational Facili- Telescope ties

The ultra-violet imaging telescope (UVIT) is IIA data center houses several important one of the ﬁve payloads on-board India’s ﬁrst servers, for e.g mail server, anti-spam server, multi-wavelength astronomical satellite, As- web server, ERP server, computational troSat launched by the ISRO in the year 2015. servers etc. which are kept up-to-date by up-

42 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

isting network infrastructure at IIA, we have upgraded the connectivity between computer center and data center from 10G fiber to 40G. The network rack at computer center has also been populated with a few newly procured, high-end, managed switches and compatible cabling technology as shown in Figure 4.9, re- placing the old switches and cables which had reached their end-of-life. Figure 4.8: The near-ultraviolet image of the Jellyfish Galaxy JO201. Appeared as the IIA has an ongoing computer trainee pro- AstroSat Picture of the Month for May 2019. gramme under the computer division which Picture credit: George, K and team. imparts IT training to young engineers for providing system and application support to a wide range of users at IIA and skill them to be grading the system and application software industry ready as a part of IIA’s contribution to its latest version and updating the system to the socio-economic cause. with latest security patches to mitigate vulnerabilities in the system that can be exploited by prevalent security threats. The firmware of all network devices viz. firewall, switches etc. are kept up-to-date on regular basis to mitigate any possible security threat. The hardware infrastructure hosting the critical services are kept up-to-date by replac- ing the old and outdated ones with newer technology(ies) when they are nearing their end of life. As the number of users and devices in the network have increased many folds in the recent years, the system was recently mi- grated to a newer firewall device with more load handling capacity and new features in terms of policy, debugging, log and management. Eduroam service which is a world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community has been configured at IIA recently. Eduroam allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity across campus and when visiting other participating institutions by sim- ply opening their laptop. Further, in con- Figure 4.9: Network Rack at IIA Computer tinuation to our efforts in improving the ex- center.

43 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Computational Activities 4.5 Library

The High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster at IIA has been upgraded from 8 nodes to 26 Nodes with a performance improvement IIA library is the main learning centre of 295% over the previous one. The HPC clus- of the institute that constitutes of a well- ter, now has a total of 720 cores and 3.5 TB balanced and extensive collection of both of memory at users’ disposal. The cluster is print and electronic resources in the major used by a large number of researchers and sci- subject areas of research such as Astronomy entific community at IIA for their computa- & Astrophysics. This rich and valuable tional requirements which require high per- collection built over 200 years has some of the formance and precision, to help them pursue rare reference materials and back volumes with their research interest. A large number of several important journals. The resources of research papers have also been published collection was updated with recent literature based on the computational work achieved on relevant to the Institute periodically. Apart the HPC cluster. The cluster is kept up-to- from its print resources, the Library has date with latest system and application pack- access to a large collection of eJournals, ages as applicable. eBooks, and databases. The library renewed its subscription to 65 journals and discon- WEB related Activities tinued 25 print journals which already has online access. IIA web services with latest content man- The library is continued to be the part- agement system (CMS) has been optimized ner of the National Knowledge Resource for better performance with improved user in- Consortium (NKRC), access to eJournals terface design. The server has been imple- and databases through this consortium mented with better security features and cen- remained available through this year for tralized authentication for accessing the In- IIA users. The total number of full-text tranet. As per the directive of Ministry of Fi- eJournals from NKRC reached to over 4500+ nance IIA is publishing its tender enquiries, journals published by 15 publishers. The corrigenda thereon and details of bid awards library continues to get access to eBooks and on the Central Public Procurement Portal. databases, Annual Reviews of Astronomy & Enterprise Resource Planning Astrophysics, Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) conference series, Proceedings Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) soft- of IAU Symposium, SPIE Digital Library, ware custom made for IIA, Bangalore and its SPIE e-books collection, and JSTOR general various field stations are being widely used. science collection. A comprehensive stock This consists of modules such as Human Re- verification was completed for all field sta- sources, Accounting, Finance, and Purchase tions libraries and was cross-checked with etc. The software has evolved over a period previous stock verification reports, old ac- of time to include new reports as required for cession register, no dues files, previous audit each module including indents, purchase and reports, etc. A detailed stock verification inventory to facilitate auditory processing. report and recommendations for untraceable library books was prepared for further action.

44 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Document Delivery Services in India with a focus on our collections. The oral sessions had several speakers from The Library continues to provide need- our Archives Committee. Dr. Indira Chowd- based information services, book recommen- hury spoke about the importance of orality dation requests, book purchase requests for in archives in the post-colonial world. Sev- projects, new additions of books and jour- eral talks were capturing the rich history of nals, other services like reminders, reserva- IIA’s astronomical contributions including an tions, overdue intimation, and email-based overview by A. Mangalam, on the establish- reference services. The library participates in ment of the IIA archives by Christina Birdie, inter-library networking activities with vari- on archives as a crucible and as commons ous other similar subject-oriented institutions by Venkat Srinivasan, on the works of Ra- and served 53 inter-library loan requests from goonatha Chary by Shylaja B. S, on preser- our faculties and students. Library receives vation by Mrinalini Mani, on the work of continuous requests from IISc, IUCAA, RRI, Comets at the Madras Observatory by R.C. and other DST and CSIR libraries for inter- Kapoor, on the history of Pogson by N.K. library loan requirements for technical litera- Rao, and on the discovery of Helium by Bi- ture. During this period, a total of 88 articles man Nath. The poster presentations also had requests were received and 65 articles were de- many interesting presentations including on livered to them. the life and work of C.V. Raman and S. Chan- Bibliometric Analysis drasekhar. All in all, it was a very lively and interesting event that also included ﬁlm The library assisted in the compilation shows and a guided tour of our archives. The of bibliometric and scientometric analysis of main objective of this exhibition was to cre- IIA publications required for making policy ate awareness among scientists, historians of decisions from time to time, and as input to science, and librarians in the country, of the the DST report. Also, the library has given rich archival material available at IIA. substantial input for the yearly publications The old photographs were collected from statistics, quarterly publications statistics, various sections of IIA, and the process of cap- the cumulative impact factor for the journal tioning, storing, and digitizing them is initi- articles published, and publication data ated. The library team facilitated the digi- of faculty for the last 5 years collectively tisation of solar chart pilot projects through and individually. Few of the reports are the movement of archives materials from Ko- automated using the Excel application and daikanal to Bangalore main campus. this saved around 70% of manual labour related to data capture and calculations. Field Station Libraries

IIA Archives The branch libraries at the field stations like Kodaikanal, Kavalur, Hosakote, Gau- During the International Archives Week ribidanur, and Leh-Hanle are monitored 2019, the IIA archives organized a two days and maintained by the Bangalore library. programme on the 3rd and 4th of June 2019 Most of the new acquisitions of books & at the Institute. During the event, selected journals in all the field stations are made experts delivered a series of lectures on as- available electronically for seamless access. pects of scientific work, the history of science The Kodaikanal library is now refurnished

45 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 4.10: Top-Left: Glimpses of the lecture session on Archives day, Top-right: Lecture by A. Mangalam seen with J. Murthy during the inauguration, Bottom-Left: Drs. R. C. Kapoor, B. S. Shylaja and Christina Birdie in discussion and Top-Left: Students during the tour to the Archives. and upgraded with more shelves and display PhD theses were uploaded to the repository. racks. As on date, the total number of publications in the repository is about 7462. As a con- Library Training programme tent partner, it is continued to contribute to The library continues to oﬀer a two-year the public by sharing the metadata to the Na- library trainee programme; two new trainees tional Digital Library of India (NDLI), which joined the library and is training to carry out will also provide publicity to IIA publications. all the library activities.

IIA Digital Repository 4.6 Facilities Developed for

The IIA digital repository collects, selects, Other Organisations stores, and disseminates in digital format the research output created by the IIA research Fabry-Perot Interferometer community. During the year, research articles, technical reports, archival materials, and The optics division is developing a Sky Scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometer de-

46 Indian Institute of Astrophysics signed to measure thermosphere winds and ented towards teaching in class rooms rather temperatures as well as mesospheric winds than through laboratory experiments. With through airglow emissions at wavelengths an aim to provide user-friendly instrumen- of 630 nm in collaboration with the Indian tal kit to teachers and students for getting Institute of Geomagnetism, Navi Mumbai. hands-on experience in data collection, reduction and analysis, IIA has designed, developed Solar Spectrograph for graduate and and tested a telescope and a spectrograph unit undergraduate level students of IIST, for solar observations. The experimental kit Thiruvananthapuram is designed to not only facilitate in collecting the data but it also provides software tools to extract some of the interesting details about the Sun. The first set of experiments are at a preliminary level or first level and the next set of experiments are at a little advanced level. These experiments are designed in a manner that people with no exposure to the astronomy instruments can perform them. On March 01, 2020 a team from IIA installed the instruments on the roof top of the Science Block, D2 building of the Indian Insti- tute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram. The instrument is capable of capturing image and recording photospheric and chromospheric spectra of the Sun. With this setup the college students can carryout experiments such as identify- Figure 4.11: [1] Coelostat assembly; [2] IIA ing the Fraunhoffer lines, finding their wave- team reassembling and testing the set-up; [3] length, line depth, width, etc,. The instru- The instrument kept inside the laboratory; [4] ment kit includes the telescope control sys- The sodium D1 and D2 spectral line obtained tem and a camera with all the required com- with the solar spectrograph and displayed it on puter software. After the installation, the the desktop screen. team provided training to the Scientists at IIST, Thiruvananthapuram, in the operation Several institutions, both universities and of the telescope, obtaining the data through colleges, have a course on Astronomy and As- the camera and demonstrated how to carry trophysics. Most of these courses are ori- out calibration of the data.

47 5 Future Facilities

5.1 The Thirty Meter Tele- construction material from reaching the summit. Stalemate continues since then. After scope that several Members (Financial Authorities: In India’s case the DST secretary) meetings Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project is a held to define the course of action. Members collaboration between institutes in the US, agreed to give a chance for negotiations with Japan, Canada, China and India. India be- native Hawaiian elders. New schedule for came a full member of the TMT International commencing construction will not be earlier Observatory in the year 2014 and since then than 2021 with around 10 yrs of construction. the ITCC has been contributing substantially Project is looking at NSF for additional to the design and development efforts of the funding. TMT. India’s in-kind contributions include Primary mirror Segment Support Assembly (SSA), Actuators, Edge Sensors, Primary La Palma, Canary Islands: As regards mirror Segment Polishing, Observatory to La Palma site, permits are in hand and Software (OSW) and Telescope Control Soft- project can go ahead with the construction if ware (TCS), M1/M2/M3 segment coating the project decides so. and Science Instruments. During the year April 2019 to March 2020, the ITCC has Optics contributed well to the efforts of the TMT M1 Segment Polishing: India is entrusted efficiently which have been briefed below. with the polishing of 90 out of 492 plus spares Mauna Kea, Hawaii, continues to be of TMT segments which are each of 1.44 me- the most preferred site for construction. In tre diameter. As there are no industries hav- the year 2019, legal hurdles were over with ing capabilities of meeting the requirement Mauna Kea site. Government of Hawaii had of large optics needs in the country, IIA has issued a notice of “proceed with construction” taken up the challenge. In order to fulfill In- of the TMT on the summit and its assurance dia’s obligations, a large Optics Fabrication of all possible assistance for safe construction Facility is established in CREST, Hosakote, of the project. The board of the TMT Bengaluru. The method used is called as the decided to start the construction process Stress-mirror polishing that will provide a sur- starting mid July, 2019. The native Hawaiian face figure of 1 micron Peak-to-Valley. The fi- protesters in much larger number occupied nal accuracy of the polished mirror segment to the roads lading to the summit preventing be achieved after ion-beam figuring (IBF) pro-

48 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 5.1: The ITOFF facility coming up at the CREST campus, Hosakote. cedure is 2 nm. Several activities have been factured. The ITCC is partnering with M/s. completed in the year 2019-2020. Associated L&T for manufacturing 10 Primary Mirror equipment like PMM, CMM, Thermal Cham- Assembly (PMA) kits and 4 sub cells under ber, Reference Sphere, D.G.Sets, electrical Production cum qualification stage and, on equipment, Crane, Scissor jack, elevators, etc. qualifying in the PQP Stage, will manufac- have been procured. Installation and testing ture 90 additional PMA Kits and 90 sub cells of these equipment have been carried out suc- for the TMT. The ITCC is planning to man- cessfully. a total of 18 clear Ceram-Z glass ufacture the remaining SSA’s through mid blanks made by Ohara have been received scale vendors to accommodate them within from National Astronomical Observatory of the available fund. Many vendors are identi- Japan (NOAJ), Japan. These are stored in fied by the ITCC and the qualification is in ITOFF. progress by placing orders for critical compo- The ITCC, in partnership with M/s Co- nents. herent (USA), is developing Segment Polish- Manufacturing prototype of Central Di- ing Machine and its associated equipment. aphragm, which is integral and critical part Procurement process has been completed and of the SSA has been successfully achieved in cleared by the DST. Indian industries. The ITCC will be procur- ing SSA acceptance test tool for final testing Hardware of the critical SSA components.

Segment Support Assembly (SSA): India Actuators: Actuators form another impor- is supplying all the required number of SSAs tant part of the mirror segment. Three ac- to the TMT. Nearly 600 SSA will be manu-

49 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 5.2: (a) displays the image of CMM installed in April 2019, (b) displays the image of Thermal Chamber installed in May 2019; (c) shows the Hexagonal Buyoﬀ station received in December 2019; (d) shows the Etching station received in February 2020. Final image in the bottom displays 18 blocks of Ohara Ceram glass roundels arrived at ITOFF from Japan.

ITCC/IIA. The manufacturing of 20 prototype Actuators (see Figure 5.2) - 5 Nos. each by four vendors was completed during 2019 and were sent to project office for testing and qualification. These successfully passed the test and found to be meeting the specifications. Another round of manufacturing qualification of 20 Nos. as per the Project requirement has been initiated.

Edge Sensors: The activities in manufacturing Edge sensors include Coupon machining, Gold Coating, Laser etching, Inspection and Figure 5.3: 18 blocks of Ohara Ceram glass Accelerated life cycle test to see eﬀect of laser roundels arrived at ITOFF from Japan etching on gold coating. All these activities are partly for qualifying the laser etching pro- tuators are required per mirror segment and cess. Six pairs of Edge sensors are required for all 1500 Actuators will be manufactured by each segment. All edge sensors will be fabri- ∼

50 Indian Institute of Astrophysics cated at India. well. ESW v0.1 was released on 19th March ITCC is working with M/s Optica, Ben- 2020. The ITCC is also producing the In- galuru for fabrication of sensor coupons for frared Guide Star Catalogue (IRGSCAT) for the laser etching trials. This work is currently the TMT and the work is in progress. in progress and delivery time is 6 weeks. The possibility of gold coating by Optica is also being explored. Optica also performs plas- tic moldings, and their services can be used for dust boot fabrication. Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Mate- rials (ARCI), Hyderabad and Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore were identiﬁed for laser etching and some coupons have been given to them.

Software

Observatory Software: Figure 5.4: ThoughtWorks, ITCC/IIA, Common Software: Common Software TMT Project Oﬃce meet during the Pre- (CSW) which forms the main backbone shipment review of CSW. skeletal communication system of the whole TMT software architecture has been success- Telescope Control Software (TCS): This fully developed. The industry partner is M/s work package is being handled by IUCAA. Thoughtworks, Pune, India. CSW 0.1 version The Contract awarded for PDP to Honeywell, was released on 30th August 2019 within India has been cancelled due to their under- the TMT community. CSW has completed performance and not able to cope up with the the Acceptance Review and Pre-Shipment design development. Two separate contracts Review and the CSW software has success- will be made for Final Design phase, one with fully passed all the reviews. Currently, CSW OSL and another Indian vendor to be ﬁnal- maintenance is ongoing and will continue for ized shortly. Final Design phase lasts for 18 2 years. CSW v2.0.1 was released on 20th months; Mar 2020.

