The ATLAS groups of the Laboratoire de l'Accelerateur Lineaire (LAL) and of the Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers (IRFU) are seeking two outstanding post-doctoral researchers in the field of electroweak precision measurements. Candidates with expertise in the physics of vector boson production, detector calibration, statistical techniques and unfolding, and/or measurement combination and interpretation will be given the highest consideration. The expected duration of the contracts is of two years, and can start as early as January 2018.

Objectives

The successful candidates will contribute to the measurements of the W and Z boson masses and of the electroweak mixing angle with the ATLAS experiment. Depending on the selected candidate's profile and interests, her/his scientific project will consist of a combination of
- detector calibration, addressing in parcitular the electron and muon momentum calibration;
- analysis of the W and Z boson samples, optimizing the statistical precision of the extraction of the fundamental parameters;
- physics modeling, to quantify and improve the effect of strong interaction uncertainties on the measurements.
The overall scientific objectives of the team include measurements of the W boson mass with data taken at 5, 8 and 13 TeV, and of Z resonance parameters using the complete dataset collected during the LHC Run2.
The selected candidates will interact with the ATLAS Standard Model working group, and with the electron/photon and muon calibration groups. Regular trips to CERN are expected.


Scientific Environment

IRFU and LAL, respectively located in Saclay and Orsay, are involved in experiments in particle physics and cosmology, with a strong commitment to detector and accelerator research and development. Both laboratories are committed to the LHC physics program with groups in the ATLAS, CMS and LHCb collaborations. Each of the LAL and IRFU ATLAS groups comprises more than 30 physicists, involved in many areas of physics analysis, object reconstruction, software, computing and detector development in the ATLAS upgrade program.

Located close to eachother in the Orsay area, LAL and IRFU are building a long-term collaboration on electroweak precision measurements. The IRFU/LAL electroweak team is currently composed of six permanent researchers, three PhD students and one post-doctoral researcher.


Application

This opening targets young researchers with at most six years of experience after their PhD. Interested candidates should send a CV, a statement of research interests and arrange to have at least three letters of reference sent to Maarten Boonekamp (maarten.boonekamp@cern.ch) and Zhiqing Zhang (zhangzq@lal.in2p3.fr). Applications received before December 30, 2017, will receive full consideration. The call will remain open until filled.