Harish Chandra Research Institute

Mathematician Harish Chandra

Harish-Chandra was born on 11 October, 1923 in Kanpur, an industrial town near Prayagraj (Allahabad) in Uttar Pradesh, India. He was awarded a master's degree in 1943, and then went to Bangalore to work further on theoretical physics. After a short while, Harish-Chandra went to Cambridge, where he studied for his Ph.D. under Dirac's supervision. During his time in Cambridge, he moved away from physics, and became more interested in mathematics. While at Cambridge, he attended a lecture by Pauli, and pointed out a mistake in Pauli's work. The two were to become life long friends. Harish-Chandra obtained his degree in 1947 and, in the same year, he went to the USA. The period from 1950 to 1963 was his most productive, and he spent these years at the Columbia University. During this time, he worked on representations of semisimple Lie groups. Also, during this period he had close contact with André Weil. Harish-Chandra worked at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1963. He was appointed IBM von Neumann Professor in 1968. He became one of the leading mathematicians of the twentieth century. Harish-Chandra received many awards in his career. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He won the Cole prize from the American Mathematical Society in 1954 for his papers on representations of semisimple Lie algebras and groups, and particularly for his paper [Har51]. In 1974, he received the Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal from the Indian National Science Academy.
He died of a heart attack at the end of a week long conference in Princeton, having earlier suffered from three heart attacks.

Research in Mathematics

The mathematics group at Harish-Chandra Research Institute conducts research in algebra, analysis, geometry and topology, and number theory. The group consists of faculty members, visiting scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. An accompanying document contains more information on the research interests of individual members of the group.

1. Algebra :- The areas of research in algebra at HRI are theory of finite groups, infinite-dimensional Lie algebras, and representation theory.


2. Analysis :- In analysis, the areas of research are harmonic analysis, and related topics.


3. Geometry and topology :- Geometry and topology at HRI includes work on algebraic topology, differential equations arising in mathematical physics, differential geometry, discontinuous groups, Riemann surfaces, algebraic surfaces over local fields, and moduli spaces of vector bundles.


4. Number Theory :- The research interests in number theory at HRI range over algebraic, analytic and combinatorial number theory, and automorphic forms.

Research in Physics

1. Astrophysics :- Research interests of the astrophysics group at HRI are black hole astrophysics, cosmology, large scale structures in the universe, galaxy formation, N-body simulations and quantum field theory in curved background, relativistic and high energy astrophysics, black hole accretion, AGN, galactic and extra-galactic jets, quasi periodic oscillation, galactic centre astrophysics, Hawking radiation and analogue models.


2. Condensed Matter Physics :- Research interests of the condensed matter physics group at HRI are field theory techniques in condensed matter physics, freezing in quantum liquids, heavy fermions, magnetism and transport at strong disorder, mesoscopic systems, quantum Monte Carlo methods for electronic structure and spintronics.


3. High Energy Physics :- Research interests of the high energy physics group at HRI are astroparticle physics, brane-world models, neutrino physics, physics beyond the Standard Model, quantum chromodynamics and supersymmetric phenomenology.


4. String Theory :- Research interests of the string theory group at HRI are AdS/CFT correspondence, black holes in string theory, noncommutative field theories, string field theory, string theory in Ramond backgrounds, supersymmetric gauge theories, tachyon cosmology and tachyon dynamics in open string theory.


5. Quantum Information and Computation :- Research interests of the QIC group at HRI are entanglement and all that, quantum communication, quantum cryptography, realizable quantum computing devices, especially ultra-cold gases and quantum optical systems, and foundations of quantum mechanics.

Awards and Honours

In the past two decades HRI has had significant impact in both research and education in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. Awards conferred on faculty members include one Dirac Medal, five Bhatnagar Awards and one Padma Bhushan. Around fifty alumni of the institute hold faculty positions in premier scientific institutions in the country.
Rhe following faculty members of the institute have received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology:

1. Ashoke Sen :- Apart from recieving the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 1994, Prof. Ashoke Sen received the prestigious Infosys Prize in 2009 and Fundamental Physics Prize in July 2012. He was also awarded the prestigious civilian award Padma Bhushan by President of India in April 2013.


2. Amitava Raychaudhuri :- (1997)


3. Biswarup Mukhopadhyaya :- (2003)


4. Pinaki Majumdar :- (2007)


5. Rajesh Gopakumar :- Apart from recieving the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2009, Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar received the International Centre for Theoretical Physics Prize in 2006.


6. Aditi De :- (2018)