witam

some of these may be interesting

pozdr boud

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Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:03:39 +0100 From: Programme National de Cosmologie et Galaxies pncg iap fr To: Programme National de Cosmologie et Galaxies pncg iap fr Subject: Diffusion PNCG, mess. n° 3

PNCG - Message n°3 - 30 janvier 2009

1. postdoc position at LPNHE

2. Invisible Universe International Conference

3. POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP in instrumentation at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale d'Orsay (IAS)

4. Journées asa/alma (6 et 7 avril 2009 à Grenoble) : dernière annonce

5. Post-doctoral fellowship at LAM (Marseille-France) on Herschel Extragactic Key Projects

----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. postdoc position at LPNHE

The Laboratoire de Physique Nucleaire et des Hautes Energies de Paris (LPNHE, CNRS/IN2P3 and University of Paris) invites applications for a post-doctoral position in Observational Cosmology. The position is for 2 years starting on October 1st 2009, or earlier, with a possible extension of 1 year, contingent on funding.

The researcher will work within the Supernova & Cosmology group of LPNHE (http://supernovae.in2p3.fr) primarily on the measurement of Dark Energy using Type Ia supernovae.

The work will focus on analyzing the high-quality supernova data sets recently obtained by the Supernova Legacy Survey and the Nearby Supernova Factory projects, in which the LPNHE group is strongly involved, as well as on the combination of these data sets with other large supernova data sets such as obtained by the SDSS-II.

The candidate is expected to have a PhD in Physics or Astrophysics and expertise in data analysis (not necessary supernova cosmology) and interpretation.

Applications (CV, research statement and names of 3 referees) should be sent by email to Reynald Pain (reynald.pain lpnhe in2p3 fr). Applicants should also arrange for up to three letters of reference to be sent to the same address.

The closing date is February 15, 2009.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Invisible Universe International Conference

The LUTh (« Universe and Theory Laboratory » - CNRS UMR 8102, Paris Observatory), in collaboration with UNESCO and several national and international institutes organizes the « Invisible Universe International Conference » in Paris (France) from June 29 to July 3, 2009 at the Palais de l?UNESCO.

The conference intends to bring together all scientists working on the various aspects of dark energy, dark matter and gravity modification and their connection to cosmological observations and fundamental physics.

The list of invited speakers is completed: L. Amendola (Italy), A. Ashtekar (USA), L. Bergstrom (Sweden), Ed. Bertschinger (USA), P. Binetruy* (France), F. Combes (France), A. Connes (France), Ed. Copeland (UK), G. Dvali (Switzerland), P. Fayet (France), D. Gross (USA), F. Hammer (France), S. Katsanevas (France), E. Kolb (USA), O. Le Fevre (France), Y. Mellier (France), M. Milgrom (Israel), T. Padmanabhan (India), J. Peebles (USA), J.-L. Puget (France), A. Riess (USA), G. Smoot (USA). L. Susskind (USA), E. Wright (USA).

8 parallel sessions are organized as an international workshop such that every oral presentation is expected to be about twenty-five minutes.

1) Observational Astrophysical Aspect of dark energy and dark matter 2) Experimental particle physics aspects of dark matter 3) Gravitation and cosmology 4) Inhomogeneous universe models and backreaction 5) Dark energy as a new energy component 6) Dark matter candidates 7) Dark Matter and Dark energy as modified gravity 8) Theoretical and numerical aspects of cosmic structures and evolution

THE REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW OPEN, THE CONTRIBUTED TALKS ARE WELCOME.

We would be very grateful if you can also disseminate widely the information among your colleagues and students.

For further information, please see the following web and e-mail adresses :

http://universe2009.obspm.fr meeting.univ2009 obspm fr

----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP in instrumentation at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale d'Orsay (IAS)

A new generation of scintillating bolometers for EURECA

Contact: Pierre de Marcillac (marcillac ias u-psud fr) STAP team (Thermal Spectroscopy for Physics and Astrophysics)

Deadline for application: february 23th 2009.

Job starts: at a date to be defined with the candidate (typically september or october 2009, but with some flexibility between june and december 2009).

Funding is available for 2 years (*)

Research topic:

EURECA is a European project, still in a design study phase, dedicated to the direct detection of dark matter particles (neutralinos) with cryogenic detectors underground (see http://www.eureca.ox.ac.uk/). Cross sections of neutralino candidates with nucleons in the targets as low as 10-10pbarn are foreseen -hence two orders of magnitude better than the best actual achievements- implying close to one ton of detectors. While EURECA design will be strongly influenced by the results of the two big european underground experiments CRESST and EDELWEISS, the project also incorporates experienced teams involved in the direct dark matter detection with bolometers or with very low radioactivity techniques at a research and development phase. The IAS team is just one of them, improving since 1994 the so-called scintillating bolometer technique and applying it to different targets.

Scintillating bolometers cooled at temperature lower than 20mK are planned to be used within EURECA, for their ability to explore the huge uncertainties encountered in the constitution of the neutralino itself, while being able to susbstract efficiently in a single experiment all the systematics associated with an experiment dealing with very rare events.

