The Physics Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) invites outstanding applicants for a postdoctoral position in the High Energy Nuclear Physics (HENP) team of the Subatomic Physics Group (P-25) to work on the SpinQuest experiment at Fermilab and the Electron Ion Collider (EIC) physics program development.

SpinQuest/E1039 is a fixed-target Drell-Yan experiment using the Main Injector beam at Fermilab, in the NM4 hall. It follows up on the work of the NuSea/E866 and SeaQuest/E906 experiments at Fermilab that sought to measure the dbar/ubar ratio on the nucleon as a function of Bjorken-x. By using transversely polarized targets of NH3 and ND3, SpinQuest seeks to measure the Sivers asymmetry of the ubar and dbar quarks in the nucleon, a novel measurement aimed at discovering if the light sea quarks contribute to the intrinsic spin of the nucleon via orbital angular momentum.

The successful applicant will be stationed at Fermilab during commissioning and data taking and acquire the skills needed to take on a leading role in SpinQuest tasks, which will involve detector operation/maintenance, analysis and publication of the data. The postdoctoral researcher will also play a role in physics simulation studies for the EIC project and actively participate in relevant EIC meetings. The EIC is a future facility that will collide intense beams of spin-polarized electrons with intense beams of polarized nucleons or unpolarized nuclei from deuterium to uranium. The aim of the EIC is to study nuclear matter properties via Deep Inelastic Scattering.

The team:

The HENP team at LANL is currently involved in multiple physics programs, including the PHENIX experiment, the ongoing detector R&D for the sPHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the LHCb experiment at CERN, the SpinQuest/E1039 experiment at Fermilab and the EIC project.

Several postdocs and junior/senior staff are committed to the physics programme of the EIC project and the SpinQuest experiment where LANL is the lead institution. The successful candidate is expected to receive the appropriate mentoring needed from detector and analysis experts that will enable long term maturity and independence of the postdoc and enhance her/his long term career prospects.

Job Requirements

The candidate must either have completed a Ph.D. in physics, preferably in experimental medium and/or high energy nuclear or particle physics, within the last five years, or be expected to complete the Ph.D. soon. The postdoctoral term is initially for 2 years, with an option to renew for a third year. Experience working in a collaborative International/multi-cultural environment.

Experience in two or more of the following: data analysis, data simulations, trigger simulations, detector maintenance, calibrations, slow control systems will be particularly valued.

Salary

https://www.lanl.gov/careers/career-options/postdoctoral-research/postdoc-program/postdoc-salary-guidelines.php

Contact astrid@lanl.gov for more information