Faculty Details

Areas of Interest

• Quantum Field Theory
• String Theory
• Black Holes

Current Research

I work primarily in the area of hep-th. My interests over the last decade has been on the microscopic counting of BPS states in string theory. This work has found connections with several areas of physics and mathematics such as Statistical Mechanics, Number Theory, Lie Algebras and Combinatorics. A fascinating discovery of my group was to find a connection between the largest Mathieu group and the counting of BPS states in N=4 supersymmetric string theory. Currently I am working on extending the counting of BPS states to N=2 string theory. I am also beginning to work on the use of measures of quantum information such as entanglement entropy in quantum and conformal field theories using holographic methods. I also have a long-standing interest in all aspects of higher dimensional partitions. In 2012, I started the partitions project to get IITM undergraduates involved in research.

Students

Current PhD Students

• PH20D034    AKHILA S
• PH20D052    A P SREEHARI

Recent Publications

• sl(2)-hat decomposition of denominator formulae of some BKM Lie superalgebras -- II. Suresh Govindarajan, Mohammad Shabbir. Nuclear Physics B. Vol 989, 116127. 1-24.
  DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2023.116127. arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.10502 2023.
• Positivity of discrete information for CHL black holes . Suresh Govindarajan, Sutapa Samanta, P Shanmugapriya, Amitabh Virmani. Nuclear Physics B. Volume 987, 116095. 1-30.
  DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2023.116095 . arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.08726 2023.
• The Brylinski Filtration for Affine Kac-Moody Algebras and Representations of W-algebras. Suresh Govindarajan, Sachin S Sharma, Sankaran Viswanath. Algebra and Representation Theory. 2021.
• Black Hole Hair Removal For N= 4 CHL Models . Subhroneel Chakrabarti, Suresh Govindarajan, P Shanmugapriya, Yogesh K Srivastava, Amitabh Virmani. Journal of High Energy Physics . 2 . 2021.
• Mathieu Moonshine and Siegel Modular Forms. Suresh Govindarajan, Sutapa Samanta. Journal of High Energy Physics. 3 (50) . 2021.
• sl (2)-hat decomposition of denominator formulae of some BKM Lie superalgebras. Suresh Govindarajan, Mohammad Shabbir, Sankaran Viswanath. Nuclear Physics B. Vol 973, 115614. 1-32.
  DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2021.115614. arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.01605 2021.
• The Central Force problem in n dimensions. V Balakrishnan, Suresh Govindarajan, S Lakshmibala. Resonance - Journal of Science Education. 25. 513-538. 2020.
• Two moonshines for L_2(11) but none for M_12. Suresh Govindarajan, Sutapa Samanta. Nucl. Phys. B. . 939 . 566-598. 2019.
• BKM Lie superalgebras from counting twisted CHL dyons – II. Suresh Govindarajan, Sutapa Samanta. Nucl. Phys. B.. 948 . 114770. 2019.
• On a square-ice analogue of plane partitions. Suresh Govindarajan, A J Guttmann, Varsha Subramanyan. Ann. Inst. Henri Poincare Comb. Phys. Interact.. 6 . 123-154. 2019.
• A superasymptotic formula for the number of plane partitions. S. Govindarajan, N. S. Prabhakar. arXiv:1311.7227. 2014.
• Estimating the asymptotics of solid partitions. N. Destainville, S. Govindarajan. arXiv:1406.5605 [cond-mat.stat-mech]. Journal of Statistical Physics.
  DOI: 10.1007/s10955-014-1147-z. 2014.
• Notes on higher-dimensional partitions. Suresh Govindarajan. J. Comb. Theory Ser. A . 120. 600.
  DOI: 1203.4419 [math.CO]. 2013.

Teaching

• 2017 :  (Jan - May) - PH5020 Electromagnetic Theory; (Jul - Nov) - PH1080 Thermodynamics and Kinetic Theory
• 2018 :  (Jan - May) - PH5020 Electromagnetic Theory
• 2019 :  (Jan - May) - EP3190 Engineering Physics Lab II / PH2080 Physics Lab IV; PH3520 Quantum Physics; (Jul - Nov) - PH5100 Quantum Mechanics- I
• 2020 :  (Jan - May) - PH1020 Physics II; (Jul - Nov) - PH5030 Classical Mechanics
• 2021 :  (Jul - Nov) - PH5030 Classical Mechanics
• 2022 :  (Jan - May) - PH1030 Physics Laboratory I / PH5080 Statistical Physics ; (Jul - Nov) - PH5030 Classical Mechanics
• 2023 :  (Jan - May) - PH5080 Statistical Physics