Project acronym AccelOnChip
Project Attosecond physics, free electron quantum optics, photon generation and radiation biology with the accelerator on a photonic chip
Researcher (PI) Peter HOMMELHOFF
Host Institution (HI) FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER-UNIVERSITAET ERLANGEN-NUERNBERG
Country Germany
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary Resting on our demonstration of laser-driven nanophotonics-based particle acceleration, we propose to build a miniature particle accelerator on a photonic chip, comprising high gradient acceleration and fully optical field-based electron control. The resulting electron beam has outstanding space-time properties: It is bunched on sub-femtosecond timescales, is nanometres wide and coherent. We aim at utilizing this new form of all-optical free electron control in a broad research program with five exciting objectives:
(1) Build a 5 MeV accelerator on a photonic chip in a shoebox-sized vessel,
(2) Perform ultrafast diffraction with attosecond and even zeptosecond electron pulses,
(3) Generate photons on chip at various wavelengths (IR to x-ray),
(4) Couple quantum-coherently electron wavepackets and light in multiple interaction zones, and
(5) Conduct radiobiological experiments, akin to the new FLASH radiotherapy and Microbeam cell treat-ment.
AccelOnChip will enable five science objectives potentially shifting the horizons of today’s knowledge and capabilities around ultrafast electron imaging, photon generation, (quantum) electron-light coupling, and radiotherapy dramatically. Moreover, AccelOnChip promises to democratize accelerators: the accelerator on a chip will be based on inexpensive nanofabrication technology. We foresee that every university lab can have access to particle and light sources, today only accessible at large facilities. Last, AccelOnChip will take decisive steps towards an ultracompact electron beam radiation device to be put into the tip of a catheter, a potentially disruptive radiation therapy device facilitating new treatment forms. AccelOnChip is a cross-disciplinary high risk/high return project combining and benefiting nanophotonics, accelerator science, ultra-fast physics, materials science, coherent light-matter coupling, light generation, and radiology - and is based on my group’s unique expertise acquired in recent years.
Summary
Resting on our demonstration of laser-driven nanophotonics-based particle acceleration, we propose to build a miniature particle accelerator on a photonic chip, comprising high gradient acceleration and fully optical field-based electron control. The resulting electron beam has outstanding space-time properties: It is bunched on sub-femtosecond timescales, is nanometres wide and coherent. We aim at utilizing this new form of all-optical free electron control in a broad research program with five exciting objectives:
(1) Build a 5 MeV accelerator on a photonic chip in a shoebox-sized vessel,
(2) Perform ultrafast diffraction with attosecond and even zeptosecond electron pulses,
(3) Generate photons on chip at various wavelengths (IR to x-ray),
(4) Couple quantum-coherently electron wavepackets and light in multiple interaction zones, and
(5) Conduct radiobiological experiments, akin to the new FLASH radiotherapy and Microbeam cell treat-ment.
AccelOnChip will enable five science objectives potentially shifting the horizons of today’s knowledge and capabilities around ultrafast electron imaging, photon generation, (quantum) electron-light coupling, and radiotherapy dramatically. Moreover, AccelOnChip promises to democratize accelerators: the accelerator on a chip will be based on inexpensive nanofabrication technology. We foresee that every university lab can have access to particle and light sources, today only accessible at large facilities. Last, AccelOnChip will take decisive steps towards an ultracompact electron beam radiation device to be put into the tip of a catheter, a potentially disruptive radiation therapy device facilitating new treatment forms. AccelOnChip is a cross-disciplinary high risk/high return project combining and benefiting nanophotonics, accelerator science, ultra-fast physics, materials science, coherent light-matter coupling, light generation, and radiology - and is based on my group’s unique expertise acquired in recent years.
