Nikhef, the national institute for subatomic physics in The Netherlands, is looking for 

Two PhD students in experimental particle physics (ATLAS, H->bb/cc)The Nikhef organisation

The Nikhef Organization
Nikhef is the national institute for subatomic physics in The Netherlands. At Nikhef, approximately 175 physicists and 75 technical staff members work together in an open and international scientific environment. Together, they perform theoretical and experimental research in the fields of particle and astroparticle physics. The Nikhef institute is a collaboration between six major Dutch universities and the Dutch Foundation for Scientific Research (NWO).
 
Nikhef participates in large research collaborations, including the ATLAS, LHCb and ALICE experiments at CERN, the KM3NeT neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean, the VIRGO interferometer in Pisa, the Xenon1T dark matter experiment in Gran Sasso, the Pierre Auger cosmic ray observatory in Argentina and the eEDM research programme in Groningen. Nikhef also hosts a group in theoretical physics, and groups for Physics Data Processing and detector R&D, all with good connections to the experimental programs.

The Nikhef ATLAS group
The Nikhef ATLAS group consists of groups in Amsterdam and Nijmegen, for a total of 15 staff, and typically 5 postdocs and 20 PhD students. As a founding member of the ATLAS collaboration, the group has a long-term involvement in both detector construction (the semiconductor tracker, barrel muon chambers, readout, alignment, and data acquisition) as well as operations (trigger and muon tracking reconstruction). For the phase-2 upgrade (2025-2027), we will assemble and commission one of the end-caps of  an new all-silicon inner tracking system (ITk) in Amsterdam and develop a new universal readout system (FELIX) for all ATLAS detector systems. 
 
The group also has a strong record in physics data analysis, with strong focus on Higgs boson physics, top quark physics and searches for new physics signatures.Nikhef also hosts an ATLAS Tier-1 data processing center, and offers substantial additional computing resources for end-user data analysis and simulation.
 
The positions
We aim to study heavy-flavour Higgs boson decays to further our understanding of the Higgs mechanism as the origin of mass. These studies will exploit the sizeable Higgs data sample collected by ATLAS in LHC Run-2 as well as the expected further data to be collected in Run-3 (2023-2025). 

The first PhD project focuses on the experimental identification of particle jets that contain charm quarks using exclusive or semi-inclusive reconstruction ofspecific decay modes of charmed-hadron inside these jets. Multivariate machine learning methods will be studied to further improve the charm identification analysis. The main goal of the project is to improve the experimental sensitivity of the physics data analysis of the so-far unseen Higgs bosons decays into charm quarks (H -> cc).
 
The second PhD project focuses on the study of the high-momentum tail of H -> bb decays. These high-momentum decays are predicted to have enhanced sensitivity to contributions from beyond-the-Standard-Model physics at high energy scales and are therefore of special interest. The research focus will be on improving the identification and specialized mass reconstruction aspects of these boosted decays, as well as interpretation of the resulting measurements measurements in terms of the Standard Model Effective Field Theories (SMEFT).
 
The positions offered here are part of a NWO-funded physics program “At the heart of the Higgs”, which will comprise 7 PhD positions and 3 postdoc positions at Nikhef in the period 2021-2026 all focused on Higgs boson physics, complemented with 9 Nikhef staff scientists that offer supervision, networking opportunities and a specialized training program in data analysis techniques and Higgs boson physics. A postdoc candidate to work with the PhD candidates on these projects is being simultaneously recruited.

Requirements
We are looking for PhD candidates with an (almost) completed Master degree in high-energy physics or in a closely related field. The ideal candidate has a strong interest in data analysis, has good software skills (C++, Python, ROOT) and has (some) research experience in experimental particle physics and Machine Learning techniques.

Offer
The candidate will be employed by the NWO-I-foundation and will obtain the status of junior scientist. She/he will receive a 4 year contract. The gross monthly starting salary will be € 2.407,-, increasing to € 3.085,- in the fourth year. The conditions of employment of the NWO-I-foundation are excellent and can be found on www.nwo-i.nl. All PhD students at Nikhef are enrolled in the national research school for subatomic physics that offers multiple summer schools as well as a continuing advanced education program in particles physics.

Application
Qualified applicants are encouraged to apply by clicking the 'Apply Now' button below. Please be prepared to upload a curriculum vitae, a brief motivation letter and a statement of research interests, as well as to give the email addresses of at least one referee who is willing to send a letter of recommendation on your behalf.
The deadline for applications is Dec 8th, 2020. Further information on these positions can be obtained from dr. Tristan du Pree (tdupree@nikhef.nl), dr. Frank Filthaut (F.Filthaut@science.ru.nl) or prof. dr. Nicolo de Groot (N.deGroot@hef.ru.nl)
 
All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.