The massive detectors built by the IAS team since 1994 proved to be able to reject most of the radioactive background during tests performed either at IAS at sea level, or underground within the EDELWEISS or ROSEBUD experiments. Though, improvements are needed in view of the EURECA project: a simpler construction design, making more easy a future serial production of detectors, has to be looked for. Configurations similar to already existing ones (as the ones used by the EDELWEISS collaboration,...) could be explorated. much less radioactive Ge-NTD sensors, -our common thermistors- with respect to the existing ones are highly desirable. At low energy, where the expected signals is high, there is confusion with noise. Time constants criteria are no longer useful to distinguish among the non-ionizing events between the good events (recoiling nuclei) and the bad ones, decays in the Ge-NTD sensors, these latter being usually faster. At high energy, such decays could also be highly confusing at slow (some hundred of Hz) sampling rates, which are the ones used today in EDELWEISS and probably later by EURECA. It is hoped that, going from much purer germanium material as initial material, we should avoid unwanted radioactive impurities in the sensors. Such activated "impurities" are normally produced after exposure in the nuclear reactor used to transmuted part of the raw material (Ge) into the desirable doping elements. fast neutron detectors, a solution to measure the rarest fast neutrons remaining inside the dark matter experiments shieldings will help a lot in estimating their contribution to the observed rate of recoiling nuclei in the detectors. Fast neutrons, through their elastic scattering, are the ultimate background in experiments dealing with direct detection, but as well in other experiments looking for very rare events: a consequence of their strong penetration power. Simulations of shielding efficiencies are the normal tools used to estimate such a contribution, but we think that one should try also to measure this important contribution by in situ measurements when dealing with very low event rates. It was proposed recently to use the neutron capture reaction by 6Li in lithiated detectors (as massive 6LiF bolometers) to measure in a straightforward way the energy of fast neutrons in the 10keV-10MeV range.

The post-doctoral fellow will work preferentially on these three topics at IAS, in collaboration with teams at CEA-IRFU-SEDI or at CNRS-CSNSM working within the EDELWEISS collaboration.

Selection criteria: The succesfull candidate is expected - to hold a relevant PhD (in physics, astrophysics or astroparticle physics). - to be able to demonstrate the capacity to carry out independent high quality research in a related area. - to have experience in instrumentation at very low temperature with massive bolometers (particle detection)

Preferences will be given to candidates hosted by the institutions participating in the EURECA project.

Salary: The annual gross salary will be of 25 600 euros (2130 euros per month).

How to apply: Send a CV, a complete list of publications, and a statement of research interests to Pierre de Marcillac (marcillac ias u-psud fr) (deadline, february 23th), and arrange to have letter(s) of recommendation sent by the same date. Electronic applications can be sent in pdf, ps, or word format.

(*) This grant has been made available thanks to the the P2I (Physique des 2 Infinis) networking structure, joining research institutions within the Paris & Ile de France region (see http://events.lal.in2p3.fr/P2I/)

----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Journées asa/alma (6 et 7 avril 2009 à Grenoble): dernière annonce

L'Action Spécifique ALMA organise à Grenoble deux jours de travail (les lundi et mardi 6 et 7 avril 2009) au cours desquels la communauté discutera de la manière dont elle souhaite s'organiser autour d'ALMA. Toutes les informations sont à jour (avec une première ébauche du programme) à l'adresse suivante :

http://www.graal.univ-montp2.fr/hosted/alma/ALMA2009.html

Ces journées permettront 1) de recenser les équipes qui préparent déjà scientifiquement ALMA et 2) de faire dialoguer les radio-astronomes avec ou sans expertise en interférométrie avec des observateurs venant d'autres domaines de longueur d'onde, des modélisateurs, des fournisseurs de données micro-physiques nécessaires à l'analyse des données, etc...

Attention : les dates de clôture des inscriptions et de l'appel à contribution ont été changées. Elles sont maintenant toutes les deux fixées au vendredi 13 février 2009 au soir.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Post-doctoral fellowship at LAM (Marseille-France) on Herschel Extragactic Key Projects

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position with Dr. A. Boselli and Pr. V. Buat within the team "Physique des Galaxies" at Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille to work on the Key Insights of Herschel Guaranted Time Key Projects devoted to extragalactic astronomy. The successful applicant will be involved with the reduction and analysis of photometric data obtained with the PACS and SPIRE instruments. The successful applicant will be able to work on one of the following Herschel Guaranted Time Key Projects: the Herschel Reference Sample (HRS) and the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES).

HRS consists of a far-IR survey (250, 360, 520 microns) of a complete, K band selected, volume limited sample of 323 galaxies in the nearby universe. Combined with data at other wavelengths (from UV to radio centimetric) this sample will be used to study the physical properties of the interstellar medium (dust, gas, radiation field...) of galaxies spanning a large range in morphological type and luminosity with the aim of understanding the star formation process and the matter cycle in galaxies.

HerMES consists of a large set of fields observed in several photometric bands from 70 to 550 microns with Herschel SPIRE and PACS with an unprecedented depth and spatial coverage. These data combined with ancillary surveys will give the first complete view on the evolution of galaxies over cosmological time giving access to the entire star formation occuring in the universe. The specific interest of our team will be to study the evolution of dust attenuation and star formation activity with redshift through the fitting of spectral energy distributions.

Research experience in extragalactic studies with an emphasis on star-forming galaxies and infrared emission is desired. Experience with the reduction and photometric measurement of space-based data will be appreciated. Candidates should have obtained, by the starting date, a Ph.D. in Astronomy, Physics, Astrophysics, or equivalent.

The appointment is for one year possibly renewable starting on September 1, 2009. To apply, please send resume, publication list, and statement of research to the address below and have three letters of reference forwarded to the same address. The deadline for applications is May 1, 2009.

for informal inquiries:veronique.buat oamp fr, alessandro.boselli oamp fr