Max ERC Funding
2 498 508 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-10-01, End date: 2025-09-30
Project acronym AFRAB
Project African Abolitionism: The Rise and Transformations of Anti-Slavery in Africa
Researcher (PI) Benedetta ROSSI
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary The historiography of Euro-American abolitionism is so vast that it has a history of its own (Brown 2006). By contrast, research on African abolitionism is a narrow field focused primarily on European anti-slavery activities. It presupposes that when Europe abolished slavery in Africa, Africans became abolitionists. This conclusion is unfounded. Many general questions have never been asked: When and where did African abolitionist movements develop? Who are the main ideologues of African abolitionism? How did abolitionism spread, among which groups? What forms of political struggle did African anti-slavery give rise to? While individual African abolitionists and regional movements have attracted limited attention, there is no major review of the phenomenon on a continental scale. AFRAB fills this gap. It contributes to African and global history and slavery studies by analyzing and comparing African abolitionist ideas and anti-slavery movements, the long-term consequences of European abolitionism, and the resilience of pro-slavery discourses.
Summary
The historiography of Euro-American abolitionism is so vast that it has a history of its own (Brown 2006). By contrast, research on African abolitionism is a narrow field focused primarily on European anti-slavery activities. It presupposes that when Europe abolished slavery in Africa, Africans became abolitionists. This conclusion is unfounded. Many general questions have never been asked: When and where did African abolitionist movements develop? Who are the main ideologues of African abolitionism? How did abolitionism spread, among which groups? What forms of political struggle did African anti-slavery give rise to? While individual African abolitionists and regional movements have attracted limited attention, there is no major review of the phenomenon on a continental scale. AFRAB fills this gap. It contributes to African and global history and slavery studies by analyzing and comparing African abolitionist ideas and anti-slavery movements, the long-term consequences of European abolitionism, and the resilience of pro-slavery discourses.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 951 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-10-01, End date: 2025-09-30
Project acronym ALGOSOC
Project Algorithmic Societies: Ethical Life in the Machine Learning Age
Researcher (PI) Louise Jane Amoore
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary ALGOSOC develops a new approach to understanding and responding to the consequences of machine learning algorithms for contemporary societies. Rapid advancements in machine learning technologies are transforming social and political life in ways that uniquely challenge how we live in relation to others. The life chances of a person are now intimately connected to the attributes that an algorithm has learned from the data patterns of unknown others. From judgements in the criminal justice system to decisions on treatment pathways in health, the outputs of algorithms have become pivotal to the decisions and adjudications on the probable futures of individuals. While there is substantial academic and public emphasis on defining ethical codes of conduct for algorithmic decisions, there is a lack of attention to how machine learning algorithms remake the ethical relations that define a society. In short, existing research is focused on limiting the harms of the actions of algorithms, whereas ALGOSOC focuses on how algorithms are redefining the thresholds of what harmful, good, bad, or risky behaviour means in a society. The ALGOSOC project will examine how 21st century machine learning algorithms are learning to recognize, to attribute, and to infer the characteristics of entities (people, groups, and objects). In order to do this, the project will conduct a series of path-defining studies of societal domains of machine learning that, though they share algorithms in common, have not previously been researched in combination: behavioural biometrics and biomedical object recognition; consumer recommendation and criminal justice scoring; oncology treatment pathways and anomaly detection for security. The ALGOSOC project will provide new social science knowledge of what is taking place as machine learning algorithms travel across different domains and sites, and how precisely they learn by their exposure to different worlds of data.
Summary
ALGOSOC develops a new approach to understanding and responding to the consequences of machine learning algorithms for contemporary societies. Rapid advancements in machine learning technologies are transforming social and political life in ways that uniquely challenge how we live in relation to others. The life chances of a person are now intimately connected to the attributes that an algorithm has learned from the data patterns of unknown others. From judgements in the criminal justice system to decisions on treatment pathways in health, the outputs of algorithms have become pivotal to the decisions and adjudications on the probable futures of individuals. While there is substantial academic and public emphasis on defining ethical codes of conduct for algorithmic decisions, there is a lack of attention to how machine learning algorithms remake the ethical relations that define a society. In short, existing research is focused on limiting the harms of the actions of algorithms, whereas ALGOSOC focuses on how algorithms are redefining the thresholds of what harmful, good, bad, or risky behaviour means in a society. The ALGOSOC project will examine how 21st century machine learning algorithms are learning to recognize, to attribute, and to infer the characteristics of entities (people, groups, and objects). In order to do this, the project will conduct a series of path-defining studies of societal domains of machine learning that, though they share algorithms in common, have not previously been researched in combination: behavioural biometrics and biomedical object recognition; consumer recommendation and criminal justice scoring; oncology treatment pathways and anomaly detection for security. The ALGOSOC project will provide new social science knowledge of what is taking place as machine learning algorithms travel across different domains and sites, and how precisely they learn by their exposure to different worlds of data.
