ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

The existence of a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of the neutron, or any subatomic particle, would have far reaching implications connecting particle physics with cosmology. Time reversal invariance and CP symmetry would be violated. A new fundamental interaction producing the EDM, that is, deforming the charge distribution inside the neutron, could also have generated the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the early Universe. After 60 years of evolution, techniques to measure the neutron EDM are now so evolved that experiments are sensitive to microphysics associated with an energy scale beyond that accessible at the LHC. This situation offers a high likelihood of discovery for the next generation of experiments. In the same time, any improvement in precision is technically challenging. The control of the magnetic field must surpass that of the state of the art of atomic magnetometers. The n2EDM project aims at improving the precision by an order of magnitude or more. Systematic effects need to be controlled at an unprecedented level. In particular, the use of a mercury co-magnetometer based on the precession of 199Hg spins induces a set of subtle false effects due to the relativistic motional field. I propose to initiate a comprehensive program to master these systematic effects beyond the current research program. In particular, the proposed project includes a precise determination of the 199Hg magnetic moment with a precision of 0.1 ppm. To this end, I will attempt a novel approach: combining mercury and 4He magnetometry in the same cell. As a by-product, this will also produce an improved determination of the neutron magnetic moment, a quantity of interest for metrology. The cross-check I propose will prove that all disturbances on the neutron or mercury spins are mastered at the sub-ppm level, a decisive step in the quest for the neutron EDM.

1 498 840 €

Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2022-03-31

The experimental results of the first run of the Large Hadron Collider lead to the discovery of the Higgs boson but have not confirmed the dominant theoretical paradigm about the naturalness of the electro-weak scale, according to which the Higgs boson should have been accompanied by supersymmetric particles or by some other new physics able of protecting the Higgs boson mass from quadratically divergent quantum corrections. While the second LHC run is going to explore physics at higher energies in the next years, it is now the right moment to explore and develop new non conventional ideas about the origin of mass scales in nature and in particular of the electro-weak scale. Indeed, new theoretical ideas prompted by the fact that the standard paradigm is challenged by experiments, have been emerging in the past 1-2 years and are acquiring interest. Furthermore, in view of the large backgrounds unavoidably present at the Large Hadron Collider, unexpected discoveries could be delayed or even missed if experimentalists are not searching in the right direction. The experimental signatures of the new non-conventional models need to be identified now. Research performed by the PI and by the senior team members shows that concrete progress can be achieved in developing new non-conventional ideas about how the electroweak scale and the gravitational Planck scale can be dynamically generated with a vastly different ratio, as observed in nature. However, dedicated funding is needed for younger researches that want to explore such directions outside the mainstream. The main goal of this project is developing such new ideas and identifying their experimental signals.

1 876 215 €

Start date: 2015-12-01, End date: 2021-11-30

A key challenge in biological and soft-matter physics is to identify the principles that govern the organisation and functionality in non-equilibrium systems. Living systems are by definition out of equilibrium and a constant energy input is required to assemble and disassemble the molecular machinery of life. Only out of equilibrium, can proteins assemble to form functional sub-cellular structures, bind cells into dynamic tissues, and form complex biological machines. Our understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying robust protein assembly in driven systems is far from complete. Here I propose to develop a computer-simulation based framework to discover the physical principles of non-equilibrium protein assembly in biological or biomimetic systems. I will focus on systems where chemical gradients and active mechanical forces control protein assembly pathways and morphologies, and in which protein assembly far from equilibrium performs mechanical work. The particular case studies that I will investigate include mechanosensitive protein channels, fibrils of mechanical proteins, and active elastic filaments that remodel cells. As I aim to uncover generic design rules, my simulation model will only retain essential information on the shape and interaction of the assembling proteins needed to capture the complexity of the assembly. Using such minimal models, the simulations will be able to reach experimentally relevant time and length-scales, and will make quantitative predictions, which will be validated against data obtained by my experimental colleagues. The proposed programme will deliver an in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms that control the emergence of function in protein assemblies driven far from equilibrium. This knowledge should enable us to program or reprogram assembly phenomena in living organisms, and will provide principles that will guide the design and control of functional biomimetic assemblies and bio-inspired nano-machines.

1 424 574 €

Start date: 2019-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30

The further back we look in time, the less we know about the course of life's history. Genomics, through phylogenomics, will eventually resolve the evolution of macroscopic life, whose phylogeny can be properly modeled in the mathematical image of a bifurcating tree; where the evolutionary process is fundamentally tree-like in nature, we only have to collect enough data to bring the structure of the tree into focus. But when we look back into the evolution of microscopic life and early evolution that is, prokaryotic evolution, the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition, and the origin of life genome sequences are only of limited help. That is because neither the evolutionary process linking the evolution of genes across prokaryotic genomes nor the process linking prokaryotes to eukaryotes is strictly tree-like in nature. In prokaryote genome evolution, lateral gene transfer (LGT) is an important mechanism of natural variation, while the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition involved the wholesale merger of prokaryotic genomes via endosymbiosis. This proposal aims to deliver a quantum advance in our understanding of early evolution. Prokaryotic genome evolution and the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition will be investigated with mathematical tools that better approximate the process as it occurs in nature, by using the graph theoretical tools of networks rather than that of trees. For understanding the origin of life, genome data is inapplicable, because genes cannot be compared to inorganic compounds from which life ultimately arose. When it comes to linking microbial life to geochemical processes, the comparison of chemical reaction sequences in living things to those geochemistry is all with which we have to work. Some forms of hydrothermal vents harbour newly discovered chemical reaction sequences with striking overall similarity to that used by methanogens and acetogens, findings that bear upon the nature of the deepest evolutionary divide among modern microbes.

1 931 280 €

Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31

When we see an object, hear a sound or smell an odor, precise spatial and temporal patterns of electrical activity are generated within neuronal networks located in specialized brain areas. This electrical representation of the external stimulus mediates perception and sensory experience. However, this process is highly variable, and repetition of the very same sensory experience results in distinct network activity patterns. What does this variability mean for perception? Do distinct activity patterns carry different information about the stimulus? Or rather, does the brain code the same information coming from the outside world in multiple and equivalent ways? Answering these questions and determining how patterns of activity in neuronal populations are used for behavior has not been possible because of the inability to change the activity of neurons with single cell precision over large networks in an intact mammalian brain. In this ambitious proposal we will take a multidisciplinary approach to causally address these questions and decipher the computational principles of brain networks. To achieve this goal we will develop innovative optical technologies for manipulating and monitoring brain circuits with single cell resolution in the intact mouse brain. We will combine these new techniques with novel genetic manipulations and psychophysical behavioral methods that allow precise quantification of animals’ perceptual performance. Using this unique set of tools, we will unravel how the spatial (across neurons) and temporal (across time) aspects of neuronal electrical activity patterns encode information that guides behavior. In achieving our goals we will produce a new technology for stimulating and monitoring neurons in the brains of behaving animals with single-cell specificity that can be adapted to explore cellular dynamics in highly scattering biological media.

1 974 000 €

Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2020-09-30

I propose to study ‘neutral excitations’ in 2d and 1d electronic systems. Such excitations, rarely studied, are unique since they are chargeless but may carry energy. Being byproducts of electron interaction, they come in a few flavors: (i) Downstream modes in composite edge channels of the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) regime; (ii) Upstream modes in the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) regime; and (iii) Zero energy Majorana states (localized or propagating quasi-particles), in non-abelian FQHE states and in 1d topological P-wave superconductors. My main interests in neutral modes in the QHE regime are: (a) Their direct association with the nature of the wavefunction of the quantum state; (b) Being excited when a charge mode is being partitioned (say, by a quantum point contact), they may play a prime role in dephasing interference of quasi-particles due to the energy they rob (in the partitioning process). As for detecting Majorana quasi-particles, and aside from the exciting physics, their non-abelian nature makes them attractive as building blocks in ‘decoherence resistant’ systems. Based on our acquired abilities, such as material growth, processing techniques, and sensitive measurement techniques, I plan to perform experiments, which include: thorough studies of downstream and upstream neutral modes via shot noise and thermoelectric current measurements; proving (or disproving) their involvement in dephasing fractionally charged quasi-particles; growing and processing structures that harbor Majorana states (in 1d nano-wires and in 2d FQHE regime; and, possibly, eventually, manipulate Majorana states (by coupling and braiding). Experiments will employ, e.g., ultra-low temperatures, sensitive shot noise measurements, cross-correlation of current fluctuations, and interference of quasi-particles (charge and neutral) in novel interferometers.

