PhD position: Measurement of elliptic flow in ALICE

Due date: not specified
Location:  Utrecth, Nederland

Job description
The Alice experiment, which will collect its first data in 2008,is directed towards the production of a quark-gluon plasma andthe study of the properties of this new state of nuclear matter.

Of particular interest is the collective motion (flow) of particlesproduced in the collision because this will give direct informationon the thermodynamic properties of the quark-gluon plasma.

The STAR collaboration, currently performing a similar experimentat the RHIC accelerator at much lower collision energies, hasdeveloped software tools to study the collective motion of particlesseen in their experiment. The group in Utrecht is now adaptingthese tools to implement them for the future Alice experimentand to refine these tools to investigate the flow of identifiedparticles. The candidate for this oio position is expected tostudy the flow of the D0 meson in the pT range 0.5 GeV to 5 GeV.The charm quark has a large mass. The charm quark is thereforemostly produced in initial scattering processes, in contrast tolighter quarks which are also produced in the quark-gluon plasma.Measurement of the flow of charmed mesons will show if the lowmomentum charm quarks take part in the general flow of the medium.In the future the research will be extended to higher pT ranges,allowing the study of energy loss of high momentum charm quarksin the medium.

The candidate is expected to prepare the flow analysis for identifiedparticles for the Alice experiment, apply it to the first availabledata and compare the results to existing models.

Location
Subatomic Physics Institute in the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy of Utrecht University.

Requirements
The candidate is required to have a master's of physics or equivalentdegree. He/she is expected to have background in elementary particlephysics or nuclear physics. Experience with software developmentfor data analysis will be an advantage.

Conditions of employment
When fulfilling a PhD positionat the FOM foundation, you will get the status of junior scientist. Youwill have an employee status and can participate in all the employeebenefits FOM offers. You will get a contract for 4 years. During thefirst year the gross salary is 1,503 euro per month. This amount willincrease to 2,145 euro during the fourth year. For your pension youwill participate in 'Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP'.
You are supposed to have a thesis finished at the end of yourfour year term with FOM. A training programme is part of the agreement.You and your supervisor will make up a plan for the additionaleducation and supervising that you specifically need. This planalso defines which teaching activities you will be responsible(up to a maximum of 10% of your time).
The standard amount of leave is 338 hours per year, which shouldbe used every year ('withdrawal obligation') except for 80 hours.FOM offers you a Customised Conditions of Employment (CCE) schemewhich enables you to choose between specific employee benefitsand benefit from certain fiscal advantages. FOM also offers yougood study facilities. The conditions of employment of the FOM-foundationare laid down in the Collective Labour Agreement for ResearchCentres (CAO-Onderzoekinstellingen), more exclusive informationis available at this website under Personeelsinfo (in Dutch) or under Personnel (in English). General information aboutworking at FOM can be found in the English part of this websiteunder Personnel.The 'FOM-sollicitatiecode' (in Dutch) applies to thisposition.

Information
For more specific information about this position please contact Prof.dr. Thomas Peitzmann
Utrecht University
Department SAP
Princetonplein 5
3584 CC Utrecht

or
Prof.dr. R. Kamermans,
or
Dr. P. Kuijer,

at the same institute.

Applications
You can send your application to preferrably by email to:
Prof.dr. Thomas Peitzmann
Utrecht University
Department SAP
Postbus 80000
3508 TA Utrecht

Original source:
http://www.fom.nl/vacatures/vac_273.htm