PhD position on Science of Astroparticles and Cosmology M/F

25 Apr 2026 Job Information Organisation/Company CNRS Department Laboratoire de physique des 2 infinis - Irène Joliot-Curie Research Field Mathematics History » History of science Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Application Deadline 15 May 2026 - 23:59 (UTC) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Oct 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No Offer Description The Irène Joliot-Curie Physics Laboratory of 2 Infinities (IJCLab) is a UMR under the supervision of the CNRS (IN2P3), the University of Paris-Saclay and the University of Paris is located on the campus of the University of Paris -Saclay in Orsay. The laboratory is located on the campus of the Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay in Orsay. The campus is located 20 km south of Paris and easily accessible by RER in 35 minutes. IJCLab was born in 2020 from the merger of five units (CSNSM, IMNC, IPN, LAL, LPT). The staff is made up of nearly 560 permanent (340 engineers, technicians and administrators and 220 researchers and teacher-researchers) and approximately 200 non-permanent including 120 doctoral students. The research themes of the laboratory are nuclear physics, high energy physics, theoretical physics, astroparticles, astrophysics and cosmology, particle accelerators, energy and the environment and health. IJCLab has very significant technical capacities (around 280 IT) in all the major fields required to design, develop / implement the experimental devices necessary for its scientific activity, as well as the design, development and use of instruments. . The phD student will work in the Direct-Detection Dark Matter group of the Laboratory which is involved in the DAMIC-M experiment. The group includes currently a 2 permanent researchers, 1 post-doc and 1 doctoral student. IJCLAB bases its recruitment policy on the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion. Essential values, they allow the professional development of agents, who are real actors in a collective success, but also the development of the laboratory itself. The nature of dark matter (DM), the dominant component of the Universe, remains one of the most fundamental open questions in physics. The lack of evidence for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) has motivated the exploration of alternative candidates, including light dark matter from hidden sectors, which may produce extremely small energy deposits down to the single-electron level. This PhD project is part of the DAMIC-M experiment, currently under construction at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (France). It employs innovative skipper CCD technology capable of single-electron detection with unprecedented resolution, offering unique sensitivity to low-mass dark matter. The project is structured along three main directions. First, the commissioning of the DAMIC-M detector, including validation of its performance (noise, charge resolution, stability) and optimization of ultra-low background conditions. This phase will provide comprehensive training in experimental physics. Second, the direct search for dark matter at very low energies. The data consist of high-resolution pixelated images, enabling detailed characterization of energy deposits in silicon. Novel analysis techniques (clustering, signal/background discrimination) will be developed to fully exploit single-electron sensitivity, aiming at improving current sensitivities by two orders of magnitude. Third, the global interpretation of experimental constraints on sub-GeV dark matter. The project will bridge results from direct detection, accelerator experiments, and indirect searches by translating them into a common framework dependent on cosmological production mechanisms. This unified approach, more theoretical, will clarify the viable parameter space and guide future explorations of the dark sector.

Bibliography :

• Arnquist, et al. (DAMIC-M Collaboration), "The DAMIC-M Low Background Chamber", JINST 19 (2024) 11, T11010 • I. Arnquist, et al. (DAMIC-M Collaboration), "Search for Daily Modulation of MeV Dark Matter Signals with DAMIC-M", Phys.

Rev.

Lett. 132 (2024) 10, 101006 • I. Arnquist, et al. (DAMIC-M Collaboration), "First Constraints from DAMIC-M on Sub-GeV Dark-Matter Particles Interacting with Electrons", Phys.

Rev.

Lett. 132 (2024) 10, 101006 • K. Aggarwal et al. (DAMIC-M Collaboration), "Probing Benchmark Models of Hidden-Sector Dark Matter with DAMIC-M", Phys.

Rev.

Lett. 135 (2025) 7, 071002 Where to apply Website https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR9012-SOPHEB1-022/Default.aspx Requirements Research Field Mathematics Education Level PhD or equivalent Research Field History Education Level PhD or equivalent Languages FRENCH Level Basic Research Field Mathematics Years of Research Experience None Research Field History » History of science Years of Research Experience None Additional Information Website for additional job details https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR9012-SOPHEB1-022/Default.aspx Work Location(s) Number of offers available 1 Company/Institute Laboratoire de physique des 2 infinis - Irène Joliot-Curie Country France City ORSAY Contact City

ORSAY STATUS

EXPIRED