Executive Software: The Executive Soft- Science Instruments ware (ESW) system of TMT provides sup- Wide field Optical spectrograph port to all the operation modes of TMT in- (WFOS): The ITCC is involved in the cluding: PI-Directed observing, Pre-planned core development of one of the first light Service Queue, and conditions-based queue science instruments for TMT, WFOS. The scheduled observing. The ESW enables op- WFOS is the first generation optical spec- eration of all the TMT subsystems using user trograph on the TMT. It is one of the interfaces or other programs. The ESW Phase major workhorse instrument. A few key 1 development has started by the Thought- areas of research probed by the WFOS Works. The development work is going on will be galaxy formation and evolution,

51 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 5.5 shows some of the key areas of Indian contribution. The main areas are Camera Rotation System (CRS), Grating Ro- tation and Exchange system (GRX). Apart from this India leads the development of the entire instrument control software (SWE) and the calibration system (CAL) for the instrument. All the milestones towards the conceptual design phase-II (CoDP-II) was successfully met and delivered to the project of- ﬁce, this includes design description document (DDD), CAD models, ZEMAX models and the software design description document (SDDD). Next phase will commence from June 2020.

High Resolution Optical Spectrograph (HROS): HROS will be the first second- generation instrument for the TMT. India leads the development of the instrument and forms the collaboration with the other TMT partners. This is the first TMT instrument that will be led outside the US institutions. It is a big challenge and a great opportunity. The HROS is going to be one of the biggest instruments on the TMT Nasmyth platform sized 10 m 10 m 4 m. India-TMT has com- × × pleted a detailed optical design of the spec- Figure 5.5: Camera rotation system (top), trograph channels. Grating rotation and exchange system (mid- High resolution optical spectrographs in dle) and calibration system (bottom, yellow general serve as a work horse instruments for dashed line) developed by ITCC for the WFOS most observatories. It can take advantage spectrograph. of poor seeing condition, when other instruments can not be used. Some of the key science drivers of the high resolution optical intergalactic medium (IGM) tomography, spectroscopy with the TMT are the study near-field cosmology and transient objects. of Galactic archaeology, Inter- and circum- The spectrograph is designed to consist of galactic medium and transit spectroscopy of slit-mask capable of obtaining spectra about exoplanets. The HROS will be used to study 60 objects simultaneously. It consists of the sites of the first metals that were produced two channels -blue and red covering the in the early Universe by the Pop-III stars near UV-optical-near IR wavelength range and can trace its evolution all the way to the from 310-1000 nm providing three different present day exoplanet atmospheres. High sta- spectral resolutions R 1500, 3500 and 5000. ∼ bility and precision calibration of HROS will

52 Indian Institute of Astrophysics facilitate studies of characterising the Earth also a part of this and India-TMT had put like planets around nearby stars and possible up a booth with posters, working models, variation of fundamental constants at differ- interactive portal, videos etc. in all the ent red shift. venues to involve students, academia and The instrument has two main observing industry as major benefiters of the project. configurations, a “single object” mode that Vigyan Samagam event was a big success will access a narrow central field of 10 diam- gathering nearly 3 lakh - 6 lakh visitors eter and a “multi-object” mode that can cover in every venue. Scientists and Engineers the full TMT field view of 20 diameter. The working with TMT/IIA participated in the “single object” mode provides several spectral outreach week and delivered interesting talks resolutions (R 1,00,000, 50,000, 40,000) us- and presentations at every venue. Glimpses ∼ ing fibers as well as with slits. The highest of the India TMT’s efforts are shown in resolution R 1,00,000 mode, will have an ad- Figure 5.6. ∼ ditional precision radial velocity (PRV) mode. The multi-object mode will have a fixed spectral resolution of R 40000 using fibers of 5.2 Visible Emission ∼ larger diameter. Complete wavelength cov- Line Coronagraph on erage for up to 6 objects is possible in the multi-object mode and objects can be cho- Aditya-L1 sen over anywhere in the 20 diameter field of view. More number of objects can be ob- Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) served with limited wavelength coverage, by is the most critical payload onboard India’s blocking the echelle orders with order-sorting first space solar mission Aditya-L1. It is filters and etalons. an internally occulted solar coronagraph ca- The design consists of two spectrographs pable of simultaneous imaging, spectroscopy for the complete wavelength coverage from and spectro-polarimetry close to the solar 310 nm to 1100 nm. Blue spectrograph cov- limb. The uniqueness of the VELC is simul- ers a wavelength range from 310 nm to 450 taneous observations in multiple wavelength bands closer to the limb from 1.05 R (R is nm with single channel and the red spectro- solar radius) with high pixel resolution ( 2.5 graph covers a wavelength range from 450 nm ≈ to 1100 nm having four channels. arcsec & 1.5 arcsec). This payload is designed to study the coronal plasma and heating of the solar corona. Investigation of the develop- Outreach Activities ment, the dynamics and the origin of Coronal Vigyan Samagam - a multi-venue mega- Mass Ejection (CME) and the measurement science exhibition organized to bring the of coronal magnetic fields over active regions world’s major Mega Science projects to- are other important science goals. The VELC gether. This was India’s first-ever, global is designed to image solar corona at 500 nm Mega-Science exhibition. This was an year with an angular resolution of 5 arcsec over an FOV of 1.05 R to 3 R . It also facili- long exhibition which started from May 2019 and continued till March 2020. The tates simultaneous multi-slit spectroscopy at event was organized in four cities - Mumbai, three emission lines viz Fe XIV (530.3 nm), Bengaluru, Kolkata and Delhi and attracted Fe XI (789.2 nm) and Fe XIII (1074.7 nm) people from all walk of life. The TMT was

53 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 5.6: Various public outreach programmes organized by the TMT team during the Vi- gyan Samagam conducted during May 2019 - March 2020. with a spectral resolution of 28 mÅ/pixel, subsystems for this payload. 31 mÅ/pixel and 202 mÅ/pixel respectively, The VELC consists of 18 optical sub- over an FOV of 1.05 R to 1.5 R . The assemblies, 4 detectors, 4 baffles and 4 payload has a dual-beam spectro-polarimetry mechanisms. All these are very critical in channel for magnetic field measurements at terms of requirements, specifications and 1074.7 nm. It is a multi-institutional project finally performance to determine the ability with IIA as the lead institution. Several ISRO of the payload to meet the proposed science centers such as the Space Applications Cen- goals. tre (SAC), the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS), the Vikram Sarabhai Space Optics Centre (VSSC), and the U. R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) etc., are developing various Several of the custom designed and fabri-

54 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Mechanical systems and optomechanics

All the mechanical sub systems such as optical bench, opto-mechanical mounts for optics etc are designed and reviewed. Realiza- tion of Optical Bench of the VELC has been successfully completed and the bench is taken inside the MGKM laboratory after carrying out surface coating and thermal implementation to begin the payload integration. The optical bench is the primary element of the mechanical structure of the payload and demands very high levels of dimensional and geometrical tolerances. In order to control the residual stress due to material removal process, the part is subjected to heat treat- ment procedure at various stages. The optical bench is made of Titanium alloy material to achieve high level of stiffness with optimal mass and desired thermal co-efficient of expansion. Figure 5.7: Top: The VELC Lab Model Team-VELC took the responsibility of at the ISRO Satellite Integration and Test- fabrication of most of the important opto- ing Establishment (ISITE) Acoustic Vibra- mechanical mounts and delivered them tion Chamber; Bottom: The VELC Mass to LEOS-ISRO for integration of optics Model (Mass & Inertia simulation) on 29 Ton satisfactorily. Several of the optics have Shaker. been integrated into their respective opto- mechanical systems and have undergone environmental tests. All these systems have cated optics are supplied by the LEOS. All been tested for their required optical perfor- these are tested and characterised for their mance both pre and post environmental tests. performance at Prof. MGK Menon (MGKM) Critical parts like the entrance aperture unit, Laboratory for Space Sciences, IIA. These in- primary and secondary baffles have been clude primary mirror, secondary mirror, lens fabricated and made ready for integration. assemblies etc. Team-VELC procured several Team-VELC and facilities teams at ISRO made-to-design optics such as narrow-band Satellite Integration and Testing Establish- filters, gratings, retarders, polarisation beam ment (ISITE) carried out the environmental displacers etc. Many of them are of non-space tests on the VELC-Mass model. These tests qualified grade optics and had to be qualified included the vibration tests in random and for space applications. Team-VELC set up sine and the acoustic tests. Mass model of state-of-the-art test and calibration facilities the VELC is tested for acoustic, random and for the test and the qualification of these op- sine vibrations. This helped in ascertaining tics for their use in the VELC payload.

55 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

the important hardware items. Fine tuning of the VELC thermal systems design is completed and all the required hardware are being fabricated. The VELC thermal systems implementation plans are also worked out jointly with URSC/TSG team and approved plans and procedures are in place.

Detector systems and data pipe-line

The VELC detector systems hardware is being realized at SAC. Detailed Detector Systems Calibration and Environment Test Figure 5.9: Detector Head Assembly. Procedures have been developed and are being implemented. Team-VELC participated in test and evaluation activities at the SAC as and when required. Based on the test and evaluation data, Detector Systems performance analysis is carried out and the results are being analysed. Continuum channel of the VELC payload has an automatic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) detection logic on-board. The implementation of this logic on detector hardware is tested for its performance. All the electrical interfaces of the VELC payload with ADITYA-L1 spacecraft are ﬁnalized.

Figure 5.8: Top: Cumulative wavefront error of collimating lens assembly, Quater- nary mirror and Dichroic beam splitter-1. Bottom: (1) VELC Grating Assembly; (2) VELC Collimator Assembly. the appropriate levels and speciﬁcations for critical optical subsystems and detectors on the payload for implementation on the ﬂight model. Team-VELC is working with the ISRO Figure 5.10: VELC Observation Proposal thermal group in thermal implementation submission form portal. plans and fabrication and supply of some of

56 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 5.11: (1) 1m-class Thermo-Vac Facility; (2) 0.5m class Thermo-Vac Facility; (3) VELC Temperature Monitor Setup (Microcontroller Based).

Team-VELC has developed a web-based vacuum calibration facilities etc. Fume ex- VELC observation proposal submission plat- tractor for maintaining local cleanliness, Air- form for the science community. This portal borne particle counters, class 10 air set up for is self-explanatory and helps the science com- 18 m long scatter tube, GN2 purity measure- munity to understand the payload capabili- ment set up, ultra clean desiccators, etc., are ties. This enables them to structure the ob- the latest addition of facilities at the MGKM servation proposals accordingly to meet their Laboratory for Space Sciences for the VELC. science goals. This portal is reviewed by vari- The VELC sub systems have to go through ous committees constituted by the ISRO and thermal cycles and their required perfor- has been approved. Team-VELC is working mances have to be veriﬁed at operational on the VELC data pipeline development and temperatures. To enable these measure- required software tools for analysis the obser- ments, two diﬀerent capacity thermos-vac vation data. chambers were designed and developed by Team-VELC for testing of the VELC sub- New facilities systems. The larger facility (Figure 5.11) is of one meter diameter and can accommodate The VELC and its subsystems have to payload (DUT) size of φ850 mm 2000 mm × go through several optical and environmental (L) and the testing range varies between test and calibration protocols. These demand 6 -70 deg C to + 150 deg C with 10− mbar setting up of scatter measurement facilities, vacuum. The smaller facility (Figure 5.11)

57 Indian Institute of Astrophysics is of 600 mm diameter is developed for troscopic space telescope, named as "Indian calibrating the smaller components including Spectroscopic and Imaging Space Telescope detector systems. For TVAC test of Payload, (INSIST)" was submitted in April 2018. Af- microcontroller based temperature control ter a review of all proposals, INSIST was and monitoring setup is developed and tested awarded seed funding of 30 Lakh, for a year at IIA. of pre-project phase, in March 2019. Com- bining a large focal area with an efficient op- VELC Integration tical design, INSIST is expected to produce HST-quality imaging and moderate resolution A Class-10 clean facility was developed for multi-object spectra of astronomical sources. integration and calibration of the VELC due The main science drivers for this mission span to the stringent contamination, both molecu- a wide range of topics, starting from evolu- lar and particulate, control requirements. All tion of galaxies in groups and clusters, chemo- the required contamination control and mea- dynamics and demographics of the nearby surement process are detailed out and have universe, stellar systems with accretions, to been implemented successfully. In order to stars with planetary systems, to cosmology meet the desired performance requirements, near and far. the subsystems should be aligned within the Major achievements during pre- given tolerance limits. Several tests, both project phase: optical and mechanical, have to be carried out at different stages of the integration pro- [1] Indian partner share capabilities and pos- cess. Many of the optical and mechanical sibilities identified. sub-assemblies are ready for integration. A [2] Joint meeting with the international detailed process plan for optical & mechani- partner (CSA- CASTOR mission) held in cal integration and alignment checks was pre- September 2019. INSIST and CASTOR pared and the same was presented before an teams agree to have a joint mission. The ISRO appointed Test Plan committee for ap- top-level joint optical design finalized. proval. The Test Plan Committee had sev- The down-select of on-axis versus off-axis eral rounds of reviews with team-VELC and optical design completed using trade cleared the document for integration and cal- studies based on scientific requirements ibration of the payload. Payload integration and technical aspects. activities are being carried out by the Team- [3] The UV multi-object spectroscopic capa- VELC. bility demonstration is being carried out. The UV multi-object spectrograph (UV- MOS) based on Digital Micro mirror de- 5.3 Seed Funded Project: vice under fabrication in IIA. Indian Spectroscopic [4] The optical design incorporated to have a slit-less spectroscopy mode as a valuable and Imaging Space additional capability for UV-MOS. Telescope [5] Initial discussions with mission team to optimize the design with respect to mass In response to the call for future astron- and volume budget. omy mission by the ISRO, a proposal for a 1 m class UV-Optical imaging and spec- Currently, the INSIST project has com-

58 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Meanwhile the INSIST team is engaged in the development of a lab model of a spectrograph to test the working of the DMD which includes the working of its control system. There is a plan to test this spectrograph on a 1 m class telescope to make observations on a bright star to perform photometry and spectroscopy by giving appropriate tilts to the DMD mirrorlets. Recently, a multi-mirror fabrication was made by the optics group for using them in the construction of the spectrograph. Six glass blanks of required size are trepanned from a parent glass substrate by core drilling tool as shown in Figure 5.13. The parent blank was ground to generate the required Radius of Curvature (ROC) and polished to the specification as a Figure 5.12: Commercial DMD Controller single glass blank as shown in Figure 5.13. currently being tested at IIA for the INSIST project. 5.4 National Large Solar pleted a conceptual design as well as a prelim- Telescope inary design and has reached the maturity to start the final design phase. The CASTOR- National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) is a INSIST teams agree to work for a joint mis- proposed ground based 2-m class optical and sion. The next phase requires close coordina- near infra-red (IR) observational facility to tion with the mission team to finalise various be set up at the Merak site at Ladakh. It parameters such as the mass, volume, ther- is designed to address key scientific issues re- mal, power, data rates, orbit details etc. lated to origin and dynamics of solar magnetic fields at a spatial resolution of 0.1-0.3 arc-second. Apart from having an array of instruments, the telescope will also be equipped with a high-order adaptive optics (AO) package to produce close to diffraction limited performance. In March 2019 DST gave the first install- ment of the budget approved for the NLST project to procure land. Subsequently, a pay- Figure 5.13: Left: Six glass blanks ment was made to the forest department of trepanned from parent glass blank using core the earlier Jammu and Kashmir (J & K) drilling machine. Right: Curve generated Government. IIA has received a no objec- parent glass blank with six mirror segments. tion certificate from the earlier J & K Gov- ernment to proceed with the procurement of

59 Indian Institute of Astrophysics the land for the project. Necessary paper- action. work to lease the land is in progress with the Accordingly, IIA submitted a report to the Ladakh administration. In June 2019, the DST in June 2019. In addition to other de- Standing Finance Committee (SFC) docu- tails, a concept design was also given in the ment was circulated to the Department of Ex- report submitted to the DST. The primary penditure (DoE), Department of Space (DoS), mirror will be segmented, about 10-12 me- Niti Aayog, Ministry of Human Resource De- ter in diameter, with an F-ratio between 1.5 partment (MHRD) and principal scientific ad- and 1.8. The NLOT primary mirror will con- viser to the Indian Government. The re- sists of 60 mirror segments. Each segment sponses with some queries were received to will be of size 1.44 meter and thickness 45 which in November replies were sent to all the mm and will be made of zerodur glass due to above mentioned departments. The final ap- its high thermal stability. Each segment will proval of the project is expected sometime in be mounted on 27 point whiffletree segment the middle of 2020. support assembly. A study was conducted at In the mean time, at the site, embankment IIA to understand the segment surface defor- work was taken up. More works are planned mation due to thermal effect on the SSA. The at the site to protect it from erosion and water thermal distortion arises because of the coef- seepage into the incursion site. ficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between the SSA and the glass. The study was carried out for 10◦C change in tempera- 5.5 National Large Op- ture. The primary error induced on the mirror surface was power ( 3 nm) as expected. The tical - Near Infrared ∼ higher order distortion observed on the mir- Telescope ror surface after subtracting the power from deformed surface (see Figure 5.14). As a part of 2019 Astronomical Society of India annual meeting held at the Christ (Deemed to be) University, Bengaluru, a 5.6 Prototype segmented one-day workshop was organized by IIA to garner a wider national level participation mirror telescope in our effort to build a 10 m class telescope In order to understand the complexities of in India. A brief report of the decisions the segmented mirror technology which will taken during the meeting was reported in provide us with sufficient expertise in the de- the 2018-19 Annual Report. Of the several sign of NLOT, a 1.5 meter size prototype action items, one of the action items was to segmented mirror telescope (PSMT) is pro- submit a detailed project report that briefly posed. The PSMT will have subsystems sim- describes the background, scientific motiva- ilar to those one can expect in any large seg- tion, efforts that are being carried out at IIA mented mirror telescope. The proposed pro- for the National Large Optical-Near Infrared totype telescope will use seven hexagonal mir- Telescope (NLOT) and finally request for an rors, which will be supported by simple mir- initial budget for the preparation of a DPR. ror support assembly and driven by indige- It was decided in the meeting that IIA will nously developed voice coil based actuators. lead this action item and submit this report to the DST, its funding agency, for further We also plan to make use of in-house devel-

60 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

PM to swing in elevation direction. A Shack- Hartman (SH) based alignment and phasing device will be mounted at the prime focus. The performance of the primary mirror control (M1CS) will be judged based on the optical feed back coming from the SH. At present, the design and analysis of the mechanical aspects of the PSMT phase I has been completed and many subsystems linked with the test bed are at various stages of realization.

