Physics and astronomy research projects
Find information about Physics and Astronomy research project units and details of the projects available.
Summer scholarships
Summer scholarships are intended for Curtin’s outstanding recently completed first, second and third year students wishing to undertake research experience aligned with their Physics Stream of interest.
Streams of interest include:
- Astrophysics
- Applied Physics
- Materials Science
- Theoretical/Mathematical Physics
Examples of projects may be found below. Please contact the potential supervisor to discuss the details.
The scholarship is to be completed over a flexible six to eight week period, upon discussion with the supervisor, before the end of February with a A$500 per week stipend offered.
Application process
If you are taking a Curtin Physics Major, as a single or a double degree, and are interested in being considered for one of the Summer Scholarships, apply here.
Project information
- Physics Project 1 – Core for all streams, available in both semesters
- Physics Project 2 – Recommended elective for students with a CWA 65 or greater, available in both semesters
- The preferred option is to take PP1 in semester 1 and PP2 in semester 2 and combine them into a single year-long project.
- The choice of project may have a big influence on the direction of your career – so this is an important choice!
- End of semester report (40%)
- Supervisor’s and UC assessment of your performance (40%)
- Presentation (oral or poster) (20%)
- Decide what projects you are interested in and go and talk to potential supervisors.
- Negotiate the details of the project and get an undertaking from the supervisor that they are prepared to take you on.
- Email project coordinator with the title of your project, and the name of your supervisor.
Please note that students who delay choosing their project to the Orientation week or later cannot be guaranteed that a desired project or supervisor will be available.
Current projects
You are welcome to choose any project from the categories below. Please get in touch with the prospective supervisor, and once an agreement has been reached provide the details to the projects coordinator, Jacob Martin at jacob.w.martin@curtin.edu.au.
Extragalactic radio astronomy
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour, Dr Luke Davies
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Understanding how and when the first supermassive black holes (SMBHs) formed is a major question in astronomy. Evidence is mounting that the some SMBHs formed very early in the Universe implying that they had to grow very quickly by accretion of material or mergers form seed black holes formed from the first stars or from collapse of the peaks primordial over-densities of matter. Highly accreting SMBHs shine bright in the optical if they are not obscured. This project aims to search for such sources using the 1000 deg^2 VIKING near-infrared survey as well as many radio surveys covering this region.
There are two components to this project. The first is modelling the expected colours of very distant QSOs so that we can select them from the multitude of other sources. The second is to run the code to produce the broad band images over this survey. These broad band images are produced by summing several other bands in which the QSO is expected to be very bright or very weak. Then these rare sources should be easily found. In particular we are interested in finding those QSO which are detected in the radio. This project is designed to synergise with the project “Monster Black Holes at the Dawn of Time” by finding less radio luminous and/or unobscured SMBHs.
Supervisors: Natasha Hurley-Walker, Kat Ross
Suitability: 3rd Year or Honours project
Description:
At the center of most galaxies is a supermassive black hole; in some galaxies, hot material falling toward the black hole can be launched outward in twin jets, moving along the axis of rotation of the black hole at nearly the speed of light. These balloon into enormous radio-bright lobes which can be seen billions of light years away. Astronomers are trying to understand what kinds of galaxies do this, how often, and how long activity lasts: the life-cycle of radio galaxies. One challenge is that once the jets switch off, the lobes fade quickly, and without the right observations, we can miss periods of activity. This means that the dying, or remnant stage of radio galaxies is very poorly-studied, with only a few examples known, making calculations of the life cycle impossible.
We have selected 40 new candidate remnant radio galaxies and obtained sensitive radio observations using the Very Large Array, a radio telescope in the USA. The student will transform the data into detailed images of the galaxies, and combined with our existing measurements, use our software to model their ages and find out if they are examples of this rare class of objects. If so, this would more than double the number of remnant radio galaxies known, and in combination with the sample from which they were selected, put a new constraint on the activity of supermassive black holes.
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Because their emitted light must travel huge distances to reach the Earth, very distant radio galaxies (the so-called high-redshift radio galaxies or HzRGs) are an important window into the Universe’s past: we observe these galaxies how they appeared over 10 billion years ago! In particular, we can gain vital insights into the extreme processes responsible for the growth of their central supermassive black holes (of order a billion solar masses) on short timescales after the Big Bang.
We have developed a new HzRG selection technique using the broadband GLEAM radio survey, conducted with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). From a pilot study of four sources, we uncovered the second-most distant radio galaxy currently known, observed when the Universe was less than a tenth of its current age! A second radio galaxy from our pilot might be even more distant, and we are currently analysing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data to better understand this mysterious source. From a new sample of 55 HzRG candidates, we now aim to detect powerful radio galaxies during the ‘cosmic dawn’ in the very early Universe, which would facilitate a number of exciting, high-impact scientific opportunities!
You will play a leading role reducing, analysing and interpreting the multi-wavelength data for this new sample of HzRG targets that we are currently acquiring from a range of world-class telescopes, including the MWA, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, and the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA) plus loads mrore. Your analysis of these rich datasets will provide novel insights into the co-evolution of the supermassive black hole and host galaxy during the first billion years of the Universe. How does the central supermassive black hole grow so quickly? How do the powerful radio jets trigger or suppress star formation? Do these black holes play an important role in reionising the Universe?
Supervisors: Natasha Hurley-Walker ,Kat Ross
Suitability: 3rd-year, Honours, Masters
Description:
Our nearest galactic neighbours are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, uniquely visible from the Southern hemisphere. These face-on dwarf galaxies offer astronomers a clear view of phenomena such as supernova remnants and regions ionised by massive stars, and inform studies of cosmic ray production and star formation. The MAGE-X project has taken tens of hours of data with the low-frequency radio telescope, the Murchison Widefield Array.
This project involves using existing well-developed pipelines to reduce the data on Pawsey supercomputers, producing new high-resolution images of these galaxies. Good progress will enable astrophysical studies in the latter stages of the project. This project would suit a student with strong computing abilities who is interested in working on high-performance supercomputers and/or developing their skills in radio interferometry.
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Most galaxies host a super-massive black hole at their centre which enters active phases from time to time. The two most significant but different phases of activity are periods of high accretion (which we observe in the X-ray/optical/infra-red) and periods with powerful jets (observed in the radio). These two measurable outputs trace different aspects of the SMBH’s evolution. This project will attempt to link these phenomena both observationally and theoretically to determine a greater understanding of SMBH evolution. It can be tailored for varying levels from summer project to honours.
On the observational side we now have large samples of galaxies from deep/wide surveys with the multi-wavelength data to start untangling accretion and jet processes on a population of galaxies. In particular we now have unique broad-band radio data which can provide more accurate jet powers than have previously been possible. On the theoretical side we will apply simple models of SMBH accretion and jet power to study how an individual SMBH observable properties change with time. This will aid us in interpreting the large observational parameter space.
Solar System
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year
Description:
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) represent an obvious existential threat to life here on Earth as frequently dramatised in fiction. There are long standing programmes with optical and infrared telescopes around the world and in space to discover and monitor NEOs. The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) has demonstrated the capability to detect both natural and artificial satellites of Earth such as the Moon and the International Space Station via reflected FM emission. This project will involve determining the feasibility using reflected FM as a ‘static radar’ to monitor and track NEOs with low frequency radio telescopes.
While the MWA will not be as sensitive for detecting NEOs as other programmes currently, future radio facilities, like the Square Kilometre Array, will have many orders of magnitude more sensitivity. In this project you will process MWA observations of the NEO 2012 TC4 which passed around 50,000 km of Earth on Oct 12 2017. As well as direct imaging you will employ other enhanced analysis methods to detect this faint object (which is only about 10m in size). You will also compare the MWA archives to close passes of NEOs over the lifetime of the MWA (and into the near future) to search for other potential observations.
Supervisors: H. Devillepoix, E. Sansom
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description: The chance that one of the many Earth observation satellites capture the very instant of an asteroid impact on Earth are slim. But asteroid impacts leave dust trails that can be visible for hours. The project is about analysing evidence of superbolide dust trails left in the atmosphere by asteroid impacts, covering both visible (RGB) down to infrared wavelengths.
Accretions, jets and slow transients
Supervisors: Gemma Anderson, Adelle Goodwin
Suitability: Undergraduate, Summer, Honours
Description:
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the Universe. The bright flash of gamma-ray light is caused by the death of a massive star that forms a black hole, launching material at near the speed of light in the form of a jet. This outflow gathers up all the surrounding gas and dust, giving rise to shocks that produce an “afterglow” that is detectable from radio to very high energy gamma-rays.
While GRB afterglows have been well studied from optical to gamma-ray wavelengths, only a few have comprehensive and early-time radio coverage, which is crucial for understanding the physics of the jet and the lifecycle of the progenitor star. Additionally, the most interesting physics often occurs within minutes to hours of the explosion but few radio telescopes are capable of being on target fast enough to capture the earliest radio light that GRBs emit.
Luckily, our International team led by the primary supervisor has been awarded over 500 hours of observing time on the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to perform radio follow-up observations of all GRBs discovered in the Southern Hemisphere skies. ATCA is capable of responding to alerts reporting newly detected GRBs, which cause the telescope to automatically repoint and begin observing the astronomical event within minutes of its discovery. For this project, you will process and analyse ATCA data to explore the radio afterglow of GRBs, and have the opportunity to learn to observe with ATCA.
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Most galaxies host a super-massive black hole at their centre which enters active phases from time to time. The two most significant but different phases of activity are periods of high accretion (which we observe in the X-ray/optical/infra-red) and periods with powerful jets (observed in the radio). These two measurable outputs trace different aspects of the SMBH’s evolution. This project will attempt to link these phenomena both observationally and theoretically to determine a greater understanding of SMBH evolution. It can be tailored for varying levels from summer project to honours.
On the observational side we now have large samples of galaxies from deep/wide surveys with the multi-wavelength data to start untangling accretion and jet processes on a population of galaxies. In particular we now have unique broad-band radio data which can provide more accurate jet powers than have previously been possible. On the theoretical side we will apply simple models of SMBH accretion and jet power to study how an individual SMBH observable properties change with time. This will aid us in interpreting the large observational parameter space.
Supervisors: Professor James Miller-Jones, Dr Arash Bahramian
Suitability: 3rd year or Honours
Description:
If a dense stellar remnant such as a black hole or neutron star is in a close orbit with a less-evolved companion star, gas from the normal star can fall into the gravitational potential well of the central compact object, conserving angular momentum as it does so. As the gas spirals inwards, it heats up to the point that it emits bright X-rays. From the inner regions of the inflow, close to the black hole or neutron star, a collimated, relativistic outflow known as a jet can be launched, carrying huge amounts of energy away from the system. The jets are powered by the inflowing material, or potentially by the spin of the black hole. However, the detailed physical properties of these jets, and the connection between the inflowing gas and the outflowing jets, are not well understood. We are offering a range of projects to use some of the world’s premier radio telescopes to study these energetic jets, and their connection to the underlying accretion flow.
Supervisors: Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, Dr Sammy McSweeney
Suitability:Summer, 3rd Year, Honours (three projects available)
Description:
The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is a low frequency (80 — 300 MHz) radio telescope operating in Western Australia and the only SKA_Low precursor telescope. The MWA has collected more than 20PB of data spanning nearly a decade of operations. In an undergraduate project in 2020, using just 24h of data, we detected a new type of repeating radio source, which we have localised to our own Milky Way. The object may be an unusual type of neutron star, or possibly a highly magnetic white dwarf: either way, it was entirely unexpected, and has opened up a new challenge in astrophysics.
Now that we know such sources exist, we have three important goals, which translate to three potential student projects with different focuses:
- Computational: Improve search techniques for unusual transients — what other strange sources are we missing because existing techniques are too slow?
- Observational: find more of these sources in order to correctly understand the population — where are they in the Galaxy? Are they inside supernova remnants? Are they kicked hard by the explosions in which they are born? How often do they emit radio waves?
- Theoretical: study their nature and their astrophysics — what is causing their radio emission? Can existing emission models be applied or modified to suit?
