Narasimhaiengar Mukunda is a prominent Indian theoretical physicist. He works as a senior professor at Centre for High Energy Physics, IISc, Bangalore. He is also an honorary professor at IISER, Thiruvananthapuram. His major contributions are in the fields of Classical and Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Optics and Mathematical Physics.
He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for work in Nonlinear and Quantum Optics in 1980
His doctoral advisor was the prominent Indian-American physicist E. C. G. Sudarshan.
Mukunda and collaborators initiated the "Quantum theory of charged-particle beam optics", by working out the focusing action of a magnetic quadrupole using the Dirac Equation.
"Twisted Gaussian Schell-model beams. I & II. Symmetry structure and normal-mode spectrum"