Contact: rxh1[AT]psu.eduLocation: University Park, PA 16802
IGC at Penn State has post-doctoral openings in four areas of gravitational science:
(i) Fundamental Theory (Ashtekar & Bianchi): Classical general relativity, especially gravitational waves and cosmology; loop quantum gravity with emphasis on semi-classical issues and loop quantum cosmology; all aspects of quantum black holes with emphasis on entanglement entropy, singularity resolution and quantum evaporation; and relation between loop quantum gravity and other approaches to quantum gravity and non-perturbative techniques in quantum field theory.
(ii) Gravitational Wave Physics (Hanna & Sathyaprakash): LIGO data analysis and applications to multi-messenger astronomy; real-time searches for compact binary mergers and to the real-time characterization of transient noise in LIGO detectors. The successful candidates will be part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and contribute to the analysis of LIGO and Virgo data and to the publication of search results.
(iii) Multimessenger Astrophysics with Gravitational Waves (Radice, Hanna & Sathyaprakash): Numerical and analytical modeling of compact binary mergers in general relativity.
(iv) Multimessenger Astrophysics with AMON (Cowen, Mostafa & Sathyaprakash) The successful candidate will work with the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON), and will also have the possibility of joining one or more of the participating collaborations. AMON links the world`s leading high-energy neutrino, cosmic-ray, gamma-ray, and gravitational-wave observatories by performing real-time coincidence searches for multimessenger signals. The physics goals of AMON are to probe the high-energy universe via all four fundamental forces of nature, and identify new multimessenger astrophysical sources. The most important near-term effort will be to help incorporate gravitational-wave alerts into the network and into the real-time coincidence analyses. We began distributing prompt neutrino alerts in April 2016 in a collaborative effort with the IceCube Collaboration. In 2018 we will implement the first real-time neutrino-gamma alerts with subthreshold data from IceCube and HAWC. We are also proposing to add subthreshold triggers from gravitational-wave detections. This will open up a range of real-time coincidence analyses. Requirements for the position include a recent Ph.D. in physics or astrophysics. Experience in multimessenger astrophysics in general and gravitational waves in particular will be advantageous.
IGC also has an opening for a computational scientist starting now. The Penn State gravitational wave group is seeking a computational scientist to work in the area of transient gravitational wave searches for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration in support of multi-messenger astrophysics. The ideal candidate would be expected to develop scalable cyberinfrastructure for real-time data analysis that covers areas such as: real-time data distribution, signal processing, streaming data processing, database design, web service design, job workflow design, and smart systems monitoring. Competency in C and Python is required. Competency in C++, Java, javascript, html, bash, SQL, and other common scripting languages is highly desired. Competency in some or all of the following software is highly desired: Apache HTTP server, Apache Kafka, Druid (and/or other event/time series databases), HTCondor, Gstreamer. The ideal candidate must have demonstrated experience in software development through the full cycle of prototyping, collaborative development, release, packaging, and maintenance using modern tools such as gitlab. Candidates will be considered at either of the following two levels.
i) Computational Scientist 2: Typically requires a Bachelor’s degree or higher in a field of study with focus on computational research methods or higher plus two years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
ii) Computational Scientist 3: Typically requires a Master’s degree or higher in a field of study with focus on computational research methods or higher plus four years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. The candidate will have some supervisory responsibilities so experience supervising other team members is ideal.
For further details on all five positions, including the application procedure, and application deadlines that vary from one position to another, see the external link at the top of the announcement.