PostDoc Theoretical Molecular Physics at University College ExoMol group

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position at the Exo Mol group (University College London, UK) to work on non-LTE spectroscopic applications in exoplanetary atmospheres.

The Exo Mol team is the world leader in providing spectroscopic data for the characterisation and modelling of exoplanets and other hot atmospheres, see  . The STFC funded project «Modelling the non-LTE spectra of exoplanets» aims to provide spectroscopic data and modelling tools for characterisations of molecular non-LTE effects in atmospheric spectra of exoplanets. While much of the study into exoplanet atmospheres assumes species to be in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), effects arising from nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) are known to be present and have been detected in Earth’s atmosphere, in the atmospheres of other solar system planets, in gas giants, comets and ISM.

Despite the importance of non-LTE in molecular spectra, its modelling is still a challenging field of research.

The main purpose of this role is to develop a non-LTE functionality in the Tau-REx radiative transfer framework. The project tasks will include: (i) implementation of an efficient solver of statistical equilibrium towards the on-the-fly reconstruction of individual rotation-vibration-electronic populations of molecules; (ii) production of line lists for molecules important for non-LTE applications and (iii) development and implementation of a new data format for state dependent absorption cross sections and collision rates to enable efficient non-LTE retrieval applications in exoplanetary atmospheric studies.