iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 10/04/2026

Continue to be proud of our local graffiti artists

Graffiti on a large concrete wall reading “Abolish Ice”, “Fuck Trump”, and “Free Gaza”

Graffiti on a large concrete wall reading “Fuck Trump”, “End the War”, and “Free Gaza”

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 02/02/2026

Completely painted over in black / redacted now 🙃

Billboard ad near Amazon’s studios in Culver City initially for the Melania movie, now painted completely black after it was vandalized.

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 28/12/2025

This is Bhoo, the most interesting cat in the world

Dilute tortoiseshell cat sitting in a cat hammock with front right paw sticking out, as if leaning on its right elbow. Similar to a well known pose of “The Most Interesting Man in the World”.

Dilute tortoiseshell cat sitting in a cat brown shipping box with front right leg leaning on box flap, as if leaning on its right elbow. Similar to a well known pose of “The Most Interesting Man in the World”.

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/11/2025

The cat whenever a snack bag is opened

A sign in the style of Zohran for NYC saying instead of ”Treats for Cat?”

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 03/11/2025

This opening is just superbly inspirational

Newspaper clipping from New York Times. Text says:

“It was not long ago here in Mumbai that Harmanpreet Kaur juggled a day job as a railway clerk with the grueling training sessions as a young member of India’s national women’s cricket team.

Away from her family and her hometown in Punjab, Ms. Kaur began her days at dawn — long hours of shuttling from a morning practice to work and back again to an evening training session. Lunch was a bite on the train. Her biggest anxiety: Not finishing evening practice before the rush hour and the departure of the final train, which would leave her a 90-minute walk home.

When Ms. Kaur stepped onstage in the same city after Sunday’s match, way past midnight and long after the last local train had departed, it was to collect the World Cup’s winning trophy as India’s captain.”

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 19/10/2025

Protesting at No Kings in Los Angeles today! (Signs modified from @kjhealy.co)

Man holding a protest sign, made to look like a No Parking street sign reading “No King Any Time Violators Will Be Removed”

No Kings protest in Los Angeles in the background.

Man holding a protest sign, made to look like a parking rule street sign reading “2 Term Limit Except FDR, Violators will be imprisoned”

No Kings protest in Los Angeles in the background.

Outstretched hand holding a protest sign, made to look like a No Parking street sign reading “No King Any Time Violators Will Be Removed”

No Kings protest in Los Angeles in the background.

Outstretched hand holding a protest sign, made to look like a parking rule street sign reading “2 Term Limit Except FDR, Violators will be imprisoned”

No Kings protest in Los Angeles in the background.

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 23/07/2025

How about a cat in a bathtub (basically a very large sink)??

Dilute tortoise shell colored cat splayed out on its side in a white bathtub, staring off to the side with an empty stare. The cat’s tail is blurred since it is flicking around rapidly.

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 04/07/2025

Celebrating this 4th of July by learning more about the history of 🇺🇸🇺🇸✨American Imperialism✨🇺🇸🇺🇸

An iPad showing the ebook “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States” by Daniel Immerwahr

The iPad is resting on a dilute tortoise shell cat, who makes a very good book rest for reading.

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 07/06/2025

Drawing California wild flowers at Theodore Payne foundation this morning!

Pencil drawing of three different California wild flowers

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 28/04/2025

Meanwhile, we get to live with The Most Interesting Cat in the World

A diluted tortoiseshell cat sitting in a cat hammock with one arm casually draped on the side of the cat hammock, as if imitating “The Most Interesting Man in the World”

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 06/04/2025

Massive protest turnout in Downtown LA today! #HandsOff

Hands Off protest in downtown LA in front of LA City Hall

Hands Off protest in downtown LA in front of LA City Hall. Many protest signs are visible.

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 14/03/2025

Dang it really was DEI keeping planes in the sky

Airplane wing diagram from a physics textbook, with “Higher Pressure” and “Lower Pressure” substituted to “Higher DEI” and “Lower DEI”

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 13/02/2025

Running views from a wet, post-rain concrete city #AbhimatRuns

Wet asphalt sidewalk next to a concrete water creek in LA

A waterfall of storm drain water draining into a concrete water creek in LA

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 04/12/2024

Tax the rich and drink billionaire tears

Elmo Rise meme with Senator Warren’s face superimposed

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 04/12/2024

Little debugging helper today as I work on my code

Small black cat standing on desk in front of keyboard and monitor. Monitor shows some code written in python.