Figure 5.14: Top: Thermal distortion on segment due to the temperature change of 10◦C. The primary error is power 2.6 nm. ∼ Bottom: Power alone ( 3 nm) seen on seg- ∼ ment due to the temperature change of 10◦C. oped inexpensive inductive edge sensor. The entire development activities is divided into two phases. In the first phase, a seven segments laboratory test bed will be developed, Figure 5.15: Mechanical model of the and in the second phase the full-fledged tele- PSMT phase-I, which is a seven segment lab- scope will be realized. oratory setup to test control of the segmented The phase-I labratory setup consisting of 7 primary mirror. mirror segments is under development. Each segment will be placed on indigenously de- The most complex subsystem of the test signed segment support and driven by three bed is the segment support, which is indige- actuators. The sides of these segments will be nously designed. The first prototype is un- populated with inductive edge sensors. To undergoing assembly and testing phase at IIA derstand the effect of the variable gravity on workshop. The design of the segment support the mirror control, the primary mirror will be actuator has been improved and the second mounted on motorised mount which will allow prototype (P2) which is quite compact in the

61 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 5.16: (1) Partially assembled segment support; (2) Part of the mirror cell; (3) The P2 actuator. form is going through the performance test in The scope of the development of the pri- the laboratory. The PSMT phase-I requires a mary mirror system for MSE includes de- customized Shack Hartman, and effort is be- sign & optimization of the SSA to support ing carried out to design its optics as well as the MSE primary mirror segments, finite el- electro-mechanical components. ement modelling & simulation for the MSE mirror segments, optimisation of the mirror figure for static, dynamic and thermal loads 5.7 Maunakea Spectro- for both zenith and horizon pointing scenarios and development of the primary mirror seg- scopic Explorer ments support cells. In this regard, the mirror level/print thru finite element modelling and Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) simulation was completed. Structural analy- is a planned 11.25 m aperture segmented sis was carried out for the zenith pointing of telescope dedicated to carry out multi-object the primary system and the thermal analy- spectroscopic facility, with an ability to sis for a change of 10 deg in temperature was simultaneously measure thousands of objects conducted. with three spectral resolution modes respectively low resolution of R 3,000, moderate The M1 mirror systems in TMT, MSE and ≈ resolution of R 6,000 and high resolution of our proposed 10 m class NLOT are all of sim- ≈ R 40,000. ilar dimensions. Hence, the experience gained ≈ from the TMT and MSE will be highly ben- In collaboration with the MSE, IIA is in- eficial for the realization of the NLOT. The volved in (a) the development of an SSA for planned activities for the MSE include a dy- the primary mirror segments and (b) the es- namic analysis for the SSA to be carried out timation of error budget in the image quality. for various angle of orientations, effect of wind The primary mirror of the MSE telescope has loading on the structural analysis of mirror 60 segments in total with each of them mea- segment supported with the SSA and a final suring 1.45 m in diameter. Together, they optimization and finer adjustments of actua- give the monolithic shape to the primary mir- tor. ror.

62 6 Public Outreach

As one of the premier institutes engaged the eclipse and another was to project the so- in carrying out research and development in lar eclipse live streaming from the Kodaikanal the fields of Astronomy & Astrophysics, IIA is campus, where the annularity was 96.3% . A committed to engage with the public to share live commentary was also given as the event exciting results and disseminate our research progressed. The eclipse started at around 8.09 findings in a simpler and more effective man- am, peaked at around 9.26 am and ended ner. The Public Outreach Committee (POC) at around 11.11 am. There were three talks of IIA is responsible for this activity. The out- delivered by Dr. Chrisphin Karthick, Dr. reach activities carried out during 2019-2020 Ravinder Banyal on the solar eclipse and Mr. are detailed below. P. K. Mahesh on instrumentation and techniques used in Astronomy & Astrophysics research. The team also gave a practical ex- 6.1 Annular Solar Eclipse planation and demonstration of the coelostat on 26 December 2019 instrument.

The rare phenomenon of the annular solar eclipse occurred on 26th of December 2019. 6.2 National Science Day The annularity was visible from many coun- Celebrations tries including southern India. IIA outreach team made elaborate arrangements at the IIA National Science Day event is celebrated ev- main campus in Bengaluru and at its cam- ery year on 28 February to commemorate the puses at Kodaikanal, Kavalur and Hanle to discovery of the phenomenon of scattering of not only show the eclipse to the public but photons which was later known as Raman Ef- also to impart awareness of how to view it fect by renowned Indian scientist Sir Chan- safely. A number of other events like talks and drasekhara Venkata Raman in 1928. Every live presentations were also organized along year we conduct several programmes at our with the live streaming of the event. The main campus at Bengaluru and at our other event was widely publicized through a flyer campuses. The main purpose of the celebra- designed for the purpose. Around 300 peo- tions are: ple visited the IIA Bengaluru campus to wit- to widely spread a message about the sig- ness the event. The Outreach team had ar- • ranged two projection screens. One was to nificance of scientific applications in the show the coelostat set up for the viewing of daily life of the people,

63 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

35 students participated in the essay competition. The rest were taken to various institute facilities, displayed how observations of the Sun are made using the coelostat, and gave demonstrations of several science experiments by our research scholars and post doctoral fellows. A special lecture by Dr. Sha- ranya Sur, on the topic:The Magnetic Uni- verse – Deciphering the invisible was also arranged for the students. A quiz competition was conducted which had participation from four schools. Prizes (Books and Certificates) were distributed to the winners of the various competitions along with some consolation prizes for their participation in the events. A Public Lecture titled, The Moon and Figure 6.1: Annular solar eclipse, occurred Beyond -A Neil Armstrong Retrospective and on 2019 December 26 at 04:00 UT ( 09:30 Perspective was delivered by Prof. Jayant ∼ ∼ IST), imaged with the Hα telescope at Ko- Murthy in the evening. This was attended by daikanal. around 200 people from all walks of life. The public lecture was followed by a night sky- watching programme, organized for all the to display all the activities, efforts and • visitors. achievements in the field of science for the welfare of human beings, National Science Day celebration at the to discuss all the issues and implement • CREST Campus in Hoskote and Indian new technologies for the development of Astronomical Observatory the science, to give an opportunity to the scientific National Science Day celebration was or- • minded citizens in the country to explore ganized at the CREST Campus in Hoskote. the progress happening in the field of As- An open house was conducted with more than tronomy & Astrophysics, 150 students and teachers participating from to encourage the people, especially the different schools. The students participated • younger minds, as well as popularize the in drawing, quiz and essay writing compe- Science & Technology. titions, and also interacted with the scientists. Highlights of Institute’s activities were This year, a total of eight schools partici- explained to the students through posters and pated in the event at IIA’s Koramangala cam- working models. Remote operation of 2-m pus. 126 students and nine teachers attended HCT, IAO, Hanle was also demonstrated with the events. In addition to them, individu- Video-conferencing. CCTV footage of MGK als affiliated to various schools also partici- Menon lab was shown to the students. The pated the events taking the total to around event was convened by Prof. B. C. Bhatt 150. We conducted drawing and essay com- with support from other scientific, technical petitions for the students. About 30 students and administrative staff. participated in the drawing competition and

64 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Figure 6.2: National Science Day celebrations at IIA campus Bengaluru. [1] Students participating in drawing competition; [2] Drawings made by the students; [3] Students viewing the displayed drawings; [4] & [5] The special lecture delivered by Dr. Sharanya Sur; [6] Popular level talk delivered by Prof. Jayant Murthy; [7] Students viewing through telescope; [8] Students after the sky-watching programme.

A lecture on basic astronomy was deliv- portance of the observatory location, about ered by Mr. Namgyal Dorgey at the Kendriya diﬀerent types of telescopes that are available Vidyalaya, Leh. at VBO and about the kind of research that is happening using the data obtained with the National Science Day celebrations at telescopes. The students were also told about VBO various colors of the stars in which they ap- The National Science Day celebrations at pear in the sky and the reason for the same. VBO, Kavalur was attended by the 6th and The students also visited the Visitors’ Gallery. 9th standard students from eight Government National Science Day celebrations at schools. The celebrations were held on the Kodaikanal Observatory 28th of February. A trip to various facilities of the observatory was arranged for the students. The National Science Day was celebrated Presentations were made highlighting the im-

65 Indian Institute of Astrophysics on 28th of February at the Kodaikanal Ob- the universe, entropy, theory of curvature and servatory. The event was participated by stu- number theory and general theory of relativ- dents from Kodaikanal region and took part in ity were delivered. Students from the follow- various competitions. Prizes and medals were ing schools participated in the programme: distributed to the winners of various competitions. a) Govt. boys higher secondary school, Leh b) Govt. girls higher secondary school, Leh c) Druk Padma Karpo school, Shey d) Lamdon model senior secondary school, Leh e) Moravian mission school, Leh f) Hanle school, Hanle g) Nomadic residential school, Puga Changthang

IIA - Southern African Large Telescope joint outreach Programme Figure 6.3: Students of Mt. Zion High On 7th November 2019, IIA along with School at Kodaikanal Observatory. the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) conducted a joint outreach program at the Lamdon Model Senior Secondary School, Leh. 6.3 Joint Outreach Pro- Prof. David Buckley from SALT and Prof. Padmakar Parihar from IIA gave presenta- grammes tions to around 600 students who participated in the event. IIA - Cambridge Academics Joint Out- reach Programme IIA and University of Cambridge jointly conducted a 6 day outreach programme in the Ladakh region during 12th-17th April 2019. The team consisted of Dr. Jack Williams and two other members from the University of Cambridge, and four PhD students from IIA. Around 3000 students from six schools participated in the event. Presentations and lectures on topics like Figure 6.4: Prof. David Buckley of the astronomy tools to observe the night sky, ba- Southern African Large Telescope making a sics on telescope designing, concept of electric presentation at the Lamdon Model Senior Sec- charge, functioning of electric motor, total in- ondary School, Leh. ternal reﬂection, pitch of sound waves, cryp- tography, solar astronomy, journey through

66 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

6.4 Teacher Training pro- Every year students selected through the Jagadish Bose National Science Talent Search gramme (JBNSTS) programme visit IIA. Last year, the team visited IIA in July 2019. Initiated The IIA outreach representatives have re- by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, JBNSTS is an ceived a grant from the International Astro- autonomous Society that identifies, nurtures nomical Union (IAU) to organize a training young talented minds of science and engineer- programme for school teachers. The main ob- ing by providing scholarships to them. The jective of the programme is to provide train- students visited both IIA main campus and ing to teachers on how the basic science / the CREST campus at Hosakote. Scientific Astronomy experiments can be explained to talks were also delivered during the event. their school students in a simple and elegant manner. These teachers are expected to promote Astronomy among school children. The Government school at Devanahalli was identified as the location for the event this year. About 40 teachers from various schools and 100 students from Government school, De- vanahalli attended this programme. Basic science experiments covering the topics such as optics, acoustics, electromagnetism, classical mechanics, etc. were demonstrated. The IAU grant was used to procure instruments, science kits, etc., and were donated to the teachers who took part in the programme. IIA’s former faculty member Prof. P. R. Viswanath delivered the keynote address.

6.5 Visits of school students and general public to IIA campuses Figure 6.5: National Science Day celebrations at VBO.

A group of 40 students from the City School Students’ visit to VBO Montessori School, Lucknow visited IIA during May, 2019. The participants visited Night sky watching programme is orga- the Optics division. A poster session was nized at VBO on every Saturday. Using a arranged to introduce the observing facilities 6-inch telescope, installed for this purpose, and explain the ongoing research programmes visitors are allowed to view interesting astro- of IIA. One of our faculty members delivered nomical sources available in the sky. The vis- a scientiﬁc talk to the school children. itors are also allowed to take a tour of Vis-

67 Indian Institute of Astrophysics itors’ Centre where posters and videos illus- models to explain wide topics like Solar Sys- trating the history of the VBO and an intro- tem, Big Bang theory, Galaxies to the extend duction to the Astronomy and Astrophysics of observable Universe. It also provides expla- are displayed. Since 15 February 2020, the nations on various celestial objects. Models programme is on a hold because of the Covid- of the ASTROSAT, upcoming NLST, iono- 19 pandemic. Prior to this, a total of 13,427 spheric recorder, transit instrument is also visitors which include 2,364 school students available. A glimpse of the HCT was provided and 1,173 college students visited the obser- to the visitors through a video presentation. vatory. Apart from the general visitors’ programme on Saturdays, the school and college students are permitted, in restricted numbers, to view the 2.34 metre VBT. The research activities carried out with the telescope were explained to them.

Visits of school students and general public to IAO Every year a sizable number of people visit the observatory. In 2019, around 1,500 people visited the IAO Hanle. Of these, students from ﬁve schools belonging to the Ladakh region also visited the observatory. The District Magistrate, Senior Superintendent of Ladakh Police and Sub Divisional Magistrate of Ny- oma division were also among the visitors this year.

Visits of school students and general public and other events at Kodaikanal Observatory Figure 6.6: School students who visited Ko- As a part of the International museum day daikanal Observatory. which is celebrated worldwide on 18th May, events were organized at Kodaikanal Obser- The outreach center in the campus works vatory. The main aim of the celebration was from Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to to raise awareness among people about the 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm except Sun- museums as an important means of cultural days. Last year, a total of 35,749 people from exchange, dissemination of ideas and informa- various regions of India visited the observation, develop scientiﬁc temper among people. tory. Among those, 5,096 were from various The observatory museum displays posters and colleges and 2,733 were from various schools which includes teachers as well.

68 7 Other scientific activities

7.1 Talks given in Na- Formation, evolution, and distribution of • SMBH mergers, 16 December 2019, Su- tional/International permasive black holes, ICTS, Bangalore. Meetings outside IIA Stellar Dynamics around black holes, 19 • December 2019, Supermasive black holes, Invited: ICTS, Bangalore. Annapurni Subramaniam Aruna Goswami Stellar Population Studies: Insights from • Stellar Structure and Evolution : Evolu- UVIT, 12 April 2019, Physics Depart- • tion of low-mass stars, 31 May, 2019, ment, IISc, Bengaluru. IIA Summer School , Kodaikanal Solar Observatory Software of the Thirty Meter Observatory. • Telescop, 17 October 2019, I-TMT sci- Stellar Structure and Evolution : Evolu- ence and instruments workshop, ARIES, • Nainital. tion of massive stars, 31 May, 2019, IIA Summer School , Kodaikanal Solar Ob- Proposed new UV mission: INSIST, 17 servatory. • February 2020, ASI meeting, IISER, Metal-poor stars and Galactic chemical Tirupati. • evolution, 01 June, 2019, IIA Summer Stellar Population Studies: Insights from School , Kodaikanal Solar Observatory. • UVIT, 5 September 2019, Seminar at Stellar Archaeology with metal-poor IAP, Potsdam. • stars, 2 March, 2020, Workshop on Investigating the Stellar Variability and Arun Mangalam Star Formation. On the rate of Stellar consumption by • black holes, 17 April, 2019, 4th RETCO Bacham Eswar Reddy meeting, IUCAA, Pune. Unravelling Story of Lithium in Red Gi- • Black Hole Science with TMT, 17 Octo- ants, 17th September, 2019, NAOC, Bei- • ber 2019, I-TMT science and instruments jing workshop, ARIES, Nainital.

