Project acronym ANYON
Project Engineering and exploring anyonic quantum gases
Researcher (PI) Christof WEITENBERG
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET HAMBURG
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary This project enters the experimental investigation of anyonic quantum gases. We will study anyons – conjectured particles with a statistical exchange phase anywhere between 0 and π – in different many-body systems. This progress will be enabled by a unique approach of bringing together artificial gauge fields and quantum gas microscopes for ultracold atoms.
Specifically, we will implement the 1D anyon Hubbard model via a lattice shaking protocol that imprints density-dependent Peierls phases. By engineering the statistical exchange phase, we can continuously tune between bosons and fermions and explore a statistically-induced quantum phase transition. We will monitor the continuous fermionization via the build-up of Friedel oscillations. Using state-of-the-art cold atom technology, we will thus open the physics of anyons to experimental research and address open questions related to their fractional exclusion statistics.
Secondly, we will create fractional quantum Hall systems in rapidly rotating microtraps. Using the quantum gas microscope, we will i) control the optical potentials at a level which allows approaching the centrifugal limit and ii) use small atom numbers equal to the inserted angular momentum quantum number. The strongly-correlated ground states such as the Laughlin state can be identified via their characteristic density correlations. Of particular interest are the quasihole excitations, whose predicted anyonic exchange statistics have not been directly observed to date. We will probe and test their statistics via the characteristic counting sequence in the excitation spectrum. Furthermore, we will test ideas to transfer anyonic properties of the excitations to a second tracer species. This approach will enable us to both probe the fractional exclusion statistics of the excitations and to create a 2D anyonic quantum gas.
In the long run, these techniques open a path to also study non-Abelian anyons with ultracold atoms.
Summary
This project enters the experimental investigation of anyonic quantum gases. We will study anyons – conjectured particles with a statistical exchange phase anywhere between 0 and π – in different many-body systems. This progress will be enabled by a unique approach of bringing together artificial gauge fields and quantum gas microscopes for ultracold atoms.
Specifically, we will implement the 1D anyon Hubbard model via a lattice shaking protocol that imprints density-dependent Peierls phases. By engineering the statistical exchange phase, we can continuously tune between bosons and fermions and explore a statistically-induced quantum phase transition. We will monitor the continuous fermionization via the build-up of Friedel oscillations. Using state-of-the-art cold atom technology, we will thus open the physics of anyons to experimental research and address open questions related to their fractional exclusion statistics.
Secondly, we will create fractional quantum Hall systems in rapidly rotating microtraps. Using the quantum gas microscope, we will i) control the optical potentials at a level which allows approaching the centrifugal limit and ii) use small atom numbers equal to the inserted angular momentum quantum number. The strongly-correlated ground states such as the Laughlin state can be identified via their characteristic density correlations. Of particular interest are the quasihole excitations, whose predicted anyonic exchange statistics have not been directly observed to date. We will probe and test their statistics via the characteristic counting sequence in the excitation spectrum. Furthermore, we will test ideas to transfer anyonic properties of the excitations to a second tracer species. This approach will enable us to both probe the fractional exclusion statistics of the excitations and to create a 2D anyonic quantum gas.
In the long run, these techniques open a path to also study non-Abelian anyons with ultracold atoms.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym CHROMOTHRIPSIS
Project Dissecting the Molecular Mechanism of Catastrophic DNA Rearrangement in Cancer
Researcher (PI) Jan Oliver Korbel
Host Institution (HI) EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS2, ERC-2013-StG
Summary Recent cancer genome analyses have led to the discovery of a process involving massive genome structural rearrangement (SR) formation in a one-step, cataclysmic event, coined chromothripsis. The term chromothripsis (chromo from chromosome; thripsis for shattering into pieces) stands for a hypothetical process in which individual chromosomes are pulverised, resulting in a multitude of fragments, some of which are lost to the cell whereas others are erroneously rejoined. Compelling evidence was presented that chromothripsis plays a crucial role in the development, or progression of a notable subset of human cancers – thus, tumorigensis models involving gradual acquisitions of alterations may need to be revised in these cancers.