2 428 042 €

Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2019-02-28

It is now firmly established that most of the matter in the Universe is in the form of the mysterious dark matter, contributing more than 80% to the total amount of matter. However, despite tremendous theoretical and experimental efforts over the past few decades, dark matter remains elusive and one of the great unknowns until today. To identify the nature of dark matter is evidently of fundamental importance and one of the top priorities in science today. The quest for dark matter is inherently multi disciplinary with strong roots in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, providing profound connections between these different disciplines. This project aims at exploring new avenues towards solving the dark matter puzzle, with a particular focus on a few select groundbreaking topics. These are centered around (i) theoretical dark matter model building, (ii) the study of new collider signatures, (iii) developing new techniques for the comparison and interpretation of direct detection experiments and (iv) identifying astrophysical probes which constrain or give evidence for dark matter self-interactions. Given the impressive increase in sensitivity of upcoming dark matter experiments as well as the upcoming high energy run of the Large Hadron Collider, there is no doubt that the era of data has begun for dark matter searches and that we can expect putative signals rather than exclusion limits for the near future. It is therefore extremely important to bring together different fields and exploit the complementarity of different search strategies to maximise the amount of information gained from a successful detection. This inherently multi disciplinary approach is at the heart of the current project, which can rely on a well established network of collaborators and will bring together excellent young physicists with different backgrounds to form a small but well structured research group which will significantly advance dark matter phenomenology in Europe.

1 214 250 €

Start date: 2015-06-01, End date: 2020-05-31

Gene evolution has long been thought to be driven primarily by duplication or transposition mechanisms, followed by divergence of the duplicated copy. However, every evolutionary lineage harbours also so-called orphan genes, which have no homologues in other evolutionary lineages i.e. which do not appear to have arisen via gene duplication mechanisms, or have diverged to a point where their origins can not be traced anymore. Orphan genes are generally thought to be important drivers of taxon specific adaptations and interactions with the environment. New insights from comparative genomics and phylogenetic analysis suggests now that orphan genes could indeed be created through de novo evolution and it is becoming increasingly clear that this mechanism might occur at high rates, which would provide a continuous source of material for new gene functions. However, only initial evidence is available for this so far and little is known about the evolutionary dynamics and mechanisms of de novo gene emergence. The present proposal will use experimental and functional approaches to study the role and the evolutionary potential of the emergence of completely new genes from random sequences. This will open up new perspectives in understanding the evolution of genomes and the molecular mechanisms of adaptation.

2 493 600 €

Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31

In recent years general relativity (GR) has become an increasingly important new tool in areas of physics beyond its traditional playground in astrophysics. The main motivation for this comes from the AdS/CFT correspondence which conjectures an equivalence between gravity in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spaces and certain conformal field theories (CFT’s). Via this correspondence, GR now plays a key role in improving our understanding of non-gravitational physics at strong coupling. The AdS/CFT correspondence naturally leads to the study of GR in dimensions greater than four and/or in AdS spaces. Our current understanding of GR in these new settings is rather limited but it has been realized that the physics of gravity can be significantly different than in the 4d asymptotically flat case. Moreover, to access these new gravitational phenomena numerical methods have been and will be essential. However, the use of numerical GR beyond the traditional 4d asymptotically flat case is still in its infancy. The goal of this project is to improve our understanding of GR in higher dimensions and/or AdS spaces using numerical techniques. To achieve this goal, we will focus on the study of the following topics: 1. Develop stable codes for doing numerical GR in AdS and higher dimensions. We will use numerical GR and the AdS/CFT correspondence to study out of equilibrium phenomena in strongly coupled CFT’s. We will also use numerical GR to understand the endpoint of the various black hole instabilities and thereby address long standing conjectures in GR. 2. New types of stationary black holes. We will use numerical GR to numerically construct new types of black holes in higher dimensions and in AdS, with novel topologies and fewer symmetries than the known ones. We shall apply them to the study of equilibrium configurations in strongly coupled gauge theories at finite temperature.

1 284 525 €

Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31

Quarks are bound together by the strong nuclear force as described by QCD. Due to confinement quarks and gluons are not detected in experiments but particles which are complicated bound states. Simulations allow for relating the bound state properties to those of the underlying quarks. The calculation is performed by constructing a discrete four dimensional space-time lattice and then solving the QCD equations of motion on high performance computers (e.g. graphics cards cluster or IBM BG/Q at Edinburgh) New physics will be discovered in terms of discrepancies between Standard Model (SM) predictions and experimental measurements. A hint for a discrepancy between theory and experiment and therefore new physics exists for the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. I will implement a new approach to its computation which will provide reliable predictions from first principles and which will substantiate or rebut the apparent tension. Also, my newly developed method for analytically predicting contributions (quark-disconnected diagrams) to the muon anomalous moment which are very hard to compute numerically will be extended to other processes relevant for understanding non-perturbative physics (e.g. K->pi pi) and for SM-tests (neutron EDM). The LHCb experiment at CERN, Switzerland, has recently started taking data for processes that are particularly sensitive to new physics. To interpret the experimental data one needs theory-predictions that can only be provided by lattice QCD. Here properties of flavor-changing neutral current decays of particles containing one b-quark and one light quark will be computed. Next to a large scale simulation of K->pi decays, algorithms will be developed and cut-off effects computed analytically in order to reduce the uncertainty in the lattice computation of Vus, an element of the CKM-matrix. An UV-fixed point in the non-linear sigma model will be searched with lattice simulations on graphics cards.

977 571 €

Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2018-04-30

The aim of this theory proposal is to develop the research field of spintronics in three new directions - i) antiferromagnetic metals, ii) helimagnets, and iii) ultracold quantum gases - unified by the fact that it is a priori clear that new concepts have to be developed in understanding their spintronics phenomena. The central scientific challenge is understanding transport of a nonconserved quantity, i.e., spin, and its nonconserved current, i.e., the spin current. The proposal capitalizes in part on the PI’s experience with both spintronics and cold atoms to cross-fertilize these sub-disciplines of condensed-matter physics. i) The first focus of the proposal, motivated by experimental follow-ups of the PI’s pioneering theory work, is to theoretically study current-driven magnetization dynamics in antiferromagnetic metals. These materials are very promising for applications in ultrahigh-density information storage technology. ii) The second focus is to study the influence of current on the magnetic state of a helimagnet. The dynamics of the magnetization spiral in a helimagnet can be viewed as motion of a series of domain walls. In addition to its intrinsic fundamental interest this study will therefore shed light on the ongoing issues in current-driven domain wall motion, such as intrinsic versus extrinsic pinning of domains, and the role of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. iii) The third and last focus of the proposal is to study analogues of spintronics phenomena with cold atoms, exploiting the well-understood microscopic description of these systems to quantum engineer model systems for spintronics, as well as their possibilities to go beyond conventional electronic condensed-matter physics. In particular the prospect for spin currents to be carried by bosonic particles opens up new research directions. This study develops new trends in spin-dependent transport phenomena and current-induced order-parameter dynamics.

876 000 €

Start date: 2008-09-01, End date: 2013-08-31

The heaviest element which has been found in nature is uranium with 92 protons. So far, the elements up to atomic number 118 (oganesson) have been discovered in the laboratory. All transuranium elements are radioactive and their production rates decrease with increasing number of protons. An Island of Stability, where the nuclei have relatively long half-lives, is predicted at the neutron number 182 and, depending on the theoretical model, at the proton number 114, 120 or 126. Current experimental techniques do not allow to go so far to the neutron-rich side close to the Island of Stability. The observation of gravitational waves as well as electromagnetic waves originating from a neutron star merger has been published on October 16, 2017 and is a first proof of the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in the r-process. It still remains an open question if superheavy nuclei have been formed in our universe. To answer these questions, we need insight into the nuclear properties of the heaviest elements and how these properties evolve when one moves toward to the neutron-rich side on the nuclear chart. In the NEXT project, I will set out to discover new, Neutron-rich, EXotic heavy nuclei using multi-nucleon Transfer reactions. I will measure their masses and, thus, pin down the ground state properties of these nuclei. These studies provide insight into the evolution of nuclear shells in the heavy element region. Furthermore, I will measure the fission half-lives of these isotopes. In order to realize the NEXT project, I will built a novel spectrometer, which is a combination of a solenoid separator and Multi-Reflection Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer. The broad experience in heavy element research and mass measurements that I have acquired over the years, and the unique infrastructure at my home institute that houses the AGOR accelerator, makes it so that I am ideally placed to start and lead the NEXT project.