Max ERC Funding
2 150 686 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-10-01, End date: 2025-09-30
Project acronym Ampl2Einstein
Project Scattering Amplitudes for Gravitational Wave Theory
Researcher (PI) David Kosower
Host Institution (HI) COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary Four years ago, the LIGO/Virgo observation of a black-hole binary merger
heralded the dawn of gravitational-wave astronomy. The promise of future
observations calls for an invigorated effort to underpin the theoretical
framework and supply the predictions needed for detecting future signals and
exploiting them for astronomical and astrophysical studies. Ampl2Einstein
will take ideas and techniques from recent years' dramatic advances in Quantum
Scattering Amplitudes, creating new tools for taking their classical limits
and using it for gravitational physics. The powerful `square root' relation
between gravity and a generalization of electrodynamics known as Yang--Mills
theory will play a key role in making this route simpler than direct classical
calculation. We will transfer these ideas to classical General Relativity to
compute new perturbative orders, spin-dependent observables, and the
dependence on the internal structure of merging objects. We will exploit
symmetries and structure we find in order to extrapolate to even higher orders
in the gravitational theory. We will make such calculations vastly simpler,
pushing the known frontier much further in perturbation theory and in
complexity of observables. These advances will give rise to a new generation
of gravitational-wave templates, dramatically extending the observing power of
detectors. They will allow observers to see weaker signals and will be key to
resolving long-standing puzzles about the internal structure of neutron stars.
We will apply novel technologies developed for scattering amplitudes to
bound-state calculations in both quantum and classical theory. Our research
will also lead to a deeper understanding of the classical limit of quantum
field theory, relevant to gravitational-wave observations and beyond. The
transfer of ideas to the new domain of General Relativity will dramatically
enhance our ability to reveal new physics encoded in the subtlest of
gravitational-wave signals.
Summary
Four years ago, the LIGO/Virgo observation of a black-hole binary merger
heralded the dawn of gravitational-wave astronomy. The promise of future
observations calls for an invigorated effort to underpin the theoretical
framework and supply the predictions needed for detecting future signals and
exploiting them for astronomical and astrophysical studies. Ampl2Einstein
will take ideas and techniques from recent years' dramatic advances in Quantum
Scattering Amplitudes, creating new tools for taking their classical limits
and using it for gravitational physics. The powerful `square root' relation
between gravity and a generalization of electrodynamics known as Yang--Mills
theory will play a key role in making this route simpler than direct classical
calculation. We will transfer these ideas to classical General Relativity to
compute new perturbative orders, spin-dependent observables, and the
dependence on the internal structure of merging objects. We will exploit
symmetries and structure we find in order to extrapolate to even higher orders
in the gravitational theory. We will make such calculations vastly simpler,
pushing the known frontier much further in perturbation theory and in
complexity of observables. These advances will give rise to a new generation
of gravitational-wave templates, dramatically extending the observing power of
detectors. They will allow observers to see weaker signals and will be key to
resolving long-standing puzzles about the internal structure of neutron stars.
We will apply novel technologies developed for scattering amplitudes to
bound-state calculations in both quantum and classical theory. Our research
will also lead to a deeper understanding of the classical limit of quantum
field theory, relevant to gravitational-wave observations and beyond. The
transfer of ideas to the new domain of General Relativity will dramatically
enhance our ability to reveal new physics encoded in the subtlest of
gravitational-wave signals.