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Stellar Structure and Evolution : Evolu- Observational Astronomy, 25 February • • tion of low-mass stars, 15 October, 2019, 2020, Workshop on Space Science, K.S. Beijing Normal University, Beijing. Rangasamy College of Arts & Science, Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu. Lithium in Red giants: Current Status, • 18 November, 2019, IIA Summer School E. Ebenezer Chellasamy , Kavali Institute, Peking University, Bei- jing. Solar Radio Astronomy, 6-17 January • 2020, COSPAR Capacity Building Brajesh Kumar Workshop on Coronal and interplane- Polarimetry: A tool to understand the tary shocks: Analysis of data from Space • geometry of Supernovae, 14-18 Oc- and Ground based Instruments. tober 2019, Time-domain astronomy G. C. Anupama workshop, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. Transients with IIA’s optical observato- • ries, 4 December, 2019, Indo-Chile As- Chrisphin Karthick tronomy Dialogue, IUCAA, Pune. A brief History of Astronomical Re- • Time Domain Astronomy - A Case Study search, 27 September 2019, National • conference on Advances in Mathematical for Indian Astronomy, Present and Fu- and Applied Sciences, Dr. MGR- Janaki ture, 17 February, 2020, BASI-2020 College of Arts and Science for Women, Meeting, IISER, Tirupati. Chennai. Recurrent novae: single degenerate pro- • C. S. Stalin genitors of Type Ia supernovae, 18 De- cember, 2019, 150 years of Periodic Ta- Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies, 17-20 ble, IIA Bengaluru. • April 2020, 4th National Conference on RETCO, IUCAA, Pune. Maheswar Gopinathan Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies: the cur- Distance to Molecular Clouds using M- • • rent scenario, 13-17 February 2020, ASI dwarfs from Pan-STARRS photometry meeting, IISER, Tirupati. and Gaia DR2 parallaxes, 10 May, 2019, Korea Astronomy and Space Sciences, S. High Energy Astronomy, 27-29 Novem- • Korea. ber 2019, National Seminar on Astro- physics, Calicut University. Mousumi Das

Transient Blazar Flares: Discovery Star Formation in the Outer Disks of • • and Multi-wavelength Follow-up, 11-12 Galaxies, 19 December 2020, Indo-Japan November 2019, National Conference Subaru Collaboration Meeting, TIFR, on Transient Astronomy, URSC, ISRO, Mumbai. Bangalore

70 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Tracing the Evolution of Gas Rich Disk Sharanya Sur • Galaxies into Radio Loud Ellipticals us- Decaying turbulence and magnetic ﬁelds ing Millimeter Observations, 11 January • 2020, First meeting on Submillimeter- in galaxy clusters, 23-24 January 2020, wave/Terahertz astronomy from India, National Conference on Plasma Simu- RRI, Bangalore. lations, Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar. The Dynamical Mass Distribution in • Galaxy Disks and its Implications for Smitha Subramanian Outer Disk Star Formation, 14 February VMC galaxy structures, 12 September 2020, Astronomy Society of India (ASI • 2020), IISER Tirupati. 2019, ESO 2019 Workshop: A synoptic view of the Magellanic Clouds: VMC, Pravabati Chingangbam Gaia and beyond.

Introduction to scalar and tensorial Sridharan Rengaswamy • Minkowski functionals, 20 July, 2019, Adaptive Optics, 12 November 2019, In- Geometrical and topological methods • for cosmological data analysis, NISER, ternational Conference on Optomecha- Bhubaneshwar. tronic Technologies, (ISOT2019), Goa.

Symmetry in randomness in the Uni- Sujan Sengupta • verse, 20 September 2019, Pressing for Mathematical Modelling of Exo- Progress, University of Hyderabad. • Planetary Atmospheres, 10 January Cosmology using sub-millimetre ob- 2020, National Seminar on Mathemat- • servations, 11 January, 2020, Indian ical Sciences - 2020, Department of Sub-millimetre Astronomy Meeting, Mathematics, University of Burdwan. RRI, Bangalore. Vivek. M

R. T. Gangadhara Outﬂowing winds in active galaxies, • International Conference on Theoretical Mini-workshop on Understanding pulsar • and Experimental Physics (ICTEP2020), Radio Emission, 29 September, 2019, Department of Physics, Farook College, YunNan Univ. , Kunming, China. Kozhikode, Kerala, India. FPS-Special meeting: Magnetospheric • Contributed: Dynamics: Collective Radio Emission due to Relativistic Plasma, 11-13 Octo- B. P. Hema ber 2019, Fragrant Hill Hotel, Beijing, China. Investigating the Helium-enhancement • in the Super Lithium Rich K-giant HD Mini-workshop on Pulsar Radio Emis- • 77361, 17 December 2019, 150 years of sion Mechanism and polarisation, 24 Oc- the Periodic Table: Chemical Elements tober, 2019, NTSC-CAS, Xi’an, China. in the Universe, IIA, Bengaluru.

71 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

C. Muthumariappan Lectures given in national, international, in-house meeting, con- Infrared properties of PNe with WR type • ference, workshop, school orga- central star. Oral presentation, 22-26 nized at IIA October 2019, International Conference Invited: on Infrared Astronomy and Astrophysi- Annapurni Subramaniam cal Dust, IUCAA, Pune. Observatory Software of the Thirty Me- K. Nagaraju • ter Telescope, 16 September 2019, META Diagnosing chromospheric magnetic ﬁeld conference, IIA. • through simultaneous spectropolarimetry in Hα and Ca II 854.2 nm, 30 June - C. Muthumariappan 6 July, 2019, IAU Symposium No. 354, Introduction to IR Astronomy (3 lecture Copiapo, Chile. • 3 tutorials), 16-30 May 2019, Kodaikanal Sunspot magnetometry in Hα and Ca II Solar Observatory, Indian Institute of As- • 854.2 nm spectral lines, 13-17 February trophysics Kodaikanal. 2020, IISER, Tirupati. Proposed Back-End Instruments for the E. Ebenezer Chellasamy • National Large Solar Telescope, 13-17 Introduction to Kodaikanal Solar Obser- February 2020, IISER, Tirupati. • vatory, 23-27 September 2019, Young Mousumi Das Astronomers meet at Auditorium, Kodaikanal Solar Observatory. Dual Active Galactic Nuclei and their • Importance for Galaxy Evolution : dis- Solar Radio Astronomy, 6-17 January • cussion, 18 December 2019, SMBH Disc- 2020, COSPAR Capacity Building ssion Meeting, ICTS, Bengaluru. Workshop on Coronal and interplanetary shocks: Analysis of data from Space Studying Star Formation in the Outer • and Ground based Instruments. Disks of Galaxies using the UVIT, 27 June 2019, European week of astronomy G. C. Anupama and astrophysics SS5: Extragalactic UV Astronomy, Lyon, France. Recurrent novae: single degenerate pro- • genitors of Type Ia supernova, 18 Decem- P. Vemareddy ber 2019, 150 years of Periodic Table, IIA Time Evolution of Helicity ﬂux from Bengaluru. • Eruptive and Non-Eruptive Active Gajendra Pandey Regions, 02 February, 2020, APSPM, IUCAA, Pune. Stellar Spectroscopy I, II, III, 23-25 May • 2019, Kodai Summer School 2019, Ko- Smitha Subramanian daikanal Galaxy Scaling Relations, 13 February • 2020, ASI meeting workshop.

72 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Mousumi Das Invited lectures (not popular lecture) given in academic institu- Dark Matter Distribution in Galaxies • tion other than IIA which is not and its Importance for Disk Equilibrium a part of any meeting/conference in Low Luminosity Galaxies, 24 Septem- ber 2019, Young Astronomers Meeting Annapurni Subramaniam 2019, Kodaikanal Solar Observatory. Foundation Day talk, 19 December 2019, Summer school lectures, May, 2019, Ko- • • IUAC, New Delhi. daikanal Solar Observatory. Science day lecture, 28 February 2020, • NAL, Bengaluru. Contributed: Arun Mangalam Brajesh Kumar Astrophysically useful solutions to trajec- • Polarimetric investigation of supernovae, tories around a Kerr black hole, 18 June • 11 September 2019, IIA Seminar, Ben- 2019, DAA, TIFR, Mumbai. galuru. Relativistic Dynamics in black hole sys- • Observational signature of circumstellar tems, 21 June 2019, Physics Department, • interaction and 56Ni-mixing in the Type IIT Mumbai. II Supernova 2016gfy, 23 January 2020, Stellar Dynamics around black holes, In-house meeting ’Stars and Galaxies’, • IIA, Bengaluru. 22 June 2019, Physics Department, IIT Mumbai. Smitha Subramanian C. S. Stalin Structure and Evolution of the Magel- • Astronomy from Ground and Space, 13 lanic System, 19 February, 2020, Meeting • on Magellanic Clouds, IIA, Bengaluru. November 2019, Scott Christian College, Nagercoil. Sridharan Rengaswamy Optical Astronomy, 13 April 2019, Christ • Astronomical Instrumentation, May 31 College, Malur. • -June 1, 2019, Summer School at Ko- daikanal. E. Ebenezer Chellasamy

Speckle Imaging and Adaptive Optics Annular Solar Eclipse, 12 December • • for Solar High Resolution Imaging (in 2019, Nandha Arts and Science College, Ground-based instrumentation for solar Erode, Tamil nadu. astronomy, 13 February 2020, IISER G. C. Anupama Tirupati. Time Domain Astronomy, 5 September • 2019, RRI, Bengaluru.

73 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Gajendra Pandey The Magnetic Universe - deciphering • the Invisible, 13 September, 2019, Vi- Stellar Spectroscopy, 13 July 2019, MPB- • gyan Samagam, SKA Week, VITM, IFR, Bengaluru. Bengaluru. The exotic stars: Extreme Helium and R The Magnetic Universe - deciphering the • • CrBs, 31 October 2019, REVA Univer- Invisible, 28 February, 2020, IIA, Na- sity, Bengaluru. tional Science Day, 2020.

Mousumi Das Smitha Subramanian

Star Formation in the Extended Disks Evolution of the Small Magellanic Cloud, • • of Nearby Galaxies, 30 January 2020, 5 December, 2019, UWA seminar talk at Department of Astronomy, University of ICRAR, University of Western Australia. Maryland, USA. Evolution of the Small Magellanic Cloud, • CHERA summer school lectures, 4 July, 10 December, 2020, Special seminar talk • 2019, Gauribidnur radio observatory, Ra- at Macquarie University, Sydney. man research institute, Gauribidnur. Subinoy Das Dual Nuclei Galaxies in Merger Rem- • nants and their Importance for Galaxy Dark matter from light sterile neutrino • Evolution, Pressing for Progress meeting, nuggets, April 2019, Stanford University, All India Physics association, Hyderabad KIPAC, USA. Central University. Dark matter from light sterile neutrino • Pravabati Chingangbam nuggets, April 2019, Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, USA. Morphology of lensed CMB ﬁelds, 2 May, • Dark Matter decay and cosmological Hub- 2019, KIAS, Seoul, S. Korea. • ble measurement anomaly, August 2019, Minkowski tensors as probes for cosmo- IITB, Mumbai. • logical ﬁelds, 3 July, 2019, Ecole Normale Superieure, Lyon, France. Sujan Sengupta Exoplanets: Search for Unintelligent R. T. Gangadhara • Life, 15 November, 2019, Institute of Given colloquium talk on “Mechanism of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. • Pulsar Radio Emission” , 19 June, 2019, Exploring the Exoplanets, 31 January, NAOC, Beijing, China. • 2020, Dept. of Physics, Indian Institute Sharanya Sur of Science, Bengaluru.

74 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

7.2 Awards, Recognition, 7.3 Externally Funded Professional Member- Projects

ship, Editorship etc. Annapurni Subramaniam

Annapurni Subramaniam Indian PI of the project -Signatures • of recent interaction in the Magel- Sir C. V. Raman young scientist award • lanic clouds through panchromatic for Physics and Mathematical Sciences study. [INT/FRG/DAAD/P-08/2018, from the Government of Karnataka, for DST-DAAD-2017 exchange programme the year 2018. The award was presented (On-going)] by the Honorable CM of Karnataka on 22nd October 2019. Arun Mangalam

Chief Editor, Journal of Astrophysics PI of the project - Relativistic, Magnetic • • and Astronomy, jointly published by and Dynamical Astrophysics (SERB core the Indian Academy of Sciences and the research grant No: CRG/2018/003415). Astronomical Society of India (2019- 2021) Aruna Goswami

Bacham Eswar Reddy PI of the project - Galactic Evolution • of Neutron-capture elements: Insight Chinese Academy of Sciences fellowship • from chemical analysis of carbon en- award for visiting NAOC, Beijing for 3 hanced metal-poor stars (SERB No: months starting from 1st Sept. 2019. EMR/2016/005283 (On-going)).

Dipankar Banerjee Indian PI - Indo-Thai collaboration for • Studying Pulsating Variables at Diﬀer- Elected as a fellow of the Indian Academy • ent Evolutionary Stages. Indo-Thai joint of Sciences, Bengaluru. project DST/INT/thai/P-16/2019, DST G.C. Anupama International Bilateral Cooperation Divi- sion, (On-going). President, Astronomical Society of India • (2019-2021) C. S. Stalin Alexander von Humboldt-Linkage Pro- R. T. Gangadhara • gramme, 2018 - 2021 . Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s • International Fellowship Initiative for re- D. K. Sahu search contributions during 1 June 2019- PI of the project - Multi-Wavelength and 31 May 2020 on radio pulsars at Na- • Multi-Messenger Studies of the Transient tional Astronomical Observatories, Bei- Universe (MuMeSTU), funded by DST- jing, China. BRICS (2018-2021).

75 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

PI of the project - Theoretical studies in 7.4 Memorandum of Un- • explosion physics of nearby supernovae based on high-quality optical and near- derstanding (MOU) infrared observational data, funded by [1] IIA signed an MoU with ISRO in Jan- DST-JSPS (2018-2020). uary 2020 for collaboration in the areas G. C. Anupama of Space Situational Awareness and As- tronomy & Astrophysics. A 1-m class Indian PI of the project: Global Relay of • telescope will be set up at IAO, Hanle for Observatories Watching Transients Hap- tracking geosatellites, space debris and pen. International PIRE project funded near-Earth objects. Also, a 3-m antenna by SERB and administered by IUSSTF. for observations in the 220 GHz and 350 P. Vemareddy GHz will be set up at IAO for survey of the Galaxy in CO emission, and studies DST INSPIRE Fellowship - Formation • of star formation. and Eruption of magnetic flux ropes. Rajat Kumar Chaudhuri [2] A delegation from IIA comprising of Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam (Direc- PI of the project - Profiling the electronic • tor) and Prof. G.C. Anupama (Dean structure properties of relativistic and & President, Astronomical Society of non-relativistic systems using computa- India) participated in the Inaugural tionally cost effective ab initio methods. Ceremony of the Center Headquarter DST-SERB : No. EMR/2015/000124. of National Astronomical Research Co-PI of the project - Time dependent Institute of Thailand (NARIT) on 27 • linear and nonlinear response properties January 2020 at Chiang Mai, Thailand. of atomic systems : Effect of classical During the visit, they held discussions and quantum plasma environment and on enhancing the collaboration between spatial confinement. DST-SERB: No. IIA and NARIT. EMR/2017/000737. [3] IIA is pursuing an MoU with The In- Co-PI of the project - Development and stituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) • application of cost effective ab-initio and the the GRANTECAN, S.A. (GTC), methods for strongly correlated electrons: Spain to establish the baseline of joint A challenge for electronic structure the- work between the participants address- ory. CSIR No: 01/(2973)/19/EMR-II. ing common interests, which may include the development of segmented telescope Smitha Subramanian technologies as well as the development Ramanujan Fellowship by SERB, DST. of robotic telescopes and other future po- • tential specific collaborations. Subinoy Das PI of the project - Shedding light on • dark matter interactions through CMB, supernovae and global 21 cm (EDGES) experiments data. SERB CRG grant: CRG/2019/006147.

