Infra-red Observation Programme — Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics

This project is part of the New Zealand/Japan/US collaboration Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA) and the PRIME collaboration.

This project will be to use a cooled NIR astronomical camera at the Mount John Observatory 61cm Boller & Chivens telescope to perform follow-up observations of on-going microlensing events by the MOA collaboration. These events are used to discover extra-solar planets. The MOA collaboration has recently spun out a new collaboration, called PRIME. The PRIME collaboration runs an infra-red telescope in South Africa. The current purpose of the PRIME telescope is to take precursor images of the central Galaxy. Those images will be used to refine the choice of fields for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. The Roman space telescope will perform a search in the infrared for extra-solar planets, using microlensing. The ground-based data from PRIME and other NIR telescopes will be necessary to maximise the returns from the Roman space telescope: contemporaneous observations from additional observatories may allow the resolution of a degeneracy inherent in microlensing, leading to firmer estimates of planetary parameters, such as planet mass and distance.

This project will require the student to perform NIR observations of PRIME and Roman fields, characterise the NIR camera, adapt existing photometry tools to extract light curves and perform modelling of existing and new data to discover signals corresponding to exoplanets.

Information about how to apply for a PhD at The University of Auckland can be found here:  https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/applications-and-admissions/apply-now.html  

As part of your application to a PhD at The University of Auckland, you have to complete a Statement of Research Intent. You have 600 words to provide a description of the proposed research. Include the scientific rationale for the project, the main research questions or knowledge gaps to be addressed, and an indication of the intended methodology. You have 200 words to explain why your previous research or professional experience is relevant to your area of interest, and you have a final 100 words for any other comments.