Postdoc Position in computer science / computational astrophysics in the ERC-AdG research group TiPPi

The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg is seeking dedicated and highly qualified postdoctoral researchers with computational and/or astrophysical backgrounds to join the research group led by Prof. Hubert Klahr, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Project TiPPi: TURBULENCE, PEBBLES AND PLANETESIMALS: THE ORIGIN OF MINOR BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

The solar system’s minor bodies, asteroids, trojans, comets and Kuiper belt objects, are leftover planetary building blocks called planetesimals. The largest of these planetesimals grew into planets through collisions and the accretion of large grains called pebbles. Despite their importance we still do not know where and when they were born in the solar nebula.

Therefore we will develop innovative types of numerical experiments connecting three stages of planetesimal formation in three interlinked work packages. WP1: Lagrangian filter methods for the analysis of turbulence, combined with Machine Learning for pebble sizes and dust opacities, WP2: a hybrid Eulerian adaptive mesh refinement code for the solar nebula connected internally with a tree-code for the pebbles and WP3: an implicit Lagrangian fluid method to treat the elasticity and porosity evolution of the forming planetesimals.

MPIA researchers have preferential access to our super-computing facilities in Garching, including our VERA cluster with 110 nodes of 72 cores each plus 3 nodes with 4 Nvidia A100-40GB GPUs each, dedicated to theory groups of MPI Astronomy as well as to the MPG - RAVEN and COBRA HPC clusters.

Your Tasks

The successful candidate will be responsible to develop, test, document and apply a novel implicit time integrator for Lagrangian hydro codes in the astrophysical context to study the shape, internal structure and dynamical properties of the primordial asteroid and comet populations. The approach will explore two possibilities: Implementing the missing gravity physics in open source implicit Lagrangian codes like SPlisHSPlasH and alternatively developing an implicit integrator for GIZMO, supported by one PhD student also funded via TiPPi.

You will be part of a dedicated project comprising the PI, three post docs and three PhD students in total with the joint goal to self consistently form asteroids and comets in a turbulent solar nebula. The ERC group is part of the theory group (headed by Hubert Klahr) within the Planet and Star Formation department. Our Postdoctoral researchers will find a scientifically stimulating environment at MPIA with theorists and observers in the fields of planet and star formation, exo-planetary atmospheres, galaxies and cosmology.

Your Profile

Applicants should have a PhD in computer science, physics, astrophysics, or a closely related field. Experience with GPU and parallel coding, numerical methods and visualisation would be beneficial.