2025 RTP round - High-resolution imaging of time-variable radio jets from feeding black holes.

Status: Open

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

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About this scholarship
Description/Applicant information

 

Project Overview

The highest-resolution astronomical images are produced by combining the signals produced by radio telescopes separated by thousands of kilometres. Such telescope arrays were recently used by the Event Horizon Telescope consortium to produce the first direct images of black holes. To image the dynamic, rapidly-changing environments of these black holes, researchers had to develop new techniques to compensate for the variations in the radio signals over the course of the observation period, effectively removing the blurring effect caused by source motion or brightness changes. 
Such high-resolution data can also provide critical information on smaller black holes and neutron stars within our own Milky Way galaxy. When in a close binary system with a less-evolved companion star, these ultra-dense objects can accrete material from their companion. The release of energy from the infalling gas can also power energetic jets that move away at close to the speed of light, recycling energy and matter from the smallest scales around the central object into the surrounding interstellar medium. To ascertain their intrinsic physical properties, we need to study the jets as close as possible to their launching point, which requires high-resolution imaging. But previous efforts have been hindered by the intrinsic rapid variability of the jets, in both brightness and morphology. 
The development of these new techniques for the Event Horizon Telescope allows us to overcome some of these challenges, providing higher-fidelity reconstructions of the evolving jets from stellar-mass compact objects, and yielding new and unique insights into their properties.

 

Aims

This project aims to apply the cutting-edge algorithms recently developed for direct imaging of supermassive black holes to much smaller black holes and neutron stars in our Milky Way galaxy, to study how their jets and outflows change over time. The successful applicant will evaluate the performance of different algorithms in imaging different physical scenarios (e.g. different levels of amplitude or structural variability, different brightness levels, different amounts of available information), to determine the optimum approach for various likely sets of telescope arrays and targets. This will allow them to derive new insights into the physics of jets.

 

Objectives

The primary scientific objective of this project is to determine the physical properties of the jets and outflows from stellar-mass compact objects in our Milky Way galaxy. Using cutting-edge analytical techniques, the student will derive valuable new information from existing high-resolution radio data, providing new insights into the structure, variability, and propagation of energetic jets. Imaging these systems will provide a novel and unique view of how stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars accrete matter and how energy is released and recycled via relativistic jets.

 

Significance 

Powerful jets are seen across the visible Universe, from stellar-mass objects in our own Milky Way to supermassive black holes at the centres of external galaxies. They play a crucial role in providing feedback of matter and energy to their surroundings, which in the case of supermassive black holes can affect an entire galaxy cluster. However, it is only in smaller, stellar-mass black holes that we can observe these jets evolve in real time, providing a unique window into their properties. These systems make up an important class of transient events, which over the coming decades will be studied by world-class astronomical facilities such as the Square Kilometre Array. This project will provide an important link between the jet-launching region on the smallest scales, and the larger-scale jets that are currently tracked by SKA precursor facilities, and which will be prime targets for the SKA.

 

The project will be hosted at CIRA. CIRA is 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. As such the successful candidate will be in a vibrant research environment with over 200 staff and students across the two ICRAR nodes working on a wide range of science, engineering and high-performance computing. Additional research resources may be available through ICRAR to support the project. 
The supervisory team for this project have decades of experience working with high-resolution radio imaging data, and the lead supervisor is involved in the Transients Science Working Group for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Through ICRAR, CIRA is working to further Australia’s contribution to the international SKA Observatory. The key science question being addressed in this PhD is closely linked to both the core scientific activities of CIRA and ICRAR and the SKA key science goals (such as study of black holes and energetic transients). 
The algorithms to be evaluated in this project have been published by the EHT consortium, and the data to which they will be applied are available in public archives.

 

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 opportunity is open to students with any science-oriented undergraduate background. Students with a background in physics/astronomy, mathematics/statistics, computer science, or data science are particularly encouraged to apply. Strong coding skills would be an 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: Professor James Miller-Jones

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