Presently, chromothripsis lacks a mechanistic basis. We recently showed that in childhood medulloblastoma brain tumours driven by Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signalling, chromothripsis is linked with predisposing TP53 mutations. Thus, rather than occurring in isolation, chromothripsis appears to be prone to happen in conjunction with (or instigated by) gradually acquired alterations, or in the context of active signalling pathways, the inference of which may lead to further mechanistic insights. Using such rationale, I propose to dissect the mechanism behind chromothripsis using interdisciplinary approaches. First, we will develop a computational approach to accurately detect chromothripsis. Second, we will use this approach to link chromothripsis with novel factors and contexts. Third, we will develop highly controllable cell line-based systems to test concrete mechanistic hypotheses, thereby taking into account our data on linked factors and contexts. Fourth, we will generate transcriptome data to monitor pathways involved in inducing chromothripsis, and such involved in coping with the massive SRs occurring. We will also combine findings from all these approaches to build a comprehensive model of chromothripsis and its associated pathways.
Summary
Recent cancer genome analyses have led to the discovery of a process involving massive genome structural rearrangement (SR) formation in a one-step, cataclysmic event, coined chromothripsis. The term chromothripsis (chromo from chromosome; thripsis for shattering into pieces) stands for a hypothetical process in which individual chromosomes are pulverised, resulting in a multitude of fragments, some of which are lost to the cell whereas others are erroneously rejoined. Compelling evidence was presented that chromothripsis plays a crucial role in the development, or progression of a notable subset of human cancers – thus, tumorigensis models involving gradual acquisitions of alterations may need to be revised in these cancers.
Presently, chromothripsis lacks a mechanistic basis. We recently showed that in childhood medulloblastoma brain tumours driven by Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signalling, chromothripsis is linked with predisposing TP53 mutations. Thus, rather than occurring in isolation, chromothripsis appears to be prone to happen in conjunction with (or instigated by) gradually acquired alterations, or in the context of active signalling pathways, the inference of which may lead to further mechanistic insights. Using such rationale, I propose to dissect the mechanism behind chromothripsis using interdisciplinary approaches. First, we will develop a computational approach to accurately detect chromothripsis. Second, we will use this approach to link chromothripsis with novel factors and contexts. Third, we will develop highly controllable cell line-based systems to test concrete mechanistic hypotheses, thereby taking into account our data on linked factors and contexts. Fourth, we will generate transcriptome data to monitor pathways involved in inducing chromothripsis, and such involved in coping with the massive SRs occurring. We will also combine findings from all these approaches to build a comprehensive model of chromothripsis and its associated pathways.
Max ERC Funding
1 471 964 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-01-31
Project acronym CoDisEASe
Project Communicable Disease in the Age of Seafaring
Researcher (PI) Kirsten BOS
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Infectious diseases have had an intimate history with humans and have shaped our genetic makeup through generating strong selective pressures. Although disease emergence and epidemics occur on a local scale, human interrelationships formed through travel and trade can lead to exchanges of pathogenic communities. While such transfers were common among the interconnected Eurasian and North African cultures throughout most of human history, the rest of the world experienced relative ecological autonomy. The terminal Pleistocene witnessed the colonisation of vast territory on the American continents, after which interactions between New and Old World peoples were limited for millennia by geographical barriers. These ecological worlds collided at the end of the fifteenth century, when improvements in navigation and the discovery of the Americas by Europeans permitted regular contact and plentiful opportunities for biological interchange. The identities of most diseases that played leading roles during this period of exchange are known, though details on the directions of their movement and temporal introductions remain the subject of scholarly debate. The work programme presented here will use an underexplored data source – ancient pathogen genomes – to identify infectious insults in pre- and post-contact New and Old World skeletal series, thus enabling an evaluation of changing disease landscapes at contact. Complementary to this goal, genomic loci for human immunity genes will be interrogated, thus permitting quantitative evaluations of disease adaptation. Ancient molecular data will be acquired through use of the most sensitive and up to date methods in the field of ancient DNA with the aim of bringing diseases not easily seen from skeletal morphology or historical documents to light in clear detail. This will permit an unprecedented resolution of past disease experience and host-pathogen interactions during this dynamic period of global ecological unification.
