Krishnamohan Parattu

Personal Data
Current Address Chitrakam, Nadavaramba,
Thrissur, Kerala, India, 680 661
Nationality Indian
Date and Place of Birth 21-1-1986, Kerala, India
Email [email protected]
Mobile +91 8698457163
Marital Status Married

Timeline
Oct 2018- Aug 2021 Fondecyt Postdoctoral Fellow, PUCV, Valparaiso, Chile
Mentor: Prof. Dumitru Astefanesei

Apr 2018- Aug 2018 DGAPA Postdoctoral Fellow, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico
Mentor: Prof. Chryssomalis Chryssomalakos

Sep 2017- Mar 2018 SERB National Postdoctoral Fellow, IIT Madras, Chennai, India
Mentor: Prof. L. Sriramkumar

Dec 2016- Aug 2017 Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, IIT Madras, Chennai, India
Mentor: Prof. L. Sriramkumar

Sep 2016- Nov 2016 Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Perimeter Institute, Canada

2015-2016 Research Scholar post PhD, IUCAA, Pune, India

2010-2015 PhD, IUCAA, Pune, India

Advisor: Prof. Thanu Padmanabhan

2009-2010 Project Assistant, IISc, Bangalore, India

under DST1 project of Prof. Sudhir Vempati
Worked with Dr. Akin Wingerter

1
Department of Science and Technology, India
 2007-2009 MSc Physics, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India
First in batch, Institute Silver Medal

2004-2007 BSc (Physics, Chemistry, Maths), Christ College, Bangalore, India

Selected Academic Distinctions

High School  Among top 25 in National Science Olympiad

10+2  School topper in science stream in CBSE +2 exam

BSc  Selected under Young Science Fellowship Programme to

undertake a project at Indian Institute of Science, Banga-
lore
 All India Rank 15 in JAM examination for admission to
MSc Physics at IITs 2

MSc  Silver Medal for topper of MSc Physics 2007-2009 batch,

IIT Bombay
 All India Rank 1 in GATE and JEST examinations, 20093
 990/990 in Physics GRE, 2009
 1580/1600 in GRE, 2009
 Selected under Indian Academy of Science Summer
Fellowship programme, 2009, for a two month summer
project

PhD  Awarded Junior Research Fellow (JRF) by qualifying

through the National Eligibility Test (NET) 4
 Recipient of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship 5 as a
Junior Research Fellow in 2011. Upgraded to the status of
Senior Research Fellow in 2014.

2
IIT - Indian Institute of Technology
3
Two national level examinations whose scores are accepted for entrance to PhD programmes in physics
at premier institutes across India.
4
A national level eligibility exam conducted by the Indian government for aspiring teachers and re-
searchers
5
A government fellowship awarded by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to less than ten
exceptional PhD scholars in each discipline every year and reviewed after two years for promotion
Research interests
Primarily, I consider myself a mathematical physicist applying mathematical techniques
to various aspects of physics. I worked on particle physics early in my career. My first
few papers were on the application of discrete symmetries to neutrino mixing. During
my PhD, my research focus shifted to gravity and some aspects of quantum mechanics. I
studied the dynamics of gravity, focusing on Einstein’s general relativity and a particular
generalization to higher dimensions known as Lanczos-Lovelock gravity. In particular,
I explored the structure of the action and the boundary terms (total derivative terms)
required in gravitational theories. A main result obtained by our group in this direction
was the generalization of boundary terms in the literature to the case of null boundaries
(when the boundary is formed by a light front). I have also worked on various aspects
of quantum mechanics during my PhD and as a postdoc. Currently, I am working on
the structure of the actions for various theories of gravity and on the application of
quantum information theory to cosmological scenarios.

