Vacant job

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is consistently ranked among the world's leading universities. We have approximately 46,000 students and 8,500 employees in Lund, Helsingborg, and Malmö. We are united in our strive to understand, explain, and improve our world and the conditions of human life.

Workplace Description

This postdoctoral position will be part of the LDMX group in Lund, LunDMX, which is included in the Division of Particle and Nuclear Physics at the Department of Physics. At the division, which has around 60 employees, there is a vibrant mix of active research in both theoretical and experimental particle and nuclear physics, as well as experimental nuclear physics. The experimental particle physics activity includes research at the well-established LHC experiments ATLAS and ALICE, as well as efforts to realize new, creative experiments such as HIBEAM/NNBAR at ESS and - most relevant for this project - LDMX at SLAC (https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/MME/Light+Dark+Matter+Experiment). At the division, we exploit synergies between these projects, and our activities include detector development, trigger and data acquisition, physics and performance analysis, as well as software development and computing. The LunDMX group currently consists of one postdoc, three faculty members, three PhD students, and one engineer. This postdoctoral position is an important addition to our group; it will give further momentum to our work and strengthen our role in the international LDMX project. This position is also intended to serve as a springboard for the successful candidate, with good opportunities for career development, for which we strive to provide all the support we can.

Project Description

The Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX) is a beam-dump experiment to be built at SLAC in California. The main purpose is to search for dark matter particles with a mass below 1 GeV, produced when an 8 GeV electron beam hits a thin target. Lund's LDMX group (LunDMX) contributes to physics analysis, detector development, and performance studies, as well as software and computing infrastructure development. Additionally, we work on sustainability issues related to the development of new particle physics experiments.

The overarching theme for this project is to prepare for LDMX data, and the research will be conducted in close collaboration with the international LDMX collaboration, where Lund University is currently the only non-US participant. The main priority in this project is to study in more detail LDMX's ability to handle pile-up (multiple electrons hitting the target simultaneously). This will be based on simulation studies of potential backgrounds, detector performance, and sensitivity to signal models. A concrete example is the use of different programs for simulating critical backgrounds, comparing these predictions, and developing methods for measuring these backgrounds in data. The project also aims to investigate to what extent machine learning methods can help with these challenges, e.g., in object reconstruction and discrimination of signal and background events. This will be a focus of the project.

An exciting milestone for LDMX is test measurements with cosmic muons planned at SLAC during 2026. If you are interested in this, there is an opportunity to contribute to the analysis of these test data, primarily from the prototype of the hadronic calorimeter. Related to this, there is also an opportunity to contribute to the characterization of the readout electronics of the hadronic calorimeter locally in Lund.

There is some flexibility in the research program for this position, and details can be tailored to your specific interests and expertise. There will also be an opportunity to work on sustainability issues within LDMX/HEP, if that is something you are interested in.

Duties and Responsibilities

At Lund University, a postdoctoral appointment should provide opportunities for scientific and pedagogical merit. Primarily, there is room for merit in research, but also to some extent in higher education pedagogy. Teaching may also be included in the duties.

As a postdoc in the LunDMX group, you will primarily perform simulation-based studies of various aspects that contribute to LDMX's scientific potential. This will require the use (and sometimes further development) of various simulation tools, primarily the GEANT4-based ldmx-sw framework (https://github.com/LDMX-Software/ldmx-sw), written in C++, maintained on GitHub, and configured via Python. You will work with .root files and test different event generators as well as machine learning tools and methods.

Since LDMX is an international project, you will need to work with others in an international research environment.

Your primary workplace will be at the Department of Physics in Lund, but travel to SLAC/our partners will also be necessary.

The position requires clear and thoughtful communication, both with colleagues and the general public.

You will contribute to the development and maintenance of the common LDMX software.

You will be responsible for documentation and reporting of your research activities, maintaining detailed notes on your work, preparing documentation for future users, and following LDMX requirements to contribute to documentation.

You are expected to participate in mentoring and training of younger researchers and promote an environment for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

You will be given the opportunity to apply for external research funding for travel or smaller projects, as well as to contribute to sustainability studies, if you wish.

Your duties also include handling administration related to the tasks described above.

For the full advertisement please see: https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:946381/