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7.5 Workshops, Conferences and Schools

[1] COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop (6-17 January 2020, Kodaikanal Obser- vatory) A workshop was organized to provide introductory lectures and hands-on experience to young researchers from India and other developing nations like Africa, Sri Lanka, etc. on topics related to “Coronal and interplanetary shocks driven by solar coronal transients”. The introductory lectures covered the basic structure of the Sun, its various observable features, diﬀerent types of solar activity, etc. During the hands-on sessions, the participants were trained to use and combine solar data obtained with ground and space based observatories from India and elsewhere.

[2] Chemical Elements in the Universe: Origin and Evolution (16-19 December 2019, IIA Bangalore) An international conference to celebrate the 150 years of the periodic table was organized at IIA. The meeting was attended by students and researchers (about 120 participants) in the area of physics and astrophysics.

77 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[3] IRIS-10 conference (4-8 November 2019) The 10th IRIS meeting was held from 4-8 November 2019 in Bangalore India, jointly hosted by Indian Institute of Astrophysics and CHRIST (Deemed to be University).

[4] Young Astronomers’ Meet 2019 (23-27 September 2019, Kodaikanal Observa- tory) Young Astronomers’ Meet is organized every year to bring young researchers together to enrich the nation wide collaboration among students from diﬀerent ﬁelds of Astronomy and Astrophysics. YAM-2019 which was organized by the students of IIA was held at Kodaikanal Observatory.

[5] Modern Engineering Trends in Astronomy - 2019 (META-2019) 15-17 Septem- ber 2019 META-2019, jointly organized by National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of TIFR, Raman Research Institute and Indian Institute of Astrophysics, was held during 15-17 September 2019 at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore.

78 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[6] Solar Physics Summer School (10-16 June 2019, Raman Science Center, Leh) The summer school was focused on the Physics of the Sun and Sun-Earth connection. The one week long International School introduced and trained PhD students in the state-of- the-art theoretical and data analysis techniques. The techniques taught in the school are expected to enhance the scientiﬁc outcome from various space as well as ground based observatories. The school was highly relevant and topical as India is gearing up to launch Aditya-L1, the Indian space mission to study the Sun.

79 8 Publications

8.1 In Journals Three-dimensional Minkowski Tensors of a Gaussian Random Field in Redshift [1] Agarwal, Aditi., et. al. (including Space Anupama, G. C.; Raj, Ashish), 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astro- [6] *Bait, Omkar; *Wadadekar, Yogesh; nomical Society, Vol. 488, No. 3, 4093. Barway, Sudhanshu., 2019, Monthly No- Multiband optical variability of 3C 279 tices of the Royal Astronomical Society, on diverse time-scales. Vol. 485, No. 1, pp. 428-439, Outlying Hα emitters in SDSS IV MaNGA [2] *Akshaya, M. S; Murthy, J; *Ravichan- dran, S; *Henry, R. C; *Overduin, J., [7] *Bait, Omkar., et. al. (including Bar- 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal As- way, Sudhanshu), 2020, Monthly Notices tronomical Society, Vol. 489, No. 1, of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 1120. Components of the diffuse ultra- 492, No. 1, 1 Discovery of a large H I ring violet radiation at high latitudes around the quiescent galaxy AGC 203001 [3] *Andrews, Jennifer E., et. al. (including [8] *Basak, S., et. al. (including Safonova, Sahu, D. K.; Singh, Avinash; Anupama, M), 2020, Astronomy and Computing, G. C.), 2019, The Astrophysical Jour- Vol. 30, 100335 CEESA meets machine nal, Vol. 885, No. 1, 43. SN 2017gmr: learning: A Constant Elasticity Earth An Energetic Type II-P Supernova with Similarity Approach to habitability and Asymmetries classification of exoplanets [4] Anshu Kumari; Ramesh, R.; Kathira- [9] Bellhouse, Callum., (including George, van, C.; *Wang, T. J.; *Gopalswamy, K)., 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal N., 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. Astronomical Society, Vol. 485, No. 1, 881, No. 1, 24. Direct Estimates of the pp. 1157-1170 GASP. XV. A MUSE view Solar Coronal Magnetic Field Using Con- of extreme ram-pressure stripping along temporaneous Extreme-ultraviolet, Ra- the line of sight: physical properties of dio, and White-light Observations the jellyfish galaxy JO201

[5] *Appleby, Stephen; Joby P. K.; Chin- [10] *Baug, T., (including Bhatt, B. C)., gangbam, Pravabati; *Park, Changbom., 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 885, No. 1, 68 Inﬂuence of Wolf-Rayet 887, No. 2, 128. Ensemble Average of

80 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Stars on Surrounding Star-forming [17] Chamarthi, Sireesha; Banyal, Ravinder Molecular Clouds K.; Sriram, S., 2019, Journal of Astro- nomical Telescopes, Instruments, and [11] *Bell, Cameron P. M., et. al. (including Systems, Vol. 5, 038003 Estimation and Subramanian, Smitha), 2019, Monthly correction of the instrumental perturba- Notices of the Royal Astronomical Soci- tions of Vainu Bappu Telescope Echelle ety, Vol. 489, No. 3, 3200 The intrin- spectrograph using a model-based sic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds approach as traced by background galaxies - I. The bar and outskirts of the Small Magellanic [18] Chatterjee, Piyali., 2020, Geophysical & Cloud Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 114, No. 1-2, pp. 213-234 Testing Alfvén wave [12] *Bhattacharyya, Archita; *Alam, Uj- propagation in a "realistic" set-up of the jaini; Lal Pandey, Kanhaiya; Das, solar atmosphere Subinoy; *Pal, Supratik., 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 876, No. 2, [19] Chatterjee, S.; *Vani, V. C.; *Haghighi, 143, Are H_0 and σ8 Tensions Generic Rezvan R.; Banyal, Ravinder K., 2019, to Present Cosmological Data? Applied Optics, Vol. 58, No. 31, 8638 [13] Bhowmick, Anirban; Pandey, Gajendra; Diﬀraction by ruled gratings with vari- *Lambert, David L., 2020, The Astro- able spacing: fundamental method of in- physical Journal, Vol. 891, No. 1, 40 tensity calculation Detection of Fluorine in Hot Extreme He- [20] Chatterjee, Subhamoy; Hegde, Manju- lium Stars nath; Banerjee, Dipankar; Ravindra, [14] Chakrabarty, Aritra; Sengupta, Sujan., B.; *McIntosh, Scott W., 2020, Earth 2019, The Astronomical Journal, Vo. and Space Science, Vol. 7, No. 3, 158, No. 1, 39 Precise Photometric e00666 Time-Latitude Distribution of Transit Follow-up Observations of Five Prominences for 10 Solar Cycles: A Close-in Exoplanets: Update on Their Study Using Kodaikanal, Meudon, and Physical Properties Kanzelhohe Data [15] Chakradhari, N. K.; Sahu, D. K.; Anu- [21] *Chatzistergos, T., et. al. (including pama, G. C., 2019, Monthly Notices of Banerjee, Dipankar; Jha, Bibhuti K.; the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. Chatterjee, Subhamoy), 2019, Solar 487, No. 2, pp. 1886-1904 Optical and Physics, Vol. 294, No. 10, 145. Delving UV studies of type Ia supernovae SN into the Historical Ca ii K Archive 2009ig and SN 2012cg from the Kodaikanal Observatory: The Potential of the Most Recent Digitized [16] Chamarthi, Sireesha; Banyal, Ravin- Series der K.; Sriram, S., 2019, Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, [22] Chaudhuri, R. K.; *Chattopadhyay, and Systems, Vol. 5, 028004 Toward Sudip., 2019, The Journal of Chemical precision radial velocity measurements Physics, Vol. 151, No. 7, 074114 Fock- using Echelle spectrograph at Vainu space multireference coupled cluster Bappu Telescope

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calculations of Auger energies of noble Monthly Notices of the Royal Astro- gas elements using relativistic spinors nomical Society, Vol. 484, No. 2, pp. 2000-2008 Study of Lithium-rich giants [23] *Chung, Eun Jung., et. al. (including with the GALAH spectroscopic survey Maheswar, G)., 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 877, No. 2, 114 TRAO [28] *Deras, D.; *Arellano Ferro, A.; *Lázaro, Survey of Nearby Filamentary Molecular C.; *Bustos Fierro, I. H.; *Calderón, J. Clouds, the Universal Nursery of Stars H.; Muneer, S.; Giridhar, Sunetra., 2019, (TRAO FUNS). I. Dynamics and Chem- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronom- istry of L1478 in the California Molecular ical Society, Vol. 486, No. 2, pp. 2791- Cloud 2808 A new study of the variable star population in the Hercules globular clus- [24] *Coughlin, Michael W., et. al. (includ- ter (M13; NGC 6205) ing Anupama, G. C), 2019, The Astro- physical Journal Letters, Vol. 885, No. [29] *Dey, Arjun., et. al. (including George, 1, L19 GROWTH on S190425z: Search- K)., 2019, The Astronomical Journal, ing Thousands of Square Degrees to Iden- Vol. 157, No. 5, 168 Overview of the tify an Optical or Infrared Counterpart DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys to a Binary Neutron Star Merger with the Zwicky Transient Facility and Palo- [30] *Dhakal, Suman; Vemareddy, P; *Karna, mar Gattini-IR *Nishu; Zhang, Jie., 2019, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 51, [25] Das, Mousumi; *McGaugh, Stacy S.; No. 4, 106 Homologous Coronal Mass *Ianjamasimanana, Roger; *Schombert, Ejections and Their Precursor Phase James; *Dwarakanath, K. S., 2020, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 889, [31] *El Youssouﬁ, Dalal., et. al. (including No. 1, 10 Tracing the Dynamical Mass Subramanian, Smitha), 2019, Monthly in Galaxy Disks Using H i Velocity Notices of the Royal Astronomical Soci- Dispersion and Its Implications for the ety, Vol. 490, No. 1, 1076 The VMC Dark Matter Distribution in Galaxies survey - XXXIV. Morphology of stellar populations in the Magellanic Clouds [26] *Dastidar, Raya; *Misra, Kuntal; Singh, *Mridweeka; Sahu, D. K.; *Pa- [32] Eswaraiah, Chakali; *Lai, Shih-Ping; storello, A.; *Gangopadhyay, Anjasha; *Ma, Yuehui; *Pandey, Anil K.; Jose, *Tomasella, L.; *Benetti, S.; *Ter- Jessy; *Chen, Zhiwei; *Samal, Manash reran, G.; *Sanwal, Pankaj; Kumar, R.; *Wang, Jia-Wei; *Sharma, Saurabh; *Brijesh; Singh, Avinash; Kumar, *Ojha, D. K., 2019, The Astrophysical Brajesh; Anupama, G. C.; *Pandey, Journal, Vol. 875, No. 1, 64 Polarimetric S. B., 2019, Monthly Notices of the and Photometric Investigation of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 486, Dark Globule LDN 1225: Distance, No. 2, pp. 2850-2872 SN 2016B a.k.a. Extinction Law, and Magnetic Fields ASASSN-16ab: a transitional Type II [33] *Gangopadhyay, Anjasha., et. al. (Anu- supernova pama, G. C.; Kumar, Brajesh; Sahu, D. [27] Deepak; Reddy, Bacham E., 2019, K.; Singh, Avinash), 2020, The Astro- physical Journal, Vol. 889, No. 2, 170

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Flash Ionization Signatures in the Type Disintegration of active asteroid P/2016 Ibn Supernova SN 2019uo G1 (PANSTARRS)

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[46] *Joshi, Ravi., et. al. (including Subra- [53] Kataria, Sandeep Kumar; Das, manian, Smitha)., 2019, The Astrophys- Mousumi., 2019, The Astrophysical ical Journal, Vol. 887, No. 2, 266 X- Journal, Vol. 886, No. 1, 43 The Effect shaped Radio Galaxies: Optical Proper- of Bulge Mass on Bar Pattern Speed in ties, Large-scale Environment, and Rela- Disk Galaxies tionship to Radio Structure [54] *Karambelkar, V. R., et. al. (includ- [47] Kameswara Rao, N.; *Lambert, David ing Parthasarathy, M)., 2019, The As- L.; Reddy, Arumalla B. S.; *Gupta, trophysical Journal, Vol. 877, No. 2, Ranjan; Muneer, S.; Varghese, Baba; 110 SPIRITS Catalog of Infrared Vari- *Singh, Harinder P., 2020, Monthly No- ables: Identification of Extremely Lumi- tices of the Royal Astronomical Society, nous Long Period Variables Vol. 493, No. 1, pp. 497-517 Unveiling Vela - variability of interstellar lines [55] *Karambelkar, V., ., et. al. (including in the direction of the Vela supernova Parthasarathy, M), 2020, Bulletin of the remnant - III. Na D and Ca II K American Astronomical Society, Vol. 52, No. 1, 560 SPIRITS catalog of infrared [48] Kapahtia, Akanksha; Chingangbam, variables : Identification of extremely lu- Pravabati; Appleby, Stephen, 2019, minous long period variables Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, No. 09, 053 Morphology of [56] *Kharb, P.; *Lena, D.; *Paragi, Z.; Sub- 21cm brightness temperature during the ramanian, S.; *Vaddi, S.; Das, Mousumi.; Epoch of Reionization using Contour *Khatun, R., 2020, The Astrophysical Minkowski Tensor Journal, Vol. 890, No. 1, 40 The In- triguing Parsec-scale Radio Structure in [49] Kapoor, R. C., 2019, Journal of Astro- the "Offset AGN" KISSR 102 nomical History and Heritage, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 137-146. On observations of [57] *Kim, Shinyoung., et. al. (including the Great Comet of 1807 (C/1807 R1) Maheswar, G), 2020, The Astrophysical from India Journal, Vol. 891, No. 2, 169 CS Deple- tion in Prestellar Cores [50] Kapoor, R. C., 2019, Journal of Astro- nomical History and Heritage, Vol. 22, [58] Kumar, Brajesh et. al. (including No. 1, pp. 147-154. John Warren’s Eswaraiah, Chakali; Singh, Avinash; unpublished observations of the Great Sahu, D. K.; Anupama, G. C), 2019, Comet of 1811 from India Monthly Notices of the Royal Astro- [51] Kapoor, R. C., 2019, Journal of Astro- nomical Society, Vol. 488, No. 3, 3089 nomical History and Heritage, Vol. 22, On the observational behaviour of the No. 2, pp. 273-293 On two seven- highly polarized Type IIn supernova SN teenth century Persian paintings depict- 2017hcc ing comets or fireballs [59] Lin, L., et. al. (including Ramya, [52] Kappor, R. C., 2019, Science Reporter, S), 2019, The Astrophysical Journal Vol. 56, No. 9, pp. 45-47 Chasing the Letters, Vol. 884, No. 2, L33 The total solar eclipse 2019

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[72] Mondal, Chayan; Subramaniam, Anna- [79] Narang, Nancy; Banerjee, Dipankar; purni; *George, Koshy., 2019, Journal of Chandrashekhar, Kalugodu; *Pant, Astrophysics and Astronomy, Vol. 40, Vaibhav., 2019, Solar Physics, Vol. No. 4, 35 Tracing the outer disk of NGC 294, No. 4, 40 Association of Calcium 300: An ultraviolet view Network Bright Points with Underneath Photospheric Magnetic Patches [73] Mondal, Chayan; Subramaniam, Anna- purni; *George, Koshy., 2019, The As- [80] Narang, Nancy; *Pant, Vaibhav; Baner- tronomical Journal, Vol. 158, No. 6, jee, Dipankar; *Van Doorsselaere, Tom., 229 Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope View 2019, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space of Dwarf Irregular Galaxy IC 2574: Is Sciences, Vol. 6, 36 High-frequency dy- the Star Formation Triggered Due to Ex- namics of an active region moss as ob- panding H I Shells? served by IRIS

