ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

The paradigm of the structure-function relationship in proteins is outdated. Biological macromolecules and supramolecular assemblies are highly dynamic objects. Evidence that their motions are of utmost importance to their functions is regularly identified. The understanding of the physical chemistry of biological processes at an atomic level has to rely not only on the description of structure but also on the characterization of molecular motions. The investigation of protein motions will be undertaken with a very innovative methodological approach in nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation. In order to widen the ranges of frequencies at which local motions in proteins are probed, we will first use and develop new techniques for a prototype shuttle system for the measurement of relaxation at low fields on a high-field NMR spectrometer. Second, we will develop a novel system: a set of low-field NMR spectrometers designed as accessories for high-field spectrometers. Used in conjunction with the shuttle, this system will offer (i) the sensitivity and resolution (i.e. atomic level information) of a high-field spectrometer (ii) the access to low fields of a relaxometer and (iii) the ability to measure a wide variety of relaxation rates with high accuracy. This system will benefit from the latest technology in homogeneous permanent magnet development to allow a control of spin systems identical to that of a high-resolution probe. This new apparatus will open the way to the use of NMR relaxation at low fields for the refinement of protein motions at an atomic scale. Applications of this novel approach will focus on the bright side of protein dynamics: (i) the largely unexplored dynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins, and (ii) domain motions in large proteins. In both cases, we will investigate a series of diverse protein systems with implications in development, cancer and immunity.

1 462 080 €

Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31

The fundamental 3D-BioMat project aims at providing a biomineralization model to explain the formation of microscopic calcareous single-crystals produced by living organisms. Although these crystals present a wide variety of shapes, associated to various organic materials, the observation of a nanoscale granular structure common to almost all calcareous crystallizing organisms, associated to an extended crystalline coherence, underlies a generic biomineralization and assembly process. A key to building realistic scenarios of biomineralization is to reveal the crystalline architecture, at the mesoscale, (i. e., over a few granules), which none of the existing nano-characterization tools is able to provide. 3D-BioMat is based on the recognized PI’s expertise in the field of synchrotron coherent x-ray diffraction microscopy. It will extend the PI’s disruptive pioneering microscopy formalism, towards an innovative high-throughput approach able at giving access to the 3D mesoscale image of the crystalline properties (crystal-line coherence, crystal plane tilts and strains) with the required flexibility, nanoscale resolution, and non-invasiveness. This achievement will be used to timely reveal the generics of the mesoscale crystalline structure through the pioneering explorations of a vast variety of crystalline biominerals produced by the famous Pinctada mar-garitifera oyster shell, and thereby build a realistic biomineralization scenario. The inferred biomineralization pathways, including both physico-chemical pathways and biological controls, will ultimately be validated by comparing the mesoscale structures produced by biomimetic samples with the biogenic ones. Beyond deciphering one of the most intriguing questions of material nanosciences, 3D-BioMat may contribute to new climate models, pave the way for new routes in material synthesis and supply answers to the pearl-culture calcification problems.

1 966 429 €

Start date: 2017-03-01, End date: 2022-02-28

At the end of their life, stars spread their inner material into the diffuse interstellar medium. This diffuse medium gets locally denser and form dark clouds (also called dense or molecular clouds) whose innermost part is shielded from the external UV field by the dust, allowing for molecules to grow and get more complex. Gravitational collapse occurs inside these dense clouds, forming protostars and their surrounding disks, and eventually planetary systems like (or unlike) our solar system. The formation and evolution of molecules, minerals, ices and organics from the diffuse medium to planetary bodies, their alteration or preservation throughout this cosmic chemical history set the initial conditions for building planets, atmospheres and possibly the first bricks of life. The current view of interstellar chemistry is based on fragmental works on key steps of the sequence that are observed. The objective of this proposal is to follow the fractionation of the elements between the gas-phase and the interstellar grains, from the most diffuse medium to protoplanetary disks, in order to constrain the chemical composition of the material in which planets are formed. The potential outcome of this project is to get a consistent and more accurate description of the chemical evolution of interstellar matter. To achieve this objective, I will improve our chemical model by adding new processes on grain surfaces relevant under the diffuse medium conditions. This upgraded gas-grain model will be coupled to 3D dynamical models of the formation of dense clouds from diffuse medium and of protoplanetary disks from dense clouds. The computed chemical composition will also be used with 3D radiative transfer codes to study the chemical tracers of the physics of protoplanetary disk formation. The robustness of the model predictions will be studied with sensitivity analyses. Finally, model results will be confronted to observations to address some of the current challenges.

1 166 231 €

Start date: 2013-09-01, End date: 2018-08-31

The goal of this project is to develop a mathematical theory for steady three-dimensional water waves with vorticity. The mathematical model consists of the incompressible Euler equations with a free surface, and vorticity is important for modelling the interaction of surface waves with non-uniform currents. In the two-dimensional case, there has been a lot of progress on water waves with vorticity in the last decade. This progress has mainly been based on the stream function formulation, in which the problem is reformulated as a nonlinear elliptic free boundary problem. An analogue of this formulation is not available in three dimensions, and the theory has therefore so far been restricted to irrotational flow. In this project we seek to go beyond this restriction using two different approaches. In the first approach we will adapt methods which have been used to construct three-dimensional ideal flows with vorticity in domains with a fixed boundary to the free boundary context (for example Beltrami flows). In the second approach we will develop methods which are new even in the case of a fixed boundary, by performing a detailed study of the structure of the equations close to a given shear flow using ideas from infinite-dimensional bifurcation theory. This involves handling infinitely many resonances.

1 203 627 €

Start date: 2016-03-01, End date: 2021-02-28

Several observed anomalies in neutrino oscillation data can be explained by a hypothetical fourth neutrino separated from the three standard neutrinos by a squared mass difference of a few eV2. This hypothesis can be tested with a PBq (ten kilocurie scale) 144Ce antineutrino beta-source deployed at the center of a large low background liquid scintillator detector, such like Borexino, KamLAND, and SNO+. In particular, the compact size of such a source could yield an energy-dependent oscillating pattern in event spatial distribution that would unambiguously determine neutrino mass differences and mixing angles. The proposed program aims to perform the necessary research and developments to produce and deploy an intense antineutrino source in a large liquid scintillator detector. Our program will address the definition of the production process of the neutrino source as well as its experimental characterization, the detailed physics simulation of both signal and backgrounds, the complete design and the realization of the thick shielding, the preparation of the interfaces with the antineutrino detector, including the safety and security aspects.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2012-10-01, End date: 2018-09-30

