Prof. Mustansir Barma

My research, done with students, postdoctoral associates and colleagues at TIFR and elsewhere, has focused on cooperative effects in interacting systems, both in and out of equilibrium. At TCIS, I have been working primarily on nonequilibrium statistical physics, often involving new phases that arise from external driving and interactions between particles.

Specific research directions being pursued include

• Fluctuation-dominated phase ordering, which involves a fine balance between giant fluctuations and long range order, and is found in a variety of soft matter systems.

• Multispecies coupled driven systems, at instabilities which lead to phase separation.

• Entropy-induced ordering of hard objects, with a focus on the dynamics of approach to the steady state.

• Aggregation-fragmentation dynamics, leading to macroscopic condensates and temporal intermittency, with connections to intra-cellular transport of proteins.

• Disordered driven systems, to clarify qualitative aspects of transport of particles and interfaces driven in random media.