The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) is the largest research institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where approximately 250 physicists and 120 technicians work together on theory and experiments in the domains of particle physics and astrophysics, nuclear and strong interaction physics as well as condensed matter physics. Among IFJ PAN research collaborations are three of the major LHC’s experiments (ALICE, ATLAS, LHCb), Belle2 experiment (KEK, Tsukuba, Japan), E-XFEL, (DESY, Hamburg), ESS (Lund, Sweden), FAIR (Darmstadt), Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) or Pierre Auger Observatory (Argentina). According to the Nature index, IFJ PAN is the best scientific institution in Poland and in Physical Sciences the 27 th in Europe. In 2017, European Commission granted to the Institute the HR Excellence in Research award.

The Department of Diffractive Processes (https://nz13.ifj.edu.pl) currently consists of six staff members and three PhD students. The activities of the group are focused on both experimental and phenomenological studies of forward physics and in particular diffractive processes and those with diffractive-like signatures observed in interactions of elementary particles. We carry out our research taking part in two experiments:

• ATLAS at the Large Hadron Collider, LHC at CERN, Switzerland,

• STAR at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, RHIC located in Brookhaven National Laboratory, BNL, USA.

In ATLAS we are involved in the ATLAS Roman Pots system consisting of two components:

• ATLAS Forward Proton, AFP,

• Absolute Luminosity for ATLAS, ALFA.

The group provides a very stimulating environment with seminars, informal discussions and various interactions with other experimental and theoretical groups.

We are looking for excellent and highly motivated candidates who have a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in physics or similar fields interested to continue/enter the research in the field of experimental high energy particle physics. Good software skills, especially in C++ and Python, are desirable. Experience in using ROOT package and knowledge of ATLAS software will be an advantage. At least good knowledge of English (min. B2) is required.

The position is financed by Polish National Foundation grant „Studies of Hard Diffractive Production with the ATLAS Experiment” and the successful candidate will work with Dr. Maciej Trzebiński on analysis of experimental data collected by ATLAS Forward Proton detectors. Analysis will be focused on investigation of diffractive photon+jet events in data collected by ATLAS in Run 2 and Run 3. Developments of analysis code and improvements of official ATLAS software are foreseen as well. Depending on interests of candidate an extension towards the development of Monte Carlo generators or phenomenology of diffractive interactions.

Successful candidate will be enrolled to Krakow School of Interdisciplinary PhD Studies and is expected to obtain a PhD diploma within four years. Part of this time may be spent at CERN. During the PhD, student will become an author of ATLAS Collaboration publications and is expected to present results at international conferences.

Salary: in average, about 4000 PLN net per month (average net salary in Poland is of about

3800 PLN).

Recruitment procedure has three stages.

1 st stage – web application:

– form available at https://nz13.ifj.edu.pl/jobs.php,

– deadline: 4 th September 2020 23:59 CEST,

– applications will be reviewed based on data provided in the application form and motivational letter,

– applicants will be informed by e-mail about the results until 5 th September 2020,

• 2 nd stage – on-line interview,

• 3 rd stage – exam for Krakow School of Interdisciplinary PhD Studies (KISD).