The applications (http://www.icra.it/IRAPPhD/2009/Application_frame.htm) for the 2009 call of the International Relativistic Astrophysics Ph.D. (http://www.icra.it/IRAPPhD/2009/Welcome.htm) are now open until the 30th of September 2009. Ten 3-years positions will be available, six with fellowship support at the University of Rome La Sapienza.
The proposed program of the IRAP Ph.D. enjoys the collaboration of some of the most famous European Universities with one of the youngest and most dynamical French universities, pole of research and teaching in the Euro-Mediterranean region (PRES): the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis. It benefits from the presence of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, involved in relativistic and non-photonic astrophysics, and the presence of the ICRANet Center at Villa Ratti in Nice. The coordination of the IRAP Ph.D. will take place at ICRANet in Villa Ratti. The astronomical aspects of the large scale of the Universe will be illustrated by the teaching by the Tartu Observatory. The activities at ICRANet Centers, at the ETH of Zurich, at the University of Rome, at Stockholm University offer teaching programs in all the fields of relativistic astrophysics, including cosmology, the physics of gravitational collapse, gamma-ray bursts, and black hole physics. The participation of the Freie Universität of Berlin and of the Einstein Institute in Potsdam (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics) offers the possibility of teaching in relativistic field theories at the highest level. The University of Savoy offers the link to the particle physics at CERN. The University of Ferrara will be present with lectures and researches in the topics they have pioneered such as instrumentations developments and data analysis for X and Gamma ray astrophysics and observational cosmology.
Through ICRANet the extra-European connections with Brazil, China and India will be guaranteed: in China, with the Shanghai Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Science, studying the formation and evolution of large-scale structure and galaxies; in India, with the Indian Centre for Space Physics (ICSP), renowned for its research on compact objects as well as on solar physics and astrochemistry; in Brazil, with ICRA-Br at CBPF, where a successful program of research and teaching in relativistic astrophysics has been established in recent years.
The courses will be the following:
Ultra high energy gamma ray sources (F. Aharonian);
The approach to the singularity (V. Belinski);
Relativistic effects in GRBs (C.L. Bianco);
Accretions on black holes and neutrons stars (S. Chakrabarti);
Particle physics applied to astrophysics (P. Chardonnet);
Exobiology (S. Chakrabarti);
General relativity (T. Damour);
Large scale structure of the universe (J. Einasto);
Signal treatment (A. Ferrari);
X-Rays and gamma rays astronomy (F. Frontera);
X-Rays clusters (R. Giacconi);
Planetology (T. Guillot);
Formation of galaxies (Y. Jing);
On the Kerr solution (R. Kerr);
Relativistic field theory (H. Kleinert);
Planetology (A. Morbidelli);
Development on BKL work (H. Nicolai);
Non singular cosmology (M. Novello);
Extragalatic astrophysics (J. Pacheco);
Gravitational waves (T. Regimbau);
Singularities and general relativity (K. Rosquist);
Black holes and fundamental physics (R. Ruffini);
Thermalization and collective effects (G. Vereshchagin);
Gravitational waves (J.Y. Vinet);
Ultra relativistic electron positron plasma (S.S. Xue).
Applications: http://www.icra.it/IRAPPhD/2009/Application_frame.htm