Max ERC Funding
2 372 571 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31
Project acronym ANCESTORS
Project Making Ancestors: The Politics of Death in Prehistoric Europe
Researcher (PI) John ROBB
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary How did politics and inequality work in prehistoric Europe? Traditionally, politics has been seen in terms of discrete political ranks identified through differential treatment of individual burials. But this results in classifying much of prehistory, where the dead were treated in ways which effaced individual identity, as egalitarian. The result is an artificially dichotomous history: Neolithic people had landscapes, rituals and ancestors, Bronze and Iron Age people had politics and inequality. In the last two decades this approach has been strongly critiqued. Burial treatment rarely relates to status so directly; the dead serve many different political roles. Inequality in pre-state groups rarely consists of clear strata; inequality and equality exist in tension within groups. Inequality may have been present throughout European prehistory, but manifest situationally through differential life chances, kinship, ritual or ancestorhood, rather than overtly through political command, wealth or identity. But this new perspective has never been tested empirically.
This project tests alternative models of prehistoric inequality and deathways. To investigate social relations in life, it uses osteobiography, reconstructing life stories from skeletons through scientific data on identity, health, diet, mobility and kinship. To understand deathways, it employs a second new methodology, funerary taphonomy. Combining osteobiography and taphonomy allows us to connect ancient lives and deaths. Peninsular Italy provides a substantial test sequence typical of much of Europe. For each of three key periods (Neolithic, 6000-4000 BC; Final Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, 4000-1800 BC; Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age, 1800-600 BC), 200+ individuals will be analysed. The results will allow us to evaluate for the first time how inequality affected lives in prehistoric Europe and what role ancestors played in it.
Summary
How did politics and inequality work in prehistoric Europe? Traditionally, politics has been seen in terms of discrete political ranks identified through differential treatment of individual burials. But this results in classifying much of prehistory, where the dead were treated in ways which effaced individual identity, as egalitarian. The result is an artificially dichotomous history: Neolithic people had landscapes, rituals and ancestors, Bronze and Iron Age people had politics and inequality. In the last two decades this approach has been strongly critiqued. Burial treatment rarely relates to status so directly; the dead serve many different political roles. Inequality in pre-state groups rarely consists of clear strata; inequality and equality exist in tension within groups. Inequality may have been present throughout European prehistory, but manifest situationally through differential life chances, kinship, ritual or ancestorhood, rather than overtly through political command, wealth or identity. But this new perspective has never been tested empirically.
This project tests alternative models of prehistoric inequality and deathways. To investigate social relations in life, it uses osteobiography, reconstructing life stories from skeletons through scientific data on identity, health, diet, mobility and kinship. To understand deathways, it employs a second new methodology, funerary taphonomy. Combining osteobiography and taphonomy allows us to connect ancient lives and deaths. Peninsular Italy provides a substantial test sequence typical of much of Europe. For each of three key periods (Neolithic, 6000-4000 BC; Final Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, 4000-1800 BC; Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age, 1800-600 BC), 200+ individuals will be analysed. The results will allow us to evaluate for the first time how inequality affected lives in prehistoric Europe and what role ancestors played in it.
Max ERC Funding
1 943 548 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30
Project acronym AncestralWeave
Project 1,000 ancient genomes: gene-economy innovation in cattle, sheep and goat
Researcher (PI) Daniel BRADLEY
Host Institution (HI) THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary The genetic threads of goat, cattle and sheep ancestry have been woven by human breeding, environmental pressures, hybridisation and the chance effects of genetic drift. The ancestral weaves of these key animals intertwine with human creativity in the most profoundly innovative episodes of the human past. Three broad episodes of particular import were: initial domestications circa 11 kya in Southwest Asia; the intensification circa 6 kya of use of those animal products which are harvested without killing such as wool, milk and traction; and the development of exceptionally productive landraces, later formalized into breeds, in recent millennia. However, each of these is loosely defined in time and space, the key traits are often osteologically invisible, and the vectors of causality in their virtuous cycles of gene-economy innovation are completely unknown.
