Undergraduates
Why does the space shuttle returning to Earth cause two separate sonic booms?
Dr. Dalal received his doctorate in astronomy from the University of California at San Diego in 2002. He received a Hubble Fellowship from the Space Telescope Science Institute and was a senior research associate at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics before he joined the faculty at the U. of I. in 2011.
Professor Dalal is interested in investigating the fundamental physics of cosmology, including the structure of the universe, the formation of galaxies and mysterious components in the universe such as dark matter and dark energy. He developed a simple physical model describing the physical properties of dark matter halos, which harbor all observed stars and galaxies. His group devised an entirely new probe of the physics of inflation in the early universe based on observed clustering of galaxies and their host halos. He also explores the physics of dark matter using millimeter-wave instrumentation to detect gravitational lenses.