Organisation/Company Universitat de Barcelona Department Organisation profile Research Field Astronomy Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 15 Oct 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 37,5 Offer Starting Date 1 Dec 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Reference Number PID2024-155720NB-I00 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No
Offer Description
The candidate will make a substantial contribution to the research
project "Globular cluster formation (GCform)" of Prof Mark Gieles.
Globular clusters are invaluable for early Universe cosmology, galaxy
formation and stellar astrophysics. Stellar-mass black holes (BHs) and
intermediate-mass BHs) have been discovered in several globular
clusters, and it has been suggested that globular clusters are
efficient factories of dynamically assembled binary black hole (BBH)
mergers observable through their gravitational wave (GW) emission.




This postdoctoral research project aims to understand star cluster
formation through detailed N-body models and a comparison with
observations from the Gaia space telescope. The simulations cover a
range of cluster masses, densities and metallicities and will be used
to achieve several science goals:
(1) Understand the efficiency of the formation of binaries containing a
stellar mass BH, with a particular focus on Gaia BHs in preparation of Gaia DR4.
(2) Establish whether low-mass open clusters in the Milky Way contain
stellar-mass black holes.
(3) Benchmark the fast cluster evolution code clusterBHBdynamics (cBHBd).
(4) Understand the nature of runaway massive stars
- Numerical simulations, in particular N-body and stellar evolution
- Simulation data analysis and code development
- Critical thinking and scientific writing skills

Languages ENGLISH Level Excellent
Languages SPANISH
L

📌 Postdoc position in Astronomy and Astrophysics (España)
🏢 Universitat De Barcelona
📍 España