A combination of high coverage ancient whole genome data coupled with new analysis methods that allow efficient computation of genomewide locus genealogies will be used to untangle the threads of ancestry in sheep, cattle and goat across the whole genome in these transformative phases. Combining these with additional low coverage genomes generated from less preserved samples will generate a total set of 1,000 ancient animal genomes. These data will be unprecedented and will allow tracking of selection at trait genes, in order to detect human agency in breeding and, in collaboration with archaeologist partners, asking are there periods and places where threads of innovation coalesce. The project will also use ancient epigenetics to explore archaeological variation in gene activation patterns and will seek to understand the problematic build up of harmful mutations that threaten livestock today. With cognate disciplines, it will compare signals of animal mobility identifying distinct genetic strata correlating with archaeological horizons and affording the prospect of DNA-dating in future excavation.
Summary
The genetic threads of goat, cattle and sheep ancestry have been woven by human breeding, environmental pressures, hybridisation and the chance effects of genetic drift. The ancestral weaves of these key animals intertwine with human creativity in the most profoundly innovative episodes of the human past. Three broad episodes of particular import were: initial domestications circa 11 kya in Southwest Asia; the intensification circa 6 kya of use of those animal products which are harvested without killing such as wool, milk and traction; and the development of exceptionally productive landraces, later formalized into breeds, in recent millennia. However, each of these is loosely defined in time and space, the key traits are often osteologically invisible, and the vectors of causality in their virtuous cycles of gene-economy innovation are completely unknown.
A combination of high coverage ancient whole genome data coupled with new analysis methods that allow efficient computation of genomewide locus genealogies will be used to untangle the threads of ancestry in sheep, cattle and goat across the whole genome in these transformative phases. Combining these with additional low coverage genomes generated from less preserved samples will generate a total set of 1,000 ancient animal genomes. These data will be unprecedented and will allow tracking of selection at trait genes, in order to detect human agency in breeding and, in collaboration with archaeologist partners, asking are there periods and places where threads of innovation coalesce. The project will also use ancient epigenetics to explore archaeological variation in gene activation patterns and will seek to understand the problematic build up of harmful mutations that threaten livestock today. With cognate disciplines, it will compare signals of animal mobility identifying distinct genetic strata correlating with archaeological horizons and affording the prospect of DNA-dating in future excavation.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 199 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-12-01, End date: 2025-11-30
Project acronym AQUACHIRAL
Project Chiral aqueous-phase chemistry
Researcher (PI) Bernd Winter
Host Institution (HI) MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Country Germany
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE4, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary Most chemical reactions in lifeforms take place in aqueous environments and probing biochemical molecules and their reactions in the aqueous phase is indispensable for advancing fundamental and applied science. Equally, intermolecular effects involving chiral complexes are highly relevant to life sciences, where hydration and chiral recognition are fundamental biochemical processes, typically occurring at aqueous interfaces. All of these processes are driven by electronic structure interactions with water molecules and are intimately connected with aqueous-phase electron binding energies. The prime experimental tool to access these properties is photoelectron spectroscopy (PES). With the recent invention of liquid-microjet-(LJ) PES, compatible with highly volatile liquid water and aqueous solutions, this technique has significantly contributed to modern water research, providing important insights into formerly elusive water properties, such as absolute energetics and solute interfacial distributions.
I propose to explore chirality in aqueous solution using a novel aspect of photoelectron emission: photoelectron circular dichroism (PECD). It is site-specific and sensitive to chemical environment and structure. Furthermore, PECD exceeds absorption-based chiroptical signals by orders of magnitude, allowing application to dilute samples, potentially including interfacial layers, akin to PES. PECD has been demonstrated for isolated chiral molecules and clusters, and measurement of PECD effects in aqueous solution would mark a scientific breakthrough.
The aim of AQUACHIRAL is to combine LJ-PES with PECD to (1) probe aqueous-phase chirality using enantioselective electronic-structure fingerprints of solutes and to (2) follow the stereochemistry of prominent chemical reactions in aqueous solution, e.g. slow glucose mutarotation. To achieve this, experimental technology must be extended, with novel liquid jets and electron detection systems being developed and optimized.