1 670 323 €

Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31

"Nitrification is a central component of the Earth’s biogeochemical nitrogen cycle. This process is driven by two groups of microorganisms, which oxidize ammonia via nitrite to nitrate. Their activities are of major ecological and economic importance and affect global warming, agriculture, wastewater treatment, and eutrophication. Despite the importance of nitrification for the health of our planet, there are surprisingly large gaps in our fundamental understanding of the microbiology of this process. Nitrifiers are difficult to isolate and thus most of our current knowledge stems from a few cultured model organisms that are hardly representative of the microbes driving nitrification in the environment. The overarching objective of NITRICARE is to close some of these knowledge gaps and obtain a comprehensive basic understanding of the identity, evolution, metabolism and ecological importance of those bacteria and archaea that actually catalyze nitrification in nature. For this purpose innovative single cell technologies like Raman-microspectroscopy, NanoSIMS and single cell genomics will be combined in novel ways and a Raman microfluidic device for high-throughput cell sorting will be developed. Application of these approaches will reveal the evolutionary history and metabolic versatility of uncultured ammonia oxidizing archaea and will provide important insights into their population structure. Furthermore, the proposed experiments will allow us to efficiently search for unknown nitrifiers, evaluate their ecological importance and test the hypothesis that organisms catalyzing both steps of nitrification may exist. For non-model nitrifiers we will develop a unique genetic approach to reveal the genetic basis of key metabolic features. Together, the genomic, metabolic, ecophysiological and genetic data will provide unprecedented insights into the biology of nitrifying microbes and open new conceptual horizons for the study of microbes in their natural environments."

2 499 107 €

Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2017-04-30

Quantum mechanics is our most successful theory of nature. Yet more than eight decades after its inception there is a general agreement that a deep and intuitive understanding of it is still missing; we know how to compute quantum effects but we clearly do not have the full story. Even to this day, surprising and even paradoxical quantum effects continue to be frequently discovered. They are paradoxical only because our understanding of quantum behaviour is not yet good enough to have anticipated them. However, for the first time there are glimmers of hope. It is the main thesis of this project that what makes quantum mechanics so counterintuitive is the fact that it is nonlocal. One nonlocal phenomenon, namely Bell-type nonlocality, is at present investigated intensively. It is by now universally accepted that it holds at least part of the key to truly understanding quantum behaviour. However, it is the main point of this project that there exist two other types of nonlocality, namely dynamic nonlocality and nonlocality in time. Dynamic nonlocality is the nonlocality of the quantum equations of motion, discovered in the context of the Aharanov-Bohm effect. Nonlocality in time is the ability to impose independent initial and final boundary conditions on the evolution of a quantum system. In contrast to Bell-type nonlocality, these two other types of nonlocality have received far less attention. Research into temporal-nonlocality (pre- and post-selection) has been evolving slowly over the last twenty years, whilst dynamical nonlocality has been virtually untouched. I believe that only by understanding all three types of nonlocality can the key to quantum behaviour be found. This project will develop an intensive research program on dynamical and temporal nonlocality whilst pursuing a vigorous investigation into the many fundamental open questions related to Bell-type nonlocality.

1 664 126 €

Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28

"The objective of this project is to revolutionize the way the structure of the proton is accessed, determined, and used in the computation of physical processes at hadron colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERN. At a hadron accelerator, predictions require a precise, detailed, and accurate description and understanding of the structure of the colliding protons, as encoded in parton distributions (PDFs) - the distributions of quarks and gluons. At the LHC, PDFs are at present the major source of uncertainty, and in the near future they will be the main hurdle for discovery. The vision of this project is to remove this hurdle by attacking the problem using recent results from artificial intelligence (AI). I will lead a research team of two staff scientists, four postdocs and three PhD students, who will apply to PDF determination the recent methods of deep reinforcement learning and Q-learning, which will be coupled with deep residual networks to achieve a fully parameter- and bias-free understanding of proton structure. I will bring into high-energy physics a methodology so far used for object recognition in self-driving cars and automatic game playing, leading both to new physics, and new computational techniques. The application of these techniques to PDFs will enable me to reach two secondary goals. The first is theoretical: the full use for PDF determination of recent high perturbative order (next-to-next-to leading order or NNLO) computations, which will be integrated by means of a new approximation method which relies on combining known exact results with all-order information in various kinematic limits to extend the scope of the former to a more detailed (""more exclusive"") description of the final state.The second is phenomenological: the integration in PDF determination of the Monte-Carlo event generators which are used to turn field theoretical prediction into a realistic description which may be directly compared to experimental data. "

1 602 862 €

Start date: 2017-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30

The aim of NOMAD is to develop frontier approaches to control the magnetodynamic properties of nanometer-sized molecular and metallic elements. The first part of the project recognizes the importance of molecular materials for future technologies based on magnetoelectronic devices. It addresses the stabilization of the magnetic moment of individual molecules beyond their intrinsic limits (slow timescale). Moreover, the construction of spin-sensitive probes with spatial atomic-resolution and a dynamic range extending up to the GHz regime is proposed. These shall be used to characterize magnetodynamic phenomena of individual molecules and metal particles in a nanoscopic environment (fast timescale). The second part relates to the control of magnetic relaxation and coercivity in nanoscale metallic particles. Electric-field manipulation of ferromagnetism has been proven in dilute magnetic semiconductors at temperatures below 50 K. Here, the aim is to demonstrate and optimize electric field-induced changes of the magnetic anisotropy energy in metal layers and nanoparticles embedded in a double tunnel junction, providing a direct or indirect (transition-driven) handle to their magnetic dynamics at room temperature. Metal-based materials constitute the mainstay of present magnetic technology; their electric-field actuation would lead to simpler and power-saving devices that process magnetic information using electrical signals.

1 517 779 €

Start date: 2008-09-01, End date: 2013-08-31

The project is aimed at developing new methods to create ultracold gases with unexplored many-body properties, and we construct the theory to realize the proposed opportunities. We intend to develop new ideas to induce resonant, long-range, and many-body interaction between particles. This includes novel near-zero-field Feshbach resonances in gases tightly confined to 1 or 2 dimensions that will enable the exploration of the physics of spinor gases in ultralow magnetic fields (<1mG). The idea is that the resonating state of the closed channel is a field-tunable confinement-induced weakly bound state. By the low field one avoids field-induced accumulation of particles in a given Zeeman state and encounters a variety of novel many-body states with interaction-broken spin rotation symmetry. The new resonances for polar molecules in 2 dimensions (layers) are provided by their coupling to the interlayer 2-molecule bound state. This allows one to reduce the short-range 2-body interaction making a 3-body repulsion important for bosons, so that the resulting many-body states can be various supersolids. It is further proposed to work on intriguing open problems. The creation of an itinerant ferromagnet of 2-component fermions is blocked in 3D by the formation of weakly bound dimers at the strong intercomponent repulsion required by the Stoner mechanism. In 1D this state is impossible for contact interactions. Our idea is to include an antisymmetric interaction (p-wave in 3D), which can practically make the ground state ferromagnetic. We then focus on non-conventional transport of rotational excitations of polar molecules randomly distributed in a deep optical lattice. The amplitude of hopping of an excitation from an excited to a ground state molecule decays as a cubic power of the distance between them. This is a long-range behavior which may lead to Levy flights, antilocalization, algebraic localization of the excitations, and we develop a theory of all these regimes.

1 584 207 €

Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2019-01-31

In the past decade, the band-structure topology and related topological materials have been intensively studied mostly by revealing their unique surface states. The current proposal sets a new paradigm by focusing on nonlinear optical phenomena in topological semimetals (TSMs). I aim to investigate the photocurrent and second-harmonic generation, as well as to discover novel nonlinear effects. The strength of TSMs lies in the fact that the giant Berry curvature in their band-crossing regions (e.g., Weyl points) can strongly boost these nonlinear effects, such as inducing a colossal photocurrent. Current understanding of the photocurrent is based on a model that considers the two-band transition within a Weyl cone. In the field of nonlinear optics, however, it is known that the photocurrent largely comes from three-band virtual transitions. Unfortunately, the nonlinear optics theory cannot be simply applied to TSMs due to the unphysical divergence of the photocurrent at band-crossing points. Therefore, I propose to bring the concept of three-band transitions to TSMs by reformulating the photocurrent theory framework. The new methodology represents the challenging and ground-breaking nature of the current proposal. Beyond the optical excitation, I further propose to explore exotic nonlinear electric and thermoelectric phenomena at the zero-frequency limit. I aim to build up a diagnostic tool that explores the nonlinear phenomena in a vast number of real TSM materials and directly probe the bulk topology by investigating their nonlinear properties. For example, my recent results have exposed a new group of Weyl points in a well-known Weyl semimetal by analysing the photocurrent distribution in its band structure. External perturbations can sensitively modify the TSM band structure, hence tune the induced photocurrent. This controllable photocurrent opens the door for novel device concepts, such as an optoelectronic transistor controlled by an external magnetic field.

