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PhD Studentship in “Constraining the cosmological model with next generation large-scale structure surveys” (2025)

What you get

• Fully-paid tuition fees for three and a half years at the home fee status.
• A tax-free bursary for living costs for three and a half years (£19,237 per annum in 24/25).
• Additional financial support is provided to cover short-term and long-term travel.
• If you are not a UK national, nor an EU national with UK settled/pre-settled status, you will need to apply for a student study visa before admission.

Type of award

Postgraduate research

PhD project

We are on the brink of a revolution in our understanding of the Universe with the unfolding of two large galaxy surveys, the Rubin Telescope's legacy survey of space and time (LSST), and ESA's Euclid Mission. These surveys will enable us to map the positions and properties of tens of millions of galaxies across a significant fraction of the sky and out to depths of the order roughly 10 billion years into the past, thus covering a significant fraction of the observable Universe. This data will enable us to shed new light on the mysterious dark energy that causes the expansion rate to accelerate and the dark matter phenomenology. To constrain these physical processes we will make use of statistical measures such as the galaxy clustering statistics and the weak lensing correlations.

However, to accurately interpret this data, we will need to control a number of systematic effects to a high precision and also take our modelling of the observables to new heights. In particular, the nonlinear evolution of structure, redshift space distortions and galaxy biasing.

I have various open PhD projects that range from: developing new theoretical tools, like the halofit code, for interpreting the nonlinear matter power spectrum required for observables that can be embedded into parameter space samplers, like Kobaya; to exploring and creating new weak lensing observables; to performing state-of-the-art numerical simulations of cosmic structure formation on some of the largest super computers. These simulations enable us to build mock Universes and explore the complex nonlinear physics and observational effects that we need to understand precisely for an accurate interpretation of the data.

We are active members of the Rubin Telescope's LSST mission, Euclid and 4MOST. We are also part of the Virgo Consortium and so have access to the DiRAC framework and the COSMA8 supercomputer and through Euclid we have access to IRIS. The university of Sussex also has its own in house super computer called Artemis.

Eligibility

Applicants must hold, or expect to hold, at least a UK upper second class degree (or non-UK equivalent qualification) in Physics/Mathematics, or a closely-related area, or else a lower second class degree followed by a relevant Master's degree.

This award is open to UK and International students.

Deadline

28 February 2025 23:45

How to apply

Apply through the �鶹��ý������� on-line system. 

/study/phd/apply/log-into-account

Select the PhD in Physics/Mathematics, with an entry date of September 2025.

In the Finance & Fees section, state that you wish to be considered for studentship no ASTR/2025/01.

We advise early application as the position will be filled as soon as a suitable applicant can be found.

Due to the high volume of applications received, you may only hear from us if your application is successful.

Contact us

If you have practical questions about the progress of your on-line application or your eligibility, contact mps-pgrsupport@sussex.ac.uk

For academic questions about the project, contact Prof. Robert E. Smith at r.e.smith@sussex.ac.uk