Intern Experiences - Mekhala Paranjpe

Intern Experiences Summer 2018

TIFR, Mumbai

Mekhala Paranjpe

Process of securing the intern:

I was introduced to the NIUS program in my first year, which was a series of lectures and camps and has finally culminated in this project. You need to send an sop with other required docs to HBCSE, followed by a series of lectures where you get to choose who you plan to work with.

What was I working on?

The project is still ongoing - the end goal as of now is to understand how axions help solve the problem of why CP violation is not observed in strong interactions, although theoretically expected. These particles are hypothetical - not yet part of the Standard Model either - and are also being considered as candidates for dark matter.

Workload:

The project is purely theoretical and involves reading a lot of literature. My guide (professor) is pretty chilled out, probably because it wasn't a formal intern. Also, I didn't have to work there everyday; in fact the only time I went there was if it was to discuss things with him. That was about three days a week.

Courses that helped me:

Since the field is particle physics, a good quantum mechanics course would be a great help, I would say the concepts are prerequisites to what I have been doing anyway. Special relativity also helps.

Contact Details:

mekhala.paranjpe@gmail.com