1 721 706 €

Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31

Quantum simulators (QS) are experimental systems that allow mimic hard to simulate models of condensed matter, high energy physics and beyond. QS have various platforms: from ultracold atoms and ions to superconducting qubits. They constitute the important pillar of quantum technologies (QT), and promise future applications in chemistry, material science and optimization problems. Over the last decade, QS were particularly successful in mimicking topological effects in physics (TEP) and in developing accurate quantum validation/certification (QVC) methods. NOQIA is a theory project, aimed at introducing the established field of QS+TEP+QVC into two novel areas: physics of ultrafast phenomena and attoscience (AS) on one side, and quantum machine learning (ML) and neural networks (NN) on the other. This will open up new horizons/opportunities for research both in AS and in ML/NN. For instance, in AS we will address the question if intense laser physics may serve as a tool to detect topological effects in solid state and strongly correlated systems. We will study response of matter to laser pulses carrying topological signatures, to determine if they can induce topological effects in targets. We will design/analyze QS using trapped atoms to understand and detect TEP in the AS. On the ML/NN side, we will apply classical ML to analyze, design and control QS for topological systems, in order to understand and optimize them. Conversely, we will transfer many-body techniques to ML in order to analyze and possibly improve performance of classical machine learning. We will design and analyze quantum neural network devices that will employ topology in order to achieve robust quantum memory or information processing. We will design/study attractor neural networks with topological stationary states, or feed-forward networks with topological Floquet and time-crystal states. Both in AS and ML/NN, NOQIA will rely on quantum validation and certification protocols and techniques.

2 164 244 €

Start date: 2019-07-01, End date: 2024-06-30

The recent discovery of a Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva, has undoubtedly opened a portal to widely expected new physics, anticipated to manifest itself in the Tera-electron-Volt range: the Terascale. New physics is needed to understand some of the deepest mysteries of our universe, that include its composition, where dark matter and dark energy seem to comprise 95% of its energy/matter density, and its evolution from the Big Bang to today, where we see much structure and where matter dominates over antimatter, and whether we live in more dimensions than the familiar four. Substantial improvements to the current experiments at the LHC are planned, and new experiments are being proposed or discussed at future new energy frontier accelerators to tackle these scientific issues. A key element of the improved and newer generation detectors is the use of very high performance calorimeters for the measurement of the energies of particles produced in the high-energy collisions at colliders. At the upgraded LHC these must operate in an unprecedentedly challenging experimental environment. This proposal deals with a novel, yet untested, high-risk approach to calorimetry that combines state of the art techniques so far only used independently either in charged particle tracking or conventional calorimeters. New technologies will have to be developed for such a ground-breaking calorimeter. These include very fine feature size, powerful, radiation hard electronics in emerging technologies using feature sizes of 130 nm or 65 nm; low-cost silicon sensors in the emerging technology using 8” silicon wafers, also in Europe; environmentally-friendly cooling technologies using liquid carbondioxide; high performance and fast decision making logic using new more powerful FPGA, all to be produced at an industrial scale.

3 034 107 €

Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2020-09-30

The Standard Model (SM) of electroweak and strong interactions, supplemented by neutrino masses, provides an extremely successful description of all available experimental data in elementary particle physics. However, the basic origin of electroweak and flavour symmetry breaking remains largely unknown, as well as the mechanism stabilizing the electroweak scale. In the coming years, direct searches at LHC will shed light on electroweak symmetry breaking and probe new physics models with new particles up to the TeV scale. At the same time, an impressive amount of data in the flavour sector will be collected at dedicated experiments such as LHCb, Super B-factories, MEG, NA62 and others. This upcoming experimental information sets the stage for the present project, which aims at: i) providing the theoretical tools needed to fully exploit experimental data in the flavour sector, implementing state-of-the art calculations in a consistent framework within the SM or in any New Physics (NP) model discovered by (or not ruled out by) direct searches; ii) determining the flavour structure of the effective Lagrangian that describes energies up to the TeV scale and above, combining direct searches with flavour data; iii) searching for a fundamental mechanism of flavour symmetry breaking that can justify the flavour structure of TeV-scale physics. This fundamental mechanism should address both the SM flavour puzzle, i.e. the origin of masses and mixings of quarks and leptons, and the NP flavour puzzle, i.e. the mechanism protecting TeV-scale NP from causing large deviations from the SM predictions in the flavour observables we have measured so far. The main support requested to the ERC is for hiring six experienced researchers, the rest of the funds are for optimizing the effectiveness of the team and the research environment.

1 258 920 €

Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2017-10-31

Our understanding of the subatomic world and of the very fabric of the space-time is encompassed in a theory which is the result of all past experimental observations and theoretical developments: the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Yet cosmological observations and theoretical arguments lead us to conclude that new phenomenology, new particles, forces, or a new space-time structure is waiting to be uncovered. Naturalness of the recently discovered Higgs boson suggests that new phenomena should appear at the tera-electronvolt (TeV) scale, and will be accompanied by modifications to the dynamics of the heaviest elementary particle known: the top quark. The aim of this proposal is to perform five measurements involving top quarks with the data that will be collected by the ATLAS experiment at the upcoming Run II (2015-18) of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): the top quark mass, the CP violation in B hadron decays from the top, the top-Z boson couplings, the search for the top's Flavour Changing Neutral decays, and the search for heavy resonances decaying to top pairs. While measuring these properties is nothing new, the measurements are performed coherently using novel techniques beyond state-of-the-art to push the boundaries on the sensitivity of the limited Run II data, hence allowing the discovery of new phenomena at the LHC before 2020.

1 971 841 €

Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31

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.

1 642 500 €

Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31

The goal of the present project is to investigate novel device concepts based on organic semiconductor materials: the number of device principles is still rather small for organic devices and many concepts are not explored. The concept of controlled molecular doping successfully introduced to optoelectronic devices will be used here to achieve Fermi level control and well-defined junctions. Preferentially, we plan to work in this project with oligomer substances which are deposited by vacuum technology. The main reason for this choice is that this approach allows depositing multilayer structures with comparatively high reproducibility. However, the principles developed here should also applicable with other low-cost deposition technologies such as printing. Based on previous experiments such as the realization of the first pn-homojunction, this work will concentrate on the following devices: First, we want to further develop the Zener diodes which have in first experiments shown that the basic effects exist in organic devices as well. The goal is to significantly reduce the forward offset voltage and the improve controllability of the reverse breakdown voltage. Second, we want to try to realize efficient triodes allowing larger currents and higher switching speed as conventional approaches. Furthermore, we strive to realize an organic bipolar transistor, which is challenging in organic devices due the rather small diffusion lengths. Third, we will approach new devices with more complex layer structures, such as thyristors. While certain device types will be in the focus of the projects, we expect that the general understanding of organic semiconductors in switching device applications can be improved.

1 953 280 €

Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-09-30

In the past fifteen years, neutrino physics has revolutionised our understanding of particle physics. The discovery of neutrino oscillations implies that neutrinos have masses and mix: this is the only particle physics evidence of new physics beyond the Standard Model to date. Their origin remains a major challenge. The NuMass project will focus on new physics at low energy scales, below the one reachable at the LHC. This approach is opposite to widely studied Standard Model extensions, which invoke new physics at scales so high that they will never be tested directly, and orthogonal to TeV models accessible at the LHC. The NuMass idea is that new particles in Nature could be hidden away not because they are too heavy but because, although light, they interact too weakly with ordinary matter. Neutrinos are by far the least understood of the standard fermions: if new particles are indeed at low scales, below the electroweak one, a likely scenario is that they couple more strongly to neutrinos than to other standard particles, e.g. quarks. Therefore, neutrinos are a unique portal into low energy physics. The NuMass project will adopt a unique approach combining particle theory, phenomenology and cosmology. It will propose low energy extensions of the Standard Model and embed them in a consistent theory. It will study their signatures in experiments and their impact in the Early Universe. It will exploit the wide experimental programme, e.g. T2K, MicroBooNE, NOvA, GERDA, which will provide new data in the near future, to constrain the properties of the models. The NuMass ultimate goal is to unveil a new theory of particles and interactions at low energy: its success would be groundbreaking as it would open a completely new perspective on the fundamental laws of Nature. New theoretical challenges would arise to explain why the new sector is light, and new experimental ones to test the new particles and interactions, leading to new directions in particle physics.