"The A2C2 project treats two major challenges in climate and atmospheric research: the time dependence of the climate attractor to external forcings (solar, volcanic eruptions and anthropogenic), and the attribution of extreme climate events occurring in the northern extra-tropics. The main difficulties are the limited climate information, the computer cost of model simulations, and mathematical assumptions that are hardly verified and often overlooked in the literature. A2C2 proposes a practical framework to overcome those three difficulties, linking the theory of dynamical systems and statistics. We will generalize the methodology of flow analogues to multiple databases in order to obtain probabilistic descriptions of analogue decompositions. The project is divided into three workpackages (WP). WP1 embeds the analogue method in the theory of dynamical systems in order to provide a metric of an attractor deformation in time. The important methodological step is to detect trends or persisting outliers in the dates and scores of analogues when the system yields time-varying forcings. This is done from idealized models and full size climate models in which the forcings (anthropogenic and natural) are known. A2C2 creates an open source toolkit to compute flow analogues from a wide array of databases (WP2). WP3 treats the two scientific challenges with the analogue method and multiple model ensembles, hence allowing uncertainty estimates under realistic mathematical hypotheses. The flow analogue methodology allows a systematic and quasi real-time analysis of extreme events, which is currently out of the reach of conventional climate modeling approaches. The major breakthrough of A2C2 is to bridge the gap between operational needs (the immediate analysis of climate events) and the understanding long-term climate changes. A2C2 opens new research horizons for the exploitation of ensembles of simulations and reliable estimates of uncertainty."

1 491 457 €

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

The rupture of an Aortic Aneurysm (AA), which is often lethal, is a mechanical phenomenon that occurs when the wall stress state exceeds the local strength of the tissue. Our current understanding of arterial rupture mechanisms is poor, and the physics taking place at the microscopic scale in these collagenous structures remains an open area of research. Understanding, modelling, and quantifying the micro-mechanisms which drive the mechanical response of such tissue and locally trigger rupture represents the most challenging and promising pathway towards predictive diagnosis and personalized care of AA. The PI's group was recently able to detect, in advance, at the macro-scale, rupture-prone areas in bulging arterial tissues. The next step is to get into the details of the arterial microstructure to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Through the achievements of AArteMIS, the local mechanical state of the fibrous microstructure of the tissue, especially close to its rupture state, will be quantitatively analyzed from multi-photon confocal microscopy and numerically reconstructed to establish quantitative micro-scale rupture criteria. AArteMIS will also address developing micro-macro models which are based on the collected quantitative data. The entire project will be completed through collaboration with medical doctors and engineers, experts in all required fields for the success of AArteMIS. AArteMIS is expected to open longed-for pathways for research in soft tissue mechanobiology which focuses on cell environment and to enable essential clinical applications for the quantitative assessment of AA rupture risk. It will significantly contribute to understanding fatal vascular events and improving cardiovascular treatments. It will provide a tremendous source of data and inspiration for subsequent applications and research by answering the most fundamental questions on AA rupture behaviour enabling ground-breaking clinical changes to take place.

1 499 783 €

Start date: 2015-04-01, End date: 2020-03-31

Rapid changes in ocean circulation and climate have been observed in marine sediment and ice cores, notably over the last 60 thousand years (ky), highlighting the non-linear character of the climate system and underlining the possibility of rapid climate shifts in response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing. To date, these rapid changes in climate and ocean circulation are still not fully explained. Two main obstacles prevent going beyond the current state of knowledge: - Paleoclimatic proxy data are by essence only indirect indicators of the climatic variables, and thus can not be directly compared with model outputs; - A 4-D (latitude, longitude, water depth, time) reconstruction of Atlantic water masses over the past 40 ky is lacking: previous studies have generated isolated records with disparate timescales which do not allow the causes of circulation changes to be identified. Overcoming these two major limitations will lead to major breakthroughs in climate research. Concretely, I will create the first database of Atlantic deep-sea records over the last 40 ky, and extract full climatic information from these records through an innovative model-data integration scheme using an isotopic proxy forward modeling approach. The novelty and exceptional potential of this scheme is twofold: (i) it avoids hypotheses on proxy interpretation and hence suppresses or strongly reduces the errors of interpretation of paleoclimatic records; (ii) it produces states of the climate system that best explain the observations over the last 40 ky, while being consistent with the model physics. Expected results include: • The elucidation of the mechanisms explaining rapid changes in ocean circulation and climate over the last 40 ky, • Improved climate model physics and parameterizations, • The first projections of future climate changes obtained with a model able to reproduce the highly non linear behavior of the climate system observed over the last 40 ky.

3 000 000 €

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

The active target and time projection chamber (ACTAR TPC) is a novel gas-filled detection system that will permit new studies into the structure and decays of the most exotic nuclei. The use of a gas volume that acts as a sensitive detection medium and as the reaction target itself (an “active target”) offers considerable advantages over traditional nuclear physics detectors and techniques. In high-energy physics, TPC detectors have found profitable applications but their use in nuclear physics has been limited. With the ACTAR TPC design, individual detection pad sizes of 2 mm are the smallest ever attempted in either discipline but is a requirement for high-efficiency and high-resolution nuclear spectroscopy. The corresponding large number of electronic channels (16000 from a surface of only 25×25 cm) requires new developments in high-density electronics and data-acquisition systems that are not yet available in the nuclear physics domain. New experiments in regions of the nuclear chart that cannot be presently contemplated will become feasible with ACTAR TPC.

1 290 000 €

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

"Computer vision is concerned with the automated interpretation of images and video streams. Today's research is (mostly) aimed at answering queries such as ""Is this a picture of a dog?"", (classification) or sometimes ""Find the dog in this photo"" (detection). While categorisation and detection are useful for many tasks, inferring correct class labels is not the final answer to visual recognition. The categories and locations of objects do not provide direct understanding of their function i.e., how things work, what they can be used for, or how they can act and react. Such an understanding, however, would be highly desirable to answer currently unsolvable queries such as ""Am I in danger?"" or ""What can happen in this scene?"". Solving such queries is the aim of this proposal. My goal is to uncover the functional properties of objects and the purpose of actions by addressing visual recognition from a different and yet unexplored perspective. The main novelty of this proposal is to leverage observations of people, i.e., their actions and interactions to automatically learn the use, the purpose and the function of objects and scenes from visual data. The project is timely as it builds upon the two key recent technological advances: (a) the immense progress in visual recognition of objects, scenes and human actions achieved in the last ten years, as well as (b) the emergence of a massive amount of public image and video data now available to train visual models. ACTIVIA addresses fundamental research issues in automated interpretation of dynamic visual scenes, but its results are expected to serve as a basis for ground-breaking technological advances in practical applications. The recognition of functional properties and intentions as explored in this project will directly support high-impact applications such as detection of abnormal events, which are likely to revolutionise today's approaches to crime protection, hazard prevention, elderly care, and many others."