Summary
Infectious diseases have had an intimate history with humans and have shaped our genetic makeup through generating strong selective pressures. Although disease emergence and epidemics occur on a local scale, human interrelationships formed through travel and trade can lead to exchanges of pathogenic communities. While such transfers were common among the interconnected Eurasian and North African cultures throughout most of human history, the rest of the world experienced relative ecological autonomy. The terminal Pleistocene witnessed the colonisation of vast territory on the American continents, after which interactions between New and Old World peoples were limited for millennia by geographical barriers. These ecological worlds collided at the end of the fifteenth century, when improvements in navigation and the discovery of the Americas by Europeans permitted regular contact and plentiful opportunities for biological interchange. The identities of most diseases that played leading roles during this period of exchange are known, though details on the directions of their movement and temporal introductions remain the subject of scholarly debate. The work programme presented here will use an underexplored data source – ancient pathogen genomes – to identify infectious insults in pre- and post-contact New and Old World skeletal series, thus enabling an evaluation of changing disease landscapes at contact. Complementary to this goal, genomic loci for human immunity genes will be interrogated, thus permitting quantitative evaluations of disease adaptation. Ancient molecular data will be acquired through use of the most sensitive and up to date methods in the field of ancient DNA with the aim of bringing diseases not easily seen from skeletal morphology or historical documents to light in clear detail. This will permit an unprecedented resolution of past disease experience and host-pathogen interactions during this dynamic period of global ecological unification.
Max ERC Funding
1 490 043 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-12-01, End date: 2023-11-30
Project acronym DAIRYCULTURES
Project Cultures of dairying: gene-culture-microbiome evolution and the ancient invention of dairy foods
Researcher (PI) Christina Gertrude WARINNER
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Summary: Dairy products are nutritional resources of global economic importance, and their emergence in prehistory marks a major shift in human dietary ecology. However, basic questions regarding the origins and role of dairying in early human societies remain poorly understood. It is now known that adult hypolactasia (the inability to digest milk sugar) is an ancestral human trait, and that relatively few human populations have genetic variants that allow continued milk digestion into adulthood, a trait known as lactase persistence (LP). The rise of LP has been regarded as a classic example of gene-culture evolution; however, the association between LP and lactose intolerance phenotypes is variable, and LP genotypes do not consistently appear in the archaeological record until more than 5,000 years after the origins of dairying. This has left archaeologists with a puzzling problem, a “milk paradox” regarding how and why ancient peoples developed milk into a dietary resource, how the Bronze Age steppe migrations contributed to the spread of dairying across Eurasia, and what other factors besides LP may have been involved this process. There is now a growing body of evidence that microbes have played important, yet overlooked, roles in the successful establishment of prehistoric dairying economies. This study seeks to answer fundamental questions about the prehistory of dairying by focusing on Mongolia, a country where as much as 80% of the rural diet derives from dairy products, and where dairying has been practiced for more than 3,500 years. Specifically, cutting-edge genomics techniques will be used to identify the origins of Mongolian dairy livestock, proteomics techniques will be used to refine methods for detecting milk proteins in archaeological Mongolian dental calculus, and metagenomics techniques will be used to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between the gut microbiome, lactose digestion, and LP genotypes in nomadic Mongolian dairy herders.