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski, Assoc Prof Randall Wayth
Suitability: Summer, 3rd year project, 4th year or Honours project.
Description:
The Universe is very dynamic and buzzing with activity, and interestingly, many extremely energetic events, such as supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts or fast radio bursts, occur on timescales of seconds or less and can only be seen for a very short time! Therefore, in order to detect this kind of events it is important to continuously monitor large areas of the sky, and look for new objects appearing in the sky images. The stations of low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low) open an opportunity to form images of the entire visible hemisphere (all-sky images) on even sub-second timescales.
The goal of this project is to analyse existing data from the SKA prototype stations to find and classify transients and any types of variable radio sources. Although the primary goal is to analyse the archival data, the project can also evolve towards implementing real-time transient searches and preliminary classification on all-sky images from the SKA-Low stations. The main goal can be development of automatic transient classification, but depending on interests it can also steer in the direction of physical interpretation of the identified transients.
Supervisors: Dr Adelle Goodwin, Dr Gemma Anderson, Professor James Miller-Jones
Suitability: 3rd year or Honours
Description:
When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy it can be destroyed, producing a bright flare of electromagnetic radiation. About of the stellar debris is swallowed by the black hole, with the rest flung outwards, forming a shockwave as it collides with the surrounding gas. This shockwave accelerates particles to high enough energy that they emit radio synchrotron radiation. By observing the properties of this radiation, we can determine the properties of the underlying outflows.
In this project, we seek to use the interstellar scintillation (“twinkling”) of the radio waves to determine the size of the plasma cloud emitting the radiation. A comparison with the results of modelling the broadband radio spectra of the event will enable discrimination between different outflow models and geometries for the first time, providing insight into the extreme environments of supermassive black holes.
Supervisors: Dr Arash Bahramian, Professor James Miller-Jones
Suitability: Summer, 3rd year or Honours
Description:
Supernovae are the final stage of life for massive stars. During these cataclysmic events, the outer layers of a star collapse as the star runs out of nuclear fuel. While most black holes and neutron stars are formed through such stellar deaths, there are still many complexities regarding these processes that we do not fully understand. As the star collapses, a compact stellar remnant is formed, which may receive a “natal kick” from the asymmetric collapse of matter. These kicks make black holes and neutron stars drift through our Galaxy at unusual speeds. Thus, an immense amount of information about death of stars is codified in the motions and properties of black holes and neutron stars that formed millions to billions of years ago in our Galaxy.
We offer a range of projects (summer, third-year and honours) on various aspects of exploring this link between stellar deaths and the properties of the ensuing black holes and neutron stars. These focus on finding black holes and measuring their velocities (e.g., optical and radio observations to trace the motion of a black hole through the Galaxy), and characterizing their overall population in our Galaxy.
Epoch of reionisation
Supervisor: Dr Anshu Gupta
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description:
Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool to probe the underlying matter (both dark and luminous), and even discover objects that would otherwise be unobservable due to magnification. We have discovered a unique structure with potentially four galaxy clusters along a single line of sight using data from the Australia-led MAGPI survey on the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Two of the foreground structures are at z=0.3 (3 billion years), and the background structures are at z=1.4 (9 billion years) and z=6.1 (12.5 billion years). The foreground structure has two merging galaxy clusters which could be gravitationally lensing the background galaxies.
This project will aim to map the mass distribution of the foreground structure at z=0.3 using the deep imaging from the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Suburu Telescope, Hawaii and from the GAMA survey. The student will be fitting the spectral energy distribution of the galaxies using existing software such as EAZY to estimate the photometric redshifts. Estimating the photometric redshifts is essential to identify galaxies belonging to the foreground structure and develop a lens model. The project has huge scope and can be tailored to a 3rd year to an honours project.
Supervisor: Dr Ridhima Nunhokee
Suitability: 3rd year/Honours
Description:
The Epoch of Reionisation is the era, about 400 millions years after the Big Bang, when the birth of first stars and galaxies caused the surrounding intergalactic medium to change its state from neutral to reionised. We use the 21 cm hydrogen line, a spectral line created by the change in energy states of a neutral hydrogen atom. One of the main challenges in EoR experiments is the presence of foregrounds few orders of magnitude brighter than the 21 cm signal. Mitigating the foregrounds require accurate calibration and precise foreground removal techniques. The dominating factor in the observations is systematics. It is vital to understand the characteristics of these systematics to alleviate them in the data processing pipeline. We use observations from the Murchison WideField Array, a radio telescope located in the mid-west of Western Australia, considered ideal for its low-level radio frequency interference.
In this project, we aim to use machine and deep learning approaches to classify the features of the systematics and eventually attempt to mitigate them. This would make our 21 cm measurements cleaner and more robust. This project would suit a student who is computationally strong, with experience in Python and machine learning. Some statistical background would be useful.
Supervisor: Prof. Cathryn Trott
Suitability: 3rd year / Honours
Description:
The statistical study of the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) involves computing the power spectrum (variance) of the signal as a function of spatial wavenumber (k, measured in inverse Mpc). The angular scales are obtained by Fourier Transform of radio astronomy images, or equivalently, direct use of the visibilities measured by an interferometer. The line-of-sight scales are computed by obtaining data in individual frequency channels, mapping those channels to cosmological distances, and taking the Fourier Transform across frequency.
This procedure assumes that the information within the observation volume (FOV x depth) is statistically equivalent. However, the 21cm cosmological signal of the EoR evolves with redshift, and taking Fourier Transforms over large redshift ranges dilutes and biases the signal. In Trott (2016, MNRAS 1310, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/doi/10.1093/mnras/stw1310), we proposed using wavelets to perform wide bandwidth analysis, but with localised properties. This project takes those initial explorations and applies them to data from the Murchison Widefield Array, helping to understand how to best apply a wavelet analysis to real data.
Supervisor: Dr Anshu Gupta
Description:
The high energy photons from the first galaxies escape into the surrounding medium, creating bubbles of ionised gas. As these ionised gas bubbles grew, it only took 1 billion years for the entire universe to go from fully neutral to fully ionised, completing the biggest phase transition in our universe’s history, the epoch of reionization (EoR). Many existing and future radio telescopes such as MWA and SKA are set up to understand this phase transition. However, even after decades of study, we know very little about the protagonists (galaxies) responsible for this phase transition because they remain hidden underneath the fog of neutral hydrogen gas.
In this project, we will use an alternative approach to understanding EoR, by identifying galaxies that mimic the behaviour of galaxies in the EoR and study their detailed properties. The EoR Mimics live 1 billion years after the reionisation of the universe was complete, therefore are not hidden by the fog of neutral hydrogen gas. Using semi-analytic models, we will model the progression of reionisation based on the properties of Mimic galaxies. This project will supplement two of the biggest missing pieces in the race to understanding EoR, the number of high energy photons produced by the first galaxies and their fraction escaping into the intergalactic medium.
This project offers unique opportunity to work with data from a number of world-class facilities such as Very Large Telescope in Chile, Keck Telescope in Hawaii, Hubble Space Telescope and soon to be launched James Webb Space Telescope. This project would suit a student with a general background in astronomy and specific interest in observational astronomy. Good programming skills in python and bash scripting would be extremely valuable.
Pulsars and fast transients
Supervisors: Dr Bradley Meyers, Dr Ramesh Bhat
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description:
Over the past several years, the field of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) has emerged as an exciting new frontier of astronomy. These intense, energetic bursts are thought to originate from cosmological distances, and they are potential new probes for cosmology; e.g. to measure the baryonic content of the Universe and the magnetic field of the Intergalactic Medium. Yet, the physics governing the origin of these energetic bursts still remains a mystery, despite a continuing flurry of theoretical ideas, and even as interferometric localisations become a routine. There had been no detected burst emission below ~300 MHz until the recent Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) detection in 2021 which has reinvigorated efforts towards low-frequency searches, especially for FRBs that repeat. The co-location of the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) present exciting opportunities to hunt for low-frequency emission from these enigmatic bursts.
Over the past years, the high-time resolution capabilities of the MWA have been pushed to enable voltage trigger and buffer modes. Along with the rapid-response observing mode now possible with the MWA, this can now be exploited for receiving and responding to the trigger alerts from facilities like ASKAP. This project will exploit and further develop these new capabilities in the quest to detect low-frequency emission from these bursts. A positive detection would mean the prospects of exciting science relating to FRB emission physics and their propagation and progenitor models, which will contribute to advancing our understanding of these mysterious bursts.
Supervisors: Dr Marcin Glowacki, Dr Clancy James, Dr Apurba Bera, Dr Andy (Ziteng) Wang
Suitability: Summer student, 3rd year
Description:
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely powerful radio transients, so luminous they are visible across the Universe, which occur within mere milliseconds. Yet, to date the origin of FRBs is not yet known. To best address this, we need to localise the FRB radio signal, and analyse it at high time resolution. The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients Survey (CRAFT) with the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is expected to localize ~1 FRB every two days.
In this project the student will work with new 3 ns resolution data of the FRB emission, uniquely available to CRAFT. Optimisation of parameters and analysis of this high time resolution data will help us better understand the host environment of the FRB and scattering of the radio emission by plasma from sources that can be billions of light years away.
We are also commissioning a new detection system, with a project available in identifying FRB candidates.
Supervisor: Dr Adrian Sutinjo
Description:
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are enigmatic extragalactic radio transients of unknown origin. Lasting for mere milliseconds, they reach us from galaxies billions of light years away. Theories as to their origin include giant flares from magnetars and merging neutron stars. Regardless of their origin, these bursts can be used as impulses with which to probe the structure of matter in the Universe, and they have recently been used to find the so-called ‘missing matter’ in the giant voids between galaxies.
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is currently the best tool for studying FRBs. The phased array feed (PAF) technology in ASKAP enables localization of the burst which permits follow up with optical telescopes to pinpoint the host galaxy of the burst. Furthermore, ASKAP is in the process of commissioning a burst detection system to enhance the rate of FRB detection. Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) is engaged in FRB research using ASKAP with a team of researchers and HDR students actively collaborating with CSIRO, Swinburne Institute of Technology and leading international institutions. A key question in FRB research is the emission mechanism of the burst. The current view is that such a luminous burst must be the result of a coherent emission process, similar to a laser in optics or an oscillator in radio frequency. Thermal emission is deemed unlikely because of the extreme temperature required to produce such an intense burst. Coherent emission process is characterized by random arrival of photons which follows Poisson statistical distribution. One of the research topics in FRB pursued at CIRA is detection of this coherent emission statistics.
Detection of random bursts and determination of the statistics thereof is constrained by the time resolution of the instrument. Currently, ASKAP is capable of receiving 400 MHz to 600 MHz of radio frequency (RF) bandwidth centered around 1 GHz to 1.6 GHz. Of that RF bandwidth, 336 MHz band is selected for processing such that the instrumental time resolution is approximately 3 ns. Hence, the statistics of bursts with time separation consistently larger than 3 ns can be inferred but the statistics of random pulses within the 3 ns is obfuscated by the impulse response of the 336 MHz signal bandwidth. The severity of the obfuscation depends on the receiver architecture and can vary from apparent incoherence of a coherent pulse train to an averaging effect which makes signal statistics more difficult to distinguish.
The objective of the project is to study receiver system architectures and signal processing techniques for coherent pulse detection that is less limited by the instrument’s time resolution. There are several ideas to explore. For example, a zero intermediate frequency (ZIF) receiver, similar to a homodyne receiver employed in coherent optical detection and correlation, is affected by the averaging effect of random pulses but does not render them incoherent. We will also explore pulse detection and estimation techniques to maximize the potential of the receiver system architecture.
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski
Suitability: Honours
Description:
High-time resolution imaging of interferometric data from radio telescopes is computationally challenging. We have recently developed high-time resolution pipeline for the data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and prototype stations of low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low). This pipeline can be used for various transient related activity, such as searches for Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), pulsars or other transient processes.
