Curriculum Vitae, Research, Publications and Presentations

1998+ : Postdoctoral work at Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore, India.

1998 April : PhD thesis Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India.

1995 Jan : Start my doctoral research on the Solar Chromospheric Network.

1991 August : Join the Joint Astronomy Program (JAP) at the IISc , Bangalore, India.

1990 August : B. E (Hons.) in Chemical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) , Pilani, Rajasthan, India.

1990 January : Term project on the performance of Venture Capital Fund in India, at the Technology Department, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), Mumbai, India's largest industrial bank.

1988 August : Summer school project at CEERI, Pilani, India, on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) electronic hardware design.

My fields of research

Thesis Research (Solar/Astrophysical)

My thesis used statistical and computational techniques to study the morphology and dynamics of the Solar Ca II K (393.4 nm) chromospheric network and the associated supergranular network magnetic fields. The data I used were SoHO dopplergrams and magnetograms, Ca II K line images from the Kodaikanal Obseratory, the Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope (SVST), Antarctica and G band (430.5 nm)images from SVST. I used astronomy software packages like IRAF and IDL for image processing and analysis, apart from C programs for plain numerical computation.

We studied the dependence of network evolution on activity level (Raju, Srikanth and Singh 1998a), and on network scales (Srikanth, Singh and Raju 1999), and of scales on heliographic latitude (Raju, Srikanth and Singh 1998b) . Network evolution was shown to be compatible to model of diffusion of network magnetic fields (Srikanth, Raju and Singh 1999) . An undulatory signal observed in the temporal correlation function has been noted (Raju, Singh, Srikanth et al. 2000) .

A computational pattern-recognition algorithm of tessellation was used to study network structure at various temporal and spatial scales (Srikanth, Singh and Raju 2000) in K line filtergrams and SoHO dopplergrams. At present the technique is being applied to SoHO full disk magnetograms. We made a comparative study of the dynamics and morphology of associated Ca II K and G Band bright points (Krishnakumar, Venkatakrishnan and Srikanth 2000) .

Although the prevalent mathematical description of the Poynting-Robertson effect is correct, its physical interpretation is sometimes problematic. By means of a two-parameter model, we revisit the effect in order to get a better physical understanding of it. The principal conclusion is that the motion of a dust in circumsolar orbit is governed only by solar radiation absorption and not by the asymmetry of re-emission, even when viewed in the rest-frame of the Sun (Srikanth 1999b) .

Quantum Information & the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

A question that fascinates me is whether the nonclassical aspects of qauntum mechanics hint at the deep-rooted information theoretic character of Nature. As a first step towards this, one might learn to interpret quantum mechanics information theoretically rather than stretch classical concpts and usages (Srikanth 2001c).

I have compiled notes from some lectures on quantum information and computation I had given at the NAPP group. You can find them here. Note that they are somewhat sketchy now.