Summary
Summary: Dairy products are nutritional resources of global economic importance, and their emergence in prehistory marks a major shift in human dietary ecology. However, basic questions regarding the origins and role of dairying in early human societies remain poorly understood. It is now known that adult hypolactasia (the inability to digest milk sugar) is an ancestral human trait, and that relatively few human populations have genetic variants that allow continued milk digestion into adulthood, a trait known as lactase persistence (LP). The rise of LP has been regarded as a classic example of gene-culture evolution; however, the association between LP and lactose intolerance phenotypes is variable, and LP genotypes do not consistently appear in the archaeological record until more than 5,000 years after the origins of dairying. This has left archaeologists with a puzzling problem, a “milk paradox” regarding how and why ancient peoples developed milk into a dietary resource, how the Bronze Age steppe migrations contributed to the spread of dairying across Eurasia, and what other factors besides LP may have been involved this process. There is now a growing body of evidence that microbes have played important, yet overlooked, roles in the successful establishment of prehistoric dairying economies. This study seeks to answer fundamental questions about the prehistory of dairying by focusing on Mongolia, a country where as much as 80% of the rural diet derives from dairy products, and where dairying has been practiced for more than 3,500 years. Specifically, cutting-edge genomics techniques will be used to identify the origins of Mongolian dairy livestock, proteomics techniques will be used to refine methods for detecting milk proteins in archaeological Mongolian dental calculus, and metagenomics techniques will be used to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between the gut microbiome, lactose digestion, and LP genotypes in nomadic Mongolian dairy herders.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 988 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-11-01, End date: 2023-10-31
Project acronym DUNES
Project Sea, Sand and People. An Environmental History of Coastal Dunes
Researcher (PI) Joana FREITAS
Host Institution (HI) Faculdade de letras da Universidade de Lisboa
Country Portugal
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Dunes are now protected environments, being top priority for coastal managers, because of their important role as coastal defences. But, it was not like that in the past.
For centuries dunes were considered unproductive and dangerous. The sand blown by the wind was taken inland, invading fields, silting rivers and destroying villages. In the eighteenth century, a strategy was developed to fight against the dunes: trapping them with trees, with the double purpose of preventing the destruction of arable land and increasing their economic value converting them into forest areas. Different governments, in different countries supported the immobilization of the shifting sands. The strategy, developed in Europe, was taken to other places in the world. These works caused profound changes in vast coastal areas transforming arid landscapes of sandy dunes into green tree forests.
This project aims to explore human-environment relations in coastal areas worldwide, since the eighteenth century until today, through the study of dunes as hybrid landscapes. Based on selected case-studies and comparative approaches, the project will focus on the origins, reasons and means of dunes afforestation; the impacts of the creation of new landscapes to local communities and ecosystems; and the present situation of dunes as coastal defences and rehabilitated environments. The final purpose is to produce an innovative global history of coastal dunes, combining knowledges from both Humanities and Social Sciences and Physical and Life Sciences, which has never been done.
Supported by an interdisciplinary team, this research will result in new developments in the field of the Environmental History studies; provide relevant knowledge considering the need of efficient management solutions to adapt to the expected mean sea level rise; and stimulate environmental citizenship by disseminating the idea that the future of the world coasts depends on today’s actions.
Summary
Dunes are now protected environments, being top priority for coastal managers, because of their important role as coastal defences. But, it was not like that in the past.
For centuries dunes were considered unproductive and dangerous. The sand blown by the wind was taken inland, invading fields, silting rivers and destroying villages. In the eighteenth century, a strategy was developed to fight against the dunes: trapping them with trees, with the double purpose of preventing the destruction of arable land and increasing their economic value converting them into forest areas. Different governments, in different countries supported the immobilization of the shifting sands. The strategy, developed in Europe, was taken to other places in the world. These works caused profound changes in vast coastal areas transforming arid landscapes of sandy dunes into green tree forests.
This project aims to explore human-environment relations in coastal areas worldwide, since the eighteenth century until today, through the study of dunes as hybrid landscapes. Based on selected case-studies and comparative approaches, the project will focus on the origins, reasons and means of dunes afforestation; the impacts of the creation of new landscapes to local communities and ecosystems; and the present situation of dunes as coastal defences and rehabilitated environments. The final purpose is to produce an innovative global history of coastal dunes, combining knowledges from both Humanities and Social Sciences and Physical and Life Sciences, which has never been done.
Supported by an interdisciplinary team, this research will result in new developments in the field of the Environmental History studies; provide relevant knowledge considering the need of efficient management solutions to adapt to the expected mean sea level rise; and stimulate environmental citizenship by disseminating the idea that the future of the world coasts depends on today’s actions.