The goal of this project is to apply the pipeline to a small data-set up to 1 hour of data from the MWA or SKA-Low prototype stations, and demonstrate that it can be used for FRB or pulsar searches. For example, data from pulsar PSR J0026-1955 discovered by the MWA could be imaged in 100ms time resolution to verify if the pulsar can be detected in these images. However, there are other possibilities to apply the pipeline to some short data-set from the SKA-Low stations to search for low-frequency FRBs. An alternative path for the student with software programming interests would be to work on further optimisation of the imaging or FRB search code on GPU.
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski, Dr Danny Price
Suitability: Honours project.
Description: Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) are one of the most intriguing transient phenomena discovered less than 15 years ago. They are very short (millisecond durations), extremely energetic (~1039 ergs) radio pulses arriving from outside of our Milky Way galaxy. Initially discovered at GHz frequencies, they were later observed at sub-GHz radio frequencies, and recently detected down to about 100 MHz. The low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low) will be the most sensitive low-frequency radio telescope on Earth operating at frequencies 50 to 350 MHz, and it will consist of 512 stations. Two prototype stations of this telescope already exist and can be used to search for FRBs in high-time resolution images of the entire visible hemisphere (all-sky images) or narrow (order of a few degrees) station beam.
The goal of the project is to help with testing and verification of real-time FRB search pipeline in either of the two modes (depending on interests of a student). The all-sky imaging mode is better to look for new FRBs (due to large area of the sky), whilst the station beam mode can be good for observations of FRBs known to repeat, so called repeaters, that is producing FRB signals coming from the same position in the sky. Both paths can lead to physical results on low-frequency FRB rate or repetition rate of a particular repeating FRB.
Supervisors: Bradley Meyers, Ramesh Bhat
The clock-like stability of fast-rotating millisecond pulsars (i.e. radio-emitting neutron stars with rotation periods on the order of a few to several milliseconds) makes them highly sought after for several high-profile science applications such as searching for ultra-low frequency (nanoHertz) gravitational waves and probing the state of matter at supra-nuclear densities. Some of these applications require a systematic and thorough characterisation of individual systems that are routinely timed as part of pulsar timing array projects that aim to detect such low-frequency gravitational waves, originating from supermassive black-hole mergers in the early Universe.
In this project you will explore the use of long-term timing data sets on some of these millisecond pulsars to measure parameters to detect secular changes in the (projected) semi-major axis, or parallaxes and proper motions to infer aspects of their geometry and kinematics, and similar other parameters that are crucial to resolving the detection of the gravitational wave background.
Supervisor(s): Dr Clancy James, Dr Marcin Glowacki
Description:
Fast radio bursts are millisecond flashes of radio waves coming from the distant Universe. Discovered in 2007, the ASKAP radio telescope in Western Australia is a world-leader in detecting them and identifying the galaxies – some billions of light years away – from which they originate. The hunt is on to discover what could possibly be producing such bursts – the progenitor must be about 10km in size, and emit as much radio energy as our Sun produces in a year. However, these bursts also experience a frequency-dependent delay according to the amount of matter they traverse during propagation, allowing them to be used as probes of the structure of the Universe. Importantly, we aim to determine the value of the Hubble Constant, which is currently the subject of intense debate, since measurements from Supernova 1a disagrees with those from the cosmic microwave background. This project – suitable for all levels – would involve using FRB data from ASKAP to answer these questions and more.
Supervisors: Ramesh Bhat, Bradley Meyers
Pulsars in compact binary orbits with another neutron star or white dwarf make very unique and powerful laboratories for conducting some of the exquisite tests of general relativity, especially in the strong-field regime. The observable phenomena include the shrinkage of the orbital size (i.e. orbital decay) due to gravitational-wave damping, the delay near the superior conjunction due to the gravitational potential of the companion (i.e. the Shapiro delay) and an advance of periastron that can be detected as a shift in time of periastron passage.
In this project you will work on the use of timing data from relativistic binaries to create public outreach materials where school students can be engaged by providing some hands-on experience of measuring the deviation in space time due to the effects like the Shapiro Delay, advance of periastron and orbital decay. For instance, timing data on the double pulsar system can be used to demonstrate how the orbit of a relativistic pulsar decay over a few years and measure it to an accuracy of better than 1 mm/orbit.
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski
Suitability: 3rd year, expandable to Honours or Masters
Description:
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are one of the most intriguing astrophysical phenomena discovered just over a decade ago. They are very short (order of milliseconds) pulses of coherent radio emission from cosmological distances. Until very recently they were observed at radio frequencies above 1 GHz. However, over the last year detections at frequency band 400 – 800 MHz were reported by The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). The goal of the project is to use high-time resolution capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to discover the first FRBs at frequencies below 300 MHz.
Supervisors: Dr Marcin Sokolowski, Dr Ramesh Bhat
Suitability: Summer, 3rd year, Honours, Masters
Description:
The low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low) is the next-generation radio telescope to be built at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia. The telescope will consist of 512 stations composed of 256 dual-polarised antennas each and will observe at frequencies between 50 and 350 MHz. In 2019, two prototype stations of the SKA-Low were deployed at the MRO and have been regularly collecting data. Multiple long observations (longer than 24 hours) have been conducted with both stations at several frequencies producing thousands of all-sky images in 2-seconds resolution. Several interesting astrophysical events have been identified in these images. In particular, extremely bright pulses from the pulsar B0950+08 have been occasionally detected. In order to understand the physical mechanism behind these events observations with a more sensitive instrument with a higher time resolution are required. Therefore, the goal of this project is to trigger the Voltage Capture System of the Murchison Widefield Array when the extremely bright pulses from B0950+08 (or possibly other objects) are detected in real-time by the SKA-Low precursor stations.
Supervisors: Dr Ramesh Bhat & Dr Bradley Meyers
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description:
The clock-like stability of millisecond pulsars, i.e. radio-emitting neutron stars with rotation periods on the order of a few to several milliseconds, makes them especially sought after for high-profile science applications such as searching for ultra-low frequency (nanoHertz) gravitational waves and probing the state of ultra-dense matter. Searches for fast-spinning millisecond pulsars toward promising candidates selected from the gamma-ray source population of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) have been proving successful, with the discovery of more than 80 pulsars to date from coordinated searches using multiple telescopes around the world.
The growing observational evidence for a steeper-than-usual spectrum of this class of pulsars makes low-frequency searches particularly promising to find more such objects, as vividly demonstrated by the recent LOFAR discovery of the fastest spinning millisecond pulsar in the Galactic field known to date. The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia, a next-generation radio telescope and Australia’s official precursor for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, is being geared up for high-sensitivity targeted searches for millisecond pulsars. Its new capability to reconstruct high-time resolution (~microsecond) voltage time series via novel signal processing algorithms allows retaining optimal sensitivity to the detection of short-period pulsars at very low frequencies.
This project will involve performing extensive searches for fast-spinning pulsars (including those in binary systems) toward candidate sources that are carefully selected from the Fermi gamma-ray source catalogue. Targets of particular interest include sources in the far southern sky that are beyond the reach of northern facilities, or low-luminous objects missed in previous (high-frequency) searches. Besides their applicability for high-precision timing programs such as pulsar timing arrays, any newly-discovered pulsars will also prove valuable for understanding complex stellar evolutionary scenarios.
Supervisors: Dr Ramesh Bhat, Dr Bradley Meyers
Suitability: Summer, 3rd year
Description:
PSRs J0437-4715 and J2145-0750 are the nearest and brightest among the millisecond pulsars currently known, located within only a few hundred parsecs from us. Both are top-priority targets for high-profile pulsar timing array experiments that aim to advance nanohertz-frequency gravitational wave astronomy in the coming decade. They are also highly-sought-after for developing precision timing methodologies and high-fidelity polarimetric calibration. Both have been monitored with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) at a monthly cadence over the past several years. These observations were made in the 100-200 MHz frequency band, an uncommon observing band for millisecond pulsars, which are generally studied at frequencies above 1 GHz.
However, such low-frequency observations are especially well suited to study plasma turbulence in the intervening interstellar material and map out its small-scale structure, and to pinpoint the locations of compact dense structures that are sprinkled in the interstellar space. They can also be used to explore high-precision timing prospects with the MWA and measure subtle variations in dispersion measures at unprecedented accuracies of the order of a few parts in a million. This project will involve a systematic analysis of high-time resolution data recorded with the MWA on these pulsars, to study variability and the time-frequency structure in pulse intensity, and characterise interstellar turbulence and locations of discrete structures along the lines of sight to the pulsar. This will help inform how low frequency measurements can be used to advance pulsar timing array projects.
Supervisors: Dr Ramesh Bhat & Dr Bradley Meyers
Suitability: Honours
Description:
Even after several decades of observational and theoretical advances, uncovering the physics that govern the emission of electromagnetic radiation from fast-spinning neutron stars (pulsars) remains an outstanding problem in astronomy. As well known, radio emission from pulsars displays a diverse, rich, and at times exceedingly complex, phenomenology; the most notable ones include the phenomenon of sub-pulse drifting, whereby the emission components (i.e. sub-pulses) steadily march in phase with pulsar rotation, and nulling, which refers to an apparent cessation of (detectable) emission, often lasting over durations ranging from a few to many pulsar rotations. Recently, yet another, quite an intriguing, phenomenon has been revealed in observations. This is called “swooshing,” which refers to episodic instances of radio emission arriving at earlier phases for tens of pulses before returning to nominal phase. Our recent investigation has revealed that PSR B0031-07, a pulsar well known for its remarkable sub-pulse drifting and large nulling fraction (cf. McSweeney et al. 2017, 2018, 2019; Ilie et al. 2020), possibly also shows some signatures of swooshing, with an emission shift clearly evident in one of its sub-pulse drift modes, when observations are made at frequencies above ~300 MHz.
In this project, you will undertake an in-depth analysis of new observational data collected using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT; spanning 300 to 750 MHz) and the ultra-wide band low-frequency (UWL) receiver capability at the Parkes (Murriyang) telescope (spanning 704 to 4032 MHz). Together, these provide an unprecedented coverage in frequency from 300 MHz to 4 GHz. The main focus of the project will be a systematic and detailed characterisation of the observed “swoosh-like” phenomenon in this pulsar, including the frequency dependence of the observed emission shift and polarisation characteristics. If the observed phase shift of the drift mode is confirmed to be associated with “swooshing”, PSR B0031-07 will be the first pulsar to show swooshing, alongside the drifting and nulling phenomena, making it an excellent test-bed for the investigation of pulsar emission physics in the broader context of spark carousel models typically invoked to explain the sub-pulse drifting phenomenon.
Particle astrophysics
(3 projects available)
Co-supervisors: Dr Clancy James, Dr Amir Forouzan
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Cosmic rays are the highest energy particles in nature – yet we don’t know what produces them. Mostly protons and atomic nuclei, they impact the Earth’s atmosphere, and generate cascades of secondary particles that emit a nanosecond-scale radio pulse. Detecting these short pulses can provide the most detailed estimates of the nature of these particles, and the physical processes of these interactions.
This project will investigate either the theoretical or experimental aspects of detecting these cosmic ray radio pulses with the Murchison Widefield Array. Depending on a student’s preferences/abilities, it could involve:
- Calibrating a prototype particle detector to identify muons at ground level and trigger radio data:
- Testing models of particle interactions at energies unreachable by the Large Hadron Collider, and their effects on the radio emission; or:
- Implementing a computationally efficient synthesis algorithm for turning MWA frequency data back to nanosecond resolution.
All projects are adaptable to students of all levels (3rd year, honours, summer project).
Supervisors: Dr Clancy James
Suitability: Honours
Description:
The Lunar Askaryan technique is a method to detect the very rare ultra-high-energy, which impact the Earth at the rate of only once per square kilometre per hundred years. By observing the lunar surface with a powerful radio telescope, the entire visible surface of the Moon (20 million km) can be turned into a cosmic ray detector, allowing these extremely rare particles to be studied.