Summary
Most chemical reactions in lifeforms take place in aqueous environments and probing biochemical molecules and their reactions in the aqueous phase is indispensable for advancing fundamental and applied science. Equally, intermolecular effects involving chiral complexes are highly relevant to life sciences, where hydration and chiral recognition are fundamental biochemical processes, typically occurring at aqueous interfaces. All of these processes are driven by electronic structure interactions with water molecules and are intimately connected with aqueous-phase electron binding energies. The prime experimental tool to access these properties is photoelectron spectroscopy (PES). With the recent invention of liquid-microjet-(LJ) PES, compatible with highly volatile liquid water and aqueous solutions, this technique has significantly contributed to modern water research, providing important insights into formerly elusive water properties, such as absolute energetics and solute interfacial distributions.
I propose to explore chirality in aqueous solution using a novel aspect of photoelectron emission: photoelectron circular dichroism (PECD). It is site-specific and sensitive to chemical environment and structure. Furthermore, PECD exceeds absorption-based chiroptical signals by orders of magnitude, allowing application to dilute samples, potentially including interfacial layers, akin to PES. PECD has been demonstrated for isolated chiral molecules and clusters, and measurement of PECD effects in aqueous solution would mark a scientific breakthrough.
The aim of AQUACHIRAL is to combine LJ-PES with PECD to (1) probe aqueous-phase chirality using enantioselective electronic-structure fingerprints of solutes and to (2) follow the stereochemistry of prominent chemical reactions in aqueous solution, e.g. slow glucose mutarotation. To achieve this, experimental technology must be extended, with novel liquid jets and electron detection systems being developed and optimized.
Max ERC Funding
2 490 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31
Project acronym ARO-MAT
Project Nanoscale Aromaticity and Supramolecular Electronic Materials
Researcher (PI) Harry ANDERSON
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE5, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary ARO-MAT will target emergent cooperative electronic and magnetic phenomena in molecules with dimensions of 5–25 nm (i.e. as big as many proteins). The project will develop supramolecular architectures with large pi-systems and well-defined geometries, in which the frontier orbitals coherently delocalize charge over the whole nanostructure. Aromaticity is a key emergent phenomenon; it can be defined as the ability of a cyclic molecule to sustain a ring current when placed in a magnetic field. Until recently, it was thought that aromaticity is restricted to small molecules, with circuits of less than about 22 pi-electrons. Anderson has shown that circuits of more than 160 pi-electrons (circumference > 15 nm) can exhibit strong aromatic ring currents. Testing even larger rings will elucidate the link between aromaticity and the persistent currents found in non-molecular mesoscopic rings (diameter 50–500 nm). ARO-MAT will explore the effects of molecular size and topology on nanoscale aromaticity. Other emergent phenomena to be addressed include the formation of open-shell singlet polyradical ground states, magnetic bistability in systems with many paramagnetic metal centers, and the control of charge transport through single-molecule devices by quantum interference. This multidisciplinary project combines organic synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, theory, electronic structure calculations, NMR and EPR spectroscopy, magnetochemistry, molecular electronics and low-temperature charge transport experiments. The core objective is to create low band gap materials with unprecedented electronic and magnetic properties, and to understand the structure-property relationships governing the behavior of these new materials. Most of the target structures are based on metalloporphyrins because of their redox activity, stability, structural versatility, suitability for template-directed synthesis and ability to position multiple strongly coupled paramagnetic metal centers.
