Joysankar Majumdar · Academic homepagePreprint, manuscript no. 26xx.134xx

Fleeting yet powerful. A PhD student in search of high-energy extragalactic transients

Joysankar Majumdar1

1 Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa, Poland
e-mail: j.majumdar@uw.edu.pl, jmajumdar@astrouw.edu.pl, joysankarmajumdar@gmail.com

Received 2022 (B.Sc.); revised 2024 (M.Sc.); accepted to the PhD programme, University of Warsaw

ABSTRACT

Context. Extragalactic transients are moments of cosmic beauty, fleeting yet powerful, like a sudden burst of আলো in the vast darkness.

Aims. I introduce myself, a PhD student at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw, and point the reader to my research, publications and observing activity.

Methods. Multi-wavelength observations of supernovae, active galactic nuclei and blazars, combined with optical follow-up through the BHTOM global telescope network.

Results. Seven refereed articles, three preprints, ten Astronomer’s Telegrams and Transient Name Server reports, about 120 hours of awarded ground-based telescope time, nine Swift target-of-opportunity triggers and talks on three continents.

Conclusions. The work is ongoing. Correspondence is welcome at the addresses above.

Key words. supernovae: general – galaxies: active – tidal disruption events (TDE) – changing-look AGN (CL-AGN) – Bowen fluorescence flares (BFF) – BL Lacertae objects: general – methods: observational – astronomers: individual: J. Majumdar

1.Introduction

Portrait of Joysankar Majumdar
Fig. 1. The author, observed in the optical.

নমস্কার. I am a PhD student at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw, advised by Prof. Łukasz Wyrzykowski and co-advised by Dr. Mariusz Gromadzki. I work on multi-wavelength studies of astrophysical transients and high-energy astrophysics, and at present mostly on core-collapse supernovae that keep shining through interaction with their surroundings (Sect. 2 of the research page).

Alongside the science I help develop BHTOM, a multi-wavelength archival and optical follow-up engine for astrophysical transients. My enthusiasm after a new transient alert is empirically found to follow

E(t)∝t−5/3, (1)

the canonical fallback rate of a tidal disruption event, except that every new alert resets t to zero.

2.Origins

I come from Thakurpura, a small village in the district of South Dinajpur, West Bengal, India. I went to school at Barakoil High School and completed my higher secondary studies at Balurghat High School. The path from there to Warsaw is summarised in Table 1.

Table 1. Education and research positions.
YearPositionInstitution
nowPhD studentAstronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw, Poland
2024Research AssistantHigh Energy Astrophysics Lab, BHU, with Dr. Raj Prince
2024M.Sc. in PhysicsBanaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
2022B.Sc. (Hons) in PhysicsMalda College, University of Gour Banga, India

3.Observations away from the telescope

Off duty, the author has been detected in the following channels.

4.Data availability

All material referred to here is publicly available at the following locations.

ORCID
0009-0008-3960-1213
NASA ADS
Public library
Google Scholar
Profile
ResearchGate
Joysankar-Majumdar
GitHub
joysankar-astro
LinkedIn
joysankar2001
Instagram
joy_kozmic

Acknowledgements. I thank my advisors Ł. Wyrzykowski and M. Gromadzki for my first steps in transient astronomy, R. Prince for my first steps in high-energy physics, and the observers of the BHTOM network.

  1. Kolkata biriyani is the best. ↩