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[85] *Paradkar, B. S.; *Chitre, S. M.; Kr- [91] Rajput, Bhoomika; Stalin, C. S.; *Rak- ishan, V, 2019, Monthly Notices of the shit, Suvendu., 2020, Astronomy & As- Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 488, trophysics, Vol. 634, A80 Long term No. 3, 4329 Mean field solar surface dy- γ ray variability of blazars − namo in the presence of partially ionized plasmas and sub-surface shear layer [92] Ramesh, R.; *Mugundhan, V.; Prabhu, K., 2020, The Astrophysical Journal Let- [86] *Poggianti, Bianca M., et. al. (including ters, Vol. 889, No. 1, L25 New Evidence George, Koshy)., 2019, The Astrophysi- for Spatio-temporal Fragmentation in the cal Journal, Vol. 887, No. 2, 155 GASP Solar Flare Energy Release XXIII: A Jellyfish Galaxy as an Astro- physical Laboratory of the Baryonic Cy- [93] Rani, Priyanka; Stalin, C. S.; *Goswami, cle K. D., 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 484, [87] *Pradhan, A. C.; *Panda, No. 4, pp. 5113-5128 Study of X- Swayamtrupta; Parthasarathy, M; ray variability and coronae of Seyfert Murthy, J; *Ojha, Devendra K, 2019, galaxies using NuSTAR Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 364, No. 10, 181 A catalogue of 108 [94] Ravindra, B.; Kumaravel, P.; Selven- extended planetary nebulae observed by dran, R.; *Samuel, Joyce; *Kumar, GALEX Praveen; *Jassoria, Nancy; *Navneeth, R. S., 2020, Astrophysics and Space [88] *Priyal, Muthu; Singh, Jagdev; Ravin- Science, Vol. 365, No. 1, 14 Sunspot dra, B.; *Shekar B, Chandar, 2019, Solar drawings at Kodaikanal Observatory: Physics, Vol. 294, No. 9, 131 Periodic a representative results on hemispheric and Quasi-Periodic Variations in the Ca sunspot numbers and area measurements K Index During the 20th Century Using Kodaikanal Data [95] *Rebecca, Louise; *Arun, Kenath; Sivaram, C, 2019, Indian Journal of [89] *Raja Bayanna, A.; Venkatakrishnan, P.; Physics, (Online First) Dark matter Sridharan, R; Mathew, Shibu K., 2020, density distributions and dark energy Solar Physics, Vol. 295, No. 2, 30 Fizeau constraints on structure formation Mask Interferometry of Solar Features including MOND Using the Multi-application Solar Tele- scope at the Udaipur Solar Observatory [96] *Rousseau-Nepton, L., et. al. (including ; Pati, A. K), 2019, Monthly Notices [90] Rajput, Bhoomika; Stalin, C. S.; *Sa- of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. hayanathan, S.; Rakshit, Suvendu; 489, No. 4, 5530 SIGNALS: I. Survey *Mandal, Amit Kumar., 2019, Monthly description Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 486, No. 2, pp. 1781-1795 [97] Roy, Tridib; Gangadhara, R. T.. 2019, Temporal correlation between the optical The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 878, No. and γ ray flux variations in the blazar 2, 148 Radio Emission from Pulsars due − 3C 454.3 to Relativistic Plasma

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[98] Rubinur, K.; Das, Mousumi.; *Kharb, [104] Sengupta, Sujan; Chakrabarty, Aritra; P., 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal *Tinetti, Giovanna., 2020, The Astro- Astronomical Society, Vol. 484, No. 4, physical Journal, Vol. 889, No. 2, 181 pp. 4933-4950 Searching for dual AGN Optical Transmission Spectra of Hot in galaxies with double-peaked emission Jupiters: Effects of Scattering line spectra using radio observations [105] Sen, Samrat; Mangalam, A., 2019, The [99] Sagar, R.; *Kumar, *Brijesh.; Omar, A., Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 877, No. 2, 2019, Current Science, Vol. 117, No. 3, 127 Open and Closed Magnetic Configu- pp. 365-381 The 3.6 metre Devasthal op- rations of Twisted Flux Tubes tical telescope: from inception to realization [106] *Sharma, Kaushal; *Kembhavi, Ajit; *Kembhavi, Aniruddha; Sivarani, T.; [100] Sahu, Snehalata; Subramaniam, An- *Abraham, Sheelu; Vaghmare, Kaus- napurni; *Simunovic, Mirko; *Postma, tubh., 2020, Monthly Notices of the J.; *Côté, Patrick; Kameswera Rao, Royal Astronomical Society, Volume N.; *Geller, Aaron M.; *Leigh, Nathan; 491, No. 2, 2280 Application of con- *Shara, Michael; *Puzia, Thomas H.; volutional neural networks for stellar *Stetson, *Peter B., 2019,T he Astro- spectral classification physical Journal, Vol. 876, No. 1, 34 Detection of a White Dwarf Companion [107] Shejeelammal, J.; Goswami, Aruna; to a Blue Straggler Star in the Outskirts Goswami, Partha Pratim; Rathour, of Globular Cluster NGC 5466 with the Rajeev Singh; Masseron, Thomas., Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) 2020, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 492, No. [101] *Saleh, Parvej Reja., et. al. (includ- 3, pp. 3708-3727 Characterizing the ing Parihar, Padmakar Singh), 2020, Re- companion AGBs using surface chemical search in Astronomy and Astrophysics, composition of barium stars Vol. 20, No. 3, 043 Binary star detection in the open cluster King 1 field [108] Sindhu, N., et. al. (including Subra- maniam, Annapurni; Jadhav, Vikrant [102] *Samanta, Tanmoy., et. al. (including ; V), 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, Banerjee, Dipankar)., 2019, Science, Vol. Vol. 882, No. 1, 43 UVIT Open Cluster 366, No. 6467, 890 Generation of so- Study. I. Detection of a White Dwarf lar spicules and subsequent atmospheric Companion to a Blue Straggler in M67: heating Evidence of Formation through Mass Transfer [103] Sampoorna, M.; Nagendra, K. N.; *Sowmya, K.; *Stenflo, J. O.; *Anusha, [109] Singh, Avinash., et. al (including Kumar, L. S, 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, Brajesh; Anupama, G. C.; Sahu, D. K), Vol. 883, No. 2, 188 Polarized Line For- 2019, Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 882, mation in Arbitrary Strength Magnetic No. 1, 68 Observational Signature of Cir- Fields: The Case of a Two-level Atom cumstellar Interaction and Ni-56-mixing with Hyperfine Structure Splitting in the Type II Supernova 2016gfy

88 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[110] Singh, Avinash., et. al (including Sahu, [115] Singh, Raghubar; Reddy, Bacham E.; D. K.; Anupama, G. C.; Kumar, Bra- *Bharat Kumar, Yerra; *Antia, H. M., jesh; Anche, Ramya M.; Barway, Sud- 2019, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, hanshu), 2019, The Astrophysical Jour- Vol. 878, No. 1, L21 Survey of Li-rich Gi- nal Letters, Vol. 882, No. 2, L15 SN ants among Kepler and LAMOST Fields: 2018hna: 1987A-like Supernova with a Determination of Li-rich Giants’ Evolu- Signature of Shock Breakout tionary Phase

[111] *Singh, B. B.; *Britto, R. J.; *Chitnis, [116] Singh, Raghubar; *Bharat Kumar, V. R.; Shukla, A.; *Saha, L.; *Sinha, A.; Yerra; Reddy, Bacham E.; *Aoki, Wako., *Acharya, B. S.; Vishwanath, P. R.; Anu- 2020, Monthly Notices of the Royal pama, G. C.; *Bhattacharjee, P.; *Gothe, Astronomical Society, Volume 491, No. K. S.; *Nagesh, B. K.; Prabhu, T. P.; 3, 3838 Concerning the Li-rich status of *Rao, S. K.; Srinivasan, R.; *Upadhya, S. KIC 9821622: a Kepler ﬁeld RGB star S., 2019, Experimental Astronomy, Vol. reported as a Li-rich giant 47, No. 1-2, pp. 177-198 VHE gamma- ray observation of Crab Nebula with HA- [117] Sivaram, C.; *Arun, Kenath; *Kiren, O. GAR telescope array V., 2019, Earth, Moon, and Planets, Vol- ume 122, No. 3-4, pp. 115-119 Primor- [112] *Singh, Dayal; *Sasikumar Raja, K.; dial Planets Predominantly of Dark Mat- *Subramanian, Prasad; Ramesh, R.; ter *Monstein, Christian., 2019, Solar Physics, Vol. 294, No. 8, 112 Auto- [118] Sivaram, C; *Arun, K, 2019, Earth Moon mated Detection of Solar Radio Bursts and Planets, Vol. 123, No. 1-2, 9 Dark Using a Statistical Method Matter Objects: Possible New Source of Gravitational Waves [113] Singh, J; Prasad, B. R; Venkata, S; Kumar, A, 2019, Advances in Space [119] Sivaram, C.; *Arun, Kenath; *Rebecca, Research, Vol. 64, No. 7, 1455 Exploring Louise., 2020, Astrophysics and Space the outer emission corona spectro- Science, Vol. 365, No. 1, 17 Planckian scopically by using Visible Emission pre big bang phase of the Universe Line Coronagraph (VELC) on board [120] Sivaram, C.; *Arun, Kenath; *Rebecca, ADITYA-L1 mission Louise., 2020, Journal of Astrophysics [114] *Singh, Mridweeka; *Misra, Kuntal; and Astronomy, Vol. 41, No. 1, 4 Sahu, D. K.; *Dastidar, Raya; *Gan- MOND, MONG, MORG as alternatives gopadhyay, Anjasha; Srivastav, Shub- to dark matter and dark energy, and con- ham; Anupama, G. C.; *Bose, Subhash; sequences for cosmic structures *Lipunov, Vladimir; *Chakradhari, N. [121] Soam, Archana., et. al. (including Ma- K.; Kumar, Brajesh; Kumar, *Brijesh; heswar, G.; Ekta, S), 2019, The Astro- *Pandey, S. B.; *Gorbovskoy, Evgeny; physical Journal, Vol. 883, No. 1, 9 *Balanutsa, Pavel., 2019, Monthly No- First Sub-parsec-scale Mapping of Mag- tices of the Royal Astronomical Society, netic Fields in the Vicinity of a Very-low- Vol. 485, No. 4, pp. 5438-5452 luminosity Object, L1521F-IRS

89 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[122] Sreekanth, Reddy V.; Banyal, Ravinder [129] *Vasantharaju, N.; Vemareddy, P.; Kumar; Sridharan, R.; Selvaraj, Aish- Ravindra, B.; *Doddamani, V. H., 2019, warya., 2019, Research in Astronomy and The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 874, Astrophysics, Vol. 19, No. 5, 074 Mea- No. 2, 182 Formation and Eruption of surements of atmospheric turbulence pa- Sigmoidal Structure from a Weak Field rameters at Vainu Bappu Observatory Region of NOAA 11942 using short-exposure CCD images [130] *Vasantharaju, N.; Vemareddy, P.; [123] *Srivastava, A. K. et. al. (including Ravindra, B.; *Doddamani, V. H., 2019, Banerjee, Dipankar)., 2019, The Astro- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 885, physical Journal, Vol. 887, No. 2, 137 No. 1, 89 Finding the Critical Decay On the Observations of Rapid Forced Re- Index in Solar Prominence Eruptions connection in the Solar Corona [131] Vemareddy, P., 2019, Monthly Notices [124] Sur, Sharanya., 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 486, No. 4, pp. 4936-4946 Degree of elec- 488, No. 3, 3439 Decaying turbulence tric current neutralization and the activ- and magnetic ﬁelds in galaxy clusters ity in solar active regions

[125] Suryanarayana, G. S., 2019, Journal [132] *Viswanath, Gayathri; Stalin, C. S.; of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial *Rakshit, Suvendu; Kurian, Kshama Physics, Vol. 185, pp. 1-6 Correlations S.; *Ujjwal, K.; *Gudennavar, Shivappa between the CME acceleration, other B.; *Kartha, Sreeja S., 2019, The As- CME parameters and ﬂare energy trophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 881, [126] *Tiburzi, C et. al., (including Anshu No. 1, L24 Are Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Kumari)., 2019, Monthly Notices of the Galaxies Powered by Low-mass Black Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 487, Holes? No. 1, pp. 394-408 On the usefulness [133] Wyrzykowski, Ł., et. al. (including Anu- of existing solar wind models for pulsar pama, G. C), Astronomy & Astrophysics, timing corrections Vol. 633, A98 Full orbital solution for the [127] Vallapureddy, Sreekanth Reddy; Banyal, binary system in the northern Galactic Ravinder Kumar; Rengaswamy, Sridha- disc microlensing event Gaia16aye ran; Umesh Kamath, P.; Selvaraj, Aish- warya., 2020, Research in Astronomy and [134] *Yepez, M. A.; *Arellano Ferro, A.; Astrophysics, Vol. 20, No. 1, 012 De- *Schröder, K. P.; Muneer, S.; Giridhar, velopment of image motion compensa- Sunetra; *Allen, Christine., 2019, New tion system for 1.3m telescope at Vainu Astronomy, Vol. 71, pp. 1-11 Variable Bappu Observatory stars in Palomar 13; an evaporating globular cluster [128] *Varghese, Bilin Susan; Raju, K. P.; *Kurian, P. J., 2019, Journal of Astro- [135] *Zemcov, Michael., et al. (including physics and Astronomy, Vol. 40, No. 4, Murthy, J)., 2019, Bulletin of the Amer- 29 Temporal variations of the solar EUV ican Astronomical Society, Vol. 51, No. network properties

