PhD in Solar Physics

The Centre for Mathematical Plasma Astrophysics (CmPA) is a research group within the Department of Mathematics at KU Leuven, comprising five professors and approximately 60 PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers. CmPA specialises in numerical modelling of astrophysical plasmas, with a strong focus on the solar corona, the solar wind, coronal mass ejections, and black-hole accretion discs./nProject 1 - Title: Radiative losses in particle-in-cell simulations of the solar corona. Aim: incorporate spectral line radiation into particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and investigate how radiative losses influence plasma dynamics during energy-release processes, including turbulence and magnetic reconnection./nProject 2 - Title: New waveframe variables for analysing wave energy transport in solar plasma simulations. Aim: use Q-variables to derive analytical expressions for kink-wave reflection and interaction terms, investigate coupling mechanisms between kink waves and other MHD wave modes, validate results using numerical simulations, and apply derived expressions to improve existing MHD models of the solar corona./nBoth positions are expected to start in September 2026.