1 702 663 €

Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2020-08-31

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is considered the best potential resource to determine the absolute neutrino mass scale. Moreover, if observed, it will signal that the total lepton number is not conserved and neutrinos are Majorana particles. Presently, this physics case is one of the most important research “beyond the Standard Model” and might guide the way towards a Grand Unified Theory of fundamental interactions. Since the ββ decay process involves nuclei, its analysis necessarily implies nuclear structure issues. The 0νββ decay rate can be expressed as a product of independent factors: the phase-space factors, the nuclear matrix elements (NME) and a function of the masses of the neutrino species.Thus the knowledge of the NME can give information on the neutrino mass, if the 0νββ decay rate is measured. The novel idea of NURE is to use nuclear reactions of double charge-exchange (DCE) as a tool to determine the ββ NME. In DCE reactions and ββ decay, the initial and final nuclear states are the same and the transition operators have the same spin-isospin structure. Thus, even if the two processes are mediated by different interactions, the NME are connected and the determination of the DCE cross-sections can give crucial information on ββ matrix elements. NURE plans to carry out a campaign of experiments using accelerated beams on different targets candidates for 0νββ decay. The DCE channel will be populated using (18O,18Ne) and (20Ne,20O) reactions by the innovative MAGNEX large acceptance spectrometer, which is unique in the world to measure very suppressed reaction channels at high resolution. The complete net involving the single charge-exchange and multi-step transfers characterized by the same initial and final nuclei will be also measured to study the reaction mechanism. The absolute cross-sections will be extracted. The comparison with microscopic state-of-the-art calculations will give access to the NMEs.

1 272 000 €

Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2022-03-31

The long-standing challenge of string theory, confronting the real world, has become more pressing and at the same time tangible in view of the upcoming LHC. Since the low energy limit of the theory is the main stage where predictions can be compared with experimental data, the goal of this project is to develop a new unified framework to formulate, compute and analyze this limit and its phenomenology. Understanding the low energy limit of string theory at the level where it can be confronted with precision experiments requires two key elements. On one hand one must obtain the full low energy Lagrangians resulting from compactifications from ten to four dimensions. On the other hand, one must analyze the couplings of quarks and leptons, represented by open strings attached to branes. Attempts to construct four-dimensional effective theories have focused in the past on a particular class of six-dimensional spaces, but my work in the last few years has shown that realistic solutions arise from manifolds whose differential properties are actually much weaker and that these compactifications have an elegant reformulation in terms of a generalized version of Riemannian geometry. I plan to use the formalism of generalized geometry to obtain the full tree level, perturbative and non-perturbative corrections to the 4D LEEL resulting from compactifications on these manifolds, and to study their phenomenology. Obtaining the full LEEL is the key step towards understanding if the world as we see it today comes from a string theory compactification: only full knowledge of the Lagrangian allows us to determine in detail how these manifolds lead to theories having 4D isolated vacua with a tiny positive cosmological constant, and support branes whose gauge theory spectrum and couplings are those of the Standard Model. Furthermore, the LEEL will be compared with the data of tomorrow: masses and couplings of supersymmetric partners, if supersymmetry is found at the LHC.

945 000 €

Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2016-09-30

The present proposal aims at the optimal control of the preparation, distribution and storage of entangled states of multipartite quantum systems. We will employ our recently developed observable entanglement measures to dynamically optimize entanglement per se rather than fidelity with respect to some specified entangled target state. We will apply these tools to NV-centers and trapped ions in order to devise time-dependent control pulses (e.g.) laser pulses) that steer these systems into highly entangled states. In a second branch we will extend our theoretical tools for entanglement control in order to achieve close-to-perfectly correlated states even in systems with strong decoherence.

1 173 240 €

Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2016-08-31

This multidisciplinary research programme is focussed on the optical manipulation of interfaces, droplets and crystallites in colloidal model systems. In particular, we will use holographic optical tweezing and confocal microscopy to study interfacial phenomena in three different phase separated colloid-polymer mixtures, exhibiting colloidal liquid-gas, crystal-gas and nematic-isotropic phase coexistence, respectively. First, we will determine the full potential energy landscape of the optical traps using the relation between interface fluctuations and deformed liquid-gas interfaces. This will then be used to study the complex and anisotropic interfacial properties of crystal-gas and nematic-isotropic interfaces. In addition, we envisage quantitatively investigating the nucleation of colloidal liquid droplets, crystallites and liquid crystalline droplets in optical traps positioned at well-defined heights above the interface, which is a direct and quantitative measure for the undersaturation. This allows us to systematically study the relation between the quench depth, nucleus size and nucleation times. We will furthermore nucleate multiple droplets, crystallites and liquid crystalline droplets to study their optical trapping controlled coalescence and detachment, which will shed completely new light on for instance the single particle structure and dynamics upon coalescence and detachment. Finally, we will introduce large probe particles into the phase separated colloid-polymer mixtures, which enables the study of important phenomena such as heterogeneous nucleation and capillary condensation, crystallisation and nematisation. This ambitious project opens up a huge range of exciting possibilities to gain a deep and fundamental understanding of interfacial phenomena in complex fluids by actively manipulating and controlling colloidal interfaces, droplets and crystallites.

1 999 892 €

Start date: 2017-06-01, End date: 2022-05-31

A central goal in evolutionary biology is to understand the molecular changes responsible for phenotypic differences between species, in particular those that have arisen among mammals. Phenotypic evolution is thought to be largely founded on developmental gene regulatory changes, which determine species-specific tissue morphologies and thus lay the foundation for their typical physiological properties. We recently performed the first cross-mammalian transcriptome comparisons for adult organs, providing many insights into the molecular evolution of organ physiologies, but the evolution of developmental transcriptomes remains largely unstudied. I propose to generate comprehensive RNA sequencing data for a collection of adult tissues and developmental precursors from many mammals and tetrapod outgroup species (birds, reptiles, amphibians). The data will include dense ontogenetic time courses for key reference species, covering embryonic stages and, for mammals, placental tissues. We will identify coding and noncoding genes constituting core ancestral tissue transcriptomes and assess relative contributions of gene expression changes and the emergence of new genes to the evolution of phenotypically relevant expression patterns. We will also empirically evaluate global models of evolutionary conservation patterns during embryogenesis and placentation. To understand the dynamics of functional and regulatory interactions of different gene types and their evolutionary relevance, we will reconstruct evolutionary transcription networks and assess associated regulatory mechanisms. Overall, this inter-disciplinary “evo-devo” project will unveil ontogenetic and adult gene expression programs underlying shared (ancestral) and lineage-specific morphological and physiological phenotypes. It will thus substantially advance our understanding of the molecular basis of phenotypic evolution.

1 998 632 €

Start date: 2015-02-01, End date: 2020-01-31

The project is focused on two objectives: the study of optimization and inference algorithms based on advanced statistical physics methods for disordered systems, and their application to large-scale inverse problems in computational systems biology. In last years, fundamentally new approaches to large-scale optimization and inference problems have emerged at the interface between Statistical Mechanics and Computer Science. Partly this was made possible by extending ideas from the statistical physics of disordered systems to applications in computer science. Indeed, the application of methods originally developed for the analysis of spin glasses to hard optimization problems led to the definition of message passing algorithms (MPAs), a new class of algorithms that on many difficult problems showed performance definitely superior to Monte Carlo schemes. The field presents many conceptual open problems and applications of great potential impact. MPAs are intrinsically parallel and can be used to tackle optimization problems over large networks of constraints. Their probabilistic foundations are still largely unexplored and thus their study can contribute greatly to computational statistical physics. At the same time, these new techniques are becoming key tools in fields such as computational systems biology, where the exponential increase of molecular data is posing new computational challenges in the study of biological systems composed by many interacting molecular components. It is a fact that the advances in sequencing and other high throughput technologies deeply transformed the world of biological research over the last 10-15 years. This project aims at bringing the MPAs techniques to the full benefit of biological research.

