Postdoc researcher - Pulsar Timing and Detection of Gravitational Waves

The recruited researcher will mainly work in Orléans at the space institute LPC2E, with main case is the study of Earth environment, Sun-Earth interactions and spatial plasma, using instrumentation on board of spatial probes and stratospheric balloons. The laboratory comprises 80 people and includes researchers, technicians and engineers.

He/she will be supervised by the head of the astrophysics group, composed of 4 permanent staff members and 3 PhD and post-docs.

This team focuses on multi-messenger studies of compact objects, and in particular on pulsars. It is closely associated with the Nançay Radio Observatory, located 70 km South of Orléans.

He/she will practise his/her scientific activity in the framework of the French Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) team (5 permanent researchers, 2 PhD students and 2 post-docs), at the interface between the observational and data processing group settled in Orléans (LPC2E) and the statistical and gravitational analysis group situated in Paris (laboratoire Astro Particules et Cosmologie APC). As a member of the IPTA Timing group, he/she will participate to meetings and workshops all over the world and he/she will spend a few weeks per year in Cape Town University (South Africa).

Affected to the CNRS in Orléans, at the Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'environnement et de l'espace (LPC2E) the post-doc researcher will be responsible of the following tasks:

- contribution to the timing data combination in the framework of the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) consortium

- participation in the analysis of the timing data for gravitational wave searches at low frequencies

- observations with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, an SKA precursor infrastructure, in the framework of the MeerTIME consortium

- prepare and lead millisecond pulsar observations with the Nançay radio telescope (France) and the MeerKAT radio telescope (Karoo desert, South Africa)

- data reduction and processing to extract series of high precision times of arrival

- combine the data with those from other radio telescopes to determine pulsar timing models and characterize noise sources

- participate in the Timing and Analysis IPTA working groups, in particular by attending the scientific workshops and joining the teleconferences

- contribute to MeerKAT scientific operation, including spending 4-6 weeks per year in Cape Town

Requirements

- background in instrumentation for radio astronomy

- experience in pulsar data processing with community softwares PSRCHIVE, Tempo2 and ENTERPRISE

- skills in C and/or Python programming

- strong experience in Bayesian statistics and Monte Carlo methods

- perfect mastery of English language (C1: read, spoken, written)

- team minded