The only current telescope with the power to detect these cosmic rays is FAST, the Five hundred metre Aperture Spherical Telescope, which is now being commissioned in Guizhou Province, China. Curtin University is collaborating with the Chinese National Academies of Science and Shanghai University to use FAST to detect these cosmic ray signals.
The pulses are expected to be short and sharp, lasting only a few nanoseconds – or they would be, if the surface of the Moon was smooth. However, it is not, and the effects of lunar surface roughness on these pulses is unknown. This project would involve using simulations of high-energy particle cascades, together with measurements of the Moon’s surface from lunar orbiting satellites, to determine the effects of lunar roughness on the pulse shape. This would allow an optimum detection algorithm to be developed in preparation for future observations with FAST.
Engineering
Supervisor(s): Dr Marcin Sokolowski
Description: The low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low) radio telescope will be the largest radio-telescope in the world. Its unprecedented sensitivity will be result from a huge number of 131072 antennas grouped in 512 stations (each composed of 256 dual polarised antennas). The expected high sensitivity of the telescope will require good performance of at least 99.5% antennas. Therefore, the antennas will have to be regularly monitored and malfunctioning antennas or other components promptly identified and repaired or replaced.
Given the enormous scale of the project and unprecedented number of individual antennas this process has to be fully automatised. The already existing software can identify broken antennas by comparing their power spectra with a template power spectrum and perform basic classification of faults as no power, low power or bad bandpass.
The goal of this project is to further explore and implement a possibility of using the power spectrum information to pinpoint the exact nature and location of a fault, for instance being able to specifically identify that the connector at the antenna output on polarisation X is loose. Such a system will significantly speed-up the fault identification and maintenance processes and will be unavoidable in the future when the full scale SKA-Low telescope becomes operational. The scope of the project can be extended to implementation of a fault database and/or inclusion more components of the system.
Supervisors: Prof David Davidson, Dr Maria Kovaleva
Suitability: Honours, Summer
Description:
Strong mutual coupling between antennas in aperture arrays frequently degrades their performance. Even though the phenomenon of mutual coupling has been known for a long time, some effects have only been discovered recently in a scrupulous analysis of an SKA-Low prototype array. The aim of this project is to design a few microstrip patch antenna arrays for ISM Band (2.45 GHz), build their prototypes and measure radiation patterns with the purpose of using these measurements to accurately extract mutual coupling using an optimization procedure.
The project will include antenna design and simulation, assembling and soldering of manufactured prototypes and measuring the prototypes in the electronics laboratory. This project will provide a valuable contribution towards a new mutual coupling extraction technique that will be important for low-frequency radio astronomy with SKA-Low.
The summer version of this project will only concern numerical simulations of SKA-Low.
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski, Dr Danny Price
Suitability: Honours project.
Description:
High-time resolution imaging of interferometric data from radio telescopes is computationally challenging. We have recently developed high-time resolution pipeline for the data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and prototype stations of low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low). The pipeline will be applied to searches for Fast Radio Bursts (FRB), which are extremely interesting astrophysical events discovered only 15 years ago. The short duration (milli-seconds) of FRB radio pulses requires searches to be performed on high-time resolution data (in this case sky images). The current imaging pipeline is mostly executed on CPU, and it can be further optimised by porting most time consuming parts of the code to GPU. Alternatively, the main goal of the project can be to optimise FRB search algorithm on GPU, for example implement Fast Dispersion Measure Transform (FDTM) to be applicable to imaging data. Finally, the optimised pipeline will be tested and benchmark on a small (up to 1 hour) portion of data from the MWA or SKA-Low stations.
Supervisor: Dr Adrian Sutinjo
Description:
The state of polarization of radio sources such as the percentage, type and angle of polarization convey significant astrophysical information. However, determination of polarization information (polarimetry) with a low-frequency phased array telescope depends on multiple steps of calibration and modelling, each of which demands high precision and is challenging. Firstly, low-frequency phased array telescopes are electronically steered such that the primary beam is dependent on the pointing direction. Secondly, unlike single-pixel dish telescopes, a phased array telescope has antenna elements that mutually couple. These factors complicate efforts to repeatably and accurately model the array beam over all frequencies and pointing directions for polarimetry. Finally, calibration of the phased array telescope for polarimetry requires constraining the phase and/or delay between the dual- polarized antenna, which in the case of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) are orthogonally polarized dipoles (called “X†and “Yâ€). For our purpose, we call this quantity X/Y phase. We note that similar considerations apply to the next generation low-frequency radio telescope, the low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low).
X/Y phase calibration is not critical in intensity-only observation or imaging. In this case, the X dipoles may be calibrated separately from the Y dipoles using an unpolarized sky model. The relative phase between the two dipoles is not critical. However, in polarimetry, the polarization angle and type of polarization cannot be correctly inferred without proper X/Y phase information. Astronomical calibration of X/Y phase could be achieved by observing a bright source with well-known polarization properties. However, such sources are less well-characterized at low frequencies and do not transit at zenith such that calibration of X/Y phase is dependent on the quality of the beam model. It is highly desirable that the X/Y calibration be separated from the beam model to minimize uncertainties and systematic errors.
The objective of the project is to explore methods to calibrate X/Y phase by direct measurement on site and devise the most appropriate technique given the conditions and constraints of the telescope operation in Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO). The physical mechanism that gives rise to the direction-independent delays between the X and Y dipoles in the MWA is no different than that which produces the X and Y delays separately. They primarily depend on the relative group delay due to the electronic signal chains and the cable lengths. For a single MWA X/Y dipole, this quantity is measurable directly by injecting in phase RF signals into the dipoles and measuring the X/Y phase at the MWA correlator. For the MWA tile (an entity of 4×4 dual-polarized dipoles), the signal should be simultaneously fed into all elements. This requires further considerations and proper engineering to ensure that the method of injection and measurement is easily deployable, is repeatable and minimizes potential interference at the MRO. We fully expect that X/Y phase calibration and the techniques arising from this project research will be applicable to SKA-Low polarimetry.
Computational quantum physics
Students interested in computational or theoretical physics are encouraged to consider projects in the Theoretical Physics Group. This is a research intensive group, which was (2007-2013) a node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for AntimatterMatter Studies. It specialises in the field of Quantum Collision Physics. Such processes occur all around us, and include all chemical reactions. More specifically, our area of expertise is for projectiles, which include electrons, positrons, photons, protons and antiprotons, colliding with atoms, ions and molecules. Applications include astrophysics, fusion energy, lighting, material and medical diagnostics.
Presently, there is considerable demand from astrophysicists and fusion physicists for the generation of electron/positron-atom/molecule collision data. Depending on the student’s background knowledge and scope of the project, individual research projects will range from data generation and evaluation, utilising super computer facilities, through to extending the computational capacity to be able to tackle new collision problems. The expectation is that the research outcomes would be published in the best physics journals. The specific details of the project will be determined by discussion with the particular staff of the Theoretical Physics Group. Some examples are listed below.
Supervisors: Prof Alisher Kadyrov and Prof Igor Bray
Modelling collisions of ions with atomic and molecular targets is important for a variety of applications ranging from astrophysical processes and nuclear fusion to modern cancer treatment techniques like proton therapy.
Proton therapy is used to destroy deep-seated cancer cells. It can precisely target the location, size and shape of the tumour, limiting damage to surrounding healthy tissue. When fired into living tissue, a beam of protons deposits most of its energy at a very specific depth that depends on its initial energy. This makes minimal damage to surrounding organs in front of the tumour while delivering almost zero radiation after the tumour. Such precision is not possible with other radiation treatments such as X-ray therapy. Proton therapy requires careful treatment planning based on theoretical depth-dose simulations with a mm accuracy. This requires precision data on relevant ion-atom and ion-molecule collisions.
In fusion plasmas injection of proton beams is used for diagnostics. Certain materials like Be will be used as the shield for the first wall of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and an ITER-like wall is already under operation in the Joint European Torus (JET). Erosion of the first wall releases atoms (and several molecular species), which eventually lead to the presence of fully-stripped ions in the plasma core. The diagnostics of impurity density and temperature in the plasma core is carried out by applying a charge exchange spectroscopy (CXS) technique, where a fast beam of H atoms collides with the impurity ions, leading to the electron capture (EC) reactions. The diagnostics is based on emission, usually in the visible spectrum, of the resulting excited ions. The application of the CXS diagnostics requires the knowledge of state-resolved EC cross sections, which are in general difficult to measure.
A number of theoretical approaches have been developed to model ion collisions with atoms and molecules. At moderate collision energies all open reaction channels including elastic scattering, electron capture and ionisation are interdependent and have significant contributions. However, most of the theories are based on different Born approximations: first- and second-order plane wave, distorted wave, etc. Furthermore, only a few of them takes more than one populated electronic state into account: these theories usually focus on the ground state (initial and final states), while experiments integrate over all final populated electronic states. As a result, there is no satisfactory theoretical description of available experimental data. Furthermore, significant discrepancies remain between the results due to the lack of convergence in terms of included states.
The aim of the project is to provide accurate data on heavy ion collisions with atoms and molecules required in radiation dose calculations for hadron therapy and plasma diagnostics. Calculations will be performed using a semiclassical wave-packet convergent close-coupling (WP-CCC) method recently developed in our group. The method solves the Schrodinger equation for the ion-atom or ion-molecule system by expanding the total scattering wave function in a two-centre basis. The wave functions representing the target and hydrogen-like ion formed after electron capture, are the true eigenfunctions for the negative-energy states and orthonormal stationary wave packets for positive-energy states resulting from the discretization of the continuum. This leads to a set of coupled differential equations for the transition probability amplitudes, which are used to calculate the cross sections for elastic scattering, target excitation, and electron capture by the projectile and ionisation.
Supervisors: Prof Alisher Kadyrov and Prof Igor Bray
Cross sections for antihydrogen formation are of particular interest to the ALPHA collaboration, which requires the production of near zero energy antihydrogen. Production of slow antihydrogen atoms is one of the prerequisites for experimental verification of the materantimater equivalence principle. There are two experiments with antihydrogen planned for the near future at CERN, AEGIS (Antihydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy) and GBAR (Gravitational Behaviour of Antihydrogen at Rest). The aim of these experiments is to measure the freefall of antihydrogen in order to make direct measurements of the freefall acceleration constant of antimatter in the gravitational field of Earth. To observe the free fall the antihydrogen has to be created at rest or cooled to extremely low energies (a few MeV). With new developments in antiproton cooling techniques cryogenic temperatures became achievable.
Therefore, formation of antihydrogen in ultra-low energy positronium-antiproton collisions with its very large cross section emerges as a primary source of antihydrogen. Antihydrogen can be created with the use of antiprotonpositronium collisions. Large cross sections are achieved when positronium is in a Rydberg state. The aim of the project is to use the two-center convergent close coupling (CCC) method to model antiproton collisions with Rydberg positronium and calculate the antihydrogen formation crosssections at ultra low energies.
Objectives:
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- Review the literature.
- Learn how to use supercomputers to run locally developed codes.
- Calculate total cross sections for antihydrogen formation at low energies.
Supervisors: Prof Igor Bray and Prof Dmitry Fursa
The Theoretical Physics Group has been engaged in the biggest scientific research project on the planet, which is the building of the next generation fusion reactor known as ITER, see http://iter.org. The goal is to produce fusion energy as it happens deep in the core of our Sun. Our contribution has been to provide collision data of interest to the plasma modellers who are trying to understand all of the physics that will follow the fusion process.
Recent example is beryllium: it has been determined that beryllium will be a substantial component of the first wall, and hence reliable electronimpact cross sections for this atom and all of its ions are required by the modellers. Collision data for many more atoms and molecules are required for modelling the ITER plasma. Our aim is to develop a computer code that is capable to model collisions with a much wider number of atoms and molecules than the present version of the CCC code allows for.
An even more difficult task is to extend the CCC code to study collisions with molecules. We are especially interested in the molecules that are present in ITER plasma: BeH, BeH2, Li2, Li_H, etc. We have already developed a computer code that produced the best in the world result for H2+ and H2 molecules and now aim to extend it to more complex systems.