Max ERC Funding
1 062 330 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-11-01, End date: 2023-10-31
Project acronym EntangleUltraCold
Project Entanglement in Strongly Correlated Quantum Many-Body Systems with Ultracold Atoms
Researcher (PI) Daniel Guenther GREIF
Host Institution (HI) RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Entanglement plays a central role for strongly correlated quantum many-body systems and is considered to be the root for a number of surprising emergent phenomena in solids such as high-temperature superconductivity or fractional Quantum Hall states. Entanglement detection in these systems is an important target of current research, but has so far remained elusive owing to the fine control required and high demands on statistical sampling.
The goal of this project is to realize strongly correlated quantum systems close to the ground state using quantum annealing of ultracold fermionic atoms, and to study the character, strength and role of entanglement. We will construct a novel type of cold atom experiment, which makes use of optical tweezers and Raman sideband cooling. This will allow a 100-fold improvement in the experimental repetition rate compared to conventional experiments and allow reaching the ground state in systems of up to 7x7 sites. The flexibility of the moving optical tweezers will facilitate implementing entanglement measures, including concurrence, quantum-state tomography and entanglement entropy. Our primary research objective is studying entanglement in the doped Hubbard model, where a variety of strongly correlated systems are expected, as well as the role of entanglement in thermalizing out-of-equilibrium samples. In a later stage we will focus on frustrated systems in triangular lattices and honeycomb geometries, and also interacting topological states.
Our experiments will have a far-reaching impact on condensed matter research, as it will be the first platform for experimental exploration of the role of entanglement in strongly correlated fermionic many-body systems. Our insights will be beyond the capabilities of numerical simulations and we envision that the project will lead to a better understanding of complex quantum phenomena, and may ultimately drive the discovery of novel quantum materials.
Summary
Entanglement plays a central role for strongly correlated quantum many-body systems and is considered to be the root for a number of surprising emergent phenomena in solids such as high-temperature superconductivity or fractional Quantum Hall states. Entanglement detection in these systems is an important target of current research, but has so far remained elusive owing to the fine control required and high demands on statistical sampling.
The goal of this project is to realize strongly correlated quantum systems close to the ground state using quantum annealing of ultracold fermionic atoms, and to study the character, strength and role of entanglement. We will construct a novel type of cold atom experiment, which makes use of optical tweezers and Raman sideband cooling. This will allow a 100-fold improvement in the experimental repetition rate compared to conventional experiments and allow reaching the ground state in systems of up to 7x7 sites. The flexibility of the moving optical tweezers will facilitate implementing entanglement measures, including concurrence, quantum-state tomography and entanglement entropy. Our primary research objective is studying entanglement in the doped Hubbard model, where a variety of strongly correlated systems are expected, as well as the role of entanglement in thermalizing out-of-equilibrium samples. In a later stage we will focus on frustrated systems in triangular lattices and honeycomb geometries, and also interacting topological states.
Our experiments will have a far-reaching impact on condensed matter research, as it will be the first platform for experimental exploration of the role of entanglement in strongly correlated fermionic many-body systems. Our insights will be beyond the capabilities of numerical simulations and we envision that the project will lead to a better understanding of complex quantum phenomena, and may ultimately drive the discovery of novel quantum materials.
Max ERC Funding
1 787 564 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-08-01, End date: 2024-07-31
Project acronym LaGaTYb
Project Exploring lattice gauge theories with fermionic Ytterbium atoms
Researcher (PI) Monika AIDELSBURGER
Host Institution (HI) LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Gauge theories establish a connection between seemingly different physical areas, ranging from high-energy to condensed matter physics and topological quantum computing. Very often gauge theories are difficult to study theoretically in particular in the strongly-interacting regime, where perturbative methods are not reliable. Despite the remarkable progress offered by numerical methods, such as classical Monte Carlo simulations, the sign problem imposes severe limitations, for instance, regarding real-time dynamics. This motivates the search for alternative approaches. Recent progress in the control of engineered quantum systems has revitalized Feynmans's idea of quantum simulation, which naturally does not suffer from the sign problem because its working principle is quantum mechanical. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices have proven powerful in studying important condensed matter models and intriguing results have been achieved in simulating static background gauge fields. This establishes a link to more general gauge theories, yet these are out-of-reach due to complex requirements e.g. regarding the implementation of gauge and matter field degrees of freedom. Achieving significant progress in this direction requires a radically new approach. I propose to develop a novel experimental platform that combines two unique features: precise local control as typical for ion traps and scalability of cold-atom setups to generate advanced optical lattices with locally controllable tunnel couplings. It will facilitate the implementation of a broad class of gauge theories, so-called quantum link models, with fermionic atoms, where matter and gauge fields are interpreted as different lattice sites. The proposed model exhibits paradigmatic phenomena of quantum electrodynamics and doped Mott insulators in connection to high temperature superconductors and provides a roadmap to study more complex non-Abelian models based on the nuclear spin states of Alkaline-earth-like atoms.