Summary
ARO-MAT will target emergent cooperative electronic and magnetic phenomena in molecules with dimensions of 5–25 nm (i.e. as big as many proteins). The project will develop supramolecular architectures with large pi-systems and well-defined geometries, in which the frontier orbitals coherently delocalize charge over the whole nanostructure. Aromaticity is a key emergent phenomenon; it can be defined as the ability of a cyclic molecule to sustain a ring current when placed in a magnetic field. Until recently, it was thought that aromaticity is restricted to small molecules, with circuits of less than about 22 pi-electrons. Anderson has shown that circuits of more than 160 pi-electrons (circumference > 15 nm) can exhibit strong aromatic ring currents. Testing even larger rings will elucidate the link between aromaticity and the persistent currents found in non-molecular mesoscopic rings (diameter 50–500 nm). ARO-MAT will explore the effects of molecular size and topology on nanoscale aromaticity. Other emergent phenomena to be addressed include the formation of open-shell singlet polyradical ground states, magnetic bistability in systems with many paramagnetic metal centers, and the control of charge transport through single-molecule devices by quantum interference. This multidisciplinary project combines organic synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, theory, electronic structure calculations, NMR and EPR spectroscopy, magnetochemistry, molecular electronics and low-temperature charge transport experiments. The core objective is to create low band gap materials with unprecedented electronic and magnetic properties, and to understand the structure-property relationships governing the behavior of these new materials. Most of the target structures are based on metalloporphyrins because of their redox activity, stability, structural versatility, suitability for template-directed synthesis and ability to position multiple strongly coupled paramagnetic metal centers.
Max ERC Funding
2 491 625 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-10-01, End date: 2025-09-30
Project acronym AstroGeo
Project Astronomical Solutions over Geological Time
Researcher (PI) Jacques Laskar
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Country France
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary According to Milankovitch (1941), some of the large climatic changes of the past originate in the variations of the Earth’s orbit and of its spin axis resulting from the gravitational pull of the planets and the Moon. These variations can be traced over several millions of years (Ma) in the geological sedimentary records. Over the last three decades, the Earth’s orbital and spin solutions elaborated by the PI and his group (Laskar et al, 1993, 2004, 2011) have been used to establish a geological timescale based on the astronomical solution (e.g. Lourens et al, 2004; Hilgen et al, 2012). Nevertheless, extending this procedure through the Mesozoic Era (66-252 Ma) and beyond is difficult, as the solar system motion is chaotic (Laskar, 1989, 1990). It will thus not be possible to retrieve the precise orbital motion of the planets beyond 60 Ma from their present state (Laskar et al, 2011).
The PI's astronomical solutions have been used by geologists to establish local or global time scales. AstroGeo is designed to achieve the opposite. We will use the geological record as an input to break the horizon of predictability of 60Ma resulting from the chaotic motion of the planets. This will be done in a quantitative manner, and aims to provide a template orbital solution for the Earth that could be used for paleoclimate studies over any geological time. This project stems from the achievement of Olsen et al (2019) where for the first time, in a study that involves the PI, it was possible to precisely recover the frequencies of the precessing motion of the inner planets. AstroGeo will not provide a single or a few solutions, but a whole database of solutions that would equally fit all available astronomical observations. This will open a new era where the geological records will be used to retrieve the orbital evolution of the solar system. It will thus open a new observational window for retrieving not only the history of the Earth, but of the entire solar system.
Summary
According to Milankovitch (1941), some of the large climatic changes of the past originate in the variations of the Earth’s orbit and of its spin axis resulting from the gravitational pull of the planets and the Moon. These variations can be traced over several millions of years (Ma) in the geological sedimentary records. Over the last three decades, the Earth’s orbital and spin solutions elaborated by the PI and his group (Laskar et al, 1993, 2004, 2011) have been used to establish a geological timescale based on the astronomical solution (e.g. Lourens et al, 2004; Hilgen et al, 2012). Nevertheless, extending this procedure through the Mesozoic Era (66-252 Ma) and beyond is difficult, as the solar system motion is chaotic (Laskar, 1989, 1990). It will thus not be possible to retrieve the precise orbital motion of the planets beyond 60 Ma from their present state (Laskar et al, 2011).
