PhD positions in theoretical and observational asteroseismology

PARADISE is a research project focusing on rotating single/binary stars of intermediate/high mass, revealing non-radial oscillations in space photometry. Combining temporal photometric data from the TESS mission, astrometric information from the Gaia satellite, and ground-based spectroscopy from SDSS-V, the project aims to probe stellar interiors and deduce tidal evolution in close binaries. This will be done by deriving angular momentum and element transport profiles for thousands of stars with a broad range in metallicity.

A 1st PhD student will work on theoretical asteroseismology and search for evidence of non-linear resonant mode coupling in Kepler/TESS data of young unevolved gravity-mode pulsators. He/she will apply and further develop the theory of non-linear asteroseismology to improve our understanding of physical properties of the stellar interior. He/she will also investigate if non-linear stellar modelling modifies the results for the interior rotation, overshooting and mixing profiles derived from forward modelling done in a linear framework.

A 2nd PhD student will work on observational asteroseismology and be involved in the detection of non-radial oscillations, sample selection, and extraction of observed asteroseismic properties from photometric time series. The student will apply and further develop statistical and machine learning methodology to jointly model the asteroseismic, astrometric, and spectroscopic data of 100 of stars. The developed modelling techniques will be applied and tuned to a large sample of gravity-mode pulsators observed by Kepler/TESS, to improve our understanding of stellar interiors.

The selected PhD students will be offered 2-year contracts, once renewable with 2 years after positive evaluation. Starting date is September 2019. More information and instructions to apply: 
http://fys.kuleuven.be/ster/vacancies#PhD_PARADISE_theory
http://fys.kuleuven.be/ster/vacancies#PhD_PARADISE_obs