1 497 420 €

Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31

The numerical simulation of complex compressible flow problem is still a challenge nowaday even for simple models. In our opinion, the most important hard points that need currently to be tackled and solved is how to obtain stable, scalable, very accurate, easy to code and to maintain schemes on complex geometries. The method should easily handle mesh refinement, even near the boundary where the most interesting engineering quantities have to be evaluated. Unsteady uncertainties in the model, for example in the geometry or the boundary conditions should represented efficiently.This proposal goal is to design, develop and evaluate solutions to each of the above problems. Our work program will lead to significant breakthroughs for flow simulations. More specifically, we propose to work on 3 connected problems: 1-A class of very high order numerical schemes able to easily deal with the geometry of boundaries and still can solve steep problems. The geometry is generally defined by CAD tools. The output is used to generate a mesh which is then used by the scheme. Hence, any mesh refinement process is disconnected from the CAD, a situation that prevents the spread of mesh adaptation techniques in industry! 2-A class of very high order numerical schemes which can utilize possibly solution dependant basis functions in order to lower the number of degrees of freedom, for example to compute accurately boundary layers with low resolutions. 3-A general non intrusive technique for handling uncertainties in order to deal with irregular probability density functions (pdf) and also to handle pdf that may evolve in time, for example thanks to an optimisation loop. The curse of dimensionality will be dealt thanks Harten's multiresolution method combined with sparse grid methods. Currently, and up to our knowledge, no scheme has each of these properties. This research program will have an impact on numerical schemes and industrial applications.

1 432 769 €

Start date: 2008-12-01, End date: 2013-11-30

"The proposed research program has three main objectives. The first and second objectives are to seek extreme precisions in optical atomic spectroscopy and optical clocks, and to use this quest as a mean of exploration in atomic physics. The third objective is to explore new possibilities that stem from extreme precision. These goals will be pursued via three complementary activities: #1: Search for extreme precisions with an Hg optical lattice clock. #2: Explore and exploit the rich Hg system, which is essentially unexplored in the cold and ultra-cold regime. #3: Identify new applications of clocks with extreme precision to Earth science. Clocks can measure directly the gravitational potential via Einstein’s gravitational redshift, leading to the idea of “clock-based geodesy”. The 2 first activities are experimental and build on an existing setup, where we demonstrated the feasibility of an Hg optical lattice clock. Hg is chosen for its potential to surpass competing systems. We will investigate the unexplored physics of the Hg clock. This includes interactions between Hg atoms, lattice-induced light shifts, and sensitivity to external fields which are specific to the atomic species. Beyond, we will explore the fundamental limits of the optical lattice scheme. We will exploit other remarkable features of Hg associated to the high atomic number and the diversity of stable isotopes. These features enable tests of fundamental physical laws, ultra-precise measurements of isotope shifts, measurement of collisional properties toward evaporative cooling and quantum gases of Hg, investigation of forbidden transitions promising for measuring the nuclear anapole moment of Hg. The third activity is theoretical and is aimed at initiating collaborations with experts in modelling Earth gravity. With this expertise, we will identify the most promising and realistic approaches for clocks and emerging remote comparison methods to contribute to geodesy, hydrology, oceanography, etc."

1 946 432 €

Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31

Fundamental interactions in nature are well described by quantum gauge fields in 4 space-time dimensions (4d). When the strength of gauge interaction is weak the Feynman perturbation techniques are very efficient for the description of most of the experimentally observable consequences of the Standard model and for the study of high energy processes in QCD. But in the intermediate and strong coupling regime, such as the relatively small energies in QCD, the perturbation theory fails leaving us with no reliable analytic methods (except the Monte-Carlo simulation). The project aims at working out new analytic and computational methods for strongly coupled gauge theories in 4d. We will employ for that two important discoveries: 1) the gauge-string duality (AdS/CFT correspondence) relating certain strongly coupled gauge Conformal Field Theories to the weakly coupled string theories on Anty-deSitter space; 2) the solvability, or integrability of maximally supersymmetric (N=4) 4d super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory in multicolor limit. Integrability made possible pioneering exact numerical and analytic results in the N=4 multicolor SYM at any coupling, effectively summing up all 4d Feynman diagrams. Recently, we conjectured a system of functional equations - the AdS/CFT Y-system – for the exact spectrum of anomalous dimensions of all local operators in N=4 SYM. The conjecture has passed all available checks. My project is aimed at the understanding of origins of this, still mysterious integrability. Deriving the AdS/CFT Y-system from the first principles on both sides of gauge-string duality should provide a long-awaited proof of the AdS/CFT correspondence itself. I plan to use the Y-system to study the systematic weak and strong coupling expansions and the so called BFKL limit, as well as for calculation of multi-point correlation functions of N=4 SYM. We hope on new insights into the strong coupling dynamics of less supersymmetric gauge theories and of QCD.

1 456 140 €

Start date: 2013-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31

The gas and dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) drive the chemical evolution of galaxies, the formation of stars and planets, and the synthesis of complex prebiotic molecules. The prime birth places for this interstellar material are the winds of evolved (super)giant stars. These winds are unique chemical laboratories, in which a large variety of gas and dust species radially expand away from the star. Recent progress on the observations of these winds has been impressive thanks to Herschel and ALMA. The next challenge is to unravel the wealth of chemical information contained in these data. This is an ambitious task since (1) a plethora of physical and chemical processes interact in a complex way, (2) laboratory data to interpret these interactions are lacking, and (3) theoretical tools to analyse the data do not meet current needs. To boost the knowledge of the physics and chemistry characterizing these winds, I propose a world-leading multi-disciplinary project combining (1) high-quality data, (2) novel theoretical wind models, and (3) targeted laboratory experiments. The aim is to pinpoint the dominant chemical pathways, unravel the transition from gas-phase to dust species, elucidate the role of clumps on the overall wind structure, and study the reciprocal effect between various dynamical and chemical phenomena. Now is the right time for this ambitious project thanks to the availability of (1) high-quality multi-wavelength data, including ALMA and Herschel data of the PI, (2) supercomputers enabling a homogeneous analysis of the data using sophisticated theoretical wind models, and (3) novel laboratory equipment to measure the gas-phase reaction rates of key species. This project will have far-reaching impact on (1) the field of evolved stars, (2) the understanding of the chemical lifecycle of the ISM, (3) chemical studies of dynamically more complex systems, such as exoplanets, protostars, supernovae etc., and (4) it will guide new instrument development.

