I’m Harish Chandra Das, an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. I work on the nuclear equation of state at densities no laboratory can reach, what changes if dark matter captures inside a compact star, and which of those changes leave a fingerprint a detector could actually detect.
Research Interest
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Nuclear Matter & EOS
The nuclear equation of state from relativistic mean-field models: symmetry energy, pressure anisotropy, pasta phases and crustal properties, bridging finite-nucleus physics with astrophysical observables.
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Dark Matter in Compact Stars
How fermionic and bosonic dark matter modifies the structure, stability and observable properties of neutron stars in a relativistic two-fluid framework, against constraints from NICER, GW170817 and pulsars.
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Neutron Star Cooling
Thermal evolution including superfluidity, pairing gaps and direct URCA processes, constraining gap parameters from observed surface temperatures and mass distributions.
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Gravitational Waves & Oscillations
Inspiral waveforms, f-mode and r-mode frequencies and tidal Love numbers for dark-matter-admixed stars, connected to multi-messenger observations from LIGO–Virgo.
Key Publications
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Effects of dark matter on the nuclear and neutron star matter
What happens to a neutron star’s structure if dark matter accumulates inside it, worked through the nuclear equation of state rather than assumed.
116 citationsMon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 495, 4893 (2020)
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Dark matter admixed neutron star as a possible compact component in the GW190814 merger event
GW190814’s lighter companion sits in a mass gap that standard matter struggles to explain. This asks whether a dark-matter-admixed neutron star fits it.
95 citationsPhys. Rev. D 104, 063028 (2021)
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Impacts of dark matter on the f-mode oscillation of hyperon star
Whether trapped dark matter shifts the oscillation mode that gravitational-wave detectors are most likely to hear from a ringing star.
67 citationsPhys. Rev. D 104, 123006 (2021)
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Effects of dark matter on the in-spiral properties of the binary neutron stars
How a dark-matter component changes the in-spiral of two merging neutron stars, which is the stretch of the signal LIGO and Virgo actually measure.
57 citationsMon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 507, 4053 (2021)
Recent
- Humboldt Study Tour 2026 in Germany, 17–29 August
- “Influence of dark matter on hybrid and twin stars” published in Phys. Rev. D 114, 023046
- Contributed talk, “Dark matter effects on the properties of hybrid and twin stars” at CSQCD 2026, Barcelona
- Invited seminar, “Neutron stars cooling and its mass distribution” at the Astrocoffee Seminar, FIAS, Frankfurt am Main
- “Astrophysical constraints on neutron star f-modes with a nonparametric equation of state representation” published in Phys. Rev. D 112, 123043
Where I’ve been
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2026
Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany
January 2026 – Present
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2023
INFN Postdoctoral Fellow
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Catania, Italy
September 2023 – September 2025
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2018
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Physics
Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India
August 2018 – March 2023
Awards & fellowships
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Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship
2025 -
INFN Postdoctoral Fellowship
2023–2025 -
DAE Junior / Senior Research Fellowship
2018–2023