Publications

1. S. P. K. Rajaguru, R. Srikanth and S. S. Hasan in Recent Insights into the Physics of the Sun and Heliosphere: Highlights from SOHO and Other Space Missions , p. 205, {\bf IAU Symposium}, Vol. {\bf 203}, 2001, P. Brekke, B. Fleck, and J.B. Gurman, eds.
   Photospheric flow fields and properties of embedded small scale magnetic flux field concentrations
2. R. Srikanth, 2000: Comment on "On physical interpretation of the Poynting-Robertson effect"
3. K. P. Raju, Jagdev Singh, R. Srikanth, Dean-yi Chou and the TON team: 2000, Solar Phys. , Solar Physics 199, 1.
   Possible evidence of long-term oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere
4. R. Srikanth, Jagdev Singh, K. P. Raju: 2000, The Astrophysical Journal 534, 1008.
   Distribution of supergranular sizes
5. V. Krishnakumar, P. Venkatakrishnan and R. Srikanth: 2000, Bull. Astr. Soc. India , 28, 23.
   Morphology of the Ca II K bright points and their link with G band bright points
6. R. Srikanth and Jagdev Singh: 2000, Journal Astron. Astrophys. 21, 265.
   Tessellation of the SoHO Magnetograms
7. R. Srikanth, K. P. Raju, Jagdev Singh: 1999, Solar Physics ; 184, 267.
   The Chromospheric Network: Dependence of Cell-lifetime on Length-scale
8. R. Srikanth, Jagdev Singh, K. P. Raju: 1999, Solar Physics, 187, 1.
   The Chromospheric Network: Network Evolution Viewed as a Diffusion Process
9. R. Srikanth: 1999a, ICARUS , 140, 230.
   On the Physical Interpretation of the Poynting-Robertson Effect
10. K. P. Raju, R. Srikanth, Jagdev Singh: 1998a, Solar Physics 178 , 251.
    On the Lifetimes of the Solar Ca II K Network Cells
11. K. P. Raju, R. Srikanth, Jagdev Singh: 1998b, Solar Physics , 180 47.
    Latitude Dependence of the Length-scales of the Solar Ca II K Network
12. K. P. Raju, R. Srikanth, Jagdev Singh: 1998b, Bull. Astron. Soc. India 27, 65.
    Lifetimes and sizes of supergranular cells .
13. R. Srikanth: 1999, PhD thesis , Indian Institute of Science.
    Studies on the Solar Chromospheric Network
14. R. Srikanth, Mangala Sharma and S. P. K. Rajguru: 1997, Kodaikanal Observatory Bulletin , 13, 59.
    Determination of the Linear Polarization of the Solar Corona from Observations of the October 24, 1995 Solar Eclipse

1. R. Srikanth, 2001f: A quantum field theoretic description of the delayed choice experiment
2. R. Srikanth, 2001e: The hidden cost of quantum teleportation and remote state preparation.
3. R. Srikanth, 2001d: Observables in relativistic quantum mechanics
4. R. Srikanth, 2001c: A limit of the Complementarity Principle
5. R. Srikanth, 2001b: Do quantum nonlocal correlations imply information transfer?- A Gedanken experiment .
6. R. Srikanth, 2001a: Do quantum nonlocal correlations imply information transfer?- A quantum optical test
7. R. Srikanth: 1999, Noncausal superluminal nonlocal signalling

1. Generalized Hamiltonian Dynamics and the Quantization of Gravitation as a Degenerate Lagrangian System
   R. Srikanth: 1997, Lecture series delivered at Center for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
2. Tessellation of SOHO magnetograms
   R. Srikanth and Jagdev Singh: 1999, to appear in IAU Colloquium 179 Cyclical Evolution of Solar magnetic fields: Advances in Theory and Observation, Kodaikanal, India (Eds. P. Venkatakrishnan, G. Srinivasan).
3. Tessellation of Ca II K Filtergrams and SOHO Dopplergrams
   R. Srikanth, Jagdev Singh and K. P. Raju: 1999, XIX Annual Meeting, Astronomical Society of India, National Institute for Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India.
4. A Dependence of the Correlation Lifetimes of the Chromospheric Network on its Autocorrelation Length-scales: A Statistical Approach
   R. Srikanth, Jagdev Singh: 1998, New Initiatives in Solar Physics, Bangalore, India (Ed. S. S. Hasan).
5. On the Distribution of Lifetimes and Lengthscales of the Ca II K Network Cells
   R. Srikanth, Jagdev Singh, K. P. Raju: 1997, XVII Annual Meeting, Astronomical Society of India, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India.

• Served as a Referee for Icarus and Physical Review D .
• Technically helped to edit the volume "The Physics of Black Holes", Proceedings of a Discussion Meeting, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India 1997, eds. Profs. N. Mukunda, J. Pasupathy, C. V. Vishveshwara; Jl. Astrophys. Astron. (1999) 20 91.

Comments? Reprints? Offprints? Please write to me!