This project will contribute to the International Atomic Energy Agency fusion research and will be our contribution to the Coordinated Research project (CRP): Atomic data for Vapour Shielding in Fusion Devices.
Here are theoretical and code development projects that you can participate:
Electron collisions with atoms
The project aims to provide a comprehensive set of collision data for electron collision with tin and gallium atoms. We will use the relativistic formulation of the CCC method (RCCC) as Ga and Tn are relatively heavy atoms. Both atoms have p-electron in the open shell, one for Ga and two for Tn, and show substantial fine-structure splitting that indicates that relativistic effects will play important role in modelling of atomic structure and collision processes.
Electron collisions with molecules
The present version of the CCC code will be extended to more complex molecules, such as Li2, LiH, etc. The aim is to provide a comprehensive set of collisions data relevant for fusion research. This includes a set of elastic and momentum transfer, ionization, excitation and dissociation cross sections. The study of nuclear motion will allow us to provide a set of fully vibrationally resolved cross sections.
Objectives:
- Understand what ITER is all about
- Understand the physics and the mathematical model behind the computer code
- Learn how to use supercomputers to run locally developed computational codes to determine the required data to a required accuracy
- Disseminate the data to existing databases for ready access to fusion researchers worldwide
Supervisors: Prof Igor Bray, Prof Dmitry Fursa and Prof Alisher Kadyrov
Modelling positron transport in various media is of immense importance for applications as diverse as atmospheric and astrophysical research and studies of radiation damage in tissue. Accurate modelling requires accurate collision data: cross sections for all relevant collision processes. We have developed the best in the world computer code (CCC) to model positron collision processes. The next step is to make the code more general and capable to model collisions with arbitrary atom or molecule. We will have a special emphasis on study of the collisions with biologically important atoms and molecules.
Objectives:
- Review various applications of positrons
- Understand the physics and the mathematical model behind the computer code
- Learn how to use supercomputers to run locally developed computational codes to determine the required data to a required accuracy
- Disseminate the data to existing databases for ready access to researchers worldwide
Supervisors: Aks Kotian, Corey Plowman and Prof Alisher Kadyrov
Modelling collisions of argon ions with hydrogen is important for understanding X-ray emission from comets and planets in the solar system. In addition, diagnostics of fusion plasma in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the Joint European Torus (JET) is performed using charge-exchange spectroscopy (CXS), where a beam of H atoms collides with impurity ions, including highly-charged Ar18+ ions, leading to electron capture (EC). The CXS is based on emission of the excited Ar17+ ions. The application of the CXS requires the knowledge of state-selective EC cross sections, which are difficult to measure. This project aims to perform accurate calculations of state-selective cross sections for EC in Ar18+ collisions with hydrogen using a wave-packet convergent close-coupling (WP-CCC) method recently developed in our group [Faulkner et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 61 (2019) 095005]. The method solves the three-body Schrödinger equation for a fully-stripped ion-hydrogen atom system by expanding the total scattering wavefunction in a two-centre basis of pseudostates. This leads to a set of coupled differential equations for the transition probability amplitudes. The latter are used to calculate the cross sections for elastic scattering, target excitation, and EC by the projectile and ionisation.
Supervisors: Nick Antonio, Corey Plowman and Prof Alisher Kadyrov
Modelling collisions between partially stripped nitrogen ions and atomic hydrogen is important for a number of reasons. Given the multielectron nature of these systems, they allow us to explore the role electron-electron interactions play in the overall collision dynamics. Furthermore, there are many practical applications that would benefit from a complete understanding of these collisions. Modelling X-ray spectra from comets and performing impurity diagnostics in fusion plasmas are just a few examples. In particular, major fusion projects such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the Joint European Torus (JET) are expected to contain dressed nitrogen ions within the reactors. How these ions affect properties of the plasma such as its temperature and density can be investigated using the charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) technique, where a beam of H atoms collide with the nitrogen ions leading to electron capture. The CXRS approach to performing diagnostics on fusion plasmas is to analyse the spectra of these excited ions. This requires accurate cross section data for all possible collision processes including electron capture, ionisation and target excitation.
This project aims to calculate accurate cross sections for each nitrogen ion colliding with atomic hydrogen using the wave-packet convergent close-coupling (WP-CCC) method developed in our group [Antonio et al., J Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 54 (2021) 175201]. The method expands the total scattering wavefunction using a two-centre basis of pseudostates. Substituting the expansion into the Schrodinger equation leads to a set of coupled first-order differential equations for the transition probability amplitudes which are used to calculate the aforementioned cross sections. Solving the close-coupling equations is computationally intensive and needs to be done on large-scale supercomputers.
Supervisors: Kade Spicer, Corey Plowman and Prof Alisher Kadyrov
Hadron therapy is a state-of-the-art cancer treatment able to target tumours with a high level of accuracy. This is because heavy particles, eg. carbon ions, deposit almost all of their energy at a single point, destroying cancerous cells while leaving surrounding healthy tissue relatively unharmed. For this reason, the method may be employed in cases where conventional radiation therapy is prohibitive such as in paediatric patients or when a tumour is located close to vital organs. The precision required in the treatment necessitates that all depth-dose calculations are performed with the most accurate cross section data available.
The wave-packet convergent close-coupling (WP-CCC) approach has been developed to model all processes occurring in ion-atom and ion-molecule collisions accurately and in great depth. This project aims to apply this theory to collisions between C6+ and helium. The method solves the four-body Schrödinger equation by expanding the total scattering wave function in a two-centre basis of atomic wave functions. This leads to a set of coupled differential equations for the transition probability amplitudes, which are used to calculate integrated cross sections for elastic scattering, target excitation, electron capture by the projectile, and ionisation. Such calculations are performed using a purpose-built code and run on supercomputer facilities.
Objectives:
- Learn how to use supercomputers and run locally developed codes
- Understand the physics and mathematics upon which the computations are built
- Publish interesting results in distinguished physics
Carbon group
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
Graphite is where the lithium goes when you charge your lithium-ion battery. The layered structure of graphite enables the lithium to be safely stored between the layers, however, graphite is expensive to synthesise primarily due to the few chemical precursors that will convert into graphite and also due to the extreme temperatures required (3000°C half the temperature of the sun!). Recently the Carbon Group at Curtin University have made a breakthrough in the atomistic understanding of the graphitization process. We were able to resolve the critical defect inhibiting graphitization as a screw dislocation. This helical defect winds through the layers like a spiral staircase stopping the layers from separating to form graphite. The aim of this project is to use a custom graphite furnace we have designed to explore the speed of different precursors transforming into graphite. Advanced characterisation equipment will be used such as X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. This project is suitable for a student with an interest in materials science for green energy. There is also scope for an entirely computational project using molecular dynamics to study the movement of defects within the nanostructure of graphite.
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Nigel Marks, Dr Jacob Martin
Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms such as Machine Learning and Deep Learning are transforming areas previously considered to be innately human activities. One area where AI methods have potential to make huge inroads is materials science, where complex interatomic potentials have historically been developed using a mixture of chemical and mathematical intuition. The aim of this project is to apply AI algorithms to the simulation of solids and liquids containing carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The ultimate goal is an AI-based interatomic potential which can be used to perform cutting edge molecular dynamics simulations of high-technology materials such as graphene, diamond-like carbon and carbon fibre. This project is suitable for a student with an interest in materials modelling. Training in computational modelling will be provided, and prior experience is quantum-mechanical methods is not required. Commercial partners are currently involved in this project.
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Nigel Marks, Dr Jacob Martin,
This project aims to address one of the major fundamental puzzles in carbon science; how to experimentally synthesize new phases of carbon predicted by theory. This could be approached via a combination of high pressure and high-energy ion irradiation to transform novel nano-carbon precursors. The expected outcomes include new phases of carbon with unexplored properties, an understanding of the pathways for synthesis of carbon materials, and new computational tools to understand nano-carbon materials under extreme conditions. This should provide benefits for industries seeking advanced materials for modern manufacturing. This project is suitable for a student with an interest in materials modelling. Training in computational modelling will be provided, and prior experience is quantum-mechanical methods is not required.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Dr Andrea Rassell, Assoc. Prof. Andrew Woods, Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
Computational modelling of materials is providing insight into how to make better batteries, store hydrogen and produce entirely new materials. However, many computational models involve thousands of atoms that transform during the simulation. This poses a problem for interpreting the models and understanding what they tell us. The Carbon Group has been working with the Curtin HIVE (Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch) in humanities to visualise atomistic materials using 3D immersive display technology. We have also worked with the Additive Manufacturing Microfactory in the John de Laeter centre who specialize in 3D printing to develop tactile models of disordered 3D graphenes. Most recently we have developed a VR game for the Oculus headset within the Unity game engine. This allows for periodic disordered carbons to be visualised from an atom’s eye view. In this project, new visualisation approaches will be developed to provide insights into disordered carbon nanostructures. A student with an interest in game development or 3D printing would enjoy this project. There is also scope for interdisciplinary work on the perception of time and space at the nanoscale with the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry. We have a commercial partnership with an activated carbon company who is interested in developing our visualisations for educational purposes.
Supervisor: Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
Materials under extreme conditions can become superconductors at room temperature, transform into new phases and can provide fundamental insights. The Curtin Carbon Group has ongoing collaborations with researchers that use diamond anvils to put carbon and silicon under extraordinary pressures. In this project a student would use computational approaches to explore how materials transform under extreme pressures. These results will directly inform experimental work undertaken by collaborators. For those students with a more commercial outlook, we have an ongoing partnership with a company interested in improving hard coating for cutting machines.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin
The Curtin Carbon Group has found molecular magnets inside of candle flames as aromatic molecules with unpaired spins. These molecules provide long coherence spin systems that are needed for quantum computing with molecular magnets. In this project, a simple model based on tight-binding with the Hubbard model will be developed to be able to predict the spin configuration of aromatic species. This will enable many possible molecules to be screened for their spin stability. A student with some experience of python would be helpful.
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Nigel Marks, Dr Jacob Martin
Graphite plays a pivotal role in many nuclear reactors by serving as a moderator, slowing down fast neutrons to sustain nuclear chain reactions. Its exceptional thermal conductivity and stability make it a reliable material for dissipating heat and ensuring structural integrity. However, the build up of defects within the structure can lead to thermal runaway. This project explores how defects form in graphite during neutron bombardment and how thermal annealing can be used to safely remove them. By employing advanced computational tools, we aim to uncover insights that could improve reactor safety and efficiency, contributing significantly to low carbon sources of energy. This project is suitable for a student with an interest in materials modelling and nuclear science. Training in computational modelling will be provided, and prior experience in molecular dynamics methods is not required.
Energy storage
Supervisors: Prof Craig Buckley, A/Prof. Mark Paskevicius & Dr Terry Humphries
The Hydrogen Storage Research Group (HSRG) specialises in the study of materials for thermal energy storage applications. Past studies have focused on employing the thermodynamics of reversible absorption and desorption of hydrogen from metal hydride compounds (e.g. MgH2 and NaMgH3) to store energy at temperatures of above 300 °C. To improve the efficiency of thermal energy storage systems, materials that can operate at elevated temperatures are required to be developed. This includes identifying possible compounds, synthesizing and characterising their physical properties.
A number of projects are available in the HSRG to develop novel metal hydrides and metal carbonates that can be used as thermal energy storage materials. Projects would include the synthesis and characterization of novel metal hydrides and metal carbonates for potential incorporation into large scale industrial plants. Thermodynamic determination of the enthalpy and entropy of gas desorption by physical measurements and theoretical calculations must be undertaken to identify technological application, while crystallographic characterization by powder X-ray diffraction will be used to study these materials. A variety of projects are available and can be tailored to suit individual studies. This project is likely to lead to a publication in an international peer reviewed journal.
