Postdoc: Multi-Messenger EMRI & LISA GW Study

Universities Space Research Association; United States; On-site; USD 65,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Universities Space Research Association invites a Postdoctoral Researcher to study EM observing strategies for LISA GW counterparts. You will design campaigns, simulate EMIs, and apply Bayesian reconstructions to anchor GW phase using quasi-periodic signals from accretion disks.

You will develop and test analysis pipelines, contribute to open-source tools, and prepare results for publication within a national/international collaboration framework.

Qualifications

• PhD in Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics, or related field or equivalent.
• Strong background in time-domain astronomy and periodic signal analysis (QPEs/QPOs).
• Experience with Bayesian inference and engaging in open-source software projects.

Responsibilities

• Construct synthetic EM signals from EMRI trajectories and model QPEs as disk-crossing events.
• Design and run mock EM observing campaigns varying cadence, duration, and data gaps.
• Apply Bayesian, trans-dimensional reconstructions to recover phase evolution for GW anchoring.
• Use trans-dimensional samplers to optimize harmonics and spline knots for periodic signals under sparse data.
• Perform model comparison across observing schedules to identify minimum EM observing duration and cadence for GW phase constraint.
• Translate results into practical scheduling recommendations for X-ray observatories (XMM-Newton, Chandra, NICER).
• Contribute to open-source software development and documentation on GitHub.

Skills

Time-domain astronomy

Bayesian inference

Data analysis

Scientific programming

Communication skills

Education

PhD in Physics/ Astronomy/ Astrophysics

Tools

Python

Eryn

emcee

PTMCMC

Git/GitHub

Job description

Universities Space Research Association invites a Postdoctoral Researcher to study EM observing strategies for LISA GW counterparts. You will design campaigns, simulate EMIs, and apply Bayesian reconstructions to anchor GW phase using quasi-periodic signals from accretion disks.

You will develop and test analysis pipelines, contribute to open-source tools, and prepare results for publication within a national/international collaboration framework.