Summary
Gauge theories establish a connection between seemingly different physical areas, ranging from high-energy to condensed matter physics and topological quantum computing. Very often gauge theories are difficult to study theoretically in particular in the strongly-interacting regime, where perturbative methods are not reliable. Despite the remarkable progress offered by numerical methods, such as classical Monte Carlo simulations, the sign problem imposes severe limitations, for instance, regarding real-time dynamics. This motivates the search for alternative approaches. Recent progress in the control of engineered quantum systems has revitalized Feynmans's idea of quantum simulation, which naturally does not suffer from the sign problem because its working principle is quantum mechanical. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices have proven powerful in studying important condensed matter models and intriguing results have been achieved in simulating static background gauge fields. This establishes a link to more general gauge theories, yet these are out-of-reach due to complex requirements e.g. regarding the implementation of gauge and matter field degrees of freedom. Achieving significant progress in this direction requires a radically new approach. I propose to develop a novel experimental platform that combines two unique features: precise local control as typical for ion traps and scalability of cold-atom setups to generate advanced optical lattices with locally controllable tunnel couplings. It will facilitate the implementation of a broad class of gauge theories, so-called quantum link models, with fermionic atoms, where matter and gauge fields are interpreted as different lattice sites. The proposed model exhibits paradigmatic phenomena of quantum electrodynamics and doped Mott insulators in connection to high temperature superconductors and provides a roadmap to study more complex non-Abelian models based on the nuclear spin states of Alkaline-earth-like atoms.
Max ERC Funding
1 498 980 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym MaoLegacy
Project The Maoist Legacy: Party Dictatorship, Transitional Justice, and the Politics of Truth
Researcher (PI) Daniel Leese
Host Institution (HI) ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITAET FREIBURG
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2013-StG
Summary The proposed research project breaks important new ground by analyzing and documenting how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dealt with the legacy of mass atrocities committed under Maoist rule. Most accounts of the period mention the trial against the “Gang of Four” and the accompanying resolution on party history from 1981, which held former party chairman Mao Zedong accountable for grave political errors but not for criminal deeds. However, as yet there has been no in-depth analysis of the roughly five million cases and the over ten million petitions handled by courts and party committees between 1978 and 1987 in order to right previous injustices. Despite its enormous scale and relevance to societal stability, this so-called “revision of unjust, wrong, and false verdicts” has been virtually left unattended to by scholarly research. The project aims at diminishing this gap by studying the CCP’s strategies and the societal consequences of this major policy change. It proposes to analyze the partial break from the Maoist legacy as an important, yet by and large overlooked example of transitional justice, albeit confined by the party dictatorship’s overarching aim to stay in power. By way of relying on a wide array of recently available official and non-official sources, the project analyzes and documents how the CCP selectively dealt with the towering injustices of the past. The project will significantly contribute to current research on China’s transformation process and the Maoist legacy in at least four different areas: First, it will detail the CCP’s standards, institutions, and processes of administrating historical justice; second, it will show the great regional variances in implementing these policies between center and periphery; third, it will offer new explanations for the persistence of CCP rule despite the horrors of Maoism; and fourth, it will document both the revisal of verdicts and past atrocities in an electronic database to ease future research.