Publications
Published in Journals
[1] S. Chakraborty and K. Parattu, “Null boundary terms for Lanczos–Lovelock gravity,”
Editor’s Choice, Gen.Rel.Grav. 51 (2019) no.2, 23, arXiv:1806.08823.
[2] S. Chakraborty, K. Parattu, and T. Padmanabhan, “A Novel Derivation of the
Boundary Term for the Action in Lanczos-Lovelock Gravity,” Gen.Rel.Grav. 49 (2017)
no.9, 121, arxiv:1703.00624.
[3] K. Parattu, S. Chakraborty, and T. Padmanabhan, “Variational Principle for Gravity
with Null and Non-null boundaries: A Unified Boundary Counter-term,” Eur. Phys. J.
C76 (2016) 129, arxiv:1602.07546.
[4] S. Chakraborty, K. Parattu, and T. Padmanabhan, “Gravitational Field Equations near
an Arbitrary Null Surface expressed as a Thermodynamic Identity,” JHEP 10 (2015)
097, arxiv:1505.05297.
[5] K. Parattu, S. Chakraborty, B. R. Majhi, and T. Padmanabhan, “A boundary term for
the gravitational action with null boundaries,” Gen. Rel. Grav. 48 (2016), no. 7, 94,
arxiv:1501.01053.
[6] K. Lochan, K. Parattu, and T. Padmanabhan, “Quantum Evolution Leading to
Classicality: A Concrete Example,” Gen. Rel. Grav. 47 (2015), no. 1, 1841,
arxiv:1404.2605.
[7] K. Parattu, B. R. Majhi, and T. Padmanabhan, “Structure of the gravitational action
and its relation with horizon thermodynamics and emergent gravity paradigm,”
 Phys.Rev. D87 (2013), no. 12, 124011, arxiv:1303.1535.
[8] C. Luhn, K. M. Parattu, and A. Wingerter, “A Minimal Model of Neutrino Flavor,” JHEP
12 (2012) 096, arxiv:1210.1197.
[9] K. M. Parattu and A. Wingerter, “Tribimaximal Mixing From Small Groups,” Phys. Rev.
D84 (2011) 013011, arxiv:1012.2842.

Contributions to Books
[10] K. Parattu, “Einstein Equations from/as Thermodynamics of Spacetime,” Fundam.
Theor. Phys. 187 (2017) 339-352, Contribution to the volume in honour of Prof.
Padmanabhan’s 60th birthday.

Conference Proceedings
[11] A. Wingerter and K. M. Parattu, “A Scan for Models of Neutrino Mixing from
Non-Abelian Discrete Symmetries,” Proceedings, 21st International Europhysics
Conference on High energy physics (EPS-HEP 2011), PoS EPS-HEP2011 (2011) 92,
arXiv:1110.6762.

Conferences Attended
1. “Mini-workshop on black holes and symmetries”, 15 November 2019, Instituto de Fisica,
PUCV, Valparaiso, Chile.
2. “Quantum Information and String Theory 2019” and “It from Qubit school/workshop”,
27 May-28 June, 2019, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University,
Kyoto, Japan.
3. “School on Supergravity, Black Holes and String Theory”, 19-30 November, 2018, Uni-
versidad Adolfo Ibañez, Viña del Mar, Chile.
4. “29th Meeting of Indian Association for General Relativity and Gravitation”, 18-20 May,
2017, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati, India.
5. “Workshop on Aspects of Gravity and Cosmology (conference in honour of Prof. Pad-
manabhan’s 60th birthday)”, 7-9 March, 2017, IUCAA, Pune, India.
6. “Fundamental Problems of Quantum Physics (FPQP)”, 5-9 December, 2016, ICTS, Ben-
galuru, India.
7. “8th International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology (ICGC)”, 14-18 December,
2015, IISER Mohali, Mohali, India.
8. “Conceptual and Technical Challenges for Quantum Gravity”, 8-12 September, 2014,
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
 9. “Workshop on Experimental Search for Quantum Gravity”, 1-5 September, 2014,
SISSA/International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy.
10. “GDR Terascale@Paris”, 5-7 November, 2012, LPNHE Paris, France.
11. “GDR Neutrino Caen”, 30-31 October, 2012, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Caen,
France.
12. “Neutrinos at the forefront of elementary particle physics and astrophysics”, 22-24 Oc-
tober, 2012, INSA, Lyon, France.

