Postdoctoral Scholar Researcher Position in Dark Matter Searches and Quantum Precision Measurements University

Salary range: The posted UC salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and/or step  Table 23 (Postdoctoral Scholar-Employee, Postdoctoral Scholar-Fellow, Postdoctoral Scholar-Paid Direct) at Academic salaries | UCOP. The salary range for this position is $71,491 to $74,140. Off-scale salaries, meaning salaries higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions, qualifications, and experience.

The Aggarwal Group at UC Davis is looking for a postdoc to play a leading role in R&D toward a new tabletop radio-frequency gravitational wave detector, targeting the axion, a leading dark matter candidate. Axions can form clouds around black holes through superradiance, and those clouds emit gravitational waves. The detector concept is a Fabry-Perot Michelson interferometer with an optically trapped micro-disk in each arm cavity.

It is also a promising platform for sub-SQL techniques such as sensing with squeezed light. You will work under the supervision of Prof. Aggarwal and in close collaboration with Prof. Andrew Geraci's group at Northwestern, which is developing a companion detector, with the goal of running the two jointly. Some travel to Chicago may be needed, depending on the experiment.

This position is supported by a new DOE award for R&D on hybrid quantum sensing schemes using optical levitation and interferometry. The initial appointment is two years, renewable annually subject to mutual satisfaction, and