Soheb Mandhai

Introduction

Welcome!

Nice to meet you! I'm Soheb, a  post-doctoral researcher interested in studying the nature of binary orbits and environments in the cosmos.

I am also an art enthusiast! I enjoy making and producing 2D and 3D arts and I'm constantly looking for ways to improve my work. I have additional interests in science communication via art, game development, 3D modelling and printing, cosplay, craft/prop making, and... puns.

Highlights

Twitter

Welcome to my website!

Thank you for visiting my website! It's still a work in progress but I hope you enjoy your stay here! 

Credit: Soheb Mandhai

OfFICIALLY Dr. Soheb Mandhai!

Officially graduated from my PhD program at the University of Leicester. I would like to thank everyone that has supported me on my journey to this point. 


Graduation photo of me in the doctoral candidate gown.

New Role: Post-Doctoral Research Assistant

From the 1st of December 2021, I will be starting a new position as a post-doctoral researcher at The University of Manchester. My research will be oriented around the study of stellar binaries with a primary pulsar component.


A depiction of a "Spider" pulsar binary; a pulsar  irradiating its companion star.
Credit: Soheb Mandhai

Pre-Print: Exploring Compact Binary Merger Host Galaxies and Environments With zELDA



Paper Abstract:
Compact binaries such as double neutron stars or a neutron star paired with a black-hole, are strong sources of gravitational waves during coalescence and also the likely progenitors of various electromagnetic phenomena, notably short-duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs), and kilonovae. In this work, we generate populations of synthetic binaries and place them in galaxies from the large-scale hydrodynamical galaxy evolution simulation 

EAGLE. With our zELDA code, binaries are seeded in proportion to star formation rate, and we follow their evolution to merger using both the BPASS and COSMIC binary stellar evolution codes. We track their dynamical evolution within their host galaxy potential, to estimate the galactocentric distance at the time of the merger. Finally, we apply observational selection criteria to allow comparison of this model population with the legacy sample of SGRBs. We find a reasonable agreement with the redshift distribution (peaking at 0.5<z<1), host morphologies and projected galactocentric offsets (modal impact parameter ∼10 kpc). Depending on the binary simulation used, we predict 16−40% of SGRB events would appear "host-less", i.e. sources that merge with high impact parameters or have hosts fainter than the detection limit (H>26). 

A distribution of simulated SGRB impact parameters against redshift. The overplotted points correspond to observed SGRBs with host localisations. 

RAS ECN Poster EXHIBITION WINNER!


In September, I created a poster for the Royal Astronomical Society's ECN Poster Exhibition. In November, I was chosen as one of five winners! There were many many excellent and well-written posters available during the exhibit. It was truly a pleasure to have been selected.

It was an incredibly fun and rewarding experience - I made new friends via Twitter and learned about different fields of astrophysical/computational research that my peers are doing!

I encourage colleagues (graduate students/post-docs) to give future exhibitions a go!

You can find out more about my poster entry here.

How many short-duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) originate within the local universe (<200 Mpc)?

In this paper, we explore potential associations between SGRBs and neighbouring galaxies to constrain an upper limit on the rate of local events.


Highlighted galaxy candidates around the BAT localisation uncertainty for 

GRB 050906.