[astro-jc] Post-Doc, projet Horizon, LUTH, Meudon

[Réza Samadi <Reza.Samadi@obspm.fr>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Offre de Post-Doc
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 11:22:27 +0100
From: Jean-Michel Alimi Office <jean-Michel.Alimi@obspm.fr>
To: Réza Samadi <Reza.Samadi@obspm.fr>

Bonjour

Pouvez vous faire circulez sur vos listes (jeunes chercheurs) cette offre de
post-doc au "Laboratoire Univers et Theories" de l'Observatoire de Meudon,
dans le cadre du projet Horizon.

En vous remerciant par avance

Bien Cordialement

Jean-Michel ALIMI
-- 
Jean-Michel ALIMI
Directeur du LUTH
Laboratoire de l'Univers et de ses Théories
NRS UMR8102,
Observatoire de Paris
92195, Meudon Cedex, France
tél: 33 1 45 07 74 06
tél sec: 33 1 45 07 75 24
fax: 33 1 45 07 71 23
http://einstein2005.obspm.fr
meeting.einstein2005@obspm.fr



======================================================
The Laboratory Universe and Theory invites applications for a post-doctoral
position in Computational Astrophysics and Theoretical Cosmology


The evidences for cosmic acceleration come from various observations in
cosmology, such as the distance-redshift measurements of type Ia supernovae,
the properties of the cosmic microwave background and the abundance of
galaxy clusters. There are numerous theoretical models trying to explain the
origin of dark energy, from the vacuum energy modelled by a cosmological
constant to a modification of general relativity. Discriminating between all
those explanations is a hard task because their predictions are often quite
similar, and it appears necessary to compare different cosmological
consequences to prevent the question of the deep nature of dark energy
becoming almost a question of theoretical elegance.


Structure formation is expected to bring more insight into the dark energy
debate as this process covers the whole intermediate redshift range between
CMB (z~1000) and the farthest supernovae (z~2). However, the problem of
structure formation is quite complicated due to the variety of the physical
processes involved in the mechanism and has to be addressed by means of
numerical or semi-analytical computations. The project HORIZON
(http://www.projet-horizon.fr/) has recently been created to federate all
the French theoretical activities in the field of galaxy formation. It
gathers many renowned scientists in these fields from various institutions
(SAp, CRAL, IAP, LERMA, LUTh) and will benefit from numerical facilities at
the international and national level. In this project, the candidate will
perform research at the edge of theoretical cosmology, high-energy physics
and the astrophysics of structure formation. He will therefore be involved
in the HORIZON project to study the limits of the LCDM concordance model
with structure formation. He will also study how the observational
predictions are modified when different dark energy models are considered
(influence of varying equation of state, modification of the gravitational
law, clumping of the quintessence field, dark-energy-dark matter models,
transient dark energy, etc). This part of this project will help theorists
to have more insights on the nature of dark energy (vacuum properties,
scalar fields, brane cosmology, violation of the equivalence principle,
etc.). Cosmological effects such as the Sunayev-Zeldovich effect, the
properties of the intergalactic medium, the weak lensing are expected to be
also of first importance for testing the dark energy paradigm.
The team at LUTh has already developed an experience in these questions by
having studied and developed dark energy models as well as performing
numerical simulations of galaxy formation in various dark energy-driven
universes. The successful applicant will therefore work in close
collaboration with the cosmology group at LUTh and the scientists of the
HORIZON project while attempting to address these issues.

The LUTh (http://luth2.obspm.fr/) is located in Observatoire de Meudon, near
Paris. It is engaged in research activities which include cosmology,
numerical relativity, AGN, interstellar medium, fluid and plasma
astrophysics.

The duration of the post-doc position is 24 months. Interested applicants
please send a cv, bibliography, description of research interests and
arrange to have 3 letters of deadline. Applications received by 30 April
2006 will receive full consideration for positions starting in the Fall of
2006. Starting dates are flexible.

Contact : Jean-Michel Alimi : jean-michel.alimi@obspm.fr

=============================================

Post doc Horizon_luth.pdf