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 02/11/2024

Arriving back in the US from Diwali with family in India *right* after Election Day. But fortunately I was able to vote early before heading out! Make sure you vote before Election Day! iwillvote.com

Ballot voting for Kamala Harris for president

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 02/11/2024

Arriving back in the US from Diwali with family in India *right* after Election Day. But fortunately I was able to vote early before heading out! Make sure you vote before Election Day! iwillvote.com

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 07/09/2024

Bobby is just a little black Manx cat, doing her best to prepare for spooky season

Small, black Manx cat with a tiny bobtail balancing on top of a round, orange scratch toy which has been decorated to look like a jack o’ lantern

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 22/07/2024

If Kamala Harris Is a D.E.I. Candidate, So Is JD Vance www.nytimes.com/2024/07/21/o...

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/02/2024

Full details about our results and methods are in the paper, including lots of gory details about all the binary simulations I needed to run in order to derive our results! arxiv.org/abs/2401.12555

Simulated light curve from the model binary star

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/02/2024

And we have another new candidate binary discovery, S4-308, that is *just a little too faint* to obtain spectroscopic confirmation from current ground based telescopes. But JWST can get its spectrum, so hopefully we can confirm soon if it is indeed a binary star!

Near-infrared light curve of the binary star candidate S4-308

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/02/2024

One of the binaries, S2-36, is a new discovery, only about 0.1 pc (0.3 ly) from the galactic center supermassive black hole! We've spectroscopically confirmed it for the first time. It’s pretty unique and interesting in its own right, and we hope to have some exciting details about its story soon!

Image labeling the known binary stars in the center of the Galaxy. Sgr A* is the location of the supermassive black hole.

Light curve in near-infrared of the binary star S2-36

Near-infrared spectrum of the binary star S2-36

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/02/2024

The other super exciting result from this paper is that we confirm for the first time that the fraction of young stars in binaries drops as we get close to the central supermassive black hole! It’s something that’s been predicted by many dynamical models, but we can now confirm it with observations!

$Plot showing that the binary fraction of young, massive stars drops when approaching the supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy, consistent with dynamical predictions of stellar mergers.$

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/02/2024

Some models predict if the disk is being heated (maybe from an active central black hole 😉), you end up with high binarity in the resulting stellar population! Our results support this scenario, but we need higher fidelity simulations and more precise future binary fraction measurements!

Illustration of an accretion disk around a black hole. Credit: Aurore Simonnet and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/02/2024

A leading idea of star formation at the center of the Galaxy is that young stars formed in over dense regions of an accretion disk that previously surrounded the supermassive black hole. (Picture from star formation simulations in an accretion disk by Nayakshin+, 2007)

Simulation of stars forming in an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole by Nayakshin et al, 2007

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/02/2024

🧵, with some more details! So why is a high binary fraction at the center of the galaxy interesting / useful? Binarity is a consequence of star formation, and explaining how the young stars we see at the center of the Galaxy formed next to the supermassive black hole is still an open challenge.

Event Horizon Telescope image of Sgr A*, the location of the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Credit: EHT Collaboration

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 09/02/2024

I just got an exciting paper accepted for publication about binaries at the Galactic center! We found that young, massive stars at the center of our galaxy prefer to be in binary stars, just like they do in our Sun’s neighborhood. You can read the full paper at arxiv.org/abs/2401.12555 #astronomy

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Abhimat Gautam @abhimat.net · 08/02/2024

Hello world and Bluesky! I’m a postdoc in astronomy at UCLA, studying binary stars, dynamical evolution, and compact objects at the center of our Galaxy. Besides stars, I like running, making art, design, and playing with our two cute cats!

Black cat peeking out from a blue and purple cat tunnel

Tortoise shell colored cat sitting on a bed and looking up

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