Cosmic Microwave Background
The group concentrates on radiative transfer effects in the universe. In particular it studies anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). These anisotropies can be due to various effects, including the first stars in the Universe and large scale structure.
Rishi Khatri works on distortions of the CMB spectrum from the Planck shape, as well as the interaction of matter and radiation in the early Universe. He has written a public Mathematica code that very quickly calculates the total spectral distortion from a user-defined rate of energy injection. A fast code like this one is ideally suited to exploring the full and very rich parameter space of intermediate-type distortions.
Satej Khedekar is interested in understanding the physical properties of the ICM that can be constrained through observations in X-ray, SZ and optical; using observations of galaxy clusters in constraining cosmology; breaking degeneracies between cosmology and cluster physics.
Margherita Molaro is studying the effects of dark matter annihilation in the early Universe and possible imprints on the cosmic microwave background.