UAH astrophysicist Sukanya Chakrabarti elected Fellow of American Physical Society
UAH researcher Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti uses extremely precise measurements of pulsars and binary stars, or pairs of stars orbiting each other, to detect the subtle gravitational pull of dark matter in the Milky Way.
An astrophysicist whose research is helping scientists uncover the hidden structure of the universe has earned one of the physics community’s most selective professional honors. Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, Pei-Ling Chan Endowed Chair in the College of Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) for her innovative and sustained contributions to the understanding of dark matter. UAH is a part of The University of Alabama System.
Chakrabarti was selected for the honor by the American Physical Society’s Division of Astrophysics and elected by the APS Council of Representatives. The APS Fellowship recognizes exceptional contributions to the field, and the number of recommended nominees each year may not exceed one-half of 1% of the Society’s current non-student membership.
The citation for Chakrabarti’s Fellowship reads: “For novel and sustained contributions to the understanding of dark matter based on the development of extreme-precision dynamical measurements, as well as pioneering considerations of binaries hosting compact objects.”
Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, Pei-Ling Chan Endowed Chair in the College of Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).
The researcher’s work has advanced new approaches for making highly precise dynamical measurements that can reveal the distribution and behavior of dark matter in the Milky Way. This research brings together frameworks from theoretical astrophysics, observational astronomy, computational methods and precision measurements. Chakrabarti also led the discovery of the first stellar mass black hole around a Sun-like star from the Gaia mission in 2022, the year that she joined UAH.
“I am deeply honored by this recognition of my work,” the researcher says. “We have been developing new ways to map dark matter by measuring the extraordinarily small accelerations it produces in stars throughout our Galaxy. By combining extreme-precision measurements of stars, pulsars and eclipsing binaries, we are aiming to detect dark-matter clumps on increasingly small scales. These clumps carry the fingerprints of dark-matter models and could help us answer one of the most fundamental questions in physics: What is dark matter?”
The researcher is developing new ways to study dark matter, the invisible material that makes up much of the universe, by observing how it affects the motion of stars. Her research uses extremely precise measurements of pulsars and binary stars, or pairs of stars orbiting each other, to detect the subtle gravitational pull of dark matter. Her efforts are helping scientists map this unseen material and better understand how it shapes our galaxy. Chakrabarti and her colleagues are developing a kind of cosmic map that reveals invisible matter by watching how it makes stars move, offering a promising new way to understand what dark matter is and how it shapes galaxies.
“I am tremendously grateful for the support I have had at UAH, that lets me continue carrying out these measurements, which bring together time-domain astronomy and precision measurements,” the honoree says.
Her work has contributed to UAH’s growing prominence in astrophysics and space science and provides opportunities for students and researchers to participate in investigations of some of the most challenging questions in modern physics.