2 605 897 €

Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31

The role of the African continent in the global carbon cycle, and therefore in climate change, is increasingly recognised. Despite the increasingly acknowledged importance of Africa in the global carbon cycle and its high vulnerability to climate change there is still a lack of studies on the carbon cycle in representative African ecosystems (in particular tropical forests), and on the effects of climate on ecosystem-atmosphere exchange. In the present proposal we want to focus on these spoecifc objectives : 1. Understand the role of African tropical rainforest on the GHG balance of the atmosphere and revise their role on the global methane and N2O emissions. 2. Determine the carbon source/sink strength of African tropical rainforest in the pre-industrial versus the XXth century by temporal reconstruction of biomass growth with biogeochemical markers 3. Understand and quantify carbon and GHG fluxes variability across African tropical forests (west east equatorial belt) 4.Analyse the impact of forest degradation and deforestation on carbon and other GHG emissions

2 406 950 €

Start date: 2010-04-01, End date: 2014-12-31

A hot topic in today's debate on global warming is drag reduction in aeronautics. The most beneficial concept for drag reduction is to maintain the major portion of the airfoil laminar. Estimations show that the potential drag reduction can be as much as 15%, which would give a significant reduction of NOx and CO emissions in the atmosphere considering that the number of aircraft take offs, only in the EU, is over 19 million per year. An important element for successful flow control, which can lead to a reduced aerodynamic drag, is enhanced physical understanding of the transition to turbulence process. In previous wind tunnel measurements we have shown that roughness elements can be used to sensibly delay transition to turbulence. The result is revolutionary, since the common belief has been that surface roughness causes earlier transition and in turn increases the drag, and is a proof of concept of the passive control method per se. The beauty with a passive control technique is that no external energy has to be added to the flow system in order to perform the control, instead one uses the existing energy in the flow. In this project proposal, AFRODITE, we will take this passive control method to the next level by making it twofold, more persistent and more robust. Transition prevention is the goal rather than transition delay and the method will be extended to simultaneously control separation, which is another unwanted flow phenomenon especially during airplane take offs. AFRODITE will be a catalyst for innovative research, which will lead to a cleaner sky.

1 418 399 €

Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2015-10-31

"Understanding the dawn of the first galaxies and how their light permeated the early Universe is at the very frontier of modern astrophysical cosmology. Generous resources, including ambitions observational programs, are being devoted to studying these epochs of Cosmic Dawn (CD) and Reionization (EoR). In order to interpret these observations, we propose to build on our widely-used, semi-numeric simulation tool, 21cmFAST, and apply it to observations. Using sub-grid, semi-analytic models, we will incorporate additional physical processes governing the evolution of sources and sinks of ionizing photons. The resulting state-of-the-art simulations will be well poised to interpret topical observations of quasar spectra and the cosmic 21cm signal. They would be both physically-motivated and fast, allowing us to rapidly explore astrophysical parameter space. We will statistically quantify the resulting degeneracies and constraints, providing a robust answer to the question, ""What can we learn from EoR/CD observations?"" As an end goal, these investigations will help us understand when the first generations of galaxies formed, how they drove the EoR, and what are the associated large-scale observational signatures."

1 468 750 €

Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2021-01-31

Interferometers are fundamental tools for the study of nature laws and for the precise measurement and control of the physical world. In the last century, the scientific and technological progress has proceeded in parallel with a constant improvement of interferometric performances. For this reason, the challenge of conceiving and realizing new generations of interferometers with broader ranges of operation and with higher sensitivities is always open and actual. Despite the introduction of laser devices has deeply improved the way of developing and performing interferometric measurements with light, the atomic matter wave analogous, i.e. the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), has not yet triggered any revolution in precision interferometry. However, thanks to recent improvements on the control of the quantum properties of ultra-cold atomic gases, and new original ideas on the creation and manipulation of quantum entangled particles, the field of atom interferometry is now mature to experience a big step forward. The system I want to realize is a Mach-Zehnder spatial interferometer operating with trapped BECs. Undesired decoherence sources will be suppressed by implementing BECs with tunable interactions in ultra-stable optical potentials. Entangled states will be used to improve the sensitivity of the sensor beyond the standard quantum limit to ideally reach the ultimate, Heisenberg, limit set by quantum mechanics. The resulting apparatus will show unprecedented spatial resolution and will overcome state-of-the-art interferometers with cold (non condensed) atomic gases. A successful completion of this project will lead to a new generation of interferometers for the immediate application to local inertial measurements with unprecedented resolution. In addition, we expect to develop experimental capabilities which might find application well beyond quantum interferometry and crucially contribute to the broader emerging field of quantum-enhanced technologies.

1 068 000 €

Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31

The purpose of this project is to study basic questions in algebraic and Kähler geometry. It is well known that the structure of projective or Kähler manifolds is governed by positivity or negativity properties of the curvature tensor. However, many fundamental problems are still wide open. Since the mid 1980's, I have developed a large number of key concepts and results that have led to important progress in transcendental algebraic geometry. Let me mention the discovery of holomorphic Morse inequalities, systematic applications of L² estimates with singular hermitian metrics, and a much improved understanding of Monge-Ampère equations and of singularities of plurisuharmonic functions. My first goal will be to investigate the Green-Griffiths-Lang conjecture asserting that an entire curve drawn in a variety of general type is algebraically degenerate. The subject is intimately related to important questions concerning Diophantine equations, especially higher dimensional generalizations of Faltings' theorem - the so-called Vojta program. One can rely here on a breakthrough I made in 2010, showing that all such entire curves must satisfy algebraic differential equations. A second closely related area of research of this project is the analysis of the structure of projective or compact Kähler manifolds. It can be seen as a generalization of the classification theory of surfaces by Kodaira, and of the more recent results for dimension 3 (Kawamata, Kollár, Mori, Shokurov, ...) to other dimensions. My plan is to combine powerful recent results obtained on the duality of positive cohomology cones with an analysis of the instability of the tangent bundle, i.e. of the Harder-Narasimhan filtration. On these ground-breaking questions, I intend to go much further and to enhance my national and international collaborations. These subjects already attract many young researchers and postdocs throughout the world, and the grant could be used to create even stronger interactions.

1 809 345 €

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

Attosecond light pulses are generated when an intense laser interacts with a gas target. These pulses are not only short, enabling the study of electronic processes at their natural time scale, but also coherent. The vision of this proposal is to extend temporal coherent control concepts to a completely new regime of time and energy, combining (i) ultrashort pulses (ii) broadband excitation (iii) high photon energy, allowing scientists to reach not only valence but also inner shells in atoms and molecules, and, when needed, (iv) high spatial resolution. We want to explore how elementary electronic processes in atoms, molecules and more complex systems can be controlled by using well designed sequences of attosecond pulses. The research project proposed is organized into four parts: 1. Attosecond control of light leading to controlled sequences of attosecond pulses We will develop techniques to generate sequences of attosecond pulses with a variable number of pulses and controlled carrier-envelope-phase variation between consecutive pulses. 2. Attosecond control of electronic processes in atoms and molecules We will investigate the dynamics and coherence of phenomena induced by attosecond excitation of electron wave packets in various systems and we will explore how they can be controlled by a controlled sequence of ultrashort pulses. 3. Intense attosecond sources to reach the nonlinear regime We will optimize attosecond light sources in a systematic way, including amplification of the radiation by injecting a free electron laser. This will open up the possibility to develop nonlinear measurement and control schemes. 4. Attosecond control in more complex systems, including high spatial resolution We will develop ultrafast microscopy techniques, in order to obtain meaningful temporal information in surface and solid state physics. Two directions will be explored, digital in line microscopic holography and photoemission electron microscopy.

