PhD Students

María Cebrián Renau Formation and Evolution of Galaxies

My PhD thesis project is supervised by Dr. I. Trujillo, and is focused in studying small satellite galaxies around massive galaxies: morphology, stellar mass function, stellar populations... We use deep images from two state-of-the-art surveys: the Stripe 82 SDSS for the local universe and the ESO/GTC SHARDS for the high-z galaxy population. The continuous accretion of smaller satellite galaxies, has been proposed as the driver of the deep transforamtion suffered by massive galaxies since z~2, making them them a key part in the understanding of the galaxy evolution.

Inés Camacho Iñesta Stellar and Interstellar Physics
My PhD thesis project is supervised by Dr. A. Herrero and Dr. M. García. The main porpuse of the thesis is to test the predictions of current theories about the winds and evolution of massive stars and their interplay with their surroundings and their host galaxy by analyzing selected stars and stellar regions of differents galaxies of different metallicity. Massive stars play a key role in the chemistry and dynamics of the Universe, particularly in the structure and evolution of stars and galaxies. The study of the behavior of the physical properties of massive stars in very metal-poor environments will help us to understand the early Universe and the reionization period.

Daniel Mata Sánchez Stellar and Interstellar Physics

My PhD thesis project is supervised by Dr. J. Casares and is related to X-Ray Binaries (XRBs), interacting systems with a "normal" donor star and a compact object surrounded by an accretion disk due to the infalling material. Transient XRBs show recurrent bursts which allow their detection by X-Ray satellites, and give information about their fundamental parameters. The main goal of the PhD thesis is measuring new transient XRBs parameters (mass, inclination angle and separation), as well as exploring new techniques to obtain dynamical masses in XRBs strongly irradiated.

Rui J. Marques Coelho Chaves Formation and Evolution of Galaxies

Ernest Alsina Ballester Solar Physics

Ismael García Bernete Formation and Evolution of Galaxies

Ana Belén Griñón Marín Solar Physics

David Morate González Exoplanets and Solar System

My PhD thesis project is supervised by Dr. J. Licandro and Dr. J. de León, and aims to study and determine the composition of a significant number of primitive asteroids, both near-Earth and main belt asteroids, and provide quantitative tests of the dynamical models that explain their origin and evolution by obtaining ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectra of three different but related groups: primitive asteroids classified as B-types (main belt), asteroids of the Polana and Erigone primitive families, and primitive near-Earth asteroids.

Antonio Ferragamo Cosmology and Astroparticles
My PhD thesis project is supervised by J.A. Rubiño y R. Barrena. The project is divided in two parts. First, the optical follow-up and study of galaxy clusters detected by the Planck satellite by means of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We propose to confirm and characterize the clusters of this sample, which will allow us to estimate more accurate cosmological parameters. Secondly, the design of an optimal cluster detection algorithm, to be tested with existing data (ITP, ESO, SDSS, BOSS and VISTA) . The new algorithm will be used also for the scientific preparation of the future Euclid mission.

Pedro González Morales Solar Physics

My PhD thesis project is supervised by Dr. E. Khomenko and Dr. M. Collados. Simulations of magnetohydrodynamic waves from the photosphere to the chromosphere will be done to study the formation of structures as the halos or other phenomena due to the strong magnetic field of solar active regions as sunspots. The numerical code, developed by the solar physics group at IAC, will be modified to include a realistic equation of state given by the OPAL project as well as the possibility of include different multi-source models.

David Sánchez Aguado Stellar and Interstellar Physics
My PhD thesis project is supervised by C. Allende Prieto and J.I. Gonzalez Hernández. The most metal-poor stars in the Milky Way witnessed the formation of the Galaxy, and have chemical compositions that are close to the pristine mixture from Big Bang nucleosynthesis, polluted by one or very few supernovae. We propose to follow-up candidates to extremely metal-poor stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I obtained my master degree in Theoretical Physics at UCM in 2013. My master thesis was about p-adic string cosmology. During 2012 I studied OH-IR stars at the European Space Astronomy Center (Villafranca) supervised by F. Jimenez-Esteban.

Luis Cicuéndez Salazar Formation and Evolution of Galaxies
My PhD thesis is supervised by Dr. Giuseppina Battaglia and focuses on the dwarf galaxies that surround the Milky Way. The internal kinematics of their individual stars indicate that these are the galaxies with the largest ratio of dark versus luminous matter. However, their vicinity to the Milky Way can potentially alter their characteristics. In this project I will study the impact of the Milky Way onto what is inferred about the dark matter content of these galaxies, as well as investigate the possibility that some of the faintest dwarf galaxies may in fact be dark-matter-free stellar clusters.

