My current research is focused on radially pulsating variable stars, in particular, Classical and Type II Cepheids, RR Lyrae, and Mira variables. These fascinating stars play a crucial role in our understanding of several interesting topics in stellar and Galactic astronomy as well as in near-field cosmology. Pulsating stars are sensitive probe for the stellar evolutionary and pulsation studies and are excellent stellar population tracers for an insight into the formation history of our Milky Way and Local Group galaxies.
A radially pulsating star expands and contracts periodically and its luminosity is strongly correlated with the period of pulsation. This property makes pulsating stars the most robust standard rulers to measure Galactic and extra-galactic distances. One of my primary research interest is to use pulsating stars as standard rulers for a cosmological distance ladder with a goal to measure a precise age and size of the Universe. |
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Classical Cepheids in the LMCNISS
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Type II Cepheids in the LMCNISS
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Published results: Bhardwaj+(2017)
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Published results: Bhardwaj+(2016a) Bhardwaj+(2016b)
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