Post-doctorate fellowship in Nuclear Astrophysics: “Constructing large-scale nuclear models with linear response information for astrophysical applications”

16 Apr 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

Department

Faculté des Sciences

Research Field

Astronomy » Astrophysics

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)

Country

Belgium

Application Deadline

1 Jul 2024 - 00:00 (Europe/Brussels)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

38

Offer Starting Date

1 May 2024

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

One of the major issues in modern astrophysics concerns the analysis and understanding of the
present composition of the Universe and its various constituting objects. Nucleosynthesis
models aim to explain the origin of the different nuclei observed in nature by identifying the
possible processes able to synthesize them. Though the origin of most of the nuclides lighter
than iron through the various hydrostatic and explosive burning stages in stars is now quite
well understood, the synthesis of the heavy elements (i.e. heavier than iron) remains
unexplained in many respects.
The rapid neutron-capture process, or r-process, is known to be of fundamental importance for
explaining the origin of approximately half of elements heavier than iron observed in nature.
Despite important efforts, the astrophysical site of the r-process remains unidentified. For this
reason, the r-process has been considered as one of the top eleven questions in Physics and
Astronomy by the USA national research council of the national academies.
Supernovae have for long been envisioned as the dominant producer of r-process nuclei, but
so far have failed to provide the right conditions for a successful nucleosynthesis. Recently,
special attention has been paid to neutron star mergers following the confirmation by
hydrodynamic simulations that a non-negligible amount of matter can be ejected and by
nucleosynthesis calculations combined with the predicted astrophysical event rate that such
events can account for the majority of r-material in our Galaxy. The recent observation of the
gravitational wave signal GW170817 and its optical counterpart in August 2017 has confirmed
the efficient contribution of binary neutron star mergers to Galactic nucleosynthesis, though a
great part of this observation still remains to be explained.
This post-doctorate fellowship will focus on the development of new large-scale models of
nuclear structure to provide nuclear inputs to astrophysical simulations of the r-process. More
specifically, the goal is to progressively remove phenomenological ingredients from meanfield
models with microscopic information obtained from linear response (or QRPA)
calculations of the atomic nuclei. The successful candidate will develop a so-called QFAM
implementation of the QRPA formalism to be integrated with existing numerical tools in
Brussels and, as a first application, use this implementation to improve large-scale
predictions for the ground state properties of atomic nuclei with a specific focus on nuclear
masses. Further extensions of this framework to other quantities of astrophysical interest
(beta-decay and fission rates) can be envisioned.

of the KU Leuven, will contribute to the interpretation of new measurements of nuclear
structure properties obtained at ISOLDE-CERN, in particular concerning super-heavy
elements. Such measurements also aim at validating global mean-field models developed for
astrophysics applications.
The Post-doctorate position is available at the Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique
(IAA) of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and is part of the EOS (Excellence of Science)
research project MANASLU in collaboration with the KU Leuven University. The position is
funded for 2 years. Screening of applications begins immediately and continues until an
outstanding candidate is selected. The position is to start as soon as possible.
Profile requested:
• The candidate must have a PhD in nuclear physics (for less than 5 years)
• The candidate must have programming skills and a strong interest in numerical
simulations; knowledge of programming languages Fortran, C/C++ and Python is
desirable.
• The applicant should have good organizational skills, a taste for interdisciplinary
research, excellent scientific writing and presenting skills and be able to work
independently.
• Working in our international team requires capacity of team work as well as good
English language skills
Interested candidates should send their CV and request two referees to send their
recommendation letter directly to S. Goriely at [email protected] and W. Ryssens at
[email protected] .
Contact:
S. Goriely & W. Ryssens
Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Campus de la Plaine CP 226
B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Email: [email protected] & [email protected]

Requirements

Research Field

Physics » Neutron physics

Education Level

PhD or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

Profile requested:
• The candidate must have a PhD in nuclear physics (for less than 5 years)
• The candidate must have programming skills and a strong interest in numerical
simulations; knowledge of programming languages Fortran, C/C++ and Python is
desirable.
• The applicant should have good organizational skills, a taste for interdisciplinary
research, excellent scientific writing and presenting skills and be able to work
independently.
• Working in our international team requires capacity of team work as well as good
English language skills
 

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Research Field

Physics » Neutron physics

Additional Information
Eligibility criteria

The candidate must have a PhD in nuclear physics (for less than 5 years)

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique

Country

Belgium

Geofield

Where to apply

E-mail

[email protected]

Contact

City

Brussels

Website

http://www.astro.ulb.ac.be/pmwiki/IAA/HomePage

Street

50 avenue Franklin Roosevelt

Postal Code

1050

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED