Project acronym CeraText
Project Tailoring Microstructure and Architecture to Build Ceramic Components with Unprecedented Damage Tolerance
Researcher (PI) Raul BERMEJO
Host Institution (HI) MONTANUNIVERSITAET LEOBEN
Country Austria
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Advanced ceramics are often combined with metals, polymers or other ceramics to produce structural and functional systems with exceptional properties. Examples are resistors and capacitors in microelectronics, piezo-ceramic actuators in car injection devices, and bio-implants for hip joint replacements. However, a critical issue affecting the functionality, lifetime and reliability of such systems is the initiation and uncontrolled propagation of cracks in the brittle ceramic parts, yielding in some cases rejection rates up to 70% of components production.
The remarkable “damage tolerance” found in natural materials such as wood, bone or mollusc, has yet to be achieved in technical ceramics, where incipient damage is synonymous with catastrophic failure. Novel “multilayer designs” combining microstructure and architecture could change this situation. Recent work of the PI has shown that tuning the location of “protective” layers within a 3D multilayer ceramic can increase its fracture resistance by five times (from ~3.5 to ~17 MPa∙m1/2) relative to constituent bulk ceramic layers, while retaining high strength (~500 MPa). By orienting the grain structure, similar to the textured and organized microstructure found in natural systems such as nacre, the PI has shown that crack propagation can be controlled within the textured ceramic layer. Thus, I believe tailored microstructures with controlled grain boundaries engineered in a layer-by-layer 3D architectural design hold the key to a new generation of “damage tolerant” ceramics.
This proposal outlines a research program to establish new scientific principles for the fabrication of innovative ceramic components that exhibit unprecedented damage tolerance. The successful implementation of microstructural features (e.g. texture degree, tailored internal stresses, second phases, interfaces) in a layer-by-layer architecture will provide outstanding lifetime and reliability in both structural and functional ceramic devices.
Summary
Advanced ceramics are often combined with metals, polymers or other ceramics to produce structural and functional systems with exceptional properties. Examples are resistors and capacitors in microelectronics, piezo-ceramic actuators in car injection devices, and bio-implants for hip joint replacements. However, a critical issue affecting the functionality, lifetime and reliability of such systems is the initiation and uncontrolled propagation of cracks in the brittle ceramic parts, yielding in some cases rejection rates up to 70% of components production.
The remarkable “damage tolerance” found in natural materials such as wood, bone or mollusc, has yet to be achieved in technical ceramics, where incipient damage is synonymous with catastrophic failure. Novel “multilayer designs” combining microstructure and architecture could change this situation. Recent work of the PI has shown that tuning the location of “protective” layers within a 3D multilayer ceramic can increase its fracture resistance by five times (from ~3.5 to ~17 MPa∙m1/2) relative to constituent bulk ceramic layers, while retaining high strength (~500 MPa). By orienting the grain structure, similar to the textured and organized microstructure found in natural systems such as nacre, the PI has shown that crack propagation can be controlled within the textured ceramic layer. Thus, I believe tailored microstructures with controlled grain boundaries engineered in a layer-by-layer 3D architectural design hold the key to a new generation of “damage tolerant” ceramics.
This proposal outlines a research program to establish new scientific principles for the fabrication of innovative ceramic components that exhibit unprecedented damage tolerance. The successful implementation of microstructural features (e.g. texture degree, tailored internal stresses, second phases, interfaces) in a layer-by-layer architecture will provide outstanding lifetime and reliability in both structural and functional ceramic devices.
Max ERC Funding
1 985 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
Project acronym CITRES
Project Chemistry and interface tailored lead-free relaxor thin films for energy storage capacitors
Researcher (PI) Marco Deluca
Host Institution (HI) MATERIALS CENTER LEOBEN FORSCHUNG GMBH
Country Austria
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The goal of CITRES is to provide new energy storage devices with high power and energy density by developing novel multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) based on relaxor thin films (RTF).
Energy storage units for energy autonomous sensor systems for the Internet of Things (IoT) must possess high power and energy density to allow quick charge/recharge and long-time energy supply. Current energy storage devices cannot meet those demands: Batteries have large capacity but long charging/discharging times due to slow chemical reactions and ion diffusion. Ceramic dielectric capacitors – being based on ionic and electronic polarisation mechanisms – can deliver and take up power quickly, but store much less energy due to low dielectric breakdown strength (DBS), high losses, and leakage currents.
RTF are ideal candidates: (i) Thin film processing allows obtaining low porosity and defects, thus enhancing the DBS; (ii) slim polarisation hysteresis loops, intrinsic to relaxors, allow reducing the losses. High energy density can be achieved in RTF by maximising the polarisation and minimising the leakage currents. Both aspects are controlled by the amount, type and local distribution of chemical substituents in the RTF lattice, whereas the latter depends also on the chemistry of the electrode metal.
In CITRES, we will identify the influence of substituents on electric polarisation from atomic to macroscopic scale by combining multiscale atomistic modelling with advanced structural, chemical and electrical characterizations on several length scales both in the RTF bulk and at interfaces with various electrodes. This will allow for the first time the design of energy storage properties of RTF by chemical substitution and electrode selection.
The ground-breaking nature of CITRES resides in the design and realisation of RTF-based dielectric MLCCs with better energy storage performances than supercapacitors and batteries, thus enabling energy autonomy for IoT sensor systems.
Summary
The goal of CITRES is to provide new energy storage devices with high power and energy density by developing novel multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) based on relaxor thin films (RTF).
Energy storage units for energy autonomous sensor systems for the Internet of Things (IoT) must possess high power and energy density to allow quick charge/recharge and long-time energy supply. Current energy storage devices cannot meet those demands: Batteries have large capacity but long charging/discharging times due to slow chemical reactions and ion diffusion. Ceramic dielectric capacitors – being based on ionic and electronic polarisation mechanisms – can deliver and take up power quickly, but store much less energy due to low dielectric breakdown strength (DBS), high losses, and leakage currents.
RTF are ideal candidates: (i) Thin film processing allows obtaining low porosity and defects, thus enhancing the DBS; (ii) slim polarisation hysteresis loops, intrinsic to relaxors, allow reducing the losses. High energy density can be achieved in RTF by maximising the polarisation and minimising the leakage currents. Both aspects are controlled by the amount, type and local distribution of chemical substituents in the RTF lattice, whereas the latter depends also on the chemistry of the electrode metal.
In CITRES, we will identify the influence of substituents on electric polarisation from atomic to macroscopic scale by combining multiscale atomistic modelling with advanced structural, chemical and electrical characterizations on several length scales both in the RTF bulk and at interfaces with various electrodes. This will allow for the first time the design of energy storage properties of RTF by chemical substitution and electrode selection.
The ground-breaking nature of CITRES resides in the design and realisation of RTF-based dielectric MLCCs with better energy storage performances than supercapacitors and batteries, thus enabling energy autonomy for IoT sensor systems.
Max ERC Funding
1 996 519 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31
Project acronym GMM
Project Globalized Memorial Museums.Exhibiting Atrocities in the Era of Claims for Moral Universals
Researcher (PI) Ljiljana Radonic
Host Institution (HI) OESTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN
Country Austria
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The ‘universalization of the Holocaust’ has established the Shoah as an historical reference point legitimizing a global moral imperative to respect human rights. Much has been written about the ostensible ‘globalization of memory’, but as yet no genuinely global comparative study systematically confronting this hypothesis with the actual representations of atrocities exists. GMM breaks new ground by examining memorial museums on four continents, arguing that what is called ‘globalization’ in fact comprises three to some degree contradictory trends:
1) The US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem are role models for a universal moral orientation that focuses on the individual victim and generates aesthetic ‘standards’ for musealization.
2) The German concept of negative memory, self-critically confronting the crimes committed by her own population, has inspired museums to tackle the question of one’s own complicity in order to challenge collective self-victimization and the externalization of responsibility.
3) The genocides of the 1990s led to a ‘forensic turn’: the investigation of bones & other material evidence of atrocities has changed the way in situ memorial museums deal with material traces of violence. This shift has also impacted ‘old’ memorial sites like Sobibor, which has become a site of archaeological research after 70 years.
GMM examines 50 memorial museums dealing with
- the WWII period in the US, Israel, Europe, China, and Japan;
- recent genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Scholars claim that ‘globalized’ memorial museums reflect new moral standards and a new language of commemoration, but what is the price of the attendant de-contextualization in the name of moral universals? GMM’s wholly original global typology of memorial museums has the potential to act as a genuine game changer that challenges the concept of ‘universal memory’ and the notion that memorial museums constitute a globalized space of communication and negotiation.
Summary
The ‘universalization of the Holocaust’ has established the Shoah as an historical reference point legitimizing a global moral imperative to respect human rights. Much has been written about the ostensible ‘globalization of memory’, but as yet no genuinely global comparative study systematically confronting this hypothesis with the actual representations of atrocities exists. GMM breaks new ground by examining memorial museums on four continents, arguing that what is called ‘globalization’ in fact comprises three to some degree contradictory trends:
1) The US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem are role models for a universal moral orientation that focuses on the individual victim and generates aesthetic ‘standards’ for musealization.
2) The German concept of negative memory, self-critically confronting the crimes committed by her own population, has inspired museums to tackle the question of one’s own complicity in order to challenge collective self-victimization and the externalization of responsibility.
3) The genocides of the 1990s led to a ‘forensic turn’: the investigation of bones & other material evidence of atrocities has changed the way in situ memorial museums deal with material traces of violence. This shift has also impacted ‘old’ memorial sites like Sobibor, which has become a site of archaeological research after 70 years.
GMM examines 50 memorial museums dealing with
- the WWII period in the US, Israel, Europe, China, and Japan;
- recent genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Scholars claim that ‘globalized’ memorial museums reflect new moral standards and a new language of commemoration, but what is the price of the attendant de-contextualization in the name of moral universals? GMM’s wholly original global typology of memorial museums has the potential to act as a genuine game changer that challenges the concept of ‘universal memory’ and the notion that memorial museums constitute a globalized space of communication and negotiation.
Max ERC Funding
1 947 514 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
Project acronym KETJU
Project Post-Newtonian modelling of the dynamics of supermassive black holes in galactic-scale hydrodynamical simulations (KETJU)
Researcher (PI) Peter Hilding JOHANSSON
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Country Finland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE9, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses in the range ~10^6-10^10 M⊙ are found at the centres of all massive galaxies in the Local Universe. In the ΛCDM picture of structure formation galaxies grow bottom-up through mergers and gas accretion, leading to multiple SMBHs in the same stellar system. Current simulation codes are unable to resolve in a single simulation the full SMBH merging process, which involves dynamical friction, three-body interactions and finally gravitational wave (GW) emission. KETJU will provide a significant breakthrough in SMBH research by following for the first time accurately global galactic-scale dynamical and gaseous astrophysical processes, while simultaneously solving the dynamics of SMBHs, SMBH binaries and surrounding stellar systems at sub-parsec scales. Our code KETJU (the word for 'chain' in Finnish) is built on the GADGET-3 code and it includes regions around every SMBH in which the dynamics of SMBHs and stellar particles is modelled using a non-softened Post-Newtonian algorithmic chain regularisation technique. The remaining simulation particles far from the SMBHs are evolved using softened GADGET-3. Using KETJU we can study at unprecedented accuracy the dynamics of SMBHs to separations of ~10 Schwarzschild radii, the formation of cores in massive galaxies, the formation of nuclear stellar clusters and finally provide a realistic prediction for the amplitude and frequency distribution of the cosmological gravitational wave background. The UH theoretical extragalactic team is ideally suited for this project, as it has an unusually versatile background in modelling the dynamics, feedback and merging of SMBHs. KETJU is also particularly timely, as the spectacular direct detection of GWs in 2016 is paving the way for a new era in gravitational wave astronomy. Future space-borne GW observatories, such as the European Space Agency's LISA, require accurate global GW predictions in order to fully realise their science goals.
Summary
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses in the range ~10^6-10^10 M⊙ are found at the centres of all massive galaxies in the Local Universe. In the ΛCDM picture of structure formation galaxies grow bottom-up through mergers and gas accretion, leading to multiple SMBHs in the same stellar system. Current simulation codes are unable to resolve in a single simulation the full SMBH merging process, which involves dynamical friction, three-body interactions and finally gravitational wave (GW) emission. KETJU will provide a significant breakthrough in SMBH research by following for the first time accurately global galactic-scale dynamical and gaseous astrophysical processes, while simultaneously solving the dynamics of SMBHs, SMBH binaries and surrounding stellar systems at sub-parsec scales. Our code KETJU (the word for 'chain' in Finnish) is built on the GADGET-3 code and it includes regions around every SMBH in which the dynamics of SMBHs and stellar particles is modelled using a non-softened Post-Newtonian algorithmic chain regularisation technique. The remaining simulation particles far from the SMBHs are evolved using softened GADGET-3. Using KETJU we can study at unprecedented accuracy the dynamics of SMBHs to separations of ~10 Schwarzschild radii, the formation of cores in massive galaxies, the formation of nuclear stellar clusters and finally provide a realistic prediction for the amplitude and frequency distribution of the cosmological gravitational wave background. The UH theoretical extragalactic team is ideally suited for this project, as it has an unusually versatile background in modelling the dynamics, feedback and merging of SMBHs. KETJU is also particularly timely, as the spectacular direct detection of GWs in 2016 is paving the way for a new era in gravitational wave astronomy. Future space-borne GW observatories, such as the European Space Agency's LISA, require accurate global GW predictions in order to fully realise their science goals.
Max ERC Funding
1 953 569 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-07-01, End date: 2024-06-30
Project acronym LIFEMODE
Project Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology
Researcher (PI) Tarja Tellervo Knuuttila
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Country Austria
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology
Due to the latest technological advances in genetic engineering and space technology, scientists have developed strategies to engineer novel biological systems in laboratories, and to study through space telescopes the signs of possible life from other planets and solar systems. These newly discovered biological possibilities may turn out to be epoch-making. Apart from challenging our notion of life, they also have fundamental philosophical implications. The very question motivating the project is: How is biology being extended beyond the actual evolved life on Earth – and what is the philosophical significance of the turn to possible life? This question is studied through a two-pronged approach that puts scientific practice into a dialogue with philosophy of science and naturalistic metaphysics.
First, the project examines the emerging fields of synthetic biology and astrobiology. The key themes studied include unnatural biochemical bases and organizational principles of life, synthetic life, evolutionary possibilities and constraints, and the habitability of exoplanets. Empirical studies in six leading laboratories in Europe and the US are used to inform the study of these themes. Second, the research on possible life is employed as a resource for the development of philosophical theory. The three philosophical subprojects examine (i) modelling and simulating the possible, (ii) multiple realizability of biological kinds, and (iii) contingency and necessity in biology.
The project will advance our understanding of the modal dimension of science by addressing a paramount case – life. The project draws together and develops diverse strands in theorizing of the possible within philosophy of science and metaphysics. Through an unconventional combination of philosophical and empirical analysis the project seeks to facilitate the application of metaphysical concepts to cutting-edge scientific research.
Summary
Possible Life: The Philosophical Significance of Extending Biology
Due to the latest technological advances in genetic engineering and space technology, scientists have developed strategies to engineer novel biological systems in laboratories, and to study through space telescopes the signs of possible life from other planets and solar systems. These newly discovered biological possibilities may turn out to be epoch-making. Apart from challenging our notion of life, they also have fundamental philosophical implications. The very question motivating the project is: How is biology being extended beyond the actual evolved life on Earth – and what is the philosophical significance of the turn to possible life? This question is studied through a two-pronged approach that puts scientific practice into a dialogue with philosophy of science and naturalistic metaphysics.
First, the project examines the emerging fields of synthetic biology and astrobiology. The key themes studied include unnatural biochemical bases and organizational principles of life, synthetic life, evolutionary possibilities and constraints, and the habitability of exoplanets. Empirical studies in six leading laboratories in Europe and the US are used to inform the study of these themes. Second, the research on possible life is employed as a resource for the development of philosophical theory. The three philosophical subprojects examine (i) modelling and simulating the possible, (ii) multiple realizability of biological kinds, and (iii) contingency and necessity in biology.
The project will advance our understanding of the modal dimension of science by addressing a paramount case – life. The project draws together and develops diverse strands in theorizing of the possible within philosophy of science and metaphysics. Through an unconventional combination of philosophical and empirical analysis the project seeks to facilitate the application of metaphysical concepts to cutting-edge scientific research.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 566 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym QSHvar
Project Quantitative stochastic homogenization of variational problems
Researcher (PI) Tuomo Kuusi
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Country Finland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE1, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The proposal addresses various multiscale problems which lie at the intersection of probability theory and the analysis of partial differential equations and calculus of variations. Most of the proposed problems fit under the framework of stochastic homogenization, that is, the study of large-scale statistical properties of solutions to equations with random coefficients. In the last ten years, there has been significant progress made in developing a quantitative theory of stochastic homogenization, meaning that one can now go beyond limit theorems and prove rates of convergence and error estimates, and in some cases even characterize the fluctuations of the error. These new quantitative methods give us new tools to attack more difficult multi-scale problems that have until now resisted previous approaches, and consequently to solve open problems in the field.
Many of the actual goals of the proposal come from problems in calculus of variations. Apart from qualitative results, many fundamental questions in quantitative theory are completely open, and our recent results suggest a way to tackle these problems. The first one is to prove regularity properties of homogenized Lagrangian under rather general assumptions on functionals, and to solve a counterpart for Hilbert's 19th problem in the context of homogenization. The second project is to attack so-called Faber-Krahn inequality in the heterogeneous case. This is a very involved problem, but again recent development in the theory of homogenization makes the attempt plausible. The final part of the proposal involves new mathematical approaches and subsequent computational research supporting the geothermal power plant project being built by St1 Deep Heat Ltd in Espoo, Finland.
Summary
The proposal addresses various multiscale problems which lie at the intersection of probability theory and the analysis of partial differential equations and calculus of variations. Most of the proposed problems fit under the framework of stochastic homogenization, that is, the study of large-scale statistical properties of solutions to equations with random coefficients. In the last ten years, there has been significant progress made in developing a quantitative theory of stochastic homogenization, meaning that one can now go beyond limit theorems and prove rates of convergence and error estimates, and in some cases even characterize the fluctuations of the error. These new quantitative methods give us new tools to attack more difficult multi-scale problems that have until now resisted previous approaches, and consequently to solve open problems in the field.
Many of the actual goals of the proposal come from problems in calculus of variations. Apart from qualitative results, many fundamental questions in quantitative theory are completely open, and our recent results suggest a way to tackle these problems. The first one is to prove regularity properties of homogenized Lagrangian under rather general assumptions on functionals, and to solve a counterpart for Hilbert's 19th problem in the context of homogenization. The second project is to attack so-called Faber-Krahn inequality in the heterogeneous case. This is a very involved problem, but again recent development in the theory of homogenization makes the attempt plausible. The final part of the proposal involves new mathematical approaches and subsequent computational research supporting the geothermal power plant project being built by St1 Deep Heat Ltd in Espoo, Finland.
Max ERC Funding
1 312 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-08-01, End date: 2024-07-31
Project acronym SOS.aquaterra
Project Respecting safe operating spaces: opportunities to meet future food demand with sustainable use of water and land resources
Researcher (PI) Matti Kummu
Host Institution (HI) AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Country Finland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH2, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Although the human population has quadrupled over the past century, per capita food availability is globally higher than ever - at the expense of environment: scarcity of water and land as well as exceedance of several planetary boundaries. Projected population growth and climate change will further increase the pressure on feeding the planet with sustainably managed natural resources.
SOS.aquaterra takes up this challenge by identifying feasible measures to meet future food demand while staying below water and land scarcity thresholds. The project develops novel integrated modelling and data analysis methods to fully exploit the rapidly increasing global open spatio-temporal datasets together with outputs from global agrological and hydrological models.
In the proposal, instead of assessing water and land scarcity separately, which is the current practice, the assessments are integrated. The second novelty in SOS.aquaterra is developing an integrated model that combines for the first time the potential of conventional and innovative measures -e.g. yield gap closure, alternative protein sources- towards increased food availability. The feasibility of these measures, within the safe operating space resulting from scarcity assessment, is explored by analogical problem solving and clustering methods.
The innovative integration of measures using the latest datasets and modelling tools holds high risks, yet it significantly advances the scientific and technological state of the art to meet food demand with sustainably managed natural resources.
Summary
Although the human population has quadrupled over the past century, per capita food availability is globally higher than ever - at the expense of environment: scarcity of water and land as well as exceedance of several planetary boundaries. Projected population growth and climate change will further increase the pressure on feeding the planet with sustainably managed natural resources.
SOS.aquaterra takes up this challenge by identifying feasible measures to meet future food demand while staying below water and land scarcity thresholds. The project develops novel integrated modelling and data analysis methods to fully exploit the rapidly increasing global open spatio-temporal datasets together with outputs from global agrological and hydrological models.
In the proposal, instead of assessing water and land scarcity separately, which is the current practice, the assessments are integrated. The second novelty in SOS.aquaterra is developing an integrated model that combines for the first time the potential of conventional and innovative measures -e.g. yield gap closure, alternative protein sources- towards increased food availability. The feasibility of these measures, within the safe operating space resulting from scarcity assessment, is explored by analogical problem solving and clustering methods.
The innovative integration of measures using the latest datasets and modelling tools holds high risks, yet it significantly advances the scientific and technological state of the art to meet food demand with sustainably managed natural resources.
Max ERC Funding
1 982 113 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym UniSDyn
Project Building up a Unified Theory of Stellar Dynamos
Researcher (PI) Maarit KaePYLae
Host Institution (HI) AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Country Finland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE9, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the universe. The special property of cosmic magnetism is that, in the majority of objects hosting magnetic fields, those fields are organized, such that some meaningful averaging can reveal global structure and systematic behavior. In the Sun, averaging over longitude reveals the equatorward migration of the emergence region of the sunspots, forming the famous butterfly diagram. Further, vigorous turbulence is present in a wide variety of astrophysical systems, and yet they still exhibit organized magnetic fields. These observations prompt the search for a theory to explain how order can arise and sustain itself in such chaos. We claim that the available theories are incomplete, especially in the case of solar-like stars which becomes apparent if we view the Sun as one star among many. We propose a coherent plan of advancement in which each theory shall be tested by requiring it also to explain the cyclic dynamo action seen in more active rapid rotators.
UNISDYN project attacks these very problems with novel simulations and data analysis tools. Our path to resolve them is to enhance the state-of-the-art stellar dynamo models with the relevant descriptions of the turbulent processes. This goal is reached in three steps. (i) We will produce improved convection dynamo simulations to serve as laboratories from which (ii) the turbulent transport coefficients are directly measured with a novel test methods suite. (iii) Finally, global dynamo models incorporating the turbulent effects in full are constructed based on (i) and (ii) results. These results will allow us to unify stellar dynamo theory for solar-like inactive and rapidly rotating active stars. The developed toolbox has direct applications in other fields of astrophysics, such as accretion and galactic disk dynamos, and industry, such as combustion engines and fusion reactors.
Summary
Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the universe. The special property of cosmic magnetism is that, in the majority of objects hosting magnetic fields, those fields are organized, such that some meaningful averaging can reveal global structure and systematic behavior. In the Sun, averaging over longitude reveals the equatorward migration of the emergence region of the sunspots, forming the famous butterfly diagram. Further, vigorous turbulence is present in a wide variety of astrophysical systems, and yet they still exhibit organized magnetic fields. These observations prompt the search for a theory to explain how order can arise and sustain itself in such chaos. We claim that the available theories are incomplete, especially in the case of solar-like stars which becomes apparent if we view the Sun as one star among many. We propose a coherent plan of advancement in which each theory shall be tested by requiring it also to explain the cyclic dynamo action seen in more active rapid rotators.
UNISDYN project attacks these very problems with novel simulations and data analysis tools. Our path to resolve them is to enhance the state-of-the-art stellar dynamo models with the relevant descriptions of the turbulent processes. This goal is reached in three steps. (i) We will produce improved convection dynamo simulations to serve as laboratories from which (ii) the turbulent transport coefficients are directly measured with a novel test methods suite. (iii) Finally, global dynamo models incorporating the turbulent effects in full are constructed based on (i) and (ii) results. These results will allow us to unify stellar dynamo theory for solar-like inactive and rapidly rotating active stars. The developed toolbox has direct applications in other fields of astrophysics, such as accretion and galactic disk dynamos, and industry, such as combustion engines and fusion reactors.
Max ERC Funding
1 964 688 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