Summary
The proposed research project breaks important new ground by analyzing and documenting how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dealt with the legacy of mass atrocities committed under Maoist rule. Most accounts of the period mention the trial against the “Gang of Four” and the accompanying resolution on party history from 1981, which held former party chairman Mao Zedong accountable for grave political errors but not for criminal deeds. However, as yet there has been no in-depth analysis of the roughly five million cases and the over ten million petitions handled by courts and party committees between 1978 and 1987 in order to right previous injustices. Despite its enormous scale and relevance to societal stability, this so-called “revision of unjust, wrong, and false verdicts” has been virtually left unattended to by scholarly research. The project aims at diminishing this gap by studying the CCP’s strategies and the societal consequences of this major policy change. It proposes to analyze the partial break from the Maoist legacy as an important, yet by and large overlooked example of transitional justice, albeit confined by the party dictatorship’s overarching aim to stay in power. By way of relying on a wide array of recently available official and non-official sources, the project analyzes and documents how the CCP selectively dealt with the towering injustices of the past. The project will significantly contribute to current research on China’s transformation process and the Maoist legacy in at least four different areas: First, it will detail the CCP’s standards, institutions, and processes of administrating historical justice; second, it will show the great regional variances in implementing these policies between center and periphery; third, it will offer new explanations for the persistence of CCP rule despite the horrors of Maoism; and fourth, it will document both the revisal of verdicts and past atrocities in an electronic database to ease future research.
Max ERC Funding
1 443 756 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2019-02-28
Project acronym MesoFermi
Project Mesoscopic Fermi Gases
Researcher (PI) Henning Moritz
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET HAMBURG
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2013-StG
Summary This proposal brings together the fields of ultracold Fermi gases and of mesoscopic systems. Starting with a two-dimensional (2D) Fermi gas, we will imprint small-scale potential structures onto the atoms. Thus, a mesoscopic system embedded in a 2D reservoir is produced.
Specifically, we will imprint optical dipole potentials varying on a micrometre scale onto a 2D gas of 6Li atoms. Due to the widely different energy scales, the entropy of the atoms in the mesoscopic structures will be massively reduced as compared to the reservoir atoms. The atoms in the mesoscopic structures will be characterised by an innovative detection scheme with single atom sensitivity. The combination of mesoscopic potentials, single atom detection and entropy reduction will put us in a unique position to access new regimes of many-body physics.
First, we will investigate a mesoscopic realisation of the 2D Hubbard model. Beyond the study of the fermionic Mott insulating phase and its excitations, the possibility to study staggered Hubbard models and create domain structures is a very attractive prospect. Most importantly, the massive entropy reduction inherent to the mesoscopic approach will enable us to observe antiferromagnetic ordering, the major milestone central to further progress in the field.
Going beyond periodic structures, we will focus on the direct creation of mesoscopic model systems. In a bottom-up approach, we will realise a plaquette consisting of 2x2 sites, the essential building block for models of d-wave superconductivity. The creation of 1D structures with local defects will open the possibility to study phenomena such as spin-charge separation, Friedel oscillations and the rectification of atomic transport. Finally, the physics of open quantum systems will become accessible when studying the interaction between mesoscopic system and reservoir. In conclusion, I believe that the proposed research programme will bring a new level of functionality to the field.
Summary
This proposal brings together the fields of ultracold Fermi gases and of mesoscopic systems. Starting with a two-dimensional (2D) Fermi gas, we will imprint small-scale potential structures onto the atoms. Thus, a mesoscopic system embedded in a 2D reservoir is produced.
Specifically, we will imprint optical dipole potentials varying on a micrometre scale onto a 2D gas of 6Li atoms. Due to the widely different energy scales, the entropy of the atoms in the mesoscopic structures will be massively reduced as compared to the reservoir atoms. The atoms in the mesoscopic structures will be characterised by an innovative detection scheme with single atom sensitivity. The combination of mesoscopic potentials, single atom detection and entropy reduction will put us in a unique position to access new regimes of many-body physics.
First, we will investigate a mesoscopic realisation of the 2D Hubbard model. Beyond the study of the fermionic Mott insulating phase and its excitations, the possibility to study staggered Hubbard models and create domain structures is a very attractive prospect. Most importantly, the massive entropy reduction inherent to the mesoscopic approach will enable us to observe antiferromagnetic ordering, the major milestone central to further progress in the field.
