Fully Funded STFC and Swansea University PhD Scholarship: Probing the Early Universe with the Gravitational Waves

Funding providers: Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) DTP and Swansea University's Faculty of Science and Engineering

Subject areas: Cosmology, Gravitational Wave Physics

Project description: 

Gravitational wave (GW) observations are opening a new window for cosmology, full of opportunities to be explored.

Many early universe processes, e.g. cosmological inflation and phase transitions, predict the existence of a yet-to-be-detected stochastic GW background (SGWB). Since GW travel almost unperturbed from their primordial sources to us, they provide information on their production mechanisms, and on the geometry of the space-time they cross. Our project consists of a blend of theoretical work and of data analysis, aiming at designing methods for extracting information on the early universe from GW data.

Theory. We will refine the characterisation of GW sources, connecting them with features of the SGWB: its frequency-dependent profile, its anisotropies, its non-Gaussianity. We will establish how the study of GW propagation through a perturbed cosmological space-time allows us to reconstruct the properties of space-time.

Data analysis. We will use mock data from the Einstein Telescope and LISA for determining observational tests of our theoretical results. We will develop estimators for extracting properties of the SGWB from data. We will study cross-correlations among different cosmological observations, including large-scale structures. Our methods will allow us to forecast the capabilities of future detectors to distinguish among different early-universe sources of SGWB.

Eligibility

Candidates must normally hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level or a master’s degree with a minimum overall grade at ‘Merit’ (or Non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University).

English Language requirements: If applicable – IELTS 6.5 overall (with at least 6.0 in each individual component) or Swansea recognised equivalent. 

This scholarship is open to candidates of any nationality.

Please visit our website for more information on eligibility.