2 250 000 €

Start date: 2008-12-01, End date: 2013-11-30

The field of disordered quantum gases is developing rapidly. Dramatic progress has been achieved recently and first experimental observation of one-dimensional Anderson localization (AL) of matterwaves has been reported using Bose-Einstein condensates in controlled disorder (in our group at Institut d'Optique and at LENS; Nature, 2008). This dramatic success results from joint theoretical and experimental efforts, we have contributed to. Most importantly, it opens unprecedented routes to pursue several outstanding challenges in the multidisciplinary field of disordered systems, which, after fifty years of Anderson localization, is more active than ever. This theoretical project aims at further developing the emerging field of disordered quantum gases towards novel challenges. Our aim is twofold. First, we will propose and analyze schemes where experiments on ultracold atoms can address unsolved issues: AL in dimensions higher than one, effects of inter-atomic interactions on AL, strongly-correlated disordered gases and quantum simulators for spin systems (spin glasses). Second, by taking into account specific features of ultracold atoms, beyond standard toy-models, we will raise and study new questions which have not been addressed before (eg long-range correlations of speckle potentials, finite-size effects, controlled interactions). Both aspects would open new frontiers to disordered quantum gases and offer new possibilities to shed new light on highly debated issues. Our main concerns are thus to (i) study situations relevant to experiments, (ii) develop new approaches, applicable to ultracold atoms, (iii) identify key observables, and (iv) propose new challenging experiments. In this project, we will benefit from the original situation of our theory team: It is independent but forms part of a larger group (lead by A. Aspect), which is a world-leader in experiments on disordered quantum gases, we have already developed close collaborative relationship with.

985 200 €

Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31

ALUFIX proposes an original strategy for the development of aluminium-based materials involving damage mitigation and extrinsic self-healing concepts exploiting the new opportunities of the solid-state friction stir process. Friction stir processing locally extrudes and drags material from the front to the back and around the tool pin. It involves short duration at moderate temperatures (typically 80% of the melting temperature), fast cooling rates and large plastic deformations leading to far out-of-equilibrium microstructures. The idea is that commercial aluminium alloys can be locally improved and healed in regions of stress concentration where damage is likely to occur. Self-healing in metal-based materials is still in its infancy and existing strategies can hardly be extended to applications. Friction stir processing can enhance the damage and fatigue resistance of aluminium alloys by microstructure homogenisation and refinement. In parallel, friction stir processing can be used to integrate secondary phases in an aluminium matrix. In the ALUFIX project, healing phases will thus be integrated in aluminium in addition to refining and homogenising the microstructure. The “local stress management strategy” favours crack closure and crack deviation at the sub-millimetre scale thanks to a controlled residual stress field. The “transient liquid healing agent” strategy involves the in-situ generation of an out-of-equilibrium compositionally graded microstructure at the aluminium/healing agent interface capable of liquid-phase healing after a thermal treatment. Along the road, a variety of new scientific questions concerning the damage mechanisms will have to be addressed.

1 497 447 €

Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2021-12-31

Online markets currently form an important share of the global economy. The Internet hosts classical markets (real-estate, stocks, e-commerce) as well allowing new markets with previously unknown features (web-based advertisement, viral marketing, digital goods, crowdsourcing, sharing economy). Algorithms play a central role in many decision processes involved in online markets. For example, algorithms run electronic auctions, trade stocks, adjusts prices dynamically, and harvest big data to provide economic information. Thus, it is of paramount importance to understand the algorithmic and mechanism design foundations of online markets. The algorithmic research issues that we consider involve algorithmic mechanism design, online and approximation algorithms, modelling uncertainty in online market design, and large-scale data analysisonline and approximation algorithms, large-scale optimization and data mining. The aim of this research project is to combine these fields to consider research questions that are central for today's Internet economy. We plan to apply these techniques so as to solve fundamental algorithmic problems motivated by web-basedInternet advertisement, Internet market designsharing economy, and crowdsourcingonline labour marketplaces. While my planned research is focussedcentered on foundational work with rigorous design and analysis of in algorithms and mechanismsic design and analysis, it will also include as an important component empirical validation on large-scale real-life datasets.

1 780 150 €

Start date: 2018-07-01, End date: 2023-06-30

We are concerned with localization properties of solutions to hyperbolic PDEs, especially problems with a geometric component: how do boundaries and heterogeneous media influence spreading and concentration of solutions. While our first focus is on wave and Schrödinger equations on manifolds with boundary, strong connections exist with phase space localization for (clusters of) eigenfunctions, which are of independent interest. Motivations come from nonlinear dispersive models (in physically relevant settings), properties of eigenfunctions in quantum chaos (related to both physics of optic fiber design as well as number theoretic questions), or harmonic analysis on manifolds. Waves propagation in real life physics occur in media which are neither homogeneous or spatially infinity. The birth of radar/sonar technologies (and the raise of computed tomography) greatly motivated numerous developments in microlocal analysis and the linear theory. Only recently toy nonlinear models have been studied on a curved background, sometimes compact or rough. Understanding how to extend such tools, dealing with wave dispersion or focusing, will allow us to significantly progress in our mathematical understanding of physically relevant models. There, boundaries appear naturally and most earlier developments related to propagation of singularities in this context have limited scope with respect to crucial dispersive effects. Despite great progress over the last decade, driven by the study of quasilinear equations, our knowledge is still very limited. Going beyond this recent activity requires new tools whose development is at the heart of this proposal, including good approximate solutions (parametrices) going over arbitrarily large numbers of caustics, sharp pointwise bounds on Green functions, development of efficient wave packets methods, quantitative refinements of propagation of singularities (with direct applications in control theory), only to name a few important ones.

