Astrophysicist · Vienna
I’m Aayush, an astrophysicist in Vienna. I work on magnetic white dwarfs, compact binaries, and time-domain astronomy, using observations and simulations side by side.
On my desk nowmagnetic DQ light curves · white-dwarf merger outflows · more notebooks than necessary
Most of my questions begin with a signal that does not quite make sense. I use whatever view helps—data, models, or simulations—and keep moving between them until the explanation holds together.
For me, these are not separate jobs. They are a conversation.
Observe. I start with the observation that does not quite fit: a changing light curve, an unusual spectrum, or a source that refuses the first explanation.
Simulate. I use numerical experiments to follow the matter, fields, and motion that a telescope cannot resolve directly.
Connect. Then I go back to the data. The result should be a physical story whose steps another person can follow.
Current research
Connecting multi-band light curves, carbon-rich spectra, and geometric models to understand a rare population of compact stellar remnants.
Simulation work
Using simulations to follow matter, magnetic fields, and outflows as white dwarfs interact and merge.
Survey work
Finding reliable variability in ZTF, ATLAS, WISE/NEOWISE, and high-speed photometry, while keeping the path from raw data to result clear.
The public release archive will open here. →
Six peer-reviewed articles, from magnetic white dwarfs to disordered solids.
Listed by year. My name appears as A. Desai.
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202557035First author↗2026A Black Hole Star at Cosmic Noon: Extreme Balmer Break, Photospheric Continuum, and Broad Absorption by Thick Winds in a Little Red Dot at z = 1.7The Astrophysical Journal Letters · 1005(2), L37doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ae7bfdSeventh author of fifteen↗2026Near-degeneracy effects in quadrupolar mixed modesAstronomy & Astrophysics · 707, A321doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202558023Second author of four↗2026A half ring of ionized circumstellar material trapped in the magnetosphere of a white dwarf merger remnantAstronomy & Astrophysics · 706, A188doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202556432Seventh author↗2025Fully Independent Response in Disordered SolidsPhysical Review Letters · 134(23), 238201doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.238201Second author of three↗2020A Highschooler’s Guide to GeV-Range ElectromagnetismThe Physics Educator · 2(3), 2050013doi:10.1142/S2661339520500134Second author↗I like science that has to be assembled: a faint signal, an imperfect instrument, a model that almost explains it, and the patient work of finding out what remains.
At the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, I work across observational astronomy, compact-object physics, and computation. My days move between telescopes and survey archives, simulation clusters and notebooks, collaborative manuscripts and the whiteboard.
Outside the narrow lane of a project, I care about teaching, public astronomy, mathematical physics, and how we decide what a complicated system is really telling us.