Statement of Purpose

Hareesh T

The beauty and the elegance of nature have always intrigued me; being a
unique language that can convey the logic behind this beauty is what made
me love physics. These many years as a student in physics have inspired me
to keep exploring and look into different possibilities to unravel and innovate
different ways of understanding new phenomena.
I believe that scientific research should always directed towards the up-
liftment of the society. Thus for my B.Sc. project, considering the needs
of workshops and small scale farmers, we produced an eco-friendly lubricant
which can be manufactured from local ingredients such as castor oil, kerosene
etc. Our study about lubricant action was highly beneficial for the local pop-
ulation that depended upon the machinery for day to day life because it only
costed half the price compared to the oils available in the market. The pro-
duced lubricant was a successful replacement for the costly oils used in local
machinery.
As a part of my curriculum, I decided to choose to study Artificial Neural
Networks using python, which adds to the data analysing skills which is a
necessary quality to have in the upcoming era.
My initial introduction to the quantum gravity was from my 11th stan-
dard NCERT textbook in which the concepts of fundamental forces and the
efforts to unify them was given as a fact. That little piece of information had
triggered a vast amount of curiosity, and for my M.Sc. dissertation, I finally
harmonised my circumstances and interests to work on the emergent gravity
principle, which is a promising candidate for quantum gravity. T. Padman-
abhan has proposed a principle to explain the expansion of the universe in
the emergent paradigm. The generalisation of Padmanabhan’s conjecture to
the non-flat universe has resulted in scepticism about the choice of volume.
To resolve this problem, we analysed the first law of thermodynamics with
proper invariant volume derived from the FRW metric. Our results showed
that the invariant volume breaks the fundamental conjecture proposed by
Padmanabhan and fails to formulate a consistent description for the first law
of thermodynamics. The failure of the first law of thermodynamics with the
use of invariant volume proves a remarkable result in cosmology, necessitating
the universe to be flat as agreed by the current observations.
As all the attempts to formulate the quantum nature of gravity is facing
severe lack of experimental evidence, the research in quantum gravity phe-
nomenology will be an aid to investigate the true nature of quantum gravity.
Being at the forefront in the research of quantum gravity phenomenology,
University of Lethbridge provides an excellent opportunity to nourish the re-
searcher inside me. The exceptional thinkers and facilities at the University
of Lethbridge, together with the fascinating ideas investigated, have led me
to believe that it is an ideal place to undertake a PhD. It will be a great
privilege and pleasures to work in a calm setting provided by the university.
I am confident that ’quantum gravity’ and investigations on the phe-
nomenology of quantum gravity will be an inspiring challenge for me to
develop a career in this field. I am confident that my passionate approach,
creative ideas, critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills would
make me an excellent fit for whichever research group I happen to be working
with. Post Ph.D., I want to enter academia and become a full-time profes-
sor so that I can invest time and effort to scientific research, teaching and
promoting scientific temperament within the society at large. I principally
believe that rational minds can only uplift the community, and the scientific
empowerment is the best strategy for that.