PhD position in cosmology

We invite applications for a PhD position in cosmology at the Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM) in France, to start October, 1st  2020. The successful applicant will work with Stephanie Escoffier at CPPM and Eric Jullo at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) on the DESI ground-based dark energy experiment.

The successful PhD candidate will be fully part of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration project and will work in close collaboration with all its members. The research project will focus on void lensing as a test of gravity. Cosmic voids are very low-density environments in the large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe. The measurement of weak gravitational lensing around voids constitutes a promising new probe for testing cosmological models and theories of gravity. In addition, the candidate will constrain the velocity distribution around the same voids via redshift-space distortion (RSD) measurements. The combination of these two methods will allow implications on competing models of gravity and dark matter from a yet unexplored domain of the cosmic web.

This project is particularly timely as the DESI collaboration will start the 4-month Survey Validation program in spring 2020 and begin the survey in June 2020, and both CPPM and LAM teams are full members of DESI.

Interested candidates need submit a CV, cover letter, copy of Master/university diploma, marks and ranking since the first University years and 2 letters of recommendation. Applications received before April 1, 2020, will receive full consideration, but later ones may be considered until the positions are filled.