1 260 105 €

Start date: 2011-07-01, End date: 2016-06-30

Carrier spin states in semiconductor nano-structures can be manipulated with fast optical pulses via the optical selection rules. The electron and hole spins in quantum dots interact strongly with the nuclear spins in the host material via the hyperfine interaction. This allows a new, versatile approach to nuclear spintronics, namely applying fast optical initialisation to carrier states and subsequent transfer via dynamic nuclear polarisation (DNP) of the spin information onto long-lived nuclear spin states, with promising applications in quantum information science and novel nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. This project aims to develop new, efficient optical pumping schemes to maximise DNP by going beyond the established Overhauser effects, investigating the possibility of self-polarization and phase transitions of the nuclear spin ensemble. An innovating aspect of this proposal is to use valence state engineering to tailor the highly anisotropic dipolar interaction between nuclei and holes, which can lead to novel, non-colinear hyperfine coupling. The next innovation proposed is the development of an all-optical technique AONMR that does not require any radiofrequency (rf) coil set-up capable to control mesoscopic spin ensembles. Contrary to standard NMR techniques based on the generation of macroscopic rf-fields, AONMR can address the nuclear spins in one single nano-object via resonant laser excitation. A further important target is to use quantum dots and other carrier localisation centres as efficient sources of DNP generation and to carry out a detailed study of the diffusion of DNP throughout the sample and finally across the sample surface, varying key sample (chemical composition, strain, substrate orientation) and experimental parameters such as temperature and applied external fields. These experiments are a feasibility study for using hyperpolarized compound semiconductors for increasing the sensitivity in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

1 495 482 €

Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31

A revolution is underway, as molecular magnets are establishing a fundamental link between spintronics, molecular electronics and quantum computation. On the other hand, we know almost nothing on how a magnetic molecule is affected by electrons flowing through it or by the excitation of a molecular group. OptoQMol will investigate these uncharted waters by developing innovative, ultra-clean methods that will provide information inaccessible to established procedures. This will allow an unprecedented study of the interplay of electronic and spin degrees of freedom in magnetic molecules and of its possible use for quantum logic. OptoQMol is a strongly multidisciplinary project, and makes use of an innovative mix of chemical and physical methods to overcome present experimental limitations, both in terms of time resolution and cleanliness. Instead of placing a magnetic molecule between bulk electrodes, we will directly grow photoactive groups on the molecule, so that electrons will flow through or close to the spin centers after a light pulse. This affords an ultra-clean system that can be studied in bulk, with a perfectly defined geometry of the magnetic and electronic elements. We will then combine optical and electron paramagnetic resonance techniques with ns time resolution, so as to observe the effect of electron flow on the spins in real time and measure the spin quantum coherence. Eventually we will use these innovative methods to control the interactions among spins and perform quantum logic operations. The success of OptoQMol will answer two fundamental questions: How do molecular spins interact with flowing electrons? How can we use electronic excitations to perform quantum logic operations between multiple electron spins? The results will open a totally new area of experimental and theoretical investigation. Moreover they will redefine the limits and possibilities of molecular spintronics and allow quantum logic operations among multiple electron spins.

1 498 300 €

Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31

The origin of species diversity has challenged biologists for more than two centuries, but despite the large amount of literature on the subject, pivotal questions about speciation remain unanswered. For example, we know that the origin of species must involve genetic separation, most often followed by phenotypic differentiation. Geographic isolation and subsequent genetic separation gives rise to the uncontroversial allopatric mode of speciation. But in theory, populations can become genetically separated without geographical isolation, resulting in the more disputed sympatric mode of speciation. Recently, Savolainen (the applicant of this proposal) and colleagues provided strong evidence for sympatric speciation in a case study of two species of Howea palms on Lord Howe Island, Australia. Here, we will take our research to a much deeper level and tackle novel themes. Innovative approaches will be developed, combining field ecology and genetic modelling, and taking advantage of the most recent advances in genomic technologies such as ultra-high throughput sequencing provided by the Roche 454 and Illumina Solexa platforms. Using Howea as a model system, sequences of their transcriptomes, scans of their genomes and genes expression profiles, we will test the theoretical predictions that only a few genetic loci controlling key traits are necessary for rapid ecological speciation. Extending this study to other taxa and islands, we will ask what combinations of ecological conditions and genomic architectures lead to the evolution of new species? Particularly, how can species originate in the face of gene flow, for example when confined to a minute oceanic island? The project will provide one of the most comprehensive studies of speciation and has the potential to provide a drastically new perspective on this process. It will also shed light on the wide-ranging link between genotype and phenotype, as well as help to manage biodiversity in a sustainable manner.

2 415 470 €

Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31

At the moment, there is no viable technology to produce electricity from natural heat sources (T<200°C) and from 50% of the waste heat (electricity production, industries, buildings and transports) stored in large volume of warm fluids (T<200°C). To extract heat from large volumes of fluids, the thermoelectric generators would need to cover large areas in new designed heat exchangers. To develop into a viable technology platform, thermoelectric devices must be fabricated on large areas via low-cost processes. But no thermoelectric material exists for this purpose. Recently, the applicant has discovered that the low-cost conducting polymer poly(ethylene dioxythiophene) possesses a figure-of-merit ZT=0.25 at room temperature. Conducting polymers can be processed from solution, they are flexible and possess an intrinsic low thermal conductivity. This combination of unique properties motivate further investigations to reveal the true potential of organic materials for thermoelectric applications: this is the essence of this project. My goal is to organize an interdisciplinary team of researchers focused on the characterization, understanding, design and fabrication of p- and n-doped organic-based thermoelectric materials; and the demonstration of those materials in organic thermoelectric generators (OTEGs). Firstly, we will create the first generation of efficient organic thermoelectric materials with ZT> 0.8 at room temperature: (i) by optimizing not only the power factor but also the thermal conductivity; (ii) by demonstrating that a large power factor is obtained in inorganic-organic nanocomposites. Secondly, we will optimize thermoelectrochemical cells by considering various types of electrolytes. The research activities proposed are at the cutting edge in material sciences and involve chemical synthesis, interface studies, thermal physics, electrical, electrochemical and structural characterization, device physics. The project is held at Linköping University holding a world leading research in polymer electronics.

1 453 690 €

Start date: 2013-04-01, End date: 2018-03-31

A conceptually simple but radically new approach will be explored and developed: the interaction of light with a single atom in free space. No experiment has yet come close to the highest possible coupling efficiency attainable in such a fundamental system. The usual way of enhancing light-matter coupling is to place an atom inside a cavity. Another approach involves setting the atom in the near field of a plasmonic antenna. The free space approach, however, is special: a light field matched to the atomic dipole provides many desired aspects of fully efficient coupling. The birth of this new research area was marked by the PI's pioneering publication in 2000 arguing that efficient coupling of an atom to a light field is possible in free space without modifying the density of modes of the light field such as in a cavity or having competing radiative or non-radiative decay channels such as in plasmonic enhancement. At the time of writing, the highest probability achieved for exciting a single atom with a single photon in free space is less than 1%. At the heart of the project proposed here is a deep diffraction-limited parabolic mirror, which can provide the required aberration-free focusing of a vectorial dipole wave over the full 4π solid angle – a true challenge to optics. Perfectly efficient free space coupling to a single quantum system will be a novel building block for numerous applications. In addition, the experimental set-up will allow for the studying of other open questions in the realm of classical and quantum optics related to full solid angle focusing.

1 499 704 €

Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2019-02-28

The visible Universe is predominantly in the plasma state. On Earth, plasmas are less common, but they find many applications in industry and are also studied with the goal of providing an abundant energy source for mankind through fusion energy. The behaviour of plasmas studied thus far, in particular those that are magnetized, is very complex. The complexity manifests itself first and foremost as a host of different wave types, many of which are generically unstable and evolve into turbulence or violent instabilities. This complexity and the instability of these waves stems to a large degree from effects that can be traced back to the difference in mass between the positive and negative species, the ions and the electrons. In contrast to conventional ion-electron plasmas, electron-positron (pair) plasmas consist of equal-mass charged particles. This symmetry results in unique behaviour of the pair plasmas, a topic that has been intensively studied theoretically and numerically for decades but experimental studies are only just starting. These studies are not only driven by curiosity: Strongly magnetized electron-positron plasmas are believed to exist ubiquitously in pulsar magnetospheres and active galaxies in the Universe, and the entire Universe is believed to have been a matter-antimatter symmetric plasma in its earliest epochs after the Big Bang. We propose here to create and study the first long-lived and confined pair plasmas on Earth. This is now possible by combining novel techniques in plasma and beam physics. We will develop a levitated dipole confinement device and will fill it with readily available electrons and low-energy positrons from the world-leading steady-state positron source.

