FACULTY PROFILE
Personal Details:
Name: Sanil Unnikrishnan
Designation: Assistant Professor
Department: Physics
Education: PhD (Physics)
Contact Details: u.sanil[at]ststephens.edu
Qualification:
• PhD (Physics), University of Delhi,
Thesis Title: A theoretical study of dark energy parameters in cosmology
Thesis Advisor: Prof. T.R. Seshadri
• MSc (Physics) IIT, Delhi
• B.Sc (Hons) Physics, ARSD College, University of Delhi
• UGC-CSIR JRF-NET qualified.
Research Experience:
• Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, July 2009 to July 2012
• Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM) from August 2012 to January 2014
Research Interests:
• General Relativity and Cosmology
• Cosmological Perturbation Theory
• Dark Matter and Dark Energy
• Modified Theories of Gravity
Teaching Experience:
• Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, since 20th May 2015 (Permanent)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, SMVD University, Katra Jammu. January to May 2015 (Permanent)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, LNMIIT, Jaipur. February to December 2014 (Permanent)
Teaching:
UG:
• Advanced Mathematical Physics-I and II
• Mathematical Physics-1, II & III Lab (C++ and Python)
• Waves and Optics (theory and Lab)
• Mechanics for BSc (Prog) Physical Sciences
• Electricity and Magnetism for BSc (Prog) Physical Sciences
• Physics-1 for UG students at LNMIIT Jaipur, February to December 2014
PG:
• Electrodynamics for MSc Students at SMVD University, Katra Jammu (January to May 2015)
Administrative Experience:
• Dean, International Relations w.e.f November 2021
• Deputy Tutor for Admissions 2019-20 and 2021-22
• Staff Advisor, Internet resource centre w.e.f July 2017
• Café Advisor, August 2019 to November 2021
• Member (Innovation & Best Practices) of IQAC cell of college 2017-18
• Member of college purchase committee from July 2016 to June 2017
• Staff Advisor, Web Team, July 2016 to June 2017
• Staff Advisor, Photographic Society July 2015 to June 2017
• Deputy Superintendent of Examination, November-December 2016
Membership of learned bodies:
• Visiting Associate of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, since August 2015.
• Member of Indian Association for General Relativity and Gravitation
Publications:
In Refereed International Journals
1. Emergent Cosmology Revisited
Satadru Bag, Varun Sahni, Yuri Shtanov, Sanil Unnikrishnan,
JCAP 1407 (2014) 034, arXiv:1403.4243.
2. Consistency relation in power law G-inflation
Sanil Unnikrishnan and S. Shankaranarayanan,
JCAP 1407 (2014) 003, arXiv:1311.0177.
3. Resurrecting power law inflation in the light of Planck results,
Sanil Unnikrishnan and Varun Sahni,
JCAP 10 (2013) 063, arXiv: 1305.5260.
4. Refining Inflation using Non-Canonical Scalars
Sanil Unnikrishnan, Varun Sahni and Aleksey Toporensky,
JCAP 1208 (2012) 018, arXiv: 1205.0786.
5. A Note on Perfect Scalar Field,
Sanil Unnikrishnan and L. Sriramkumar,
Phys. Rev. D 81, 103511 (2010), arXiv:1002.0820
6. Can cosmological observations uniquely determine the nature of dark energy,
Sanil Unnikrishnan,
Phys. Rev. D 78, 063007 (2008), arXiv:0805.0578
7. Scalar field Dark energy perturbations and its scale dependence,
Sanil Unnikrishnan, H. K. Jassal and T. R.Seshadri,
Phys. Rev. D 78, 123504 (2008), arXiv: 0801.2017
8. Cosmic acceleration in a model Scalar tensor Gravitation
Sanil Unnikrishnan and T .R. Seshadri,
Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 17, 2007 (2008), arXiv:gr-qc/0511035.
9. Some consequences of dark energy density varying exponentially with scale factor.
Sanil Unnikrishnan and T .R. Seshadri,
Mod. Phys. Letters A 20, 2805 (2005), arXiv:astro-ph/0511303.
In Conference proceedings
10. Effect of dark energy sound speed and equation of state on CDM power spectrum
H A Rizwan ul and Sanil Unnikrishnan,
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 484 (2014) 012048 (arxiv: 1407.4079)
Invited talks, Resource Person, lectures and workshops etc.:
• Resource person at the Mini School on Gravitation & Cosmology organised by Providence women’s College, Kozhikode and IUCAA Pune, 07-10 February 2019
• Resource person at the Short-Term Course on Gravitation & Cosmology organised by Providence women’s College, Kozhikode and IUCAA Pune, 25-30 November 2019
• Member of LOC for organising the 30 meeting of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI) held at IISER Trivandrum (February 2013).
• Invited guest Lecturer at XXVI SERC School on Theoretical High Energy Physics organised by Jamia Milia Islamia February 2011
• Member of LOC for organising Indo-UK meeting on Confronting particle-cosmology with Planck and LHC at IUCAA, Pune, India (August 2012).
• Member of SOC for XII Young Astronomers Meet (YAM) held at IIT Kharagpur 2009.
Conferences, Seminars attended:
• ICTP Summer School on Cosmology 2008, International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy July-2008. (ICTP funded this trip).
• School on Early Universe Cosmology (IEUC09) Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran, December-2010. (ICTP funded this trip).
• KIAS workshop on cosmology and structure formation, Korean Institute of Advanced Study (KIAS), Seoul, South Korea, October-2012 (DST India funded this trip).
• Particle Physics and Cosmology (PPC 2012), Korean Institute of Advanced Study (KIAS), Seoul, South Korea, November-2012 (DST India funded this trip).
• Mini-workshop on cosmology, Asia Pacific centre for theoretical physics (APCTP), Pohang, South Korea, 9-10 November 2012.
• Field Theoretical aspects of gravity (FTAG-2013), IIT Gandhinagar, September 5-8, 2013.
• Workshop on Astronomy Research: Opportunities and Challenges, MACFAST, Thiruvalla, August 12-14, 2013.
• The 30th meeting of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI) 2013 IISER, Trivandrum, February 2013.
• International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology (ICGC-2011), Goa, India, December-2012
• Workshop on Astro-Cosmo @ Trivandrum IISER, Trivandrum, November-2011.
• Indo-UK meeting on Confronting particle-cosmology with Planck and LHC, IUCAA, Pune, August-2011.
• Field-Theoreticic Aspects of Gravity (FTAG) 2010 Meeting, H.N.B. Garhwal Central University, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, April 2010.
• Cosmology Rapid Response meeting, TIFR, Mumbai, April 2010.
• Field-Theoreticic Aspects of Gravity (FTAG VII) 2008 Meeting, IIAS, Shimla, November-2008.
• Indian Conference on Cosmology and Galaxy Formation (ICCGF-2007), HRI, Allahabad, November-2007.
• New Horizons in Theoretical and Experimental Physics, CUSAT, Cochin, October-2007.
• Workshop on data analysis in Cosmology and Gravity Waves. Delhi University, October-2006.
• SERC school Preliminary on Theoretical High Energy Physics, IISC Bangalore Nov-2006.
• Emerging Trends in Physics – 2006, Khalsa College, University of Delhi, October-2006.
• Summer School on Gravitation and Cosmology, HRI, Allahabad, May-2004.
• International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology (ICGC-2004), CUSAT Cochin, January 2004.
• Advanced School on the Physics of Galaxy formation, HRI, Allahabad, November-2003