Going beyond periodic structures, we will focus on the direct creation of mesoscopic model systems. In a bottom-up approach, we will realise a plaquette consisting of 2x2 sites, the essential building block for models of d-wave superconductivity. The creation of 1D structures with local defects will open the possibility to study phenomena such as spin-charge separation, Friedel oscillations and the rectification of atomic transport. Finally, the physics of open quantum systems will become accessible when studying the interaction between mesoscopic system and reservoir. In conclusion, I believe that the proposed research programme will bring a new level of functionality to the field.
Max ERC Funding
1 236 060 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-10-01, End date: 2018-09-30
Project acronym NU-CLEUS
Project Exploring coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering with gram-scale cryogenic calorimeters
Researcher (PI) Raimund STRAUSS
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary ν-cleus will be a new multi-purpose table-top experiment aimed at the first exploration of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering (CNNS) at a nuclear power reactor. Our novel detector technology will achieve an unprecedentedly high sensitivity to new physics within and beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, with an enormous discovery potential. The new method is not only complementary to competing approaches, but superior in terms of performance, cost and size.
The ultra-low threshold character of my experiment will allow a determination of the Weinberg angle at MeV-scale momentum transfers and the first direct search for eV-scale sterile neutrinos via CNNS. We will significantly improve the sensitivity for a neutrino magnetic dipole moment, unravel anomalies in the reactor antineutrino spectrum and test new models for exotic neutral currents.
My research on gram-scale cryogenic calorimeters (gramCCs) has resulted in a recent breakthrough: we achieved the world-best energy threshold for nuclear-recoils of 19.7eV, one order of magnitude lower than for previous detectors. I propose to operate gramCCs within a fiducial-volume cryogenic detector. This completely new detector concept is suited for an above-ground operation of excellent performance while backgrounds are significantly suppressed. Located at a nuclear power reactor ν-cleus will achieve a signal-to-background ratio of ~10^3 - a unique situation in neutrino physics. This will enable a rapid discovery of CNNS within a few weeks.
ν-cleus will have enormous impact on modern physics and future technologies. It will be a prototype for next-generation, high-precision solar neutrino experiments and guarantees a technological spin-off for reactor safeguards and non-proliferation measures. With this ERC grant I will set up a high-class research team with world-leading expertise in cryogenic detectors and low-background techniques, which will ensure Europe’s role as a pioneer in this new field.
Summary
ν-cleus will be a new multi-purpose table-top experiment aimed at the first exploration of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering (CNNS) at a nuclear power reactor. Our novel detector technology will achieve an unprecedentedly high sensitivity to new physics within and beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, with an enormous discovery potential. The new method is not only complementary to competing approaches, but superior in terms of performance, cost and size.
The ultra-low threshold character of my experiment will allow a determination of the Weinberg angle at MeV-scale momentum transfers and the first direct search for eV-scale sterile neutrinos via CNNS. We will significantly improve the sensitivity for a neutrino magnetic dipole moment, unravel anomalies in the reactor antineutrino spectrum and test new models for exotic neutral currents.
My research on gram-scale cryogenic calorimeters (gramCCs) has resulted in a recent breakthrough: we achieved the world-best energy threshold for nuclear-recoils of 19.7eV, one order of magnitude lower than for previous detectors. I propose to operate gramCCs within a fiducial-volume cryogenic detector. This completely new detector concept is suited for an above-ground operation of excellent performance while backgrounds are significantly suppressed. Located at a nuclear power reactor ν-cleus will achieve a signal-to-background ratio of ~10^3 - a unique situation in neutrino physics. This will enable a rapid discovery of CNNS within a few weeks.
ν-cleus will have enormous impact on modern physics and future technologies. It will be a prototype for next-generation, high-precision solar neutrino experiments and guarantees a technological spin-off for reactor safeguards and non-proliferation measures. With this ERC grant I will set up a high-class research team with world-leading expertise in cryogenic detectors and low-background techniques, which will ensure Europe’s role as a pioneer in this new field.
Max ERC Funding
1 642 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31