Supervisors: A/Prof. Mark Paskevicius, Prof Craig Buckley
New battery technologies offer the possibility for greatly enhanced energy storage capacities. High energy density is critical for most technological applications, such as for portable electronics and vehicles, i.e. more energy in a form that weighs less and takes up less space. Further breakthroughs are required to bring new batteries to reality, especially with regard to the electrolytes. Here, solid-state electrolytes could allow electrochemical reactions to proceed where liquid electrolytes fail, also providing higher electrochemical stabilities and enhanced safety.
Our group has synthesised new types of solid-state electrolytes that have interesting dynamics within the crystal structure. The anions within the structure rapidly reorientate up to 1E10 times per second, promoting the migration of cations, such as Li+, within the structure. These types of solid-state ion conductors have ion conductivities on par with liquids! The challenge is improving the ion conductivity at room temperature for battery applications.
This project will focus on the measurement, characterisation and analysis of electrochemical measurements on new solid-state batteries. The materials are air-sensitive and will be handled within an argon-filled glovebox. Measurements will be undertaken using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Further analysis will be undertaken to test the voltage-stability and chemical compatibility of the solid-state electrolytes with typical anion and cation materials. It is expected that high-impact peer reviewed publications will result from this project.
Supervisors: Prof Craig Buckley, A/Prof. Mark Paskevicius, Dr Terry Humphries, Dr Yu Liu
Many countries, including Australia, have announced their strategy to include Hydrogen as a major part of their energy portfolio. Japan is one country that has announced they are making hydrogen their primary fuel of the future but are currently unable to produce enough hydrogen to meet demand, and as such must rely on importation. Australia is positioned to be able to produce renewable hydrogen and be a key global exporter, although an efficient (high density) means of carriage is required.
This project aims to develop a new method of producing, storing, and exporting green hydrogen. Metal hydrides produce pure H2 upon addition of water forming a metal oxide. This process is irreversible under moderate conditions, therefore this procedure is not currently economically or environmentally viable for commercial application. This project entails the development of a method for making the hydrolysis of metal hydrides into a reversible reaction. A variety of synthesis techniques will be explored, while a number of analytical techniques will also be required to determine the products. Additional scope is directed towards theoretical calculations to identify possible synthesis routes.
Supervisors: Prof Craig Buckley, A/Prof. Mark Paskevicius, Dr Terry Humphries
The Hydrogen Storage Research Group (HSRG) develops energy storage materials for renewable energy storage options. Recent projects have focused on hydrogen storage materials, thermal energy storage materials (aka Thermal Batteries) and solid-state batteries, although there are other options that have been commercialised or promoted around the world. This project will review novel alternative energy storage options and determine their feasibility for reaching large scale technological application. This will involve fundamental first-principle calculations to determine the underlying physical properties of these new technologies, cost calculations and overall feasibility. Examples of these options include the storage of hydrogen on a large scale for use in electrolysers where the hydrogen can be stored in low temperature metal hydrides, underground caverns, or lined rock caverns.
Supervisors: Prof Craig Buckley, A. Prof Mark Paskevicius, Prof. Charlie Ironside, Prof Merv Lynch, Dr Jacob Martin
Hydrogen is recognised as a major energy carrier for the near and long-term future. Australia, especially Western Australia, has recently been considered to be one of the most promising areas for natural hydrogen exploration, providing what has been deemed as gold hydrogen. The development of hydrogen sensors is crucially important for the detection and exploration of natural hydrogen. Considering the flammable and reactive nature of hydrogen, Raman-based laser sensors have great potential for remote hydrogen detection. This project aims to develop a compact Raman sensor for quantitative measurement of hydrogen concentration, as well as the para and ortho hydrogen ratio in the gas. The sensor can also be used for hydrogen gas leak detection, which is important for the safe storage and transportation of hydrogen.
This project would involve experimental research using lasers and different types of sensors capable of detecting signals from hydrogen, including single-photon detectors. The newly designed optics laboratory will be utilised for these studies under various hydrogen atmospheres and conditions.
Supervisors: Prof Craig Buckley, A/Prof. Mark Paskevicius, Dr Terry Humphries, Dr Yu Liu
Lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors have emerged as alternative energy storage devices for the improvement of new and green energy. Typically, the mechanism of lithium ion batteries is based on the reversible movement of Li ions between the intercalation compound at the anode and the cathode side. The charge and discharge process in batteries is a slow process and can degrade the chemical compounds inside the battery over time. As a result, batteries have low power densities and lose their ability to retain energy throughout their lifetime. Fortunately, supercapacitors (also referred to as ultracapacitors or electrochemical capacitors) are superior to batteries when capturing and supplying short bursts of power due to their higher power density limits, and ability to charge and discharge very quickly. Hence, adding a supercapacitor unit to electric vehicles will facilitate the lithium ion battery during acceleration and ascending hills, and with its quick recharge capability, it will assist the battery in capturing the regenerative braking energy. This significant advantage of a battery-supercapacitor energy storage/supply system has gained attention in recent years in transportation systems as well as other applications
This project aims to develop novel perovskite based electrodes with high oxygen intercalation type capacitance for the practical application of supercapacitors. This project expects to improve the performance of oxygen intercalation type supercapacitors under solar light by using different strategies. Optimizing structure of perovskite, single atom modification and hybridizing perovskite and photoactive carbon materials are the main three strategies to develop the efficient perovskite-based electrode of supercapacitor. Apart from the design of high-performance materials, some electrochemical measurements, characterization and DFT calculation will be carried out simultaneously to provide fundamental insights into activity, stability and oxygen intercalation process in the perovskite oxides.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Prof Craig Buckley, A/Prof. Nigel Marks, Dr Irene Suarez-Martinez
WA is becoming the world leader in green hydrogen production. However, storage of hydrogen is a significant problem. Storage in carbon nanomaterials is attractive as hydrogen can be stored at liquid N2 temperatures and at safe pressures. Recently, neutron diffraction has revealed ultradense pockets of hydrogen in activated carbon that remain unexplained. In this project, the hypothesis that these pockets are due to increased attraction between hydrogen and flexed graphene will be tested using small angle X-ray scattering, electron microscopy and computer simulations.
Martin, Jacob W., et al. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 121.48 (2017): 27154-27163.
Martin, Jacob W., et al. Physical Review Letters 123.11 (2019): 116105.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Dr Mauricio Di Lorenzo, Prof Craig Buckley
Biomethane can be produced in anaerobic digestion of biomass and waste streams. Much of the carbon in these streams come from plants that captured it from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Methane pyrolysis is a process that thermally transforms the hydrocarbon into hydrogen and solid carbon. If biomethane is used, then the carbon produced is captured from the atmosphere making the process carbon negative. In this project, the reaction pathway for methane pyrolysis will be explored using computer simulations guided by experimental work to optimize the yield of methane.
Sánchez-Bastardo, Nuria et al. Chemie Ingenieur Technik 92.10 (2020): 1596-1609.
Supervisors: Dr Mauricio Di Lorenzo, Prof Craig Buckley
The concept of using the existent natural gas infrastructure to transport and store hydrogen produced from surplus renewable electricity is getting increasing attention. Several pilot projects are currently being conducted in Australia and abroad to test the feasibility of this approach, where only minor modifications to the existent infrastructure are required as the hydrogen content in the gas blend in limited to less than 15-20 vol%. In this project an assessment of the impact of blending hydrogen in typical gas production, transportation and storage systems at various hydrogen concentrations will be conducted, including challenges in long range pipeline transport (wave speed in hydrogen is three times faster than in methane), compression and decompression in small and large scale reservoirs (iso-entropic work of compressing hydrogen is ten times larger than in methane), compatibility of materials (hydrogen embrittlement in steel, permeability rates through polymeric materials is 4-5 times larger for hydrogen compared to natural gas). In this assessment relevant data from the literature will be gathered and simple analysis tools will be applied to estimate the increasing demands on the available systems at different scales (plant through city network, up to natural hydrogen production systems) when hydrogen concentration increases by comparing transport and operational efficiencies and safety risk profiles in different scenarios.
John de Laeter centre (experimental physics)
Supervisor: Dr William Rickard
A FIB-SEM combines nanometre resolution imaging with precision patterning of a focussed ion beam enabling the instrument to manipulate a sample at very fine length scales. The Tescan Lyra FIB-SEM, located within the John de Later Centre at Curtin University, is a state-of-the-art instrument that is used for advanced microanalysis in 2D and 3D as well as high precision site-selective sample preparation.
Surface analyses (electron and ion imaging, chemical mapping (EDS), crystallographic mapping (EBSD)), sub-surface analyses (3D imaging, 3D EDS, 3D EBSD) and unique in-situ ToF-SIMS analyses are able to be correlated with site specific atom probe tomography or TEM results which enables a thorough characterisation of highly complex materials on a wide range of length scales.
In this project the student will get trained to operate the FIB-SEM and will run a series of experiments in order to optimise the data collection and data analysis methods for 3D imaging and 3D microanalysis. Other projects involving the ToF-SIMS will also be available.
Supervisor: Dr David Saxey
Atom Probe Tomography works by dis-assembling materials one atom at a time, and using software to reconstruct their original 3D locations and chemical identities. It is a powerful tool for the characterisation of materials – unique in its ability to provide three-dimensional chemical information on the atomic scale. Although the technique has existed for some time, the past ten years have seen a rapid uptake, with over 100 machines now installed in laboratories around the world. The range of materials studied has also grown; from metal alloys, to semiconductor device structures, ceramics, and more recently geological materials.
The Geoscience Atom Probe facility, housed within the John de Laeter Centre, operates the first atom probe microscope to be dedicated to geo materials. As such, there are many new and interesting applications within this field, and many opportunities for original research into outstanding scientific problems. In addition to these applications, the physics of the technique itself is also an active area of research, with open questions surrounding the evaporation and ionisation of atoms from the sample under extremely high electric fields. There are also interesting problems in the analysis of the 3D chemical datasets, which can range in size beyond 10^8 atoms.
We are providing a number of opportunities for interested students to contribute to projects within the Geoscience Atom Probe facility, which would include the acquisition of atom probe data, as well as analysis and interpretation of the datasets. There are also opportunities to develop techniques and analysis tools to provide new methods of extracting information from the 3D data.
Supervisors: Dr Zakaria Quadir, Dr David Saxey and Dr William Rickard
Uranium is a key mineral for our national economy. This project involves developing methods for 3D tomography at the nanoscale to determine the location of uranium-rich sites in within a uranium-bearing rock, and thus facilitate to develop a uranium liberation processes for the WA minerals industry. This project involves TEM data acquisition with the FEI Talos TEM in the Microscopy & Microanalysis Facility (MMF) within Curtin’s centralised research infrastructure hub JdLC, and then, exploit the advanced capabilities of the 3D reconstruction software to develop a data visualization techniques.
Prof David Antoine specializes in the use of satellites and in situ optical data to understand oceanic processes and their links to climate and environmental changes. This work is largely based on data from NASA and ESA satellites, and our findings feedback into processing algorithms for these missions.
A number of Earth observation satellites orbit around our Planet, carrying “radiometersâ€. These instruments record the spectral radiance at the top of the atmosphere, which, after appropriate corrections, provides the spectral reflectance of the upper ocean layer. From the spectral changes of this reflectance, one can derive a number of key environmental quantities, such as the chlorophyll content of phytoplankton (the primary producers of the sea, underlying essentially all oceanic food webs), the sediment load (e.g., as produced by dredging operations), or the absorption by coloured dissolved organic matters (those substances that make the Swan river look like tea).
Key to using satellite observations is having in situ data for validating them. Prof. Antoine has obtained a unique time series of optical data in the Mediterranean Sea through the deployment of a large bio-optical Mooring. (BOUSSOLE: http://www.obs-vlfr.fr/Boussole/), and has also time series of similar measurements off Rottnest island, Perth.
Possible subjects are summarised below but, if you have any other idea that you think might involve satellite remote sensing, please feel free to come and discuss it. We can design a project to suit your interests.
