PhD position „Characterizing the very-low-frequency stochastic gravitational-wave background with pulsar-timing-array observations“ at ETH Zurich
28.11.2024
PhD position „Characterizing the very-low-frequency stochastic gravitational-wave background with pulsar-timing-array observations“ at ETH Zurich
In this project, you will work within the Gravitational Physics group at ETH Zurich and contribute to the statistical formulation of pulsar-timing-array searches for gravitational waves; to the development of the Discovery analysis code; and to the analysis of current and future datasets. In 2023 the major pulsar-timing-array collaborations presented convincing evidence for the existence of a stochastic gravitational-wave background. Over the remainder of this decade, further observations will clarify the origin, spectral features, and multipolar structure of the background, and may also reveal the presence of nearby individual sources. You will investigate novel techniques to model the various sources of noise that affect pulsar-timing measurements, and work to understand how noise may bias the characterization of the background. You will gain mastery in Bayesian and frequentist statistics, and experiment with GPU computing and AI-based acceleration techniques. You will interact with researchers in the international pulsar-timing-array community, and in the ETH AI Center. Your results will help establish very-low-frequency gravitational-wave measurements as a new tool to understand the Universe. Application by December 15th 2024.