PhD studentship in Astrophysics - Weighing Galactic Black Holes with X-rays

Award summary

100% home tuition fees covered, and a minimum tax-free annual living allowance of £20,780 (2025/26 UKRI rate). Funds are also available for travel and other research expenses.

Overview

Material falling onto a black hole glows brightly in X-rays, lighting up the vicinity of the event horizon. This process happens for black holes in our Galaxy that are in a close binary system with a normal star. Measuring the mass of these black holes informs on their formation mechanism, but traditional optical techniques are not accessible for ~2/3 of the known systems due to obscuration. This PhD project will focus on making pioneering mass measurements of black holes using the X-ray signal, for which obscuration is not a problem. The technique we will use is X-ray reverberation mapping – exploiting the echo that is created when X-rays from close to the black hole reflect off the accreting material on their way to our telescope. There will be scope for both observational and theoretical work, as we develop ever more sophisticated reverberation mapping models that account for general relativistic and radiative transfer effects, and apply them to state-of-the-art data from observatories such as the NASA missions NICER, NuSTAR and IXPE.

Number of awards: 1

Start date: 1^st October 2026

Award duration: 4 years

Sponsor: European Research Council (Consolidator Grant project X-MAPS)

Supervisors: Dr Adam Ingram

Eligibility criteria

You must have, or expect to gain, a minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a subject relevant to the proposed PhD project (Physics, Astrophysics, or closely related disciplines). Applicants whose first language is not English require an IELTS score of 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in all sub-skills.

The studentship covers fees at the Home rate (UK and EU applicants with pre-settled/settled status and meet the residency criteria). International applicants are welcome to apply but will be required to cover the difference between Home and International fees.

International applicants may require an ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Scheme) clearance certificate prior to obtaining their visa and to study on this programme.

How to apply

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal

Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.

Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:

• Search for the ‘Course Title’ using the programme code: 8821F
• Please leave the Research Area blank
• Select ‘PhD Physics Theoretical (full time) as the programme of study 

You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Details’ section:  

• A ‘Personal Statement’ (this is a mandatory field) - upload a document that states how your interests and experience relate to this project.
• The studentship code MSP105 in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field.
• When prompted regarding your research proposal - select ‘Write Proposal’. You should then type in the title of the research project from this advert. You do not need to upload a research proposal.

In the ‘Supporting Documentation’ section please upload:

• Your CV

You must submit one application per studentship, you cannot apply for multiple studentships on one application.

Contact details

Dr Adam Ingram

School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics

Email: adam.ingram@newcastle.ac.uk

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