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92 PIONEERING A NEW FUTURE
L-R: RRI Library
X-ray Polarimeter (POLIX), the first dedicated X-ray polarimetry mission in space, under development. The Electronics Engineering group at RRI has lent technical support to this projects
Students experimenting to detect a plasma plume generated in air by ultrashort (100fs) laser pulses
Student interaction on National School Day at RRI
A shielded room at the X-ray lab with the filling line and vacuum systems
Below: Light and Matter Physics group members with a vacuum chamber assembly used to produce lesser cooled and trapped atoms
proof of concept to engineering model, and now a flight model is under construction in project mode in collaboration with ISRO. POLIX is poised to
be the first dedicated X-ray
polarimetry mission in the
world and opens a new window
in high energy astrophysics by
measuring X-ray polarisation
in about 50 bright X-ray sources, ahead of the NASA and ESA space mission proposals for launching X-ray polarimeters.
SARAS 2: A precision radiometer called SARAS 2, built at the institute, was deployed in a radio quiet site in Timbactu Collective in Andhra Pradesh. Measurements made by the radio telescope have been examined using Bayesian Likelihood ratio tests and also frequentist approach for presence of theoretically predicted redshifted 21-cm signals from Cosmic Dawn, when the First Stars of the universe formed. The analysis has so far already ruled out 10 per cent of predicted models, which imply that X-rays from the First Stars did heat the surrounding gas and that subsequent reionization of the neutral intergalactic gas by the UV luminosity
was gradual, not rapid. This is the first time
that precision radiometer measurements have thrown light on the physics of Cosmic Dawn, thus providing a path-breaking effort into what is a key science goal for the international SKA.
Molecule-Ion-Cavity-Atom Experiment: The Molecule-Ion-Cavity-Atom (MICA) experiment at RRI involved the in-house invention/design
of a unique magneto-optic trap for atoms that also includes a wire trap for ions and a cavity for probing the atom-ion-molecule interactions using a probe laser. The experiment demonstrated a new physical mechanism that cools ions using cold atoms, where ions cool with single glancing charge exchange collision with atoms, and led to the development of a theory for charge-exchange based refrigeration of the ions.