1 293 763 €

Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31

One already available method to expand the range of material properties is to adjust the composition of materials at the molecular level using chemistry. We would like to develop the alternative approach of homogenization which broadens the definition of a material to include artificially structured media (fluids and solids) in which the effective electromagnetic, hydrodynamic or elastic responses result from a macroscopic patterning or arrangement of two or more distinct materials. This project will explore the latter avenue in order to markedly enhance control of surface water waves and elastodynamic waves propagating within artificially structured fluids and solid materials, thereafter called acoustic metamaterials. Pendry's perfect lens, the paradigm of electromagnetic metamaterials, is a slab of negative refractive index material that takes rays of light and causes them to converge with unprecedented resolution. This flat lens is a combination of periodically arranged resonant electric and magnetic elements. We will draw systematic analogies with resonant mechanical systems in order to achieve similar control of hydrodynamic and elastic waves. This will allow us to extend the design of metamaterials to acoustics to go beyond the scope of Snell-Descartes' laws of optics and Newton's laws of mechanics. Acoustic metamaterials allow the construction of invisibility cloaks for non-linear surface water waves (e.g. tsunamis) propagating in structured fluids, as well as seismic waves propagating in thin structured elastic plates. Maritime and civil engineering applications are in the protection of harbours, off-shore platforms and anti-earthquake passive systems. Acoustic cloaks for an enhanced control of pressure waves in fluids will be also designed for underwater camouflaging. Light and sound interplay will be finally analysed in order to design controllable metamaterials with a special emphasis on undetectable microstructured fibres (acoustic wormholes).

1 280 391 €

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

Today, much interest in several fields of physics is devoted to the study of small, open quantum systems, whose properties are profoundly affected by the environment; i.e., the continuum of decay channels. In nuclear physics, these problems were originally studied in the context of nuclear reactions but their importance has been reestablished with the advent of radioactive-beam physics and the resulting interest in exotic nuclei. In particular, strong theory initiatives in this area of research will be instrumental for the success of the experimental program at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Germany. In addition, many of the aspects of open quantum systems are also being explored in the rapidly evolving research on ultracold atomic gases, quantum dots, and other nanodevices. A first-principles description of open quantum systems presents a substantial theoretical and computational challenge. However, the current availability of enormous computing power has allowed theorists to make spectacular progress on problems that were previously thought intractable. The importance of computational methods to study quantum many-body systems is stressed in this proposal. Our approach is based on the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM), which is a well-established theoretical framework aimed originally at an exact description of nuclear structure starting from realistic inter-nucleon forces. A successful completion of this project requires extensions of the NCSM mathematical framework and the development of highly advanced computer codes. The '++' in the project title indicates the interdisciplinary aspects of the present research proposal and the ambition to make a significant impact on connected fields of many-body physics.

1 304 800 €

Start date: 2009-12-01, End date: 2014-11-30

Isoperimetric and Sobolev inequalities are the best known examples of geometric-functional inequalities. In recent years the PI and collaborators have obtained new and sharp quantitative versions of these and other important related inequalities. These results have been obtained by the combined use of classical symmetrization methods, new tools coming from mass transportation theory, deep geometric measure tools and ad hoc symmetrizations. The objective of this project is to further develop thes techniques in order to get: sharp quantitative versions of Faber-Krahn inequality, Gaussian isoperimetric inequality, Brunn-Minkowski inequality, Poincaré and Sobolev logarithm inequalities; sharp decay rates for the quantitative Sobolev inequalities and Polya-Szegö inequality.

600 000 €

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

Single-photon sources (SPSs) are systems capable of emitting photons one by one. These sources are of major importance for quantum-information science and applications. SPSs experiments generally rely on the optical excitation of two level systems of atomic-scale dimensions (single-molecules, vacancies in diamond…). Many fundamental questions related to the nature of these sources and the impact of their environment remain to be explored: Can SPSs be addressed with atomic-scale spatial accuracy? How do the nanometer-scale distance or the orientation between two (or more) SPSs affect their emission properties? Does coherence emerge from the proximity between the sources? Do these structures still behave as SPSs or do they lead to the emission of correlated photons? How can we then control the degree of entanglement between the sources? Can we remotely excite the emission of these sources by using molecular chains as charge-carrying wires? Can we couple SPSs embodied in one or two-dimensional arrays? How does mechanical stress or localised plasmons affect the properties of an electrically-driven SPS? Answering these questions requires probing, manipulating and exciting SPSs with an atomic-scale precision. This is beyond what is attainable with an all-optical method. Since they can be confined to atomic-scale pathways we propose to use electrons rather than photons to excite the SPSs. This unconventional approach provides a direct access to the atomic-scale physics of SPSs and is relevant for the implementation of these sources in hybrid devices combining electronic and photonic components. To this end, a scanning probe microscope will be developed that provides simultaneous spatial, chemical, spectral, and temporal resolutions. Single-molecules and defects in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides are SPSs that will be studied in the project, and which are respectively of interest for fundamental and more applied issues.

1 996 848 €

Start date: 2018-06-01, End date: 2023-05-31

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is often described as the most powerful tool for optical characterization of surfaces and their proximities. It combines the intrinsic spatial resolution of scanning probe techniques (AFM or STM) with the chemical information content of vibrational Raman spectroscopy. Capable to reveal surface heterogeneity at the nanoscale, TERS is currently playing a fundamental role in the understanding of interfacial physicochemical processes in key areas of science and technology such as chemistry, biology and material science. Unfortunately, the undeniable potential of TERS as a label-free tool for nanoscale chemical and structural characterization is, nowadays, limited to air and vacuum environments, with it failing to operate in a reliable and systematic manner in liquid. The reasons are more technical than fundamental, as what is hindering the application of TERS in water is, among other issues, the low stability of the probes and their consistency. Fields of science and technology where the presence of water/electrolyte is unavoidable, such as biology and electrochemistry, remain unexplored with this powerful technique. We propose a revolutionary approach for TERS in liquids founded on the employment of pipet-based scanning probe microscopy techniques (pb-SPM) as an alternative to AFM and STM. The use of recent but well established pb-SPM brings the opportunity to develop unprecedented pipet-based TERS probes (beyond the classic and limited metallized solid probes from AFM and STM), together with the implementation of ingenious and innovative measures to enhance tip stability, sensitivity and reliability, unattainable with the current techniques. We will be in possession of a unique nano-spectroscopy platform capable of experiments in liquids, to follow dynamic processes in-situ, addressing fundamental questions and bringing insight into interfacial phenomena spanning from materials science, physics, chemistry and biology.

