2025 RTP round - Searching for exotic pulsars in close binary systems.

Status: Open

Applications open: 1/07/2024
Applications close: 20/08/2024

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About this scholarship
Description/Applicant information

 

Project Overview

Over the past few decades, pulsars have emerged as the most indispensable astronomical objects to push the frontiers of physics. Fundamental physics with pulsars is a headline science theme for the upcoming Square Kilometer Array (SKA) – the largest and most sensitive  radio telescope in the world, currently under construction in Australia and South Africa. A complete census of the Galactic pulsar population is a high-priority science goal for the SKA, with pathfinder/precursor facilities in the lead up to the SKA expected to play a pivotal role in gearing up toward this long and exciting journey.  
Pulsars in close binary systems are particularly the most sought after, given their unique roles in enabling some of the most exquisite tests of the theories of gravity, including Einstein's theory of general relativity. Motivated heavily by this, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia is embarking on an ambitious survey for pulsars in the southern sky. This Southern-sky MWA Rapid Two-meter (SMART) survey will surpass previous generation surveys in survey speed and will be the most sensitive southern-sky pulsar survey in the SKA-Low band. Data collection process of SMART is now completed, with four Petabytes of high-time resolution data waiting to be analysed and searched. Currently in its early stages, the SMART survey is already showing its promise, with several new pulsar discoveries and over 200 known-pulsar detections after processing only a small fraction of data and searching over a limited parameter space.

 

Aims

This project aims to take the SMART pulsar survey to the next level, by vastly expanding the search parameter space, including acceleration searches to target pulsars in close binary systems. This will involve the development and optimisation of search pipelines and their successful implementation on High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms. Progress on this front will help accelerate the journey toward discovering first such exotic binary pulsar systems with the MWA, Australia's Precursor for the SKA telescope, and this will be an important milestone.

 

Objectives

1) Systematic exploration of various pulsar search algorithms and processing strategies, as well as their implementation and benchmarking on HPC, to enable high-sensitivity pulsar searches at low radio frequencies, by leveraging high-time-resolution data from the SMART survey. 
2) Successful demonstration of the search pipelines by performing a pilot survey of a select part of the sky (e.g., ~1000 square degrees) to search for binary pulsar systems to make the first discovery of such objects with the MWA. 
3) Expand the scope of search to realise a full Galactic plane survey, the efficacy and success of which will inform the detectable population of such systems in the SKA-Low’s frequency band – an important preparatory step for SKA science.

 

Significance 

Successful advancement and demonstration of acceleration searches at the low radio frequencies in which the SKA-Low will operate (100-300 MHz) will be a major milestone in gearing up for conducting full-scale searches with the SKA. The discovery of even a single object of this rare (and exotic) class will be a significant addition to the small sample (~10) of targets that are highly sought after for advancing our knowledge of fundamental physics (e.g., testing strong-field gravity) and astrophysics (e.g., stellar binary evolution).

 

This research will be conducted at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA), the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), a joint venture with the University of Western Australia supported by the Western Australian State government. The successful candidate will work in a vibrant research environment interacting with staff and students across the ICRAR-Curtin group that specialise in astronomical science, engineering and high-performance computing. The project will leverage several Petabytes of high-time-resolution data from the SMART pulsar project collected with the MWA telescope. Data processing will make use of supercomputing resources available at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth and Swinburne University’s OzSTAR and ​​Ngarrgu Tindebeek supercomputers. The SMART project is an international collaboration and provides excellent opportunities for scientific and technical exchanges, and for building networks with a large team of world-leading experts in pulsar research, including searching and timing. Pulsar astronomy being a headline science theme for the SKA (of which the MWA is a precursor), the project is extremely well-aligned with the key science goals for the SKA, and will both inform and steer developments of pulsar science planned with the SKA.

Student type

• Future Students

Faculty

• Faculty of Science & Engineering
  • Science courses
  • Engineering courses

Course type

• Higher Degree by Research

Citizenship

• Australian Citizen
• Australian Permanent Resident
• New Zealand Citizen
• Permanent Humanitarian Visa
• International Student

Scholarship base

• Merit Based

Value

The annual scholarship package, covering both stipend and tuition fees, amounts to approximately $70,000 per year.

In 2024, the RTP stipend scholarship offers $35,000 per annum for a duration of up to three years. Exceptional progress and adherence to timelines may qualify students for a six-month completion scholarship.

Selection for these scholarships involves a competitive process, with shortlisted applicants notified of outcomes by November 2024.

Scholarship Details
Maximum number awarded

1

Eligible courses

All applicable HDR courses.

Eligibility criteria

This project is ideal for a candidate with a sound background in physics and astrophysics, and a strong inclination for software development, high performance computing, and signal processing aspects of radio astronomy. A background in radio astronomy with some research experience is an additional advantage.
 

Application process

Please send your CV, academic transcripts and brief rationale why you want to join this research project via the HDR expression of interest form to the project lead researcher, listed below. 

Enrolment Requirements

You must be enrolled in a Higher Degree by Research Course at Curtin University by March 2025.

Enquiries

Project Lead: Dr Ramesh Bhat

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