Two PhD positions, funded by the “Jets to Switchbacks” (JET2SB) project of the French “Agence Nationale pour la Recherche” (ANR) are open for applications to work with both the space plasmas team at the Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (LPP, Paris, France) and the THEMIS team at the French-Spanish Laboratory for Astrophysics in Canarias (FSLAC, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain). The preferred start date is November 1st, 2025, but later dates are negotiable.
Project Background: During its unprecedented approaches of the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe (PSP, NASA) mission has made the puzzling discovery of very frequent and abrupt deflections of the magnetic field, the so-called switchbacks (SBs), in the solar wind. Because of their ubiquity in the inner heliosphere, and relative quasi-absence close to the Earth orbit and beyond, SBs are considered as a key ingredient to understand the complex generation mechanisms of the solar wind. Solar jets, which are phenomena very commonly seen in the solar atmosphere, occur over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and have recently appeared to be a strong candidate as seed phenomena for SBs formation. The overall objective of the JET2SB project is to address the following questions: Do, and to which extend, solar jet-like events induce Switchbacks (SBs)? What are the physical mechanisms involved in the jet propagation and SB formation?
Role of the PhD Students: The two selected candidates will be at the core of the JET2SB project. They shall be mainly working on different aspects of the 3D numerical modelling within the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) paradigm with the ARMS code, of the self-consistent generation of solar jets, their propagation toward the inner heliosphere and the formation of switchbacks. The simulations will be set-up using constraints from the latest observations and measurements from both space instruments and ground-based observations. PhD students shall benefit from privileged access to the THEMIS telescope of CNRS-INSU, a 1-meter-class optical solar telescope, primarily dedicated to studying solar magnetism and the dynamical processes within the Sun’s atmosphere (such as sunspots and solar flares). The PhD candidates will also make use of observations from the latest heliospheric space missions, such as Parker Solar Probe, Solar orbiter as well as the recently launched PUNCH spacecraft. The simulations carried within the PhDs shall enable to interpret the data from these major space projects of the heliophysic community.
Academic, materials and financial conditions: The PhD students will be co-supervised by Sophie MASSON (LPP) and Étienne PARIAT (FSLAC). The PhD students will be registered at the Ecole Doctorale d’Astrophysique d’île de France and shall follow its diverse mandatory procedures during the course of the PhD. Both PhD students shall be hired by the French CNRS through a standard “contrat doctoral” and primarily affected to the Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas. For one of the two PhDs, it is envisioned that the first half of the PhD shall be carried at FSLAC and the second half at LPP.
Within the JET2SB project, provisions have been made for the acquisition of computers to carry the work, to fund regular travels between the different laboratories involved in JET2SB, and to support the participation of the PhD students to a few international workshops and conferences to present their work. The PhD student will benefit from the team time allocation grant at the French National high-performance computers in order to carry the numerical simulations.
Requirements:
- MSc (or equivalent) in physics or computational sciences
- Basics of plasma physics
- Basics of magnetohydrodynamics
- Basic of numerical analysis
- Intermediate knowledge of at least one scientific programming language
- English proficiency equal or superior to B2 (CEFR)
- Basics of scientific communication technique: oral communication, scientific writing, …
- Appetency for collaborative & teamwork
How to Apply: Formal application shall be made through the “CNRS Portail Emploi”, at the links provided bellow. Applications will be reviewed by a hiring committee, which after preliminary screening will invite pre-selected candidacy for a video interview starting September 5th. All applications submitted before midnight (CEST, Paris time) September 17th 2025 will be reviewed. Final decisions on the two successful applications will be given on September 18th 2025 at the earliest. The preferred start date is November 1st, 2025, but later dates are negotiable.
Application links:
- PhD position on “Parametric 3D MHD numerical simulations of the generation of switchbacks induced by solar coronal jets”
- Application link to PhD position on “Whole-Sun 3D MHD numerical simulations of the formation of switchbacks induced by solar coronal jets”
For inquiries or questions about the positions, please contact Dr. Étienne Pariat and Dr. Sophie Masson.
(Transmis par Étienne Pariat)