Melania Cubas Armas Solar Physics
My PhD thesis is supervised by Dr. Héctor Socas Navarro and Dr. Andrés Asensio Ramos and its goal is to derive the solar abundances from 3D empirical models. For this purpose, the 3D model of Socas-Navarro (2011; 2013) and observations from atlas will be used . Further, observations of the photosphere and sunspots will be obtained to compare their chemical compositions. Finally, we expect to modify the NICOLE code (Socas-Navarro et al. 2013) to include CO and OH molecular bands on the synthesis. 

Amanda María del Olmo García Formation and Evolution of Galaxies
My PhD thesis is directed by Dr. J. Sánchez Almeida and Dra. C. Muñoz Tuñón. Galaxy disks are formed through accretion of cold pristine gas from the cosmic web, known as "cold-flow". The purpose of this project is to characterize a sample of galaxies in the local Universe undergoing cold-flow accretion, paying attention to the spatial variation of metallicity and its coupling with kinematic distortions. We will also look for cosmic web gas around these targets through deep Halpha imaging.

Carlos José Díaz Baso Solar Physics
My PhD thesis project is supervised by Dr. M. J. Martínez González and aims to improve our understanding of the magnetism of solar prominences. Analyzing the polarization of spectral lines sensitive to the Zeeman and Hanle effects using inversion codes, we will study in detail the dynamics, magnetic field topology of these structures, and their connectivity with the photosphere. It is also proposed to study the newly discovered solar tornadoes that seem to be associated with the feet of prominences. 

Pablo Arrabal Haro Formation and Evolution of Galaxies
My PHD project is leaded by Dr. J. M. Rodríguez Espinosa and Dra. C. Muñoz Tuñón and its main goal is to detect and quantify the sources responsible of the re-ionization of the Universe by studying the population of star forming galaxies at z~6, both Lyα Emitters (LAEs) and Ly Break Galaxies (LBGs). To do so, we are going to use very recent and deep data from the ESO/GTC SHARDS survey. We expect to obtain much better luminosity functions and therefore better estimations of the ionizing photon density.

Víctor Pérez Mesa Stellar and Interstellar Physics
My PhD thesis project is supervised by Dr. D. A. García-Hernández and Dr. O. Zamora and aims to study the nucleosynthesis in the more massive Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars and the possible influence of these stars during the formation of the Early Solar System. The main goal of this project is trying to elucidate the role of this type of stars to the Early Solar System composition.

Jorge Prieto Arranz Exoplanets and Solar System
My PhD thesis is conducted by Enric Pallé Bago and is aimed to participate in the follow-up efforts and study of exoplanets candidates from the K2 mission. This mission is providing a large number of new exoplanets around bright stars, some of them bright enough to be suitable for atmospheric characterization. This later characterization will be performed using the potential of the 10-meter GTC telescope in La Palma for transmission spectroscopy.

Francesca Pinna Formation and Evolution of Galaxies
My PhD project is supervised by Dr. Jesús Falcón Barroso. It is focused on studying the chemo-dynamical properties of thick disks in spirals, by means of integral-field spectroscopy. On the one hand, we want to find out which mechanisms drive the formation of the thick disks, by relating observations with predictions from simulations. On the other hand we will be able to understand the build-up of the Hubble sequence, by comparing the properties of the thick disks with the surrounding components (thin disks and bulges).

Carina Fian Cosmology and Astroparticles
My PhD thesis project is supervised by Dr. Evencio Mediavilla and is related to the application of gravitational lensing. The main goal is to study the structure of quasars and the gravitational lenses themselves from microlensing variability. The study of the changes induced in the line profiles by microlensing will impose significant constraints on the geometry and kinematics of the Broad Line Region whereas changes in the continuum ratios between pairs of lensed images will inform about the size of quasar accretion disks.

Gaia Vanzo Cosmology and Astroparticles
My PhD thesis project is supervised by Prof. Ramon J. Garcia Lopez and by Dra. Monica Vazquez Acosta and it aims to study the extragalactic background light (EBL). The low energy photons of the EBL interact through pair production with the very high energy gamma rays coming from distant astrophysical sources, therefore attenuating the energy spectrum of such sources. Using the ground-based Cherenkov MAGIC telescopes, we will measure the gamma-ray energy spectrum produced by different extragalactic sources in order to obtain constrains on the EBL density.

TBD Solar Physics