PhD Position in COMPUTATIONAL ASTROPHYSICS (STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS and GRAVITATIONAL WAVES)

Applications are invited for a Ph.D. scholarship in astrophysics at the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center (NCAC) of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland.

The research scholarship is connected with the OPUS project "Structure and evolution of ultra-luminous astrophysical X-ray sources" (2015/19/B/ST9/01099), financed by the Polish National Science Centre and led by Professors Jean-Pierre Lasota and Krzysztof Belczyński and provided for up to 4-years. The suggested starting date is October 1st, 2017.

The research carried out by the student will involve working with results from the StarTrack code for stellar binary population synthesis, which has been developed by Professor Belczyński and and was used by him and his collaborators to predict correctly the existence of the population of massive double black-hole binaries that has been recently discovered by LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory).

The StarTrack simulations will be used by the student to study the links that can exist between the population of Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) and the population of gravitational-wave sources, in particular of the (still to be discovered) double neutron star and black hole – neutron star systems.

The scholarships are intended for prospective Ph.D. students at NCAC. Candidates should hold (or expect to obtain before the start of their scholarship) a university degree (Master or equivalent) in the field of astrophysics, astronomy or physics. Knowledge of numerical methods and programming in C, C++, Python (or any equivalent) will be preferred.

Candidates should submit an application including a CV, a copy of the most important diploma (master, engineer, bachelor) including the list of course grades, as well as information on research experience (participation in research projects, publications, awards, etc) and research interests. They should also include at least one recommendation letter. Applications should be sent in the PDF format at [email protected] until September 3rd, 2017.

This competition is independent of the recruitment for Ph.D. studies at NCAC (https://www.camk.edu.pl/en/phd/).