The "Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón" (CEFCA) invites applications for two predoctoral positions in Astrophysics. This action is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y FEDER, Una manera de hacer Europa) with project PID2021-124918NB-C41, and by the Gobierno de Aragón with project E16_23R (Astrofísica con grandes cartografiados).

CEFCA is a research institution located in Teruel, Spain, in charge of the operation, data management and scientific exploitation of the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ), an astronomical facility specifically suited for carrying out large astronomical surveys with very large field-of-view (FoV) telescopes: the 2.5m Javalambre Survey Telescope (JST250; 3deg diameter FoV) and the 83cm Javalambre Auxiliary Survey Telescope (JAST80; 2deg diameter FoV).

JST250 is equipped with JPCam, a 1.2Gpix panoramic camera consisting of a mosaic of 14 CCDs of ~9.2k x 9.2k pix. The JPCam/JST250 system provides a 4.1 deg2 FoV and hosts a complete new set of 54 filters of 145A width, covering the whole optical spectral range plus two broader filters at the blue and red ends. During the next years, JPCam/JST250 will be mostly devoted to carry out the Javalambre Physics of the accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS), which will produce photo-spectra of hundreds of millions of astronomical objects with a wide range of applications in Astrophysics and Cosmology.

JAST80 is equipped with the panoramic camera T80Cam, hosting one CCD identical to those in JPCam. The T80Cam/JAST80 system provides an effective FoV of 2 deg2. Since 2016, it is primarily devoted to conduct the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS), whose third data release, amounting ~3200deg2 was public in December 2022.

The OAJ is a Spanish ICTS (Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructure). As such, CEFCA offers 20% of OAJ Open Time to competitive P.I. projects, including Legacy Surveys with the JAST80.

CEFCA is also a core institution of the ARRAKIHS consortium, the first F-class ESA space mission led by a Spanish institution. The mission ARRAKIHS (Analysis of Resolved Remnants of Accreted galaxies as a Key Instrument for Halo Surveys) aims to test our current understanding about dark matter by observing a hundred Milky Way-like galaxies reaching unprecedented low-surface brightness limit, sufficient to detect the faint tidal tails predicted by current galaxy formation theories.

The OAJ data is reduced, calibrated and released by the Unit for Data Processing and Archiving (UPAD) at CEFCA. In addition, the data from the main CEFCA surveys is validated and exploited at scientific level by the Research Area at CEFCA.

In this context, CEFCA is seeking for two predoctoral researchers to conduct a novel research project with OAJ data. The successful candidates will join the Research Division at CEFCA and will become full members of the J-PLUS and J-PAS collaborations. They will also participate in the general outreach activities organised by CEFCA.

The application details can be found here: https://www.cefca.es/cefca_en/reference_0115