Nilay Kundu
Associate Professor,
Department of Physics,
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.
- Office
- Old SAC Building - Block-C, Room 103
- nilayhep (at) iitk.ac.in, nilay.tifr (at) gmail.com
- Phone
- 0512-259-6801 (Office)
- Postal address
- Department of Physics,
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur),
Kanpur 208016, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Research
I am a member of the Department of Physics, IIT Kanpur.
My research interests are in theoretical physics, broadly focusing on aspects of Gravity and Quantum Field Theory.
In recent times, my specific research interests include the following topics:
- Understanding black hole thermodynamics in effective theories of gravity going beyond Einstein’s theory of general relativity,
- Exploring model-independent features of inflationary paradigm of early universe cosmology using symmetry principles, and investigate the possible connections with future observations,
- Studying conformal field theory in momentum space,
- Studying quantum field theory in de Sitter spacetime and using it to learn about cosmological correlators.
Publications
My research publications can be found here: inspirehep, Google Scholar, arXiv.
Recent papers
-
A comparison of two constructions for dynamical corrections to Wald entropy
-
Homothetic Killing horizons in generic Vaidya spacetimes
-
Reconstructing cosmological correlators via dispersion: from cutting to dressing rules
-
A single-cut discontinuity for cosmological correlators from unitarity and analyticity
-
A classical Bousso bound for higher derivative corrections to general relativity
Recent research seminars
Some of my recent research seminars can be accessed online here:
- Lecture series on cosmological correlators (lecture 1 - link, lecture 2 - link, lecture 3 - link)
- Black hole thermodynamics within and beyond general relativity: a promising link between gravity and entanglement - link
- Black hole entropy in Higher derivative theories of Gravity - link
- Entropy current and second law in higher derivative theories of gravity - link
- Inflationary cosmological correlators from momentum space conformal symmetry (part 1 - link, part 2 - link)
- Second law of black-hole thermodynamics in higher derivative theory of gravity - link
- Euclidean Path Integral Optimization in CFT’s - link
Teaching
Courses taught at IIT Kanpur:
- Special Relativity (PHY226B)
- Introduction to General Relativity (PHY407)
- Introduction to Electrodynamics (for first year B.S./B.Tech. students) (PHY113)
- Advanced Electrodynamics (PHY553)
- Quantum Field Theory - I (PHY681)
- Quantum Field Theory - II (PHY781)
Courses taught at other places:
| Aug 3 - 7, 2026: | Lecture series on cosmological correlators - Chennai Strings School at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai. |
| Oct 14 - Nov 9, 2019: | Quantum Field Theory-I (tutor) - SERB preparatory school on Theoretical High Energy Physics at Tezpur University. |
Mentoring PhD students/postdoc/M.Sc. project
PhD students
- Prateksh Dhivakar - (2019 - 2024) - presently postdoc at University of Victoria, Canada.
- Ritwika Ghoshal - ongoing
- Shibam Das - ongoing
Postdoc supervision
- Dr. Sabyasachi Maulik - (2023 - 2025) - funded by IPDF at IIT Kanpur - presently Assistant Professor in Physics, Xavier School of Engineering and Technology, St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata.
- Dr. Parthajit Biswas - (2020 - 2022) - funded by a grant of Prof. Arjun Bagchi - presently a faculty member at NIT Puducherry.
MSc project supervision
- Ishan Deo - presently pursuing PhD in Purdue University.
- Pinak Banerjee - presently pursuing PhD in Virginia Tech.
- Shibam Das - presently pursuing PhD in IIT Kanpur.
- Prakriti Singh - presently pursuing PhD in Syracuse University.
- Nachiket Karve - presently pursuing PhD in Boston University.
- Pushkar Soni - presently pursuing PhD in IIT Kanpur.
Curriculum Vitae
My detailed CV can be accessed here.