High-precision studies of eclipsing binary stars observed using space telescopes

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The study of eclipsing binary star systems is one of the most mature and rewarding areas of stellar physics, offering the unique opportunity to determine the masses and radii of distant stars directly from observational data. This area of research is currently experiencing a renaissance, due to the remarkable quality and quantity of data coming from space-based searches for extrasolar planets. Major contributors to this new era are the recent Kepler and CoRoT telescopes, the ongoing K2 and BRITE missions, and the forthcoming space satellites TESS and PLATO. The successful candidate will study eclipsing binary star systems which have been observed with the Kepler, K2, CoRoT and BRITE telescope missions. Follow-up spectroscopic observations have already been obtained for some of these objects and opportunities exist to visit large telescopes to obtain spectroscopic observations of others. The fundamental aim of this project is to verify and improve the predictions of theoretical models of stars, which form the foundation of most areas of observational and theoretical astrophysics.