1 528 442 €

Start date: 2017-07-01, End date: 2022-06-30

The goal of this project is to prepare in a deterministic way, and then to characterize, various entangled states of up to 25 individual atoms held in an array of optical tweezers. Such a system provides a new arena to explore quantum entangled states of a large number of particles. Entanglement is the existence of quantum correlations between different parts of a system, and it is recognized as an essential property that distinguishes the quantum and the classical worlds. It is also a resource in various areas of physics, such as quantum information processing, quantum metrology, correlated quantum systems and quantum simulation. In the proposed design, each site is individually addressable, which enables single atom manipulation and detection. This will provide the largest entangled state ever produced and fully characterized at the individual particle level. The experiment will be implemented by combining two crucial novel features, that I was able to demonstrate very recently: first, the manipulation of quantum bits written on long-lived hyperfine ground states of single ultra-cold atoms trapped in microscopic optical tweezers; second, the generation of entanglement by using the strong long-range interactions between Rydberg states. These interactions lead to the so-called dipole blockade , and enable the preparation of various classes of entangled states, such as states carrying only one excitation (W states), and states analogous to Schrödinger s cats (GHZ states). Finally, I will also explore strategies to protect these states against decoherence, developed in the framework of fault-tolerant and topological quantum computing. This project therefore combines an experimental challenge and the exploration of entanglement in a mesoscopic system.

1 449 600 €

Start date: 2009-12-01, End date: 2014-11-30

Redox chemistry provides the fundamental basis for numerous energy-related electrochemical devices, among which Li-ion batteries (LIB) have become the premier energy storage technology for portable electronics and vehicle electrification. Throughout its history, LIB technology has relied on cationic redox reactions as the sole source of energy storage capacity. This is no longer true. In 2013 we demonstrated that Li-driven reversible formation of (O2)n peroxo-groups in new layered oxides led to extraordinary increases in energy storage capacity. This finding, which is receiving worldwide attention, represents a transformational approach for creating advanced energy materials for not only energy storage, but also water splitting applications as both involve peroxo species. However, as is often the case with new discoveries, the fundamental science at work needs to be rationalized and understood. Specifically, what are the mechanisms for ion and electron transport in these Li-driven anionic redox reactions? To address these seminal questions and to widen the spectrum of materials (transition metal and anion) showing anionic redox chemistry, we propose a comprehensive research program that combines experimental and computational methods. The experimental methods include structural and electrochemical analyses (both ex-situ and in-situ), and computational modeling will be based on first-principles DFT for identifying the fundamental processes that enable anionic redox activity. The knowledge gained from these studies, in combination with our expertise in inorganic synthesis, will enable us to design a new generation of Li-ion battery materials that exhibit substantial increases (20 -30%) in energy storage capacity, with additional impacts on the development of Na-ion batteries and the design of water splitting catalysts, with the feasibility to surpass current water splitting efficiencies via novel (O2)n-based electrocatalysts.

2 249 196 €

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

The aim of this project is to develop and to demonstrate a novel theoretical framework devoted to rationalizing the formulation of composite electrodes containing next-generation material chemistries for high energy density secondary batteries. The framework will be established through the combination of discrete particle and continuum mathematical models within a multiscale computational workflow integrating the individual models and mimicking the different steps along the electrode fabrication process, including slurry preparation, drying and calendering. Strongly complemented by dedicated experimental characterizations which are devoted to its validation, the goal of this framework is to provide insights about the impacts of material properties and fabrication process parameters on the electrode mesostructures and their corresponding correlation to the resulting electrochemical performance. It targets self-organization mechanisms of material mixtures in slurries by considering the interactions between the active and conductive materials, solvent, binders and dispersants and the relationship between the materials properties such as surface chemistry and wettability. Optimal electrode formulation, fabrication process and the arising electrode mesostructure can then be achieved. Additionally, the framework will be integrated into an online and open access infrastructure, allowing predictive direct and reverse engineering for optimized electrode designs to attain high quality electrochemical performances. Through the demonstration of a multidisciplinary, flexible and transferable framework, this project has tremendous potential to provide insights leading to proposals of new and highly efficient industrial techniques for the fabrication of cheaper and reliable next-generation secondary battery electrodes for a wide spectrum of applications, including Electric Transportation.

1 976 445 €

Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2023-03-31

Our aim is to provide a theoretical framework for studies of dynamical aspects of magnetic materials and magnetisation reversal, which has potential for applications for magnetic data storage and magnetic memory devices. The project focuses on developing and using an atomistic spin dynamics simulation method. Our goal is to identify novel materials and device geometries with improved performance. The scientific questions which will be addressed concern the understanding of the fundamental temporal limit of magnetisation switching and reversal, and the mechanisms which govern this limit. The methodological developments concern the ability to, from first principles theory, calculate the interatomic exchange parameters of materials in general, in particular for correlated electron materials, via the use of dynamical mean-field theory. The theoretical development also involves an atomistic spin dynamics simulation method, which once it has been established, will be released as a public software package. The proposed theoretical research will be intimately connected to world-leading experimental efforts, especially in Europe where a leading activity in experimental studies of magnetisation dynamics has been established. The ambition with this project is to become world-leading in the theory of simulating spin-dynamics phenomena, and to promote education and training of young researchers. To achieve our goals we will build up an open and lively environment, where the advances in the theoretical knowledge of spin-dynamics phenomena will be used to address important questions in information technology. In this environment the next generation research leaders will be fostered and trained, thus ensuring that the society of tomorrow is equipped with the scientific competence to tackle the challenges of our future.

2 130 000 €

Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31

"This project will develop the use of relict, extraterrestrial minerals in Archean to Cenozoic slowly formed sediments as tracers of events in the solar system and cosmos, and to decipher the possible relation between such events and evolution of life and environmental change on Earth. There has been consensus that it would not be possible to reconstruct variations in the flux of different types of meteorites to Earth through the ages. Meteorite falls are rare and meteorites weather and decay rapidly on the Earth surface. However, the last years we have developed the first realistic approach to circumvent these problems. Almost all meteorite types contain a small fraction of spinel minerals that survives weathering and can be recovered from large samples of condensed sediments of any age. Inside the spinels we can locate by synchrotron-light X-ray tomography 1-30 micron sized inclusions of most of the other minerals that made up the original meteorite. With cutting-edge frontier microanalyses such as Ne-21 (solar wind, galactic rays), oxygen isotopes (meteorite group and type) and cosmic ray tracks (supernova densities) we will be able to unravel from the geological record fundamental new information about the solar system at specific times through the past 3.8 Gyr. Variations in flux and types of meteorites may reflect solar-system and galaxy gravity disturbances as well as the sequence of disruptions of the parent bodies for meteorite types known and not yet known. Cosmic-ray tracks in spinels may identify the galactic year (230 Myr) in the geological record. For the first time it will be possible to systematically relate major global biotic and tectonic events, changes in sea-level, climate and asteroid and comet impacts to what happened in the larger astronomical realm. In essence, the project is a robust approach to establish a pioneer ""astrostratigraphy"" for Earth's geological record, complementing existing bio-, chemo-, and magnetostratigraphies."

