Welcome to my home page!
About me
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi Center). Prior to this, I did my PhD at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science – Pilani.

My area of work is differential cohomology. During my PhD I mainly studied differential characters (which are a differential refinement of ordinary/singular cohomology) and their relationship to families of flat connections on vector bundles. I am now studying the Atiyah–Singer index theory and differential K-theory.
More broadly, I am interested in exploring the interactions between Differential Geometry, Algebraic Topology, and Physics. In the long run, I wish to learn subjects such as:
- generalised differential cohomology theories and their relationship to M-theory
- higher categories and higher gauge theories,
- \(L_\infty\) algebras and their relationship to classical field theory and string theory
- bundle gerbes, and
- applications of differential K-theory to T-duality in String Theory.
Apart from Mathematics and Physics, I am interested in the RTI Act and Constitutional law. Am also an FOSS enthusiast.
I like to connect with like minded people. If you too share any of the above interests (mathematical or otherwise), do drop me an email! I would love to hear from you.
Research
Theses
Ph.D. Thesis Studies in differential cohomology
M.Phil. Thesis Non-gaussianities in the cosmic microwave background
Publications and preprints
- Elementary symmetric polynomials under the fixed point measure, arXiv:2505.12178, (with Ayush Khaitan and Bhargav Narayanan)
- Uniqueness of differential characters and differential K-theory, Journal of Homotopy and Related Structures, 16, 225–243 (2021).
- Invariants of families of flat connections using fiber integration of differential characters, Letters in Mathematical Physics 110, 639-657 (2020)
- CMB from CFT, Journal of High Energy Physics, 2013, 15 (2013) (with Suvrat Raju, and Sandip P. Trivedi)
Contact me
Email: ishanmata [at] gmail (dot) com
Here is my public key
Social media: Mathstodon