2 378 958 €

Start date: 2017-08-01, End date: 2022-07-31

"The field of attosecond science is now entering the second decade of its existence, with good prospects for breakthroughs in a number of areas. We want to take the next step in this development: from mastering the generation and control of attosecond pulses to breaking new marks starting with the simplest systems, atoms. The aim of the present application is to advance the emerging new research field “Ultrafast Atomic Physics”, where one- or two-electron wave packets are created by absorption of attosecond pulse(s) and analyzed or controlled by another short pulse. Our project can be divided into three parts: 1. Interferometric measurements using tunable attosecond pulses How long time does it take for an electron to escape its potential? We will measure photoemission time delays for several atomic systems, using a tunable attosecond pulse source. This type of measurements will be extended to multiple ionization and excitation processes, using coincidence measurements to disentangle the different channels and infrared ionization for analysis. 2. XUV pump/XUV probe experiments using intense attosecond pulses How long does it take for an atom to become an ion once a hole has been created? Using intense attosecond pulses and the possibility to do XUV pump/ XUV probe experiments, we will study the transition between nonsequential double ionization, where the photons are absorbed simultaneously and all electrons emitted at the same time and sequential ionization where electrons are emitted one at a time. 3. ""Complete"" attosecond experiments using high-repetition rate attosecond pulses We foresee a paradigm shift in attosecond science with the new high repetition rate systems based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification which are coming to age. We want to combine coincidence measurement with angular detection, allowing us to characterize (two-particle) electronic wave packets both in time and in momentum and to study their quantum-mechanical properties."

2 047 000 €

Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2019-02-28

Over the coming years, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will search for new physics at ever higher energies, firmly establish many facets of the Standard Model that relate to the Higgs boson, and carry out a broad range of precision measurements. A tool that is central to this endeavour is the parton shower. Parton showers are immensely flexible tools, which simulate the strong-interaction physics that occurs between the TeV energy scales that the LHC was designed to probe, and the GeV mass scale of the protons and other hadrons that the LHC collides and detects. They are used in almost every LHC experimental analysis. Of all the first-principles theoretical methods used at the LHC, the parton shower is the only one that has not seen substantial advances in its underlying precision in the past 20 years. As a result, parton showers are becoming the critical weak link in LHC physics. This project will radically transform the way in which parton showers are conceived, by introducing innovative methods that establish the relation with another field of research called resummation, to which the PI has made ground-breaking contributions. The main outcome of the project will be a novel parton shower with accuracies up to an order of magnitude higher than in current approaches. This will be essential for reliably exploiting the information that is present across the full range of energy scales at high-energy colliders.

2 339 381 €

Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30

Mutualism is wide spread in nature and significantly impacts ecosystems. However, the principles governing its evolution have proved elusive. The rhizobium-legume symbiosis is one of the most sophisticated mutualistic interactions, as it results in the formation of a novel organ, the root nodule, where rhizobium is hosted intracellularly as nitrogen fixing ‘organelles’. These are named symbiosomes and produce ammonia from air. The rhizobium legume symbiosis evolved shortly after the rise of the legume family; 60 million years ago. However, by convergent evolution it also evolved more recent in the non-legume Parasponia. Ever since the discovery of Parasponia as the only non-legume that independently evolved the nodule symbiosis with rhizobium, it has intrigued the scientific community. It has been clear that this ‘bridging species’ will provide insight in how this unique symbiosis could arise during evolution. Further, it can teach us how to transfer this important agricultural trait to non-legume crops. However, it is first now that we can fully exploit the potential of this unique genus. Major insight in molecular mechanisms underlying the rhizobium legume symbiosis has been obtained by studying model legumes. This has made the rhizobium legume symbiosis one of the best understood mutualistic interactions. This insight can now be exploited to determine the evolutionary trajectory of the Parasponia rhizobium symbiosis, and to identify the genetic constraints of this interaction. Further, the revolution brought about by so-called next generation sequence technologies has made it now possible to cost efficiently sequence genomes of plant species with key positions in rhizobium nodule evolution. The overall objective of this project is to identify the evolutionary trajectory underlying rhizobium nodule evolution by using Parasponia. To validate the findings I will copy this evolutionary trajectory in Trema; the non-nodulating sister genus of Parasponia.

2 498 951 €

Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2018-04-30

Discovering, classifying and understanding phases of quantum matter is a core goal of condensed matter physics. Next to the notion of symmetry breaking phases, the concept of topological phases of matter is a prevailing theme of recent research. Topological phases are envisioned for various applications due to their universal and robust properties, such as protected conducting boundary modes, and provoke fundamental questions about the nature of many-body quantum states by providing the basis for exotic quasiparticles. In this ERC research project, I propose several new topological phases and novel numerical approaches for studying and classifying the most sought-after topological phases of matter. Concretely, I propose the concept of three-dimensional hierarchical topological insulators, which, in contrast to the known topological phases, do not posses gapless surface, but protected gapless edge modes. Moreover, I plan to study topological metals arising in strongly correlated Kondo systems, going beyond the current paradigm of considering topological metals that arise in the absence of electronic correlations. Furthermore, I propose to make the analogous step for topological superconductors, which have been studied as free models to search for Majorana quasiparticles: For the first time, I want to explore strongly interacting systems that realize the more powerful parafermion quasiparticles with numerical techniques. Finally, in a cross-disciplinary and exploratory sub-project, I will employ methods of deep neural networks to classify strongly correlated quantum phases using supervised learning combined with a technique called deep dreaming. Each of these sub-projects has the potential to make a paradigm-changing contribution to the study of strongly correlated and topological states of quantum matter and the combination of them allows to take advantage of synergy effects and a balance between high-risk and definitely feasible key developments.

1 362 401 €

Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31

The representation of the nucleus as an aggregate of protons and neutrons has been quite successful to describe nuclear properties in the past. However, it is now the time to understand the nuclear structure in terms of quarks and gluons (i.e. the partons). We have known for more than 30 years that the quark distribution deviates by up to 20% from the standard model of nuclear physics. With time, most explanations of this phenomenon have come to fail and this major nuclear effect remains today a mystery, but clearly tells us that a description of the nucleus in which protons and neutrons are not affected by their surrounding medium is incomplete. I propose here to use several recent developments in detection technologies and in hadron physics theory to perform new experiments that will unravel the deeper structure of the atomic nucleus. The first measurement will give the 3D tomography of the nucleus in terms of quarks and gluons. Second, I lay out a strategy to measure transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions in cold nuclear matter and show how it can help understand the gluon saturation scale, i.e. the onset of non linear behavior in the nuclear gluon structure. Third, I propose to measure reactions, in which we detect nuclear remnants, to link the nucleon and quark dynamics of the nucleus together. The proposed measurements necessitate the development of a dedicated nuclear low energy recoil tracker (ALERT), that I propose to develop and build in the IPN Orsay laboratory at the Paris-Saclay University (France). This detector will be used at the recently upgraded electron accelerator of Jefferson Lab (USA). This facility offers a unique setup with the most intense multi-GeV electron beam in the world. Together, these three unique measurements form a comprehensive program to decisively advance our understanding of the nuclear structure in terms of quarks and gluons.

1 405 881 €

Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30

The goal of the proposed research is a comprehensive understanding of how evolutionary potential of pathogen populations interacts with epidemiological dynamics in natural populations. The empirical work will be conducted on the specialist fungal pathogen Podosphaera plantaginis and its host plant Plantago lanceolata in a large network of host populations. I will address the key theories of pathogen evolution, involving life-history trade-offs, competition for resources under multiple infection, and sexual reproduction. This project takes advantage of the exceptional research opportunities offered by the focal study species to test models that have not been validated with respect to realized population dynamics and the persistence of pathogen populations. I have studied the coevolutionary dynamics between P. plantaginis and P. lanceolata for several years. Unique epidemiological data have been collected annually on the occurrence of the pathogen in a network of 4000 host populations since 2001. Recently, I have generated an EST library for the pathogen that allows and facilitates genetic studies. In the planned research, I will combine laboratory experiments with large-scale population surveys, genetic studies and mathematical modelling to achieve the objectives of this proposal. The proposed research has potential for groundbreaking results on pathogen evolution and epidemiology through: i) Simultaneous study of multiple forces driving pathogen evolution and their importance in natural populations, with direct connections to epidemiology. ii) Development of new methodology for the study of obligate parasites like P. plantaginis. iii) Construction of a stochastic, spatially explicit epidemiological model predicting pathogen occurrence from one season to the next with applicability to a wide range of pathogens. iv) Identifying critical life-history stages and mechanisms for virulence evolution yield much needed insights and tools into the battle against disease.