90 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

3, 60 Opportunities for Astrophysical Sci- (SHINE 2019), held 5-9 August, 2019 ence from the Inner and Outer Solar Sys- in Boulder, Colorado, 13 The eﬀect of tem in-situ CME parameters on the strength of the Geomagnetic Storm -An event wise study. 8.2 Conference Proceed- [6] *Dutta, Jayanta; Sur, Sharanya; *Stacy, ings Athena; *Bagla, Jasjeet Singh., 2019, Perseus in Sicily: From Black Hole to [1] Bhattacharyya, D.; Mangalam, A., 2019, Cluster Outskirts. Proceedings of the Perseus in Sicily: From Black Hole to IAU Symposium, Vol. 342, pp. 266-267 Cluster Outskirts. Proceedings of the Survival of Population III stars IAU Symposium, Vol. 342, pp. 254-256 Evolution of the M σ relation [7] *García-Hernández, D. A., et. al. (in- − cluding Rao, N. K)., 2019, Radiative [2] Chandra, Bharat; Nair, B. G.; Signatures from the Cosmos, ASP Con- *Suresh, Ambily; Prabha, C. Shanti; ference Series, Vol. 519, p. 147 A Mathew, Joice; K., Nirmal; *Sarpotdar, New Near-IR C2 Linelist for an Improved Mayuresh; Mohan, Rekhesh; Safonova, Chemical Analysis of Hydrogen-deﬁcient, Margarita; Sriram, Sripadmanaban; Carbon-rich Giants Murthy, Jayant., 2020, Advances in Optical Astronomical Instrumentation [8] Goswami, A., 2019, Bulletin de la Société 2019, Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. Royale des Sciences de Liége, in Proceed- 11203, 112031K Spectroscopic Investiga- ings of the Second Belgo-Indian Network tion of Nebular Gas (SING): a dedicated for Astronomy & Astrophysics (BINA) NUV spectrograph to study extended workshop, Vol. 88, pp. 198-206 Stellar objects and Galactic studies with the 2-m Hi- malayan Chandra Telescope [3] Deepak, Reddy, Bacham E., 2019, Galac- tic Dynamics in the Era of Large Surveys. [9] *Hennessey, Eden., et. al. (including Proceedings of the IAU Symposium, Vol. Shastri, Prajval)., 2019, WOMEN IN 353, pp. 16-18 Lithium enrichment in the PHYSICS: 6th IUPAP International Galaxy: A study using the GALAH and Conference on Women in Physics, AIP Gaia surveys Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2109, No. 1, 040001 Workshop report: Intersecting [4] *Dhakal, Suman Kumar; *Zhang, Jie; identities—gender and intersectionality Vemareddy, P; *Karna, Nishu., 2019, So- in physics lar Atmospheric and Interplanetary En- vironment (SHINE 2019), held 5-9 Au- [10] Jameela, S.; Goswami, A., 2019, Bulletin gust, 2019 in Boulder, Colorado, 179 Ho- de la Société Royale des Sciences de mologous Coronal Mass Ejections and Liège, in Proceedings of the Second Their Precursor Phase Belgo-Indian Network for Astronomy & Astrophysics (BINA) workshop, Vol. [5] *Doshi, Urmi Vishal; Ramesh, K. B.; 88, pp. 215-223 Probing the Galactic *Jotania, Kanti., 2019, Solar Atmo- s-process nucleosynthesis using barium spheric and Interplanetary Environment stars 91 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[11] *Joshi, Y. C., et. al. (including [17] *Leahy, Denis; *Postma, J.; *Hutchings, Goswami, A), 2019, Bulletin de la J. B.; Tandon, S. N., 2020, Astronomy Société Royale des Sciences de Liège, in in Focus XXX, presented at IAU XXX Proceedings of the Second Belgo-Indian General Assembly, Vienna, Austria. Pro- Network for Astronomy & Astrophysics ceedings of the IAU, 2020, pp. 487-491 (BINA) workshop, Vol. 88, pp. 82-88 The Calibration of the UVIT Detectors Optical characterization and Radial for the ASTROSAT Observatory velocity monitoring of Exoplanet and Eclipsing Binary candidates [18] *Mageshwaran, T.; Mangalam, A., 2020, Perseus in Sicily: From Black Hole to [12] *Karmakar, S., et. al. (including Raj, Cluster Outskirts. Proceedings of the A), 2019, Bulletin de la Société Royale IAU Symposium, Vol. 342, pp. 260-262 des Sciences de Liège, in Proceedings of Black hole demographics from TDE mod- the Second Belgo-Indian Network for As- eling tronomy & Astrophysics (BINA) workshop, Vol. 88, pp. 182-189 Magnetic ac- [19] Mallik, D. C. V., 2019, Under One Sky: tivities on active solar-type stars The IAU Centenary Symposium. Pro- ceedings of the IAU Symposium, Vol. [13] Kharb, Preeti., et. al., 2019, HST Pro- 349, pp. 214-221 India’s participation in posal. Cycle 27, ID. #15995 The Nature IAU over the years of Jets in Hybrid MOJAVE Blazars [20] *Mandal, A. K., et. al. (including Stalin, [14] Kataria, Sandeep Kumar; Das, C. S.; Sagar, R), 2019, Bulletin de la Mousumi; *Mcgaugh, Stacy., 2019, Société Royale des Sciences de Liège, in Galactic Dynamics in the Era of Large Proceedings of the Second Belgo-Indian Surveys. Proceedings of the IAU Sym- Network for Astronomy & Astrophysics posium, Vol. 353, pp. 184-185 Can bars (BINA) workshop, Vol. 88, pp. 158- erode cuspy halos? 165 REMAP: Determination of the inner edge of the dust torus in AGN by mea- [15] Kumar, Ankit; Das, Mousumi; Kataria, suring time delays Sandeep Kumar., 2020, Galactic Dynam- ics in the Era of Large Surveys. Proceed- [21] Megha, A.; Sampoorna, M.; Nagendra, ings of the IAU Symposium, Vol. 353, K. N.; *Anusha, L. S.; Sankarasubrama- pp. 166-167 The evolution of bulges of nian, K., 2019, Radiative Signatures from galaxies in minor ﬂy-by interactions the Cosmos, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 519, p. 27 Polarized Line Formation in [16] *Kumar, Ranjan; *Pradhan, Ananta C.; Spherically Symmetric Expanding Atmo- Parthasarathy, M.; *Ojha, Devendra K.; spheres *Mohapatra, Abhisek; Murthy, Jayant., 2020, Star Clusters: From the Milky Way [22] Nagendra, K. N., 2019, Radiative Signa- to the Early Universe. Proceedings of the tures from the Cosmos, ASP Conference IAU Symposium, Vol. 351, pp. 464-467 Series, Vol. 519, p. 51 Polarized Line UVIT observations of UV-Bright stars in Scattering Theory With Applications in four Galactic Globular Clusters Astrophysical Radiative Transfer: A His- torical Perspective

92 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[23] *Nayak, P. K.; Subramaniam, A.; Sub- Milky Way to the Early Universe. Pro- ramanian, S.; Sahu, S.; Mondal, C.; ceedings of the IAU Symposium, Vol. *Cioni, Maria-Rosa L.; *Bell, C., 2020, 351, pp. 498-501 Radial distribution of Star Clusters: From the Milky Way to Blue Stragglers in NGC 5466 using As- the Early Universe. Proceedings of the troSat IAU Symposium, Vol. 351, pp. 135-138 Detection of extended Red Clump in the [29] Sampoorna, M.; Nagendra, K. N.; SMC cluster Kron 3 *Frisch, H.; *Stenflo, J. O., 2019, Ra- diative Signatures from the Cosmos, [24] *Purandardas, M.; Goswami, A.; *Dod- ASP Conference Series, Vol. 519, p. damani, V. H., 2019, Bulletin de la So- 109 Effects of Angle-Dependent Partial ciété Royale des Sciences de Liège, in Frequency Redistribution on Polarized Proceedings of the Second Belgo-Indian Line Profiles Network for Astronomy & Astrophysics (BINA) workshop, October 2018, Vol. [30] Sampoorna, M.; Nagendra, K. N.; 88, pp. 207-214 Spectroscopic study of *Sowmya, K.; *Stenflo, J. O.; *Anusha, the Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor star: L. S., 2019, Radiative Signatures from HE 0110-0406 the Cosmos, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 519, p. 113 Polarized Line Formation [25] *Resmi, Lekshmi., et. al. (including with Incomplete Paschen-Back Effect Shastri, Prajval)., 2019, WOMEN IN and Partial Frequency Redistribution PHYSICS: 6th IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics, AIP [31] *Sharma, K.; *Kembhavi, Ajit; Kemb- Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2109, No. havi, Aniruddha; Sivarani, T.; *Abra- 1, 050019 Gender status in the Indian ham, S., 2019, Bulletin de la Société physics profession and the way forward Royale des Sciences de Liège, in Proceed- ings of the Second Belgo-Indian Network [26] Sagar, R.; Kumar, B.; Subramaniam, A., for Astronomy & Astrophysics (BINA) 2019, Bulletin de la Société Royale des workshop, Vol. 88, pp. 174-181 Detect- Sciences de Liège, in Proceedings of the ing Outliers in SDSS using Convolutional Second Belgo-Indian Network for Astron- Neural Network omy & Astrophysics (BINA) workshop, Vol. 88, pp. 70-81 Scientific potential of [32] Shastri, Prajval., et. al. 2019, WOMEN the Indo-Belgian 3.6-m DOT in the field IN PHYSICS: 6th IUPAP International of Galactic Astronomy Conference on Women in Physics, AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2109, No. [27] *Sahai, Raghvendra; *Morris, Mark R.; 1, 090003 The environments of accreting Muthumariappan, C; *Scibelli, Saman- supermassive black holes in the nearby tha., 2019, HST Proposal. Cycle 27, ID. Universe: A brief overview of the South- #15895 High-Speed Bullet Ejections dur- ern Seyfert spectroscopic snapshot suring the AGB to Planetary Nebula Tran- vey (S7) sition: A Study of the Carbon Star V Hydrae [33] Sindhu, N., et. al. (including Subra- [28] Sahu, Snehalata; Subramaniam, Anna- maniam, Annapurni; Jadhav, Vikrant), purni., 2020, Star Clusters: From the

93 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

J; Rao, N. K.; *Ray, A., 2019, Supernova Remnants: An Odyssey in Space after Stellar Death II, held 3-8 June 2019 in Chania, 38 A deep, UV, imaging study of the Cygnus Supernova Remnant

8.3 Technical Reports, Monographs, Circu- lars, ATel

Figure 8.1: Number of publications over the [1] Dutta, Anirban; Kumar, Brajesh; Anu- past ﬁve years. pama, G. C.; Sahu, D. K.; *Sujith, D. S.; Singh, Avinash., 2020, The Astronomer’s Table 8.1: Number of publications over the Telegram, No. 13404 Optical spectrum past ﬁve years. of SN 2020oi (ZTF20aaelulu)

Published Published [2] Dutta, A.; Kumar, B.; *Kumar, H.; Year in Jour- in Pro- Total Shejeelammal, J.; *Anaswar, C. G.; nals ceedings *Bhalerao, V.; Anupama, G. C.; *Per- 2015-16 120 31 151 ley, D.; Growth Collaboration., 2019, 2016-17 106 23 129 GCN, Circular Service, No. 26490 2017-18 129 3 132 LIGO/Virgo S191213g: HCT spec- 2018-19 123 36 159 troscopy of PS19hgw / AT2019wxt 2019-20 135 35 170 [3] *Kasliwal, Mansi M., et. al. (including Total 613 128 741 Anupama, G. C.; Barway, Sudhanshu), 2019, GCN, Circular Service, No. 25199 2020, Star Clusters: From the Milky Way L IGO/Virgo S190728q: Optical Candi- to the Early Universe. Proceedings of the date from the Zwicky Transient Facility IAU Symposium, Vol. 351, pp. 482-485 ZTF19abjethn Detection of White Dwarf companions to [4] *Khandagale, M., et. al. (including Blue Straggler Stars from UVIT observa- Anupama, G. C), 2019, GCN, Circu- tions of M67 lar Service, No. 24748 GRB190604B: [34] Subramanian, Smitha., 2019, A Synoptic GROWTH-India telescope followup - no View of the Magellanic Clouds: VMC, optical counterpart found Gaia and Beyond, Proceedings of the [5] *Kool, Erik., et. al. (including Anu- conference held 9-13 September, 2019 in pama, G. C), 2019, GCN, Circular Ser- Garching, Germany, mcs2019, id. 49 vice, No. 25616 LIGO/Virgo S190901ap: VMC galaxy structures Candidates from the Zwicky Transient [35] Sutaria, Firoza; *Singh, K. P.; Murthy, Facility

94 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[6] Kumar, Brajesh; Sahu, D. K.; Anupama, Astronomer’s Telegram, No. 13102 As- G. C.; *Bhalerao, V.; Growth Collabora- troSat SXT observations of V3890Sgr tion., 2019, GCN, Circular Service, No. 25917 LIGO/Virgo S190930t: HCT ob- [14] *Singh, K. P.; *Girish, V.; Anupama, G. servations of ZTF19acbpsuf C.; Pavana, M., 2019, The Astronomer’s Telegram, No. 13145 A long look at [7] *Kumar, H., et. al. (including Anu- V3890 Sgr during its SSS phase with the pama, G. C), 2019, GCN, Circular Ser- AstroSat SXT vice, No. 24954 GRB190701A: No candidates/counterpart in optical follow-up [15] *Stein, Robert., et. al. (including Anu- from GROWTH-India Telescope pama, G. C), 2019, GCN, Circular Ser- vice, No. 25634 LIGO/Virgo S190901ap: [8] *Kumar, H.; *Bhalerao, V.; *Stanzin, Additional observations from the Zwicky Jigmat; Anupama, G. C.; Barwe, S.; Transient Facility Growth-India Collaboration, 2019, GCN, Circular Service, No. 25560 [16] *Stein, Robert., et. al. (including Anu- pama, G. C), 2019, GCN, Circular Ser- [9] *Kumar, Harsh., et. al. (includ- vice, No. 25656 LIGO/Virgo S190901ap: ing Dutta, Anirban; Singh, Avinash; Additional observations from the Zwicky Anupama, G. C), 2019, GCN, Circu- Transient Facility lar Service, No. 25632 LIGO/Virgo S190901ap: GROWTH-India follow-up [17] *Stein, Robert., et. al. (including Anu- of ZTF19abvionh pama, G. C), 2019, GCN, Circular Ser- vice, No. 25899 LIGO/Virgo S190930t: [10] *Nandi, D., et. al. (including Anupama, Candidates from the Zwicky Transient G. C), 2019, GCN, Circular Service, No. Facility 24745 GRB190530A: Photometric follow- up with GROWTH-India telescope [18] *Wyrzykowski, L., et. al. (including Anupama, G. C), 2019, [11] Pavana, M.; Anupama, G. C.; Kumar, S. 2019yCat..36330098W VizieR Online Pramod., 2019, The Astronomer’s Tele- Data Catalog: Gaia16aye microlensing gram, No. 13060 Optical spectroscopy of event photometry (Wyrzykowski+, 2020) the recurrent nova V3890 Sagittarii [12] Pavana, M.; *Roy, Nirupam; Anupama, 8.4 HCT Publications by G. C.; *Singh, K. P.; *Girish, V.., 2019, The Astronomer’s Telegram, No. 13092 non-IIA Users GMRT observations of the recurrent nova V3890 Sagittarii [1] Borwankar, Chinmay; Sharma, Mradul; Bhatt, Nilay; Bhattacharyya, Subir; [13] Pavana, M.; Anupama, G. C.; Kumar, S. Rannot, R. C.; Tickoo, A. K., 2020, Pramod., 2019, The Astronomer’s Tele- Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics gram, No. 13245 Optical spectroscopy of Research, A, Vol. 953, 163182 Estima- the Galactic nova AT 2019tpb/ASASSN- tion of expected performance for the 19aad *Singh, K. P.; *Girish, V.; Anu- MACE γ-ray telescope in low zenith pama, G. C.; Pavana, M., 2019, The angle range

95 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

[2] Chandra, Poonam; Nayana, A. J.; McWilliam, Andrew; Cruz, Kelle., 2019, Björnsson, C. -I.; Taddia, Francesco; The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 886, No. Lundqvist, Peter; Ray, Alak K.; 2, 131 A Reanalysis of the Fundamental Shappee, Benjamin J., 2019, The As- Parameters and Age of TRAPPIST-1 trophysical Journal, Vol. 877, No. 2, 79 Type Ib Supernova Master OT [7] Joshi, Yogesh C.; Sharma, Kaushal; Gan- J120451.50+265946.6: Radio-emitting gopadhyay, Anjasha; Gokhale, Rishikesh; Shock with Inhomogeneities Crossing Misra, Kuntal., 2019, The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 158, No. 5, 175 A Long- through a Dense Shell term Photometric Variability and Spec- [3] Dutta, Somnath; Mondal, Soumen; troscopic Study of Luminous Blue Vari- Joshi, Santosh; Das, Ramkrishna., 2019, able AF And in M31 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astro- nomical Society, Vol. 487, No. 2, pp. [8] Lata, Sneh; Pandey, Anil K.; Kesh Ya- 1765-1776 Optical photometric variable dav, Ram; Richichi, Andrea; Irawati, stars towards Cygnus OB7 Puji; Panwar, Neelam; Dhillon, V. S.; Marsh, T. R., 2019, The Astronomical [4] Eswaraiah, Chakali; Lai, Shih-Ping; Ma, Journal, Vol. 158, No. 2, 68 Short-period Yuehui; Pandey, Anil K.; Jose, Jessy; Variable Stars in Young Open Cluster Chen, Zhiwei; Samal, Manash R.; Wang, Stock 8 Jia-Wei; Sharma, Saurabh; Ojha, D. K., 2019, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. [9] Mishra, Sapna; Gopal-Krishna; Chand, 875, No. 1, 64 Polarimetric and Pho- Hum; Chand, Krishan; Ojha, Vineet., tometric Investigation of the Dark Glob- 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal As- ule LDN 1225: Distance, Extinction Law, tronomical Society: Letters, Vol. 489, and Magnetic Fields No. 1, pp. L42-L46 Are there broad absorption-line blazars? [5] Ghosh, Supriyo; Mondal, Soumen; Das, Ramkrishna; Khata, Dhrimadri., [10] Pandey, Rakesh; Sharma, Saurabh; 2019, Monthly Notices of the Royal Panwar, Neelam; Dewangan, Lokesh K.; Astronomical Society, Vol. 484, No. Ojha, Devendra K.; Bisen, D. P.; Sinha, 4, pp. 4619-4634 Spectral calibration Tirthendu; Ghosh, Arpan; Pandey, Anil of K-M giants from medium-resolution K., 2020, The Astrophysical Journal, near-infrared HK-band spectra Vol. 891, No. 1, 81 Stellar Cores in the Sh 2-305 H II Region [6] Gonzales, Eileen C.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Gagné, Jonathan; Teske, Johanna;

96 9 Colloquia/Seminars Given By Visitors

9.1 Colloquia 07 May 2019 Galaxy Transformation in the local Universe 18 June 2019 Luca Cortese Hard X-ray Observations as Diagnostics of International Centre for Radio Astron- Particle Acceleration in Solar Flares omy Research, The University of Western Säm Krucker Australia Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley & University of Applied Sciences Northwestern 16 May 2019 Switzerland Small Astronomy - How small satellites and new technologies are pushing the limits of as- 27 August 2019 trophysics in the ultraviolet Testing Cosmic Ray Acceleration in the Lab- Brian Fleming oratory University of Colorado, Boulder Subir Sarkar Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 12 June 2019 University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Recent targeted pulsar and transient searches: Results and updates Yogesh Maan 9.2 Seminars ASTRON, the Netherlands

