Dr. Smriti Mahajan
Inspire Faculty, Physical Sciences

Research Focus:

I am an observational astrophysicist studying evolution of galaxies, and the symbiotic relationship between galaxy properties and the large-scale structure of the Universe in which they reside. Just like human behaviour is influenced by their social surroundings, properties of galaxies are influenced by their surrounding ``environment". My research interest lies in exploring and quantifying correlations between physical properties of galaxies such as colour, mass, morphology, dust content, star formation and metallicity to the properties of the environment: how clustered are the surroundings? Is the surrounding structure a group, a cluster or filament? I am also interested in studying dwarf galaxies. These galaxies are typically less massive and less luminous than an average galaxy found in the nearby Universe, and tend to show properties somewhat different from their larger counterparts.

For my research I have exploited arsenal of multi-wavelength data that are now available for millions of galaxies. I have also tested how the global star formation rates determined using data in ultraviolet, optical, far-infrared, and, radio wavebands compare with each other for a set of nearby galaxies. These metrics can then be used as a baseline for calibrating star formation rate for higher redshift galaxies for which multi-wavelength data seldom exist.

• "Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the unimodal nature of the dwarf galaxy population", Smriti Mahajan, Michael J. Drinkwater, Simon Driver, et al., MNRAS, 446, 2967 (2015)
• "Evidence for galaxies being pre-processed before accreted into clusters", Smriti Mahajan, MNRAS, 431, 117 (2013).
• "Plunging fireworks: why do infalling galaxies light up on the outskirts of clusters?", Smriti Mahajan, Kevin A. Pimbblet, Somak Raychaudhury, MNRAS, 427, 1252 (2012).
• "The velocity modulation of galaxy properties in and near clusters: quantifying the decrease in star formation in backsplash galaxies", Smriti Mahajan, Gary A. Mamon, Somak Raychaudhury, MNRAS, 416, 2882 (2011).
• "Star formation, starbursts and quenching across the Coma supercluster", Smriti Mahajan, Chris P. Haines, Somak Raychaudhury, MNRAS, 404, 1745 (2011).