1 498 811 €

Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30

The evolution of drug resistance and its control represents a considerable challenge in very different biological contexts ranging from pesticide resistance in agriculture to antimicrobial resistance in clinical settings and even extends beyond infectious pathogens, as resistance also evolves in cancer chemotherapy. Naturally, the recommendations for the optimal use of drugs to minimise resistance differ for different biological contexts. In some cases, similar strategies for vastly different pathogens or biological contexts are recommended, whereas in other cases opposing strategies for similar pathogens are advised. To which extent these discrepancies in treatment recommendations are attributable to specific properties of the pathogen, the host, or the general biological context is currently unclear. The aim of this proposal is to develop an integrative population biological framework for the evolution of resistance and its control. To this end we will develop mathematical models of resistance evolution in viruses, bacteria, parasites, cancer and fungal plant pathogens. Developing detailed population biological models that account for the specific biology of these ¿pathogens¿ as well as the specific context of the application of drugs will allow us to identify those aspects that are common between different biological contexts and those aspects that are specific to the pathogen, the host or the drug. Moreover, working simultaneously on resistance evolution in these different biological contexts will facilitate the translation of findings between fields of research that to date have remained largely separate. We seek to bridge these fields and integrate insight to develop a broad conceptual framework with which to address the ever-growing problem of sustainable drug use.

2 272 403 €

Start date: 2011-07-01, End date: 2017-06-30

With the recent discovery of a Higgs-like particle at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), particle physics has entered a completely new era. The central goal for high energy physics in the following years will be the detailed determination of the properties of this new particle, in particular checking its consistency with the Standard Model Higgs boson hypothesis, and to further explore the highest energy domain in search for further new physics, like supersymmetry or extra dimensions, closely related to the Higgs-like boson properties and to dark matter and dark energy studies. It is thus of paramount importance to be able to provide accurate theoretical predictions for signal and background processes both for Higgs production and for hypothetical new particles, in order to optimize both the characterization of cross sections, couplings and branching fractions, but also to maxime the LHC discovery potential. A crucial ingredient of these theoretical predictions for an hadron collider as the LHC are the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) of the proton. This project aims to fully exploit the LHC potential to achieve the ultimate experimental and theoretical precision in the determination of PDFs to make essential contributions to our understanding of the structure of the nucleon, in particular in the regions more relevant for Higgs and BSM physics searches at the LH, the match between PDFs and NLO Monte Carlo event generators, a crucial tool for accurate exclusive event description at the LHC, and to propose new avenues in New Physics searches from precision LHC measurements, where PDFs are often the dominant systematic uncertainties.

1 330 502 €

Start date: 2014-07-01, End date: 2019-06-30

The most energetic particles in our Galaxy are accelerated by yet unknown sources to energies much beyond the reach of human-made accelerators such as LHC at CERN. The detection of PeV photons from such a natural Galactic accelerator will be a fundamental breakthrough. For this purpose I propose a digital radio array for air showers at South Pole building on my proven expertise in successfully setting up and managing an antenna array in Siberia. Recently, we have discovered that by using higher radio frequencies than before the energy threshold can be lowered dramatically from 100 PeV to about 1 PeV. The new radio array will significantly enhance the present PeV particle detectors at South Pole in both, accuracy and aperture towards lower elevations. One of the most promising candidates for the origin of cosmic rays, the Galactic Center presently outside of the field of view, will be observable 24/7 with the radio array. The extrapolation of classical TeV observations predicts more than twenty PeV photons to be detected by the radio array within three years. Since the radio array is sensitive simultaneously to cosmic photons and charged particles from all directions of the sky, the search for any photon sources can be done in parallel to cosmic-ray physics with unprecedented accuracy and exposure in the energy range of 1 PeV to 1 EeV. Thus, this radio array will create highest impact in astroparticle physics by the following scientific objectives all targeting the most energetic particles in our Galaxy: PeV photons and their correlation with sources of neutrinos and charged cosmic rays, mass separation of cosmic rays, search for mass-dependent anisotropies, particle physics beyond the reach of LHC. This timely proposal is a unique chance for European leadership in this novel technique. It provides the chance for scientific breakthrough by detection of the first PeV photons ever, and by the discovery of natural accelerators of multi-PeV particles.

1 629 541 €

Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31

Viruses are extremely abundant in the oceans and majorly impact the marine ecosystem by influencing the abundance, diversity and evolution of their hosts. However, our understanding of marine viral physiology and ecology among different members of the virus community is conspicuously lacking. Preliminary data using a newly developed molecular method revealed drastic differences in field abundances of two subtypes of T7-like podoviruses that infect marine cyanobacteria. Moreover, these subtypes displayed large differences in infection properties in laboratory studies. The main objective of this proposal is to gain a deep understanding of the genetic basis for the physiological differences in infection dynamics among closely related T7-like cyanophages that infect the globally important marine cyanobacteria, Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, and to ascertain the ecological consequences of these physiological differences. We hypothesize that a small set of genes, beyond the core replication and morphogenesis genes, differentially impact the dynamics of the infection process which, in-turn, defines the niche occupied by discrete members of this virus family. Our specific objectives are to identify the genes responsible for the physiological differences and determine their impact on infection dynamics. This will be achieved through the development of a phage gene inactivation system and the comparison of infection properties of mutant and wild-type phages. Furthermore, using our new molecular field method, we will assess the distribution patterns of different subtypes of T7-like cyanophages from within the mix of all viruses in the oceans. The unique combination of innovative molecular methods with physiological experimentation and ecological sampling will provide significant insight into both the biological functionality behind the diversity within an ecologically relevant phage family and the selection pressures that have led to their diversification and evolution.

2 162 296 €

Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31

Elucidating the causes of the awesome phenotypic diversity observed in natural populations is a major challenge in biology. It is now clear that the understanding of traits is not only hampered by non-heritable factors such as the environment and epigenetic variation, but also confounded by the lack of complete knowledge concerning the genetic components of traits. More than a century after the rediscovery of Mendel’s law, the genetic architecture of traits still resists generalization. First, this is increasingly evident as shown by recent genome-wide association studies, where identified causal loci explained relatively little of the heritability of most complex traits, leading to the “missing heritability”. Second, we also have recently shown that monogenic mutations can display a significant, variable and continuous phenotypic expression, called expressivity, across different genetic backgrounds. Altogether, these observations clearly indicate that a better understanding of the genetic architecture of traits requires a deeper knowledge of the variability of the phenotypic effect of genetic variants across an entire population. In the frame of the Phenome'N'al project, I plan to marry classical but high-throughput genetic methods with new approaches based on population genomics to connect the phenotypic and allelic landscape by taking advantage of the powerful budding yeast model system. With our recent completion of the whole genome resequencing of over 1,011 natural isolates (http://1002genomes.u-strasbg.fr/), plus the accompanying phenotyping efforts, we have currently one of the best understanding of the natural genetic and phenotypic diversity of any eukaryote model system to date. These datasets will lay the foundation of Phenome'N'al, which aims to dissect the inheritance, expressivity and genetic interactions hidden behind the phenotypic landscape of an entire natural population.

1 999 882 €

Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31

The boost experienced by acoustic and elastic (phononic) metamaterial research during the past years has been driven by the ability to sculpture the flow of sound waves at will. Thanks to recent developments at the frontiers of phononic metamaterials it can be identified that active phononic control is at the cutting edge of the current research on phononic metamaterials. Introducing piezoelectric semiconductors as a material platform to discover new avenues in wave physics will have the potential to open horizons of opportunities in science of acoustic wave control. Electrically biased piezoelectric semiconductors are non-reciprocal by nature, produce mechanical gain and are highly tunable. The aim is to explore novel properties of sound and the ability to design Parity-Time (PT) symmetric systems that define a consistent unitary extension of quantum mechanics. Through cunningly contrived piezoelectric media sculpturing balanced loss and gain units, these structures have neither parity symmetry nor time-reversal symmetry, but are nevertheless symmetric in the product of both. PHONOMETA is inspired and driven by these common notions of quantum mechanics that I wish to translate into classical acoustics with unprecedented knowledge for the case of sound. I expect that the successful realization of PHONOMETA has the potential to revolutionize acoustics in our daily life. Environmental and ambient noise stem from multiple scattering and reflections of sound in our surrounding. The extraordinary properties of PT acoustic metamaterials have the groundbreaking potential to push forward physical acoustics with new paradigms to design tunable diode-like behaviour with zero reflections, which is applicable for noise pollution mitigation. Also I anticipate to impact the progress on invisibility cloaks by introducing PT symmetry based acoustic stealth coatings for hiding submarines.

1 325 158 €

Start date: 2016-12-01, End date: 2021-11-30