The doctoral fellowship programme INPhINIT ”la Caixa” is devoted to attracting talented Early-Stage Researchers—of any nationality—who wish to pursue doctoral studies in Spanish or Portuguese territory. Sponsored by ”la Caixa” Foundation, it is aimed at supporting the best scientific talent and fostering innovative and high-quality research in Spain and Portugal by recruiting outstanding international students and offering them an attractive and competitive environment for conducting research of excellence.
The Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona is a research centre accredited with the Spanish Seal of Excellence María de Maeztu in 2020, the perfect place to carry out your PhD project through an INPhINIT Incoming fellowship.
Research Project:
The proposed thesis is on physics of axions as a dark matter candidate. The student will be able to choose to work on potential methods of detecting axions through astrophysical observations and/or on axion detection experiments in the IAXO and RADES collaboration, with Jordi Miralda-Escudé as thesis director.
If axions solving the strong QCD problem in particle physics are the dark matter, they are likely to form minihalos on very small scales (typically asteroid-like masses). These may potentially be detected through gravitational lensing observations, particularly by observing highly magnified individual stars in lensing clusters when crossing microlensing caustics caused by intracluster stars. Axion minihalos in the dark matter can affect the lightcurves of these stars as they move near these micro-caustics through their lensing effect (Dai & JME 2020). The project will advance on defining the observational strategy for detecting this effect, the only viable mechanism identified so far to detect axion dark matter via gravity instead of other interactions.
The RADES Collaboration in IAXO is developing experiments for axion detection at frequencies from 300 MHz to 10 GHz via the inverse Primakoff effect with resonant cavities, and exploring the use of quantum technology with superconducting qubits to enhance the sensitivity of these experiments. The student will have the opportunity to work on developing these experiments and analyzing results. The ICCUB is part of the IAXO Collaboration (which includes RADES) for detecting axions from the Sun or dark matter, and we are extending this collaboration to include quantum technology labs with expertise in superconducting qubits at Aalto University (Finland) and at the Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, offering a wide range of experimental opportunities in axion detection.
Job position description:
The student will be free to focus on an astrophysical project involving theory and data analysis of gravitational lensing observations, or on contributing and developing experimental techniques in RADES. Interested students may work on both of these options in a thesis combining theory and experiment.
The theory project involves not only astrophysical work for gravitational lensing modeling with axion minihalos, but also the physical understanding of axion minihalo evolution once they are part of galactic-scale dark matter halos, including the impact of their tidal disruption by stars, or the formation and evolution of solitons in the core of axion minihalos. At ICCUB, other researchers on axion theory that the student can interact with include Federico Mescia, Jordi Salvadó and Alessio Notari.
The experimental project will involve working with our RADES Collaborators (at Univ. of Zaragoza, Polytechnical Univ. of Cartagena, MPI for Physics at Munich, Mainz Univ., as well as quantum technology labs mentioned above) on various aspects of our axion detection experiment: resonant cavities with superconducting coatings, single-photon detectiion with superconducting qubits, resonant frequency tuning, etc.
More information:
Employment conditions
The ”la Caixa” Foundation will sign an agreement with the host institution, which will receive the fellowship payments directly:
- An annual payment of €35,800 to the institution to cover the Fellow’s contract, who will receive a minimum annual gross salary of €25.000. This amount might vary if there are modifications in the legal framework.
- €3,500 per year, as an additional amount for conferences, courses, research stays, consumables, equipment, charges for the use of intellectual property, etc.
- The tuition fees to the official doctoral programme
In addition to financial support, the fellowship includes a training programme on transversal skills, which has been specially designed by leading international institutions in the sector.
For more information on the employment conditions, please refer to this document.
Working at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences
The Institute of Cosmos Sciences is a research institute of the University of Barcelona. It is an interdisciplinary centre dedicated to fundamental research in the fields of cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics. In addition, the institute has a strong technology program through its participation in international collaborations in observational astronomy and experimental particle physics.
Moreover, the ICCUB participates in many key international scientific consortia and projects, such as the Large Hadron Collider, the Gaia astrometric space mission, the MAGIC / CTA high-energy astrophysics telescopes, and the Virgo gravitational wave detector, among others. Additional information about the Institute and the University of Barcelona can be found here.
You will be encouraged to contribute and interact with other researchers in the vibrant and international research environment as well as to participate in our outreach initiatives, more information at serviAstro and serviParticules.
As part of the University of Barcelona, the ICCUB is a recipient of the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research (HRS4R) Award, which recognises, among other achievements, respect for equal opportunities and the capacity to attract talent in a positive working environment that promotes the pursuit of successful research careers. The ICCUB respects the principles of open, transparent, merit-based selection. We strongly encourage women and underrepresented minorities in physical sciences to apply. For additional information please see the Diversity, equity and inclusion Commission.
The ICCUB is located in Barcelona, considered the 8th World's Best Cities 2021: one with near-perfect weather year-round, miles and miles of beaches, iconic parks, striking architecture and colourful neighbourhoods that march to their own beat—artistic, sophisticated, bohemian. Moreover, it is a pole of attraction for the technology sector, a top choice to establish a company in this sector, and it hosts some of the world's major technological events, such as the Mobile World Congress and the Smart City Expo. In addition, Barcelona and its metropolitan area is a leading destination on the map of global technological ecosystems and has infrastructures such as science parks, universities and the 22@ district.
Requirements
In order to be accepted, candidates must meet the following eligibility requirements:
- Experience: candidates must not have carried out more than four years of research activity before the closing date of the call.
- Studies pursued: Applicants must hold a higher education degree that makes them eligible to enroll in a doctoral programme before starting at their host institutions.
The host university will verify, upon starting the admission process to the doctoral programme, that the studies taken up by the selected candidates make them eligible to enroll in an official doctoral programme in accordance with the regulations in force in Spain or Portugal. Should they be found not eligible after verification, the fellowship will be withdrawn.
Under no circumstances may candidates have previously enrolled in the same doctoral studies for which they are applying for the fellowship.
- Geographic mobility: Candidates must not have resided or have carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call deadline. Short stays, such as holidays, done in a country other than their country of usual residence (where they carried out their main activity), will be considered as time spent in their country of usual residence.
- Level of English: Candidates must have a demonstrable level of English (B2 or higher).
For more information on the candidates requirements, please refer to this document.
Application Procedure
All applications must be submitted online through the following link in English. For more information on the application procedure, please refer to this document.
Deadline: Please submit your applications by January 24th 2024 at 2 pm.
Selection process:
The process is comprised of three phases:
- Eligibility screening: all applications received are reviewed to check the accomplishment of the eligibility criteria published in the rules for participation
- Remote evaluation (shortlisting): an evaluation panel will review the applications and those that receive the highest scores will pass to the next stage.
- Personal interviews: shortlisted candidates are invited to a remotely interview before a multidisciplinary committee on May 27, 28 and 29 2024.
The rating criteria that govern the selection process can be found in the Selection process guidelines section of the ”la Caixa” Fellowship Programme website.
For more information on the selection process, please refer to this document.
Funding: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No713673.
The co-funded part of the programme runs from 01/10/2016 to 30/09/2021 and finances the researchers recruited under Call 2017 and 2018.