PhD Position in CMB Data Analysis at the University of Oslo

[Duncan Watts]

Constraining cosmic inflation and the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, supervised by Dr. Duncan Watts ([Log in to view email]) and Prof. Ingunn Wehus ([Log in to view email]).

The CosmoglobeHD project, funded by the Research Council of Norway, explores the Universe from the Big Bang to the Solar System, with the goal of measuring primordial gravitational waves in the polarized Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), as well as measuring the spectrum of the CMB to unprecedented precision. The successful candidate will be trained to work on all aspects of CMB data analysis, including time-ordered data processing, parametric component separation, and cosmological parameter estimation. The candidate will develop and use skills in statistics, high performance programming, and modeling of Galactic and Interplanetary Dust emission.The successful candidate will work with both newly obtained and archival data at both the map level and at timestreams. The first project opportunity is the reanalysis of the FIRAS data from raw timestreams, which both provides an absolute calibration source and currently the best limits on the CMB’s deviations from a pure blackbody.

The successful reanalysis of these data will lead to the most sensitive limits on the CMB monopole temperature ever published, and perhaps the world’s first detection of distortions in the CMB spectrum. In addition, the candidate will have the opportunity to join the Simons Observatory collaboration to perform component separation to create high-resolution, high-sensitivity maps of the polarized CMB.

The successful candidate will join the CMB&CO group at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (ITA), currently composed of two professors, four researchers, four PhD candidates, and three master’s students. The candidate will be able to participate in the larger Cosmoglobe project, including analysis on archival data such as Planck, WMAP, and DIRBE, as well as ongoing projects (COMAP and PASIPHAE) and future projects, including the LiteBIRD satellite mission. In addition to the group at ITA, the candidate will participate in research in an international context, representing CosmoglobeHD and UiO at meetings and conferences. As this position will require a significant amount of programming, we request a code sample to be submitted with the application. In addition, the interview will contain a brief technical portion.

https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/257216/phd-research-fellow-in-cosmic-microwave-background-data-analysis