Validation of satellite observations off Rottnest Island, Perth
The RSSRG has deployed a profiling mooring off Rottnest Island, Perth. This new equipment collects vertical profiles of optical and biological properties of waters at that site. The data set allows deriving the water reflectance, which can then be compared to the same parameter as delivered by satellite remote sensing instruments, in particular the “Ocean and Land Colour Imager†(OLCI) launched in 2016 by the European Space Agency (ESA) on board the Sentinel-3 satellite. The work will consist in processing the profiling mooring data set, sourcing the corresponding data from the satellite observations, and evaluating how well they match. The results will be communicated to the “Sentinel validation teamâ€, which is an international group of scientists working on the global evaluation of the quality of OLCI products, under ESA leadership.
Spatial and temporal scales of variations of phytoplankton off WA
Physical and biological properties of oceanic waters off Western Australia (WA) are largely influenced by the Leeuwin Current (LC), which is the major southward flow of warm, low-salinity tropical waters along WA coasts. It varies on inter-annual to decadal time scales, in particular under influence of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Mesoscale eddies in the Leeuwin Current have profound influence on temperature and chlorophyll distributions in the region. For example, the warm-core eddies that spin off from the LC have a significant effect on the level of productivity in the mid-west region. Here we propose to study the spatial and temporal scales of variation of phytoplankton off WA through the use of NASA and ESA satellite ocean colour remote sensing products. Archives of such products date back to 1998 and, therefore, allow studying seasonal, inter-annual and decadal changes.
Optical properties of waters off WA
Phytoplankton are the microscopic unicellular algae living in the top layers of the ocean, where light and nutrients are available for these organisms to develop through the photosynthetic process. They are the basis of the marine food web and are therefore a key component of marine ecosystems. The RSSRG has deployed a profiling mooring off Rottnest Island, Perth, which collects vertical profiles of water optical and biological properties in view of getting better insight about time changes of phytoplankton and their distribution within the water column. Among these properties are the phytoplankton chlorophyll fluorescence, which is a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, the particle optical backscattering coefficient, which is a proxy for the amount and type of particulate matter in the water, and the absorption coefficient, which provides additional information on the influence of particulate matter (in particular phytoplankton) on the water optical properties. The work we propose here would combine these different parameters to provide insights into phytoplankton dynamics on that site.
The underwater light regime in the Eastern Indian Ocean off WA
In May-June 2019, the RSSRG participated to a 1-month research voyage on R/V Investigator (see links below), exploring waters of the Eastern Indian Ocean (EIO) off WA, from 40°S to 10S along the 110°E longitude. During this voyage we have sampled optical and phytoplankton properties of the upper (0-200m) water column, and we have also measured the underwater light field and the light (the “radianceâ€) leaving the surface ocean. The latter is the one that then travels through the atmosphere and is recorded by satellite instruments orbiting around the Earth. Here we propose to work on comparing various ways of getting the “water-leaving radiance†either from extrapolating measurements taken by instruments that are deployed below the surface or from instruments that are installed on the ship and measure the water-leaving radiance from above the surface.
Find out more on RSSRG and learn more about the research voyage.
Net Community Production in the Eastern Indian Ocean
Supervisor: Charlotte Robinson
In May-June 2019, the RSSRG participated to a 1-month research voyage on R/V Investigator (see links below), exploring waters of the Eastern Indian Ocean (EIO) off WA, from 40°S to 10S along the 110°E longitude. One objective of the expedition was to study the biological carbon pump at the base of the food chain by measuring the marine microbial primary productivity using radiocarbon isotopes (14C) and net community production with a state-of-the-art equilibrator mass-inlet spectrometer system (EIMS) that measures dissolved oxygen-argon ratios. These measurements, combined with ancillary measurements of temperature, salinity, available light, physical mixing and phytoplankton characteristics such as community composition, size, carbon content and pigmentation will contribute to a mechanistic understanding of carbon export production in the oligotrophic Eastern Indian Ocean. Working with Dr Charlotte Robinson, the student will learn to quality control oceanographic data, compute net community production using the EIMs data and other physical and chemical oceanographic data and contribute to a journal publication on the biological pump and carbon export potential of marine microbes in the Eastern Indian Ocean. Interested students should be comfortable with working in and processing data in Matlab, Python or R.
Find out more on RSSRG and on Cassar Lab.
Supervisor: Mervyn Lynch
Co-supervisor: Helen Chedzey
The two extremes of cloud cover are totally clear skies or total cloud cover. With ~ 70 % of the Earth cloud-covered at any time, partial cloud cover is the most likely condition. The global modulating effect of clouds on climate is a key controller of global warming with, in principle, a 4% change in cloud cover able to reverse the current impact of CO2 warming. The temperature of the land surface due to incoming solar radiation is reduced the higher the surface reflectivity in the visible spectral region. However, the ability of the land surface to cool is enhanced if the emissivity of the surface is high in the infrared region of the spectrum. The interplay of these two physical processes is important in understanding global warming and climate change but also in phenomena such as the urban heat island effect. For example, greening suburbs increases their overall infrared emissivity. The project will involve field campaigns using infrared sensors to explore the subtleties of these thermodynamic processes for different surfaces and environmental conditions.
Supervisor: Mervyn Lynch
Co-supervisor: Helen Chedzey
Optical communication links (eg using encoded laser beams) provide much higher bandwidths than are possible to achieve with radio communication links such as wi-fi. For high bandwidth duplex optical communications between the surface-based facilities and orbiting satellites, cloud cover and atmospheric turbulence are serious limiting operating factor frequently requiring use of multiple well-spatially separated ground stations. However, operators of these systems are able to function when thin clouds are present. Deciding in advance as to whether a cloud is thin or thick is more challenging, particularly at night time. The approach is to employ ground-based infrared remote sensing to establish the relationship between a cloud’s optical transmittance (optical depth) and its infrared emissivity since the latter can be measured. The project will use infrared sensors to investigate water and ice clouds and validate their properties. The project is linked to the establishment of ground-based infrastructure
Centre for marine science and technology
Underwater acoustics
I carry out research in the Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST). My main area of interest is underwater acoustics, although I also dabble in underwater vehicles, oceanography, musical acoustics, and signal processing in general.
Acoustic particle velocity sensors
Underwater sound measurements are usually carried out using hydrophones that measure sound pressure, however fish and some other marine animals sense the motion of water particles caused by the sound waves instead. Sensing particle velocity is more difficult than sensing pressure but has the advantage of indicating the direction the sound wave is travelling in, and for environmental applications provides a direct measure of what animals with this type of hearing are sensing. The aim of this project is to develop and characterise an accelerometer based particle velocity sensor suitable for use in a laboratory tank.
Modelling mechanical stresses in animals exposed to very loud underwater sounds (with Assoc. Prof. Rob McCauley)
The aim of this project is to model the internal mechanical stresses in marine species such as zooplankton, shellfish and fish that result when these animals are subject to the very loud sounds produced by the airgun arrays that are used for offshore seismic exploration. This would involve the application of analytical and numerical techniques of increasing sophistication, and has direct application to current concerns about the environmental impacts of these surveys.
Using propeller noise as a sound source for subbottom profiling
Boat propellers generate high levels of underwater noise over a wide frequency range. It should be possible to use this noise as a sound source for a simple sonar that would provide information about the layering of sediments in the top few metres of the seabed. A preliminary experiment, carried out in 2009, showed some promise, and it would be good to develop this idea further.
Ship noise in Australian marine habitats
The marine soundscape can be split into its biophony (the sounds of whales, dolphins, fish, crustaceans etc.), geophony (the sounds of wind, rain, waves, ice etc.) and anthrophony (the sounds of human/industrial operations). Ship traffic is the most persistent source of man-made noise in the marine environment—with potentially significant bioacoustic impacts on marine fauna, most of which rely heavily on acoustics for their critical life functions. CMST has recorded the marine soundscape around Australia for 15 years at various sites. Using publicly available position logs of large vessels, we can 1) compute received levels of individual ships, 2) calculate source levels of individual ships by sound propagation modelling, and 3) determine the contribution of shipping to the local noise budgets. This project will suit a mathematically skilled student with some experience in scientific software development, data analysis and numerical modelling. An acoustic background is NOT necessary.
Black Cockatoos Calling
We are looking for two Honours students interested in studying cockatoo acoustics for a year. Black cockatoos, Calyptorhynchus sp., are endangered and specially protected in Western Australia. There is a regular citizen science survey, called the Great Cocky Count, which has provided crucial information on black cockatoo populations.
Cockatoos are noisy. They produce sounds that differ by species, age, gender and behaviour. We want to explore whether passive acoustic listening can provide additional data on population size, distribution and demographics. We have preliminary recordings of Carnaby’s cockatoos near the Curtin University Bentley campus, and of red-tailed black cockatoos in John Forrest National Park. The Honours students will be involved in additional field work, including recordings and visual observations, establish a call repertoire of these two species, correlate calls with behaviour and demographic parameters, and potentially look at changes in calling behaviour as a function of human disturbance.
The bioacoustic repertoire of Australian striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba)
Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) are an offshore, pelagic species of dolphin, which are most commonly seen along the edge of the continental shelf or over deep-water canyons. We have little information about the Australian population. Threats are direct catches, fisheries bycatch and pollution. Curtin University’s Centre for Marine Science & Technology has photographic and passive acoustic data for this species, and we are looking for a 1-year Honour’s student to study the bioacoustics of Australian striped dolphins, with the overall aim of characterising their sound repertoire to aid long-term passive acoustic monitoring. We are hoping to fill this position as soon as possible, January 2017 the latest. Depending on timing, there might be opportunities for additional field work.
Variability in acoustic tag performance and detection range
Acoustic tags are increasingly used to track behavioural patterns of numerous marine species, but the long-term performance of the pinging tags and stationary receivers is rarely tested. Biofouling of the receivers, for example, holds potential to significantly reduce performance, affecting the results of marine studies. This project aims to assess directionality, source levels and detection ranges of some acoustic tags in a practical environment and the propagation of their signals. A number of acoustic tag receivers are located at the Mullaloo Beach Lab site. Working in collaboration with Mullaloo Beach Surf LifeSavers tags are to be periodically located in and around the array while tag source levels are also tested. Matlab programming skills will be developed. Kayaking experience preferred.
Acoustic remote sensing of the marine environment
I carry out research in the Centre for Marine Science and Technology. My main area of interest is underwater acoustics, particularly acoustic remote sensing of the marine environment.
Projects
- Measuring and modelling of seafloor backscatter
- Detection of marine gas seeps using acoustic techniques
- Underwater acoustic monitoring of marine fauna
Stereoscopic imaging
Stereoscopic 3D Displays are increasingly being used in a wide range of application areas including scientific visualisation, industrial automation, medical imaging as well as gaming and home entertainment. The Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST) has been conducting research into stereoscopic imaging topics for the past 20+ years. Over the past few years several third year physics students have worked on projects related to 3D displays and have revealed some very interesting results. Projects in this area would interest students with an interest in optics, displays, visualisation, and/or data analysis.
Improving the Spectral Quality of Inks for Low Crosstalk Printed 3D Images
A recent journal paper has identified that spectrally impure inks are a major source of crosstalk in printed anaglyph 3D images. The purpose of this project would be to perform optical measurements on a range of new ink types to find inks which offer better spectral performance for 3D purposes. The project will also involve some sleuthing to investigate whether some new technologies, such as quantum dots, might offer some opportunities for better ink spectral quality. A Matlab program is available which can be used to simulate the 3D performance of different inks types. The project may also offer the opportunity for the student to learn about colour management in printers as another way of improving 3D print quality. The mentioned journal paper found that there is considerable opportunity to improve 3D print quality we just need to test the proposed methods. There is prospect for a conference or journal paper to come out of this work.
Planetary science
Supervisors: A/Prof. Katarina Miljkovic
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year
Description:
Water ice on the Moon exists in so-called permanently shadowed craters, located in lunar pole. They are a major resource of water, important not only to support human existence in a lunar base, but also as fuel for interplanetary travel. This work will use shock physics hydrocode to investigate the formation of permanently shadowed craters located in lunar poles. It will then investigate mechanisms for these craters to retain any near surface water ice deposits. There is a direct application to the NASA Artemis mission that is planning human presence on the surface of the Moon in near future, but it also aligns with the latest NASA scientific missions to these permanently shadowed regions.
