Desika Narayanan - Research

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If you don't know me...

I'm a CfA Postdoctoral Fellow at...wait for it...the CfA. I work largely with Lars Hernquist and the broader Keck Collaboration here at the CfA.

Before that, I was in Grad School at the University of Arizona where I worked with Chris Walker (PhD Advisor) and Romeel Dave. Before that, I was in college in the other sunshine state at the University of Florida where I worked with Fred Hamann.

My primary research interests are in studying the star forming interstellar medium in starburst galaxies, ULIRGs, and active galaxies via large-scale numerical modeling. I've also been involved in work trying to understand the molecular component of protoplanetary disks.

Contact Information

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street MS 51
Cambridge, Ma
02138

Telephone: (617)384-7689
E-mail : dnarayanan *at* cfa (dot) harvard dot edu

Current Research

My primary research involves trying trying to understand the properties of the dusty and molecular star forming interstellar medium (ISM) in quiescent and active galaxies via large scale simulations. One of the biggest problems in studies of galaxy formation and evolution is quantitatively understanding how embedded active galactic nuclei and starbursts evolve coevally to shape the evolution of galaxies in the Universe. One avenue for studying this problem is to constrain the physical properties of the star forming interstellar medium - the gas that serves as a stellar nursery, as well as fuel for the accreting supermassive black hole(s). One popular method for understanding the properties of this gas is to study its molecular line emission, typically via carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), CS, HCO+ and other molecules who's names aren't quite as easy to say. Another thing people tend to think about is the dust floating around the gas in these galaxies.

However, there are few models in existence to help interpret and understand the observational data that is pouring in of the ISM in high redshift galaxies. So the reason I leave my apartment every morning is to try and make a small stab at this problem. In specific, in order to work on models for the interpretation of continuum and molecular line data from starforming galaxies (and dare I say maybe even make predictions?!!), I spend a lot of time working on radiative transfer simulations coupled with hydrodynamic models of galaxy mergers from z=0-6. If you're really interested beyond this, please check out some of the papers listed below! Of course, you could also just ADS my name...

I also spend some time working on the molecular emission properties of protoplanetary disks. In collaboration with Alan Boss and others, I spent some time looking for signs imprinted in the molecular emission lines of of gas giant planet formation. By applying the aforementioned non-LTE radiative transfer code to simulations of gravitationally unstable protoplanetary disks, we've worked out a self-absorption line profile indicative of dense planet-forming clumps. Again, feel free to check out the paper below.

Finally, I'm always up for collaborations. Its neat to learn about new topics, and apply something I might know to a different avenue. Feel free to contact me if you think we could do some fun science.

Refereed Lead Author Publications:

[11] "A Physical Model for z~2 Dust Obscured Galaxies"
    Narayanan, D. , Dey, A., Hayward, C., Cox, T.J., Bussmann, R.S., Brodwin, M., Jonsson, P.,
    Hopkins, P., Groves, B., Younger, J, Hernquist, L.,
    MNRAS submitted - preprint available at: - arXiv:0910.2234

[10] "The Star-Forming Molecular Gas in High Redshift Submillimeter Galaxies"
    Narayanan, D. , Cox, T.J., Hayward, C., Younger, J, Hernquist, L.,
    MNRAS Accepted and in press - preprint available at: - arXiv:0905.2184

[9] "The Formation of High Redshift Submillimeter Galaxies"
    Narayanan, D. , Hayward, C., Cox, T.J., Hernquist, L., Jonsson, P., Younger, J., Groves, B,
    MNRAS Accepted and in press- preprint available at: - arXiv:0904.0004

[8] "The Star Formation Rate-Dense Gas Relation in the Nuclei of Nearby Galaxies"
    Narayanan, D. , Cox T.J., Hernquist, L.,
    The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2008, 681, L77) - arXiv:0805.4019 ADS)

[7] "Molecular Star Formation Rate Indicators in Galaxies"
    Narayanan, D. , Cox T.J., Shirley Y., Dave R., Hernquist L., Walker, C.K.,
    The Astrophysical Journal (2008, 694, 996- arXiv:0711.1361 ADS)

[6] "The Role of Galactic Winds on Molecular Gas Emission from Galaxy Mergers"
    Narayanan, D. , Cox, T.J., Kelly, B., Hernquist, L., Di Matteo, T.,
     Hopkins, P.,Kulesa, C., Robertson, B., Walker, C.K.
    The Astrophysical Journal (2008), 176, 331 - arXiv:0710.0384, ADS)

[5] "The Nature of CO Emission in z~6 Quasars"
    Narayanan, D. , Li, Y., Cox, T.J., Hernquist, L., Hopkins, P., Chakrabarti, S.,
     Dave, R., Di Matteo, T.,Gao, L., Kulesa, C., Robertson, B., Walker, C.K.,
    The Astrophysical Journal, (2008), 174, 13 (arXiv:0707.3141; ADS)

[4] "Molecular Line Emission from Gravitationally Unstable Protoplanetary Disks",
    Narayanan, D. Kulesa, C., Boss, A.P., Walker, C.K.,
    The Astrophysical Journal, (2006), 647, 1426 (astro-ph/0605329, ADS)

[3] "Molecular Outflows in Galaxy Merger Simulations with Embedded AGN",
    Narayanan, D., Cox, T.J., Robertson, B., Dave, R., Di Matteo, T., Hernquist, L.,
    Hopkins, P., Kulesa, C., Walker, C.K,
    The Astrophysical Journal Letters, (2006), 642L, 107 ( ADS)

[2] "Warm-Dense Molecular Gas in the ISM of Starbursts, LIRGs and ULIRGs",
    Narayanan, D., Groppi, C.E., Kulesa, C.A., Walker, C.K.
    The Astrophysical Journal, (2005), 630, 269 ( ADS )

[1] "Variability Tests for Intrinsic Absorption Lines in Quasar Spectra",
    Narayanan, D., Hamann, F.,Barlow, T., Burbidge, E.M., Cohen, R.,Junkkarinen, V., Lyons, R,
     The Astrophysical Journal, (2004) 601,715 (ADS )