1 950 000 €

Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31

A major part of the physical and chemical processes occurring in the atmosphere involves the turbulent transport of tiny particles. Current studies and models use a formulation in terms of mean fields, where the strong variations in the dynamical and statistical properties of the particles are neglected and where the underlying fluctuations of the fluid flow velocity are oversimplified. Devising an accurate understanding of the influence of air turbulence and of the extreme fluctuations that it generates in the dispersed phase remains a challenging issue. This project aims at coordinating and integrating theoretical, numerical, experimental, and observational efforts to develop a new statistical understanding of the role of fluctuations in atmospheric transport processes. The proposed work will cover individual as well as collective behaviors and will provide a systematic and unified description of targeted specific processes involving suspended drops or particles: the dispersion of pollutants from a source, the growth by condensation and coagulation of droplets and ice crystals in clouds, the scavenging, settling and re-suspension of aerosols, and the radiative and climatic effects of particles. The proposed approach is based on the use of tools borrowed from statistical physics and field theory, and from the theory of large deviations and of random dynamical systems in order to design new observables that will be simultaneously tractable analytically in simplified models and of relevance for the quantitative handling of such physical mechanisms. One of the outcomes will be to provide a new framework for improving and refining the methods used in meteorology and atmospheric sciences and to answer the long-standing question of the effects of suspended particles onto climate.

1 200 000 €

Start date: 2009-11-01, End date: 2014-10-31

We propose to investigate a new frontier in Physics: the study of Magnetic systems using attosecond laser pulses. The main disciplines concerned are: Ultrafast laser sciences, Magnetism and Spin-Photonics, Relativistic Quantum Electrodynamics. Three issues of modern magnetism are addressed. 1. How fast can one modify and control the magnetization of a magnetic system ? 2. What is the role and essence of the coherent interaction between light and spins ? 3. How far spin-photonics can bring us to the real world of data acquisition and storage ? - We want first to provide solid ground experiments, unravelling the mechanisms involved in the demagnetization induced by laser pulses in a variety of magnetic materials (ferromagnetic nanostructures, aggregates and molecular magnets). We will explore the ultrafast magnetization dynamics of magnets using an attosecond laser source. - Second we want to explore how the photon field interacts with the spins. We will investigate the dynamical regime when the potential of the atoms is dressed by the Coulomb potential induced by the laser field. A strong support from the relativistic Quantum Electro-Dynamics is necessary towards that goal. - Third, even though our general approach is fundamental, we want to provide a benchmark of what is realistically possible in ultrafast spin-photonics, breaking the conventional thought that spin photonics is hard to implement at the application level. We will realize ultimate devices combining magneto-optical microscopy with the conventional magnetic recording. This new field will raise the interest of a number of competitive laboratories at the international level. Due to the overlapping disciplines the project also carries a large amount of educational impact both fundamental and applied.

2 492 561 €

Start date: 2010-05-01, End date: 2015-04-30

Knowledge of the state of the Earth mantle and its temporal evolution is fundamental to a variety of disciplines in Earth Sciences, from the internal dynamics to its many expressions in the geological record (postglacial rebound, sea level change, ore deposit, tectonics or geomagnetic reversals). Mantle convection theory is the centerpiece to unravel the present and past state of the mantle. For the past 40 years considerable efforts have been made to improve the quality of numerical models of mantle convection. However, they are still sparsely used to estimate the convective history of the solid Earth, in comparison to ocean or atmospheric models for weather and climate prediction. The main shortcoming is their inability to successfully produce Earth-like seafloor spreading and continental drift self-consistently. Recent convection models have begun to successfully predict these processes (Coltice et al., Science 336, 335-33, 2012). Such breakthrough opens the opportunity to combine high-level data assimilation methodologies and convection models together with advanced tectonic datasets to retrieve Earth's mantle history. The scope of this project is to produce a new generation of tectonic and convection reconstructions, which are key to improve our understanding and knowledge of the evolution of the solid Earth. The development of sustainable high performance numerical models will set new standards for geodynamic data assimilation. The outcome of the AUGURY project will be a new generation of models crucial to a wide variety of disciplines.

1 994 000 €

Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2020-02-29

Massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) are the most extreme, fascinating yet elusive astrophysical objects in the Universe. Establishing observationally their existence will be a milestone for contemporary astronomy, providing a fundamental missing piece in the puzzle of galaxy formation, piercing through the (hydro)dynamical physical processes shaping dense galactic nuclei from parsec scales down to the event horizon, and probing gravity in extreme conditions. We can both see and listen to MBHBs. Remarkably, besides arguably being among the brightest variable objects shining in the Cosmos, MBHBs are also the loudest gravitational wave (GW) sources in the Universe. As such, we shall take advantage of both the type of messengers – photons and gravitons – they are sending to us, which can now be probed by all-sky time-domain surveys and radio pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) respectively. B MASSIVE leverages on a unique comprehensive approach combining theoretical astrophysics, radio and gravitational-wave astronomy and time-domain surveys, with state of the art data analysis techniques to: i) observationally prove the existence of MBHBs, ii) understand and constrain their astrophysics and dynamics, iii) enable and bring closer in time the direct detection of GWs with PTA. As European PTA (EPTA) executive committee member and former I International PTA (IPTA) chair, I am a driving force in the development of pulsar timing science world-wide, and the project will build on the profound knowledge, broad vision and wide collaboration network that established me as a world leader in the field of MBHB and GW astrophysics. B MASSIVE is extremely timely; a pulsar timing data set of unprecedented quality is being assembled by EPTA/IPTA, and Time-Domain astronomy surveys are at their dawn. In the long term, B MASSIVE will be a fundamental milestone establishing European leadership in the cutting-edge field of MBHB astrophysics in the era of LSST, SKA and LISA.

1 532 750 €

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

The key ideas motivating this project are that: 1) precise control of the properties of porous systems can be obtained by exploiting bacteria and their fantastic abilities; 2) conversely, porous media (large surface to volume ratios, complex structures) could be a major part of bacterial synthetic biology, as a scaffold for growing large quantities of microorganisms in controlled bioreactors. The main scientific obstacle to precise control of such processes is the lack of understanding of biophysical mechanisms in complex porous structures, even in the case of single-strain biofilms. The central hypothesis of this project is that a better fundamental understanding of biofilm biomechanics and physical ecology will yield a novel theoretical basis for engineering and control. The first scientific objective is thus to gain insight into how fluid flow, transport phenomena and biofilms interact within connected multiscale heterogeneous structures - a major scientific challenge with wide-ranging implications. To this end, we will combine microfluidic and 3D printed micro-bioreactor experiments; fluorescence and X-ray imaging; high performance computing blending CFD, individual-based models and pore network approaches. The second scientific objective is to create the primary