The PI's astronomical solutions have been used by geologists to establish local or global time scales. AstroGeo is designed to achieve the opposite. We will use the geological record as an input to break the horizon of predictability of 60Ma resulting from the chaotic motion of the planets. This will be done in a quantitative manner, and aims to provide a template orbital solution for the Earth that could be used for paleoclimate studies over any geological time. This project stems from the achievement of Olsen et al (2019) where for the first time, in a study that involves the PI, it was possible to precisely recover the frequencies of the precessing motion of the inner planets. AstroGeo will not provide a single or a few solutions, but a whole database of solutions that would equally fit all available astronomical observations. This will open a new era where the geological records will be used to retrieve the orbital evolution of the solar system. It will thus open a new observational window for retrieving not only the history of the Earth, but of the entire solar system.
Max ERC Funding
2 498 956 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-11-01, End date: 2025-10-31
Project acronym Back to the Roots
Project Back to the roots of data-driven dynamical system identification
Researcher (PI) Bart DE MOOR
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Country Belgium
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE7, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary To obtain data-driven dynamic models for simulation, prediction, monitoring, classification or control tasks, in applications e.g. in Industry 4.0 and eHealth, most identification methods ‘solve’ an optimization problem, relying on some nonlinear iterative algorithm. Undeniably, too many heuristics prevail: What do we mean by ‘solved’? Where did the algorithm converge to? Is the model globally optimal, unique and reproducible?
To tackle these scientific deficiencies, we design a framework to deal with inexact data. We solve a longstanding open problem of least squares optimality in system identification: for polynomial dynamical models, the optimal model derives from an eigenvalue problem. Hereto, we generalize notions from Algebraic Geometry (multivariate polynomials), Operator Theory (model spaces), System Theory (multidimensional realization) and Numerical Linear Algebra (matrix computations).
The first objective is to develop a mathematically rigorous realization approach that maps data onto new mathematical structures (multi-shift invariant projective subspaces).
The second objective is to conceive a ‘misfit-latency’ framework to optimally map inexact data to these mathematical structures. We prove this to be a multiparameter eigenvalue problem. We expect breakthroughs in system theoretic characterizations of optimality (covering all existing methods), in the generalization to multiple input-output and multidimensional models and in finding the global optimum in the linear dynamic H2 model reduction problem.
The third objective is to implement matrix computation algorithms for the results of the first two objectives, to root sets of multivariate polynomials, to solve multiparameter eigenvalue problems and to isolate only the minimizing roots. We focus on matrix aspects of large scale, sparsity and structure.
Deliverables will be publications, software, graduate course material and science outreach initiatives, in line with the PI’s excellent track record
Summary
To obtain data-driven dynamic models for simulation, prediction, monitoring, classification or control tasks, in applications e.g. in Industry 4.0 and eHealth, most identification methods ‘solve’ an optimization problem, relying on some nonlinear iterative algorithm. Undeniably, too many heuristics prevail: What do we mean by ‘solved’? Where did the algorithm converge to? Is the model globally optimal, unique and reproducible?
To tackle these scientific deficiencies, we design a framework to deal with inexact data. We solve a longstanding open problem of least squares optimality in system identification: for polynomial dynamical models, the optimal model derives from an eigenvalue problem. Hereto, we generalize notions from Algebraic Geometry (multivariate polynomials), Operator Theory (model spaces), System Theory (multidimensional realization) and Numerical Linear Algebra (matrix computations).
The first objective is to develop a mathematically rigorous realization approach that maps data onto new mathematical structures (multi-shift invariant projective subspaces).
The second objective is to conceive a ‘misfit-latency’ framework to optimally map inexact data to these mathematical structures. We prove this to be a multiparameter eigenvalue problem. We expect breakthroughs in system theoretic characterizations of optimality (covering all existing methods), in the generalization to multiple input-output and multidimensional models and in finding the global optimum in the linear dynamic H2 model reduction problem.
The third objective is to implement matrix computation algorithms for the results of the first two objectives, to root sets of multivariate polynomials, to solve multiparameter eigenvalue problems and to isolate only the minimizing roots. We focus on matrix aspects of large scale, sparsity and structure.
Deliverables will be publications, software, graduate course material and science outreach initiatives, in line with the PI’s excellent track record
Max ERC Funding
2 485 925 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31
