Magnetohydrodynamics
The discipline of MagnetoHydroDynamics (MHD) studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids such as astrophysical plasmas. Over the years, we have developed pioneering semi-analytical solutions of the non-linear equations of MHD in non-relativistic protostellar jets, relativistic galactic and extragalactic jets, magnetized protostellar collapse, and the axisymmetric pulsar magnetosphere. We are currently studying accretion disk winds as “warm absorbers” in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). More recently, we have been working on a particular regime of MHD, namely Force-Free Electrodynamics (FFE), and developed our own numerical FFE code in the study of the three dimensional pulsar magnetosphere and the solar corona. We are currently investigating the origin of high energy radiation in the pulsar magnetosphere. We are also investigating the Poynting-Robertson Cosmic Battery, a novel astrophysical mechanism that we proposed as the source of magnetic fields in the Universe, and presented strong confirmation in radio observations of extragalactic AGN jets. We have active collaborations with NASA/Godard (USA), Cork University (Ireland), and Tsinghua University (China).