About Us
The Astro-Gamma Group has been established in 2002 as a research group in the Research Division of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). The group works closely with the Astronomy Program at Stanford University, participates in the graduate course program, and accepts PhD candidates through Department of Physics. The group has been associated with the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at Stanford since its founding in 2003.
The Astro-Gamma Group has developed a unique set of expertise in X-ray, hard X-ray, gamma-ray and particle astrophysics based on diverse background. The research experience of members covers observational astrophysics, nuclear and particle physics; instrument development for accelerator, balloon, and space programs; and phenomenological model building in astro, nuclear and particle physics. With the broad expertise, members of the group have been playing prominent roles in several international projects, publishing world-class research papers in the leading journals, and mentoring several PhD and diploma students from universities in the US, Sweden, Japan, and Italy.
Opportunities for students
Opportunities for diploma (~6 months long) or rotation (~3 months long) work include:
- Analysis of X-ray data on cosmic sources
- Computer simulation of cosmic-ray interaction in galaxies, supernova remnants, and gamma-ray bursts
- Development of the world-first gamma-ray polarimeter (PoGO) for balloon experiments
Examples of specific PhD thesis topics include:
- Analysis of X-ray and weak-lensing data on galaxy clusters to quantify the spatial distribution of dark matter
- Study of AGN jets based on X-ray data (AstroE2, Chandra, XMM), gamma-ray data (GLAST, EGRET), and phenomenological modeling
- Study of diffuse gamma-ray sources to search for possible dark matter concentration using on data from GLAST and EGRET, and phenomenological cosmic-ray interaction modeling
- World-first measurement of soft gamma-ray polarization in Cygnus X-1 and Crab Pulsar with PoGO to clarify the X-ray and gamma-ray emission mechanism of black-holes and pulsars.