13 June 2019 23 April 2019 Five Degrees of Variation at Nalanda: a stel- Exploring the Universe at High Energies lar hypothesis Lab Saha M. Rajani Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain NIAS, Bangalore 23 April 2019 19 June 2019 Algebraic topology and its application to cos- Advanced solar physics data analysis tech- mological data sets niques: Local Correlation Tracking and Pratyush Pranav University of Lyon, Lyon, France

97 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Spectro-Polarimetric Inversions IAP, Paris Jose Ivan Campos Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Institute 13 August 2019 of Physics/IGAM What heats the corona of a sun-like star? Pradeep L. Chitta 19 June 2019 Max Planck Institute for Solar System Re- Long-time study of MBPs in regards to the search, Göttingen, Germany solar cycle Dominik Utz 13 August 2019 GAM, Institute of Physics, Karl-Franzens NoiseChisel: non-parametric detection and University Graz, Austria analysis of astronomical targets Mohammad Akhlaghi 26 June 2019 Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife Theoretical Modeling: an essential tool for (Canary Islands), Spain confronting Neutron Star observations Debarati Chatterjee 14 August 2019 CNRS, France Template for reproducible scientiﬁc datasets/papers 23 July 2019 Mohammad Akhlaghi Properties of Inverse Evershed Flow around Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife Sunspot (Canary Islands), Spain Debi Prasad Choudhary California State University Northridge 22 August 2019 Density Turbulence in the Solar Wind using 23 July 2019 Low-frequency Angular-broadening Observa- Dynamic Loading Assembly for Testing Actu- tions ators of Segmented Mirror Telescope Kantepalli Sasikumar Raja Prasanna Deshmukh LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore France

25 July 2019 23 August 2019 Rocky Exomoon Signatures Hidden in the Small-scale Magnetic Flux Cancelation - Transmission Spectra of Close-in Gas Giant lower atmosphere characteristics Exoplanets Anjali J. Kaithakkal Apurva V. Oza Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics, Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Freiburg, Germany CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland 29 August 2019 02 August 2019 Galactic Evolution and Chemical Tagging Nearly Polar Orbit of the sub-Neptune with Open Clusters HD3167 c: Constraints on a multi-planet A. B. Sudhakara Reddy system dynamical history Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore Shweta Dalal

98 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

12 September 2019 06 November 2019 Polarimetric investigation of Supernovae The survey of Planetary Nebulae in An- Brajesh Kumar dromeda (M31): Discrete tracers in the disc Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore and inner halo Souradeep Bhattacharya 23 September 2019 ESO, Germany The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey Patrick Cote 08 November 2019 NRC, Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics The International Liquid Mirror Telescope Research Centre, Victoria, BC, Canada (ILMT ): present status and future scientific participation 30 September 2019 J. Surdej Space Weather Impacts of Solar Wind High- Liege University, Liege, Belgium Speed Streams: A comparative study for the Earth and comet 13 November 2019 Rajkumar Hajra Observation of supra-arcade downflows and National Atmospheric Research Laboratory vortex shedding in post-flare regions (NARL), Gadanki Tanmoy Samanta Peking University 23 October 2019 Experimental visualization of interfacial 18 November 2019 stresses in an aqueous foam Towards and improved, self-consistent local Chirag Kalelkar distance framework Dept. of Mechanical Engg. IIT, Kharagpur Richard de Grijs Macquarie University 28 October 2019 Dissecting star-forming galaxies at Cosmic 19 November 2019 Noon SALT status update, research highlights and Wiphu Rujopakarn future plans National Astronomical Research Institute of Encarni Romero Colmenero Thailand; Chulalongkorn University South African Large Telescope (SALT), SAAO, Cape Town, South Africa 31 October 2019 Spectroscopy of low lying transitions of noble 27 November 2019 gas atom confined in a fullerene cage : A the- Star Formation in the Magellanic Clouds oretical study Venu Kalari Supriya K Chaudhuri Gemini Observatory and University of Chile Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore 27 November 2019 05 November 2019 Probing stellar evolution with S stars and AR Scorpii: A White Dwarf Pulsar Gaia David Buckley Shreeya Shetye SAAO, Capetown South Africa

99 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium got wavefront sensor Kalyan Radhakrishnan 12 December 2019 INAF-Observatory of Padova, Italy Plasmon excitation in Large molecules including PAH and fullerenes 10 January 2020 Lokesh Tribedi Magnetic reconnection: plasmoid instability Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, in an experimentally accessible regime Mumbai Pallavi Bhat University of Leeds, UK 12 December 2019 CHACE to Moon 16 January 2020 S.M. Ahmed Neutron star model atmospheres Central Instruments Laboratory, University Klaus Werner of Hyderabad University of Tübingen, , Germany

13 December 2019 17 January 2020 MOSEL survey: Tracking the Growth of Mas- Chandra study of Restarting Radio Galaxies sive Galaxies at z 2 Karthik A Balasubramaniam ∼ Anshu Gupta Ph.D. scholar Department of High Energy As- School of Physics, UNSW, Sydney trophysics Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University ,Krakow Poland:30- 19 December 2019 244 The dawn of wide-ﬁeld near-infrared time domain astronomy with Palomar Gattini-IR 20 January 2020 Kishalay De Development of detector systems at ESO for California Institute of Technology next generation VLT and ELT instruments B. Nagaraja Naidu 30 December 2019 European Southern Observatory, Germany Energy Contribution of Vortex Flows in the Solar Atmosphere 21 January 2020 Nitin Yadav Characterization of spicules in high resolution Max Plnack Institute for Solar System Re- observations and simulations search, Goettingen, Germany Souvik Bose Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, Univer- 06 January 2020 sity of Oslo, Norway Spectropolarimetry of two B-class ﬂares in the Ca II 8542 Å line 22 January 2020 Jayant Joshi Detection of Extreme and Exceptional Lang- Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, Univer- muir Wave packets in Solar Type III Radio sity of Oslo, Norway Bursts G. Thejappa 09 January 2020 University of Maryland, College Park, MD Wavefront sensing using extended stars - In- 20742 USA

100 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

30 January 2020 Shubhadip Chakraborty Study of UV bright stars in Galactic Globular Institut de Physique de Rennes, UMR CNRS Clusters 6251, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Gaurav Singh Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observa- tional Sciences, Nainital 9.3 Special Lectures 05 February 2020 The Origin of Large-Scale Magnetic Fields in 28 June 2019 Low-Mass Galaxies The Standard Model of the Universe ... open Prasanta Bera questions University of Southampton, UK Bharat Ratra Kansas State University, Kansas, USA 10 February 2020 Extraordinary Activity of Magnetized Plasmas 30 July 2019 in the Sun, Stars, and Galaxies Astrobiology – The Hunt for Alien Life Kazunari Shibata Lewis Dartnell Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK 10 February 2020 Heliospheric Evolution of Coronal Mass Ejec- 05 August 2019 tions and their Arrival Time at the Earth First Stars in the Universe Wageesh Mishra Tirthankar Roy Choudhury Max Plnack Institute for Solar System Re- National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata search, Goettingen, Germany Institute of Fundamental Research, Pune 11 February 2020 09 August 2019 Black Holes in Low Mass Galaxies Plate Tectonics and the Making of Himalaya: Anil C. Seth An ongoing Process University of Utah, USA Vinod K. Gaur CSIR Fourth Paradigm Institute, Bangalore 24 February 2020 Eclipsing binaries with pulsating mass- 31 January 2020 accreting components Science communication as a mirror to science David Mkrtichian Aashima Dogra National Astronomical Research Institute of Life of Science Thailand 20 February 2020 25 February 2020 Tracing the physical and chemical evolution Photophysics of PAHs and Fullerenes and in during low-mass star formation situ Emission Spectroscopy of Shock Induced Neal J. Evans Interstellar Dust Analogues The University of Texas at Austin

101 10 Miscellaneous

10.1 Official Language Im- competition on 30 September 2019 and “Online Hindi Prashnothari” competition on plementation (OLI) 30 September 2019. Hindi Pakwada closing ceremony was observed on 29 November OLIC Meeting 2019 in the institute. Prof. Annapurni Four meetings were conducted in the In- Subramaniam, Director chaired the function stitute on 28.06.2019, 24.09.2019, 31.12.2019 in the presence of Administrative Officer. & 09.03.2020 and the reports were sent to Dr. Sudhanshu Barway, Scientist-D gave a the Dept. of Science & Technology, New special lecture in Hindi on the topic “Hanny Delhi and the Member Secretary, TOLIC, and the mystery of the voorwerp”. Director Bengaluru. addressed the audience and appreciated all Hindi Workshop the employees for their efforts taken towards In order to implement Official Language in the implementation of the official language the Institute and to improve the official work in their respective official work and congrat- in Hindi by the staff members, four Hindi ulated the winners of Hindi competition & Workshops were conducted on19.06.2019, distributed the prizes. The function was 23.09.2019, 29.11.2019 and 13.03.2020for the concluded with a vote of thanks presented by employees working in Administration section the Section Officer (Hindi). of the Institute.

Hindi Day/Fortnight Celebration The institute celebrated the Hindi Fortnight from 14 September 2019 to 30 September 2019. During the occasion seven competitions were conducted in the institute viz. “Hindi Gaan” competition on 18 September 2019, “Hindi Sulekh” competition on 19 September 2019, “Hindi Shrutlekh” competition on 23 September 2019, “Hindi Antakshari” competition on 24 September Figure 10.1: Participants of the Hindi Pak- 2019, “Hindi SamacharVachan” competition wada closing ceremony organized at IIA. on 27 September 2019, “SmaranShakthi”

102 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Incentives 10.3 Committee against Under this scheme four IIA employees were Sexual Harassment awarded incentives for implementing Official Language in their day-to-day official work. A Gender Amity Cell, constituted to provide a platform to discuss and address gender related issues, is functional in the Institute. The 10.2 Welfare of SC/ST Gender Amity Cell works towards sensitiza- Staff & Physically tion and impart awareness amongst all members on the gender inequality and sexual ha- Challenged rassment. An internal committee is constituted to provide an institutional framework A senior officer of the Institute has been func- for the creation of a safe, equitable and in- tioning as the liaison officer to support the clusive institute environment. The Commit- welfare of the SC/ST staff members. Spe- tee’s chief mandate includes considering com- cial consideration as per norms during recruit- plaints or grievances in relation to sexual ha- ment and regular assessment has been pro- rassment offences committed by students, fac- vided to these categories of employees. As ulty, staff and visitors on IIA’s campuses, and of the end of the year (31.03.2020), mem- awareness-raising. bers belonging to the SC, ST, OBC & A special Anna Mani Lecture was orga- Physically Challenged categories consti- nized at IIA on 31 January 2020. The talk tute 10%, 13%, 15% & 1.4% respectively was delivered by Ashima Dogra on "Science of the total strength. In addition, reservations communication as a mirror to science". This continue to be extended to OBCs and phys- talk was organized jointly by the Working ically disabled persons. Proactive efforts are Group of Gender Equality (WGGE)-ASI and continuously made towards their welfare. Fa- the Gender Amity Cell of IIA. cilities and mechanisms have been provided A Handbook on ‘Sexual Harass- for special administrative as well as technical ment of Women at Workplace’ is avail- training of staff from the historically disad- able at the Institute’s website vantaged categories. https: //www.iiap.res.in/files/.pdf. An internet web page is having matters related to the Gender Issues is available at https: //www.iiap.res.in/intranet/gender.

103 11 People

Director: Annapurni Subramaniam (from Scientist C: M. Chrisphin Karthick, G. Sel- 15.10.2019) vakumar, G. S. Suryanarayana Director (Acting): Jayant Murthy (up to Scientist B: 14.10.2019) Namgyal Dorjey Adjunct Scientist: K. Shankar Subrama- Academic & Scientiﬁc members nian Senior Professor: G. C. Anupama, Jayant Visiting Professor: K.V. Govinda Murthy, B. Raghavendra Prasad, Rajat Ku- Visiting Scientist: Aditi Agarwal, Brajesh mar Chaudhuri Kumar, Margarita Safonova Professor: Arun Mangalam, Aruna Honorary Professor: P. Sreekumar, S.N. Goswami, Dipankar Banerjee (up to Tandon 11.12.2019), D. K. Sahu, B. Eswar Reddy, R. T. Gangadhara, Gajendra Pandey, P. S. Consultant: C.H.Basavaraju, Lt. Col Parihar, K.P. Raju, R. Ramesh, Sujan K. Kuldip Chandar, Jagdev Singh, P. Umesh Sengupta, S. Paul Kaspar Rajaguru Kamath, Viswanatha Narasimhaiah

Associate Professor: B. C. Bhatt, Post Doctoral Fellow: Ashish Raj, Bala Firoza Sutaria, C. Kathiravan, Maheswar Sudhakara Reddy. A, Binu Kumar, Dipen Gopinathan, Mousumi Das, Muthumariap- Sahu, Labani Mallick, Rahna.T, Sumana pan, S. Muneer, Pravabati Chingangbam, B. Nandi, Supriya Kumar Chaudhuri, Richa Rai Ravindra, Ravinder Kumar Banyal, M. Sam- poorna, Sivarani Thirupathi, C. S. Stalin, N-PDF: Aditi Agarwal (up to 07.06.2019), Subinoy Das, Umanath S. Kamath Brajesh Kumar (up to 26.06.2019)

Reader: E. Ebenezer Chellasamy, Na- Ramanujan Fellow: M. Vivek garaju.K, Piyali Chatterjee, Sharanya Sur

Assistant Professor: Smitha Subramanian, Technical staﬀ P. Vemareddy, Sudhanshu Barway Engineer F: P.K. Mahesh

Scientist D: Rekesh Mohan, N. Shantikumar Engineer E: P. Anbazhagan, Amit Kumar, Singh, R. Sridharan

104 Indian Institute of Astrophysics

V.Arumugam, Dorje Angchuk, S. Kathiravan, (up to 30.04.2019), Premkumar. D (up to P.M.M. Kemkar, S. Nagabhushana, M.V. Ra- 31.10.2019) maswamy, B.Ravikumar Reddy, S. Sriram Technical Associate: P.R. Sreeramulu Engineer D: Anish Parwage, K. Anupama, Nayaka Sanjiv Gorka, Sonam Jorphail, Tashi Thser- ing Mahay, K.C. Thulasidharen, Tsewang Sr. Mechanical Assistant B: N. Thimma- Dorjai, R. Vellai Selvi, iah

Principal Scientific Officer: R. Selvendran Sr. Technical Assistant B: Phuntsok Dor- jay Engineer C: Indrajit V. Barve, D.V.S. Phanindra, M. Rajalingam, A. Ramachan- Administrative staff dran, S. Ramamoorthy, V.S. Gireesh Gantyada Administrative Officer: Shripathi. K

Engineer B: Chinchu Mohanan. K, Mal- Accounts Officer: S.B. Ramesh (up to lappa, Manoj Kumar Gubbala, Srinivasa K.V, 01.06.2019), Vasumathi. S (In-Charge from Totan Chand, Tsewang Gyalson, Vinay Ku- 01.07.2019) mar Gond Principal Staff Officer: S. B. Ramesh Technical Officer: R. Ismail Jabillul- (from 01.07.2019) lah, J. Manoharan, C.V. Sriharsha (up to 30.06.2019), M.R. Somashekar, S. Venkatesh- Deputy Administrative Officer: Va- wara Rao sumathi. S

Tech. Associate B: P. Kumaravel, K. Stores & Purchase Oﬃcer: K.P. Vishnu Sagayanathan Vardhan

Librarian: Arumugam Pitchai Section Oﬃcer (SG): Diskit Dolker, Ma- liny Rajan, Ramaswamy, N.Sathya Bama, Asst. Librarian C: B. S. Mohan, P. Praba- Uma Maileveloo (up to 31.01.2020), A. Veron- har ica (up to 30.09.2019)

Research Associate B: V. Moorthy Section Oﬃcer: S. Dhananjaya, K. Sankaranarayanan, P. Selvakumar, Srinivasa Research Associate: C. Velu Rao. V, V. Vijayaraj (up to 13.06.2019) Technical Assistant C: P. Janakiram Hindi Oﬃcer: S. Rajanatesan

105 12

Auditors’ Report & Statement Of Accounts

106

Indian Institute of Astrophysics Annual Report 2019-2020