Seminars and Talks

Conferences and Other institutes
1. “Gravitational waves and LIGO: a brief history”, Talk given at IIT Ropar, Rupnagar,
India, 20 February 2020.
2. “Gravitational waves and LIGO: a brief history”, Talk given at the National Seminar on
Recent Advances in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Bharata
Mata College, Thrikkakara, India, 14 February 2020.
3. “Variational Principle for Gravity with Null Boundaries”, Talk given at ICN, UNAM,
Mexico City, Mexico, 13 September 2018.
4. “Variational Principle for Gravity with Null Boundaries”, Talk given at IIT Kanpur, Kan-
pur, India, 31 May 2017.
5. “Variational Principle for Gravity with Null Boundaries”, Talk given at the 29th Meeting
of Indian Association for General Relativity and Gravitation, IIT Guwahati, Guwa-
hati, India, 18-20 May, 2017.
6. “Einstein Equations and Thermodynamics”, Talk given at Workshop on Aspects of
Gravity and Cosmology (conference in honour of Prof. Padmanabhan’s 60th birth-
day), IUCAA, Pune, India, 7 March 2017.
7. “Variational Principle for Gravity with Null Boundaries”, Talk given at IIT Madras, Chen-
nai, India, 24 August 2016.
8. “Variational Principle for Gravity with Null Boundaries”, Talk given at Manipal Centre
for Natural Sciences, Manipal, India, 27 July 2016.
9. “Variational Principle for Gravity with Null Boundaries”, Talk given at Institute of
Physics, Bhubaneswar, India, 14 June 2016.
10. “Variational Principle for Gravity with Null Boundaries”, Talk given at Raman Research
Institute, Bengaluru, India, 1 June 2016.
 11. “Variational Principle for Gravity with Null Boundaries”, Talk given at Perimeter Insti-
tute, Waterloo, Canada, 17 March 2016.
[Video available at http://pirsa.org/.]
12. “Gibbons-Hawking-York Counter-term for a Null Surface”, Talk given at the 8th Inter-
national Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology (ICGC), IISER Mohali, Mohali,
India, 14 December 2015.
13. “Structure of the Gravitational Action and its Relation with Horizon Thermodynamics”,
Seminar at IIT Guwahati, Guwahati, India, 7 October 2015.
14. “Thermodynamics of Null Surfaces and Emergent Paradigm”, Seminar at Centre for
Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India, 27 August 2015.
15. “Structure of the Gravitational Action and its Relation with Horizon Thermodynamics”,
Seminar at Centre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India,
25 August 2015.
16. “Quantum Mechanics in Phase Space”, Talk given to IUCAA Radio Astronomy Winter
School students, 30 December 2014.
17. “Quantum Mechanics in Phase Space”, Invited talk at Sacred Heart Collage, Thevara,
Kerala, India, 18 December 2014.
18. “Accelerated Observers in Relativity”, Talk given as part of the IUCAA Introductory
Summer School in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 30 May 2014.
19. “A Minimal Model of Neutrino Flavor”, Seminar at LPSC Grenoble, 9 November 2012.
20. “A Minimal Model of Neutrino Flavor”, Talk given at the conference GDR Terascale@Paris,
5 November 2012.
21. “Neutrino Mixing and Discrete Groups”, Talk given at LPSC Journal Club, LPSC Greno-
ble, 28 October 2012.
22. “Tribimaximal Mixing From Small Groups”, Seminar at IISc Bangalore, 8 August 2011.
Public Talks
1. “Vectors and Tensors”, Talk given at Cochin College, Kochi, India, 25th February, 2020.
2. “Scalars, Vectors, Tensors: Facts of the Universe”, 2nd Saturday talk organized by IU-
CAA Science Popularisation Program, 13th December, 2014.

Projects supervised
• Guided a student in an MSc project on “Decoherence and the quantum-to-classical
transition” under the supervision of Prof. L. Sriramkumar at IIT Madras in the year
2017-18
 • Mentored a group of 4-6 high school students for a week as part of IUCAA School
Students’ Summer Programme in 2012, 2013 and 2014 on the project “Galaxy Rotation
Curves”

Teaching Experience
IIT Madras
• Grader, Physics I (Classical Mechanics and Vector Calculus) for B.Tech students
• Teaching assistant, 1st year lab for B.Tech students
• Teaching assistant, Statistical Physics course for M.Sc Physics, taught by Prof. Ash-
win Joy
IUCAA
• Tutor for quantum mechanics and general relativity courses taken by Prof. Pad-
manabhan for IUCAA-NCRA graduate school6

6
One year coursework for PhD scholars