My research, done with students, postdoctoral associates and colleagues at TIFR and elsewhere, has focused on cooperative effects in interacting systems, both in and out of equilibrium. At TCIS, I have been working primarily on nonequilibrium statistical physics, often involving new phases that arise from external driving and interactions between particles.

Specific research directions being pursued include

  • Fluctuation-dominated phase ordering, which involves a fine balance between giant fluctuations and long range order, and is found in a variety of soft matter systems.

  • Multispecies coupled driven systems, at instabilities which lead to phase separation.

  • Entropy-induced ordering of hard objects, with a focus on the dynamics of approach to the steady state.

  • Aggregation-fragmentation dynamics, leading to macroscopic condensates and temporal intermittency, with connections to intra-cellular transport of proteins.

  • Disordered driven systems, to clarify qualitative aspects of transport of particles and interfaces driven in random media.