Probing Fast Radio Bursts with SPOTLIGHT at the GMRT

The National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR), Pune, India, is seeking a Post-Doctoral Fellow to work with Prof. Jayanta Roy and the team on the SPOTLIGHT system enabling a commensal survey for Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and Pulsars with the GMRT.

SPOTLIGHT` is a time-domain survey instrument to perform a real-time commensal search for FRBs and Pulsars with a PetaFlop system funded under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). The system executes real-time HPC and AI applications to ensure simultaneous time-domain detection and arc-second imaging localisation of the detected bursts across the GMRT observing band. With an unprecedented sensitivity, SPOTLIGHT is expected to find hundreds of FRBs with possible host galaxy associations, allowing the use of the bursts as cosmological probes. The AI-assisted trigger for genuine astronomical signals enables the capturing of voltage samples spanning the burst duration to study the spectro-temporal-polarimetric properties at microsecond time resolution to probe FRB progenitor models as well as propagation imprints.

The post-doctoral position is part of a larger project, "Building Indo-UK Collaborations Towards the Square Kilometre Array", funded under the DAE-STFC Technology and Skills Programme 2023 Call. The post-doctoral fellow will work with the SPOTLIGHT team participating in the commissioning of the system, leading the science validation and performing early science observations to study the morphologies of the newly discovered FRBs and to use them as cosmological probes of the intergalactic medium. Prior experience in the area of pulsars/FRBs would be beneficial for this project.

Research activities at NCRA-TIFR are centered on low-frequency radio astronomy, with faculty members pursuing research in diverse areas of astrophysics. NCRA-TIFR operates two large observational facilities, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope and the Ooty Radio Telescope.

Applications containing a curriculum vitae, a research plan, and the names and e-mail addresses of three or more referees should be sent to the Dean, NCRA-TIFR Faculty, at the e-mail address dean_nf@ncra.tifr.res.in, by May 31, 2024. Applicants should also request their referees to send in recommendation letters by the same deadline. All enquiries should also be made to this e-mail address. All applicants will automatically be considered for all available Post-Doctoral Fellowships at NCRA-TIFR.

The monthly salary of Post-Doctoral Fellows at NCRA-TIFR depends on experience after the doctoral degree. Candidates are required to have at least a provisional Ph.D. degree when taking up the position. For candidates who have received their doctoral degrees, the monthly salary ranges from INR 58,000 to INR 67,000. Post-doctoral fellows are also entitled to a contingency grant of INR 40,000 per year. All project post-doctoral positions are tenable for a maximum of 3 years, with continuations subject to a yearly review.

Post-doctoral Fellows at NCRA-TIFR are provided a travel grant of INR 3,00,000 over the course of the fellowship to enable them to travel for international conferences or for research collaborations. They are also entitled to a house rent allowance, and medical coverage under NCRA-TIFR's medical scheme.