image Agarwal Nishant

Nishant Agarwal

Associate Professor

College
College of Sciences
Department
Physics
Phone
978-934-9589
Office
Olney Hall 131
Email
Nishant_Agarwal@uml.edu

Expertise

Theoretical cosmology

Research Interests

Inflation, Dark energy, Quantum field theory in curved spacetime, Large-scale structure, Cosmic microwave background

Education

  • Ph D: Astronomy and Space Sciences, (2011), Cornell University - Ithaca, NY
    Dissertation/Thesis Title: Cosmic acceleration: Past and present
  • MS: Astronomy and Space Sciences, (2009), Cornell University - Ithaca, NY
  • MS: Physics, (2006), Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur, India
  • BS: Physics, (2004), St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi - Delhi, India

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos Postdoctoral Fellow (2014) - The Pennsylvania State University
  • Second prize in the Gravity Research Foundation 2013 essay competition (2013)
  • McWilliams Postdoctoral Fellowship (2011) - Carnegie Mellon University
  • Sangeeta Pradhan Memorial Gold Medal (2006) - Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
  • DST Award for Participation in the 55th Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students in Lindau, Germany (2005) - Department of Science and Technology, Government of India
  • Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) Scholarship for Higher Studies (2004)
  • Sumitomo Scholarship (2001) - St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi

Selected Publications

  • Shandera, S. (The Pennsylvania State University), Agarwal, N., Kamal, A. (2018). Open quantum cosmological system. Phys. Rev. D , 98 083535.
  • Kahniashvili, T., Kar, A., Lavrelashvili, G., Agarwal, N., Heisenberg, L., Kosowsky, A. (2015). Cosmic expansion in extended quasidilaton massive gravity. Physical Review D, 91 041301.
  • Byun, J., Agarwal, N., Bean, R., Holman, R. (2015). Looking for non-Gaussianity in all the right places: A new basis for nonseparable bispectra. Physical Review D, 91 123518.
  • Ho, S., Agarwal, N., Myers, A.D., Lyons, R., Disbrow, A., others, . (2015). Sloan Digital Sky Survey III photometric quasar clustering: Probing the initial conditions of the Universe. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 05 040.
  • Agarwal, N., Ho, S., Myers, A.D., Seo, H., Ross, A.J., others, . (2014). Characterizing unknown systematics in large scale structure surveys. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 04 007.
  • Agarwal, N., Ho, S., Shandera, S. (2014). Constraining the initial conditions of the Universe using large scale structure. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 02 038.
  • Agarwal, N., Ribeiro, R.H., Holman, R. (2014). Why does the effective field theory of inflation work? Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 06 016.
  • Agarwal, N., Holman, R., Tolley, A.J., Lin, J. (2013). Effective field theory and non-Gaussianity from general inflationary states . Journal of High Energy Physics, 05 085.
  • Agarwal, N., Holman, R., Tolley, A.J. (2013). What is the shape of the initial state? International Journal of Modern Physics D, 22 1341015.
  • Agarwal, N., Aluri, P.K., Jain, P., Khanna, U., Tiwari, P. (2012). A complete 3D numerical study of the effects of pseudoscalar-photon mixing on quasar polarizations . European Physical Journal C, 72 1928.
  • Agarwal, N., Kamal, A., Jain, P. (2011). Alignments in quasar polarizations: Pseudoscalar-photon mixing in the presence of correlated magnetic fields. Physical Review D, 83 065014.
  • Agarwal, N., Bean, R., Khoury, J., Trodden, M. (2011). Screening bulk curvature in the presence of large brane tension. Physical Review D, 83 124004.
  • Agarwal, N., Bean, R., McAllister, L., Xu, G. (2011). Universality in D-brane Inflation. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 09 002.
  • Agarwal, N., Bean, R., Khoury, J., Trodden, M. (2010). Cascading cosmology. Physical Review D, 81 084020.
  • Agarwal, N., Bean, R. (2009). Cosmological constraints on general, single field inflation. Physical Review D, 79 023503.
  • Agarwal, N., Jain, P., McKay, D.W., Ralston, J.P. (2008). Signatures of pseudoscalar photon mixing in CMB polarization. Physical Review D, 78 085028.
  • Agarwal, N., Bean, R. (2008). The dynamical viability of scalar–tensor gravity theories. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 25 165001.

Selected Contracts, Fellowships, Grants and Sponsored Research

  • CosmoArchaeology: Digging for the Initial State (2012), Grant - John Templeton Foundation Research Grant
    Agarwal, N. (Co-Principal), Holman, R. (Principal), Ho, S. (Co-Principal), O'Connell, R. (Co-Principal), Shandera, S. (Co-Principal)