Supervisors: A/Prof. Katarina Miljkovic
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year
Description:
Mars has large amounts of water ice in the polar regions, not only as part of the polar caps, but also in shallow subsurface, buried under a thin layer of dusty soil, called the regolith. These buried icy sheets can extent to lower latitudes, depending on the season. Small craters can excavate water ice from underneath the soil. There is a large database of high-resolution orbital imagery of Mars that observed freshly made craters. This data can be used to further constrain the location and depth of this water ice layer. This work is to produce series of meter-size crater formation simulations, using a hydrocode made for impact crater modelling, and investigate the necessary depth of the ice sheet as a function of crater size on Mars. The implication of this work is such that it contributes to knowledge of where to look for habitable resources on Mars and future in-situ resource utilisation.
Applied mathematics
Supervisors: Prof Victor Calo
Numerous phenomena from different areas of science and engineering are modelled by time-dependent partial differential equations. In general, it is impossible to find their analytical solutions. Thus, one seeks numerical approximations. In order to obtain accurate approximations, one requires to solve a large linear algebra matrix problem, which is time-consuming.
This project aims to develop fast solvers for the resulting linear algebra systems. The main idea is to perform directional splittings. We split a multiple dimensional problem into a series of one-dimensional problems. This significantly reduces the overall cost for solving the matrix problem to be of linear cost.
Objectives:
- Write numerical simulators to study the performance of the splitting schemes;
- Analyse the stability and approximability of the splitting;
- Generalise the splitting schemes to solve other time-dependent problems.
Supervisors: Prof Victor Calo
At the interface between two chemically active metamorphic minerals, a new phase grows and nucleates. In general, the reaction product is a rim, and its morphology depends on the large volumetric stresses associated with the chemical processes, i.e., mass transport and chemical reaction, as well as the curvature of the mineral interface.
By using a chemo-mechanical framework for the interactions of multicomponent solids, this project aims to identify the conditions under which the morphology of the rim varies from a uniform to a non-uniform layer.
Objectives: The primary goals of this project are to:
- Understand the impact of the diffusion coefficients, reaction rates and mechanical properties in the chemo-mechanical framework to perform relevant numerical simulations; and
- Postprocess simulation results to verify the rim growth-controlling mechanism.
Supervisors: Prof Victor Calo
We seek to develop an accurate and robust forecasting model of the temporal and spatial contagion distribution of COVID-19 within the community. We are extending state-of-the-art epidemiological models to allow us to establish risk-balance tables that will facilitate stakeholder decision making. We will model different policy scenarios to capture their impact on COVID-19 propagation and, more importantly, its impact on the health outcomes of the WA population. Once the model is validated and tuned to replicate COVID-19 propagation patterns, this simulator will allow decision-makers to assess how different policies may contribute to the propagation of COVID-19 within the community. Data from other regions may be necessary to model individual-to-individual contagion rates as well as recovery pace and deaths. These models will also seek to capture how public adherence to these policies will impact individual health outcomes as well as strains on the health system. This combination will allow the WA government to fine-tune the policies to minimize their impact on the population while maximizing the reduction of COVID cases.
Computational biophysics
The beta amyloid-amylin interaction: is there a molecular link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease? Biophysical and molecular simulation studies
Type-2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with an increased risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The molecular mechanisms behind this association are, however, not well understood. Both of these age-related, chronic diseases feature the accumulation of amyloid protein aggregates (beta amyloid or Aβ in the brain in AD and amylin in the pancreas in T2D). Recent studies at Curtin suggest that Aβ and amylin can co-exist in AD brain and synergistically interact to potentiate cell death and amyloid deposition. These findings suggest that amylin may cross-aggregate with Aβ, forming stable molecular complexes with increased toxicity. The direct interaction of these amyloid proteins is poorly understood, but could play a major role in the genesis and progression of pathological conditions in the brain and pancreas.
This project will offer the opportunity to use either biophysical or molecular dynamics simulation methods to study the interactions of Aβ and amylin and the structure of Aβ-amylin complexes. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) determinations will be used to obtain direct measurements of the kinetics and affinity of binding between Aβ and amylin, as well as of their interactions as pre-formed oligomers with model cell membranes. Molecular dynamics simulations will be used to investigate the structure of the oligomers formed between Aβ and amylin in phospholipid bilayers as well as the changes induced in the structure and stability of these membranes. The outcomes of the project will shed much needed light into the cross-seeding mechanisms that underlie the pathological roles of these proteins in AD and T2D, which could be targeted with anti-aggregation drug molecules.
Origins of life: how did simple biomolecules stabilise early proto-cell membranes?
Primordial cells (protocells) are presumed to have combined primitive nucleic acids (most likely RNAs) that acted as catalysts and carriers of genetic information, within a protective membrane made up of amphiphilic molecules. The aggregation of simple amphiphiles such as fatty acids, which have been found in meteorites, would have led to the spontaneous formation of simple vesicles. Recent experimental evidence suggests that certain nucleic acid bases, amino acids and sugars can stabilize these vesicles against the deleterious effects of high salt concentrations that likely existed on Earth nearly 4 billion years ago. However, the molecular mechanism of formation and stabilization of these vesicles under harsh prebiotic conditions remains unknown, as is the reason of why specific nucleic acid bases and sugars were selected through biophysical evolution.
This project will use molecular dynamics simulations to characterize the stability of model membranes made of simple fatty acids and representative of lipid vesicles with and without a high concentration of salt and with and without simple sugar molecules, amino acids and nucleic acid bases. The predicted structure and stability of these lipid membranes will provide insights into how certain simple organic molecules were selected by biophysical evolution to stabilize these precursors to proto-cells in early Earth.
Would you go into cryogenic storage? A molecular simulation study of the damage that cryopreservation does to cell membranes.
Cryopreservation (the storage of cell and tissues at liquid nitrogen temperatures: -196°C) requires the use of so-called cryosolvents to promote the vitrification of water to minimize ice formation. Cryosolvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide, glycerol and ethylene glycol can cross cell membranes, inducing vitrification inside cells. These agents, however, are toxic to cells and can indeed damage cell membranes themselves by changing their structure and functionality.
This project will use molecular dynamics simulations to predict the changes to the structure and stability of model cell membranes in the presence of aqueous solutions of different polyalcohols and sugar alcohols commonly used in cryosolvent mixtures, such as ribitol, xylitol, inositol, erythritol, mannitol and sorbitol. Elucidation of the mechanism of interaction of such poly-hydroxylated molecules with cell membranes will allow the future rational design of optimal multi-component aqueous mixtures of cryosolvents with improved cryopreservation properties. This will have applications in areas as diverse as the freezing of eggs and embryos and the preservation of germplasm from endangered plants.
Industry projects
Petritek is looking for students (contact Alec Duncan in the first instance).
Project 1:
Petritek have designed a new type of sensor for performing much more accurate measurements in industry. At the moment it outputs arbitrary units. We would like a student to come and work with us to fully characterize how those arbitrary units can be translated into useful data under different scenarios. We can manufacture all of the test rigs etc. as necessary.
Project 2:
This project aims correct for scatter and other blur artefacts by measuring a dynamic point spread function across the scan volume and then deconvolving that function from real images.
- Local contact: Brendan McGann
- External contact: John Sutton
Aeolius Wind Systems (AWS) is a small WA based business which utilises advanced laser radar technology for measuring wind fields at prospective wind farm sites, and for forecasting power output from wind turbines.
AWS and Curtin University are sponsoring a PhD scholarship to further improve the accuracy of wind forecasting and is seeking a motivated and talented student to work with the team. The proposed research themes are listed below.
An honours project to improve the pointing accuracy of an existing laser stabilisation system is also on offer.
The research will also provide a potential pathway for the successful student to gain employment in the renewables industry sector.
Interested students should contact John Sutton in the first instance on 0417 919 415 or aeoliuswindsystems@gmail.com.
PhD – Project Themes
- Hybrid Wind Forecaster
Research aim:
- Evaluate novel approaches for improving the accuracy of 10-minutes-ahead wind energy forecasts through the use of a hybrid lidar/machine learning strategy. In this context, the large spatial data sets of 3-D wind field behaviour upstream of the windfarms generated by lidar will be used to train machine leaning tools. This varies significantly from current practices where the forecast is based on measured windspeed at the windfarm itself;
- Develop and evaluate prototype (s) neural network models for application at targeted windfarms. These windfarms operate in different environments (terrestrial, shoreline and offshore) and involve a range of atmospheric conditions affecting forecast skill;
- Undertake a benefit cost analysis and economic assessment of the financial and operational impacts arising from the use of the forecaster at the selected windfarm under operational settings. Project the impacts across the broader Australian Power network.
- Real time wind lidar processing and low signal-to-noise ration reconstruction based on convolutional neural network.
Research Aim:
- Investigate strategies for enhancing the measurement range/sensitivity of newly developed Coherent Doppler lidar technology using convolutional neural network or similar machine learning technologies. The research will develop novel approaches for extracting Doppler shift values from the raw data at very low signal to noise ratios with the objective of improving instrument measurement range.
- Evaluate the skill of various strategies using data from long range solid state and fibre lidars in different environments/atmospheric conditions. The researcher will have access to large data sets from marine and terrestrial environments, and the opportunity to design and run experiments using measurement infrastructure at various wind farms.
Honours Project
- Precision Laser Pointing System
Long range scanning lidar retrieves three spatial dimensions windspeed data by rotating an infra-red laser beam through azimuth and elevation angles. Measurement range of new technology now exceeds 25km. The quality of the data is dependent on the correct calibration of the beam angle. Instruments are deployed for long periods during which the device may move due to mechanical vibration. The movement results in significant drift in the inclination from the initial calibrated angle.
Research Aim:
- Evaluate the skill of an existing electro-mechanical angle adjustment system to identify opportunities for improvement. The adjustment system is currently configured for use on a Lockheed Martin WindTracer lidar which is available for the research;
- Develop strategies for improving the pointing accuracy of the lidar using more advanced, commercially available components (e.g. Precision servo-inclinometer, step motors). The objective is to improve measurement accuracy fourfold.
- Construct a prototype system and undertake tests to confirm performance on operating lidar platforms. Resources to purchase required components will be made available for the exercise.
Supervisors: Dr Pouran Hudson, Dr Mauricio Di Lorenzo, Prof. Craig Buckley
Hydrogen Storage Research Group
Replacing diesel with green hydrogen in trucks will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% in road transport in WA. The following two projects are perfect for anyone interested in the practical side of physics and exploring pathways into entering business and industry.
By joining these projects, you will be part of a national team (including UWA, Griffith university, and industry partners ATCO, BGC and Main Roads WA) to conduct a techno-economic-environmental analysis of green hydrogen for heavy road transport vehicles in WA.
The projects can be done as Physics Project 1 and Physics Project 2 in semester one or two. They can also be expanded into honours projects.
Project A: Green Hydrogen for Fuelling Heavy Haul Vehicles in WA: Literature Review
You will conduct a literature review of available technologies for hydrogen-fuelled trucks, heavy vehicles, refuelling stations, and mobile plants and compare them against competing technologies such as fossil fuels and electrical batteries.
Project B: Green Hydrogen for Fuelling Heavy Haul Vehicles in WA: Tools
You will explore software and excel spreadsheets to assess available technologies for hydrogen-fuelled trucks and refuelling stations and compare them against competing technologies such as fossil fuels and electrical batteries.
Medical research sciences
Supervisors: Dr Peter Fearns
Description:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) uses differences in magnetisation relaxation times T1 and T2 to differentiate tissues and structures in patients. The Bloch equations describe the nuclear magnetisation as a function of time. Spatial data is formed through a series of electromagnetic excitation and read-out pulses. We would like to use a Bloch Simulator, Sycamore, to demonstrate basic pulse sequences then test the applicability of Sycamore for modelling Fast Low Angle Shot (FLASH) gradient echo sequences. Sycamore is python based with a C++ backend.