PhD in Astrophysics - DEMOBLACK group: “Demography of Black Hole Binaries in the Era of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy”

Department

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Main research activities/topics/projects

The research activity of the group spans a large variety of topics. Most of them are related to the study of the formation of binary compact object progenitors of the gravitational wave signals. In addition, we are also interested in the study of the properties and formation history of our Galaxy by studying the Milky Way’s stellar population. A possible list of topics is as follows.

• Impact of stellar and binary evolution on the formation of compact objects.
We have developed the state-of-the-art population synthesis code SEVN (Stellar EVolution N-body, Iorio et al., 2023). SEVN allows to evolve numerous binaries so that it is possible to explore a large parameter space of conditions and configurations for the formation of binary compact objects or
other binary exotica (e.g. binaries with a low-mass main sequence star and a black hole, as recently discovered in Gaia, El Badry et al., 2023). It is possible to develop several projects based on SEVN both concerning the data analysis of already available sets and the run of new simulations for specific
projects. It is also possible to set up projects focusing on the extension of SEVN. In addition, it is possible to focus on specific interesting cases (e.g. collision between two stars) simulated with detailed hydrostatic/hydrodynamics codes.

• Formation of binary compact object in different environments.

Through the use of state-of-the-art N-body codes (e.g. PeTAR, Wang et al. 2020) and a semi-analytic code developed in our group (FastCluster, Mapelli et al., 2021), it is possibile to study the formation and evolution of compact objects in dense star clusters investigating what is the impact of the environment
on their properties.

• Formation of RR Lyrae through binary evolution 

In Bobrick & Iorio et al., 2022, we used detailed binary evolution simulation to show that the RR Lyrae variable star can be formed after episodes of binary mass stripping. Possibile projects can be about the exploitation of the detailed stellar/ binary evolution code MESA (Paxton et al., 2019) to extend the exploration of this (and other) alternative formation channels for the formation of RR Lyrae and other variable stars.

• Machine Learning/Software development

We are always interested in testing machine learning/deep learning methods to analyse data and/or emulate and assist numerical simulations. In addition, we have developed and we are developing publicly available astrophysics software (Python and/or C++), hence possible projects can be focused on the
extensions/optimisation and/or deployment (e.g. through web app or api) of such codes.

Special entry requirements

The possibile research project can be tuned on the student/researcher experience and skill.

We warmly welcome people from Data Science/Data Visualisation/Computational engineering/Statistics who want to find problems where to apply their knowledge. We are very open to interdisciplinary collaborations.

Duration in months (min-max)

Master Research: 3-1
PhD sandwich: 3-1
Post Doc: