Magnetic Fields and Cosmic Rays in the Milky Way Interstellar Medium

About the role

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Description

This is an opportunity to conduct a research program that would combine the modeling of the Galactic magnetic field (GMF), cosmic rays (CRs), and synchrotron emission. The publicly available IMAGINE infrastructure is designed to explore the likelihood space of magnetic field models while including constraints from all existing tracers such as radio synchrotron emission, polarized microwave dust emission, Faraday rotation measures, etc. The IMAGINE White Paper (Boulanger et al., JCAP, 049, 2018) describes the infrastructure and the various constraints and the relevant astrophysics topics. An applicant may propose a research plan that fits into this framework in any of a variety of ways. For example, a needed first step would be to compare the different GMF models in the literature with a self-consistent Bayesian framework. This analysis can then be expanded to include the likelihood space of the cosmic ray injection and propagation models simultaneously, since the GMF modeling depends on the synchrotron spectrum, which in turn depends on the CR spectrum. This will not only improve our understanding of the magnetized interstellar medium but also of the Galactic foregrounds and the dynamics of a variety of astrophysical processes.

Location

Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland

Field of Science

Astrophysics

Advisors

Tess Jaffe
tess.jaffe@nasa.gov
301-286-8904

Qualifications

• U.S. Citizen
• U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR)
• Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J-1 visa status
• Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with 1) a valid EAD card and 2) I-485 or I-589 forms in pending status

Benefits

ORAU offers internships, fellowships, research opportunities, and contract positions that can provide you with invaluable experience. Download the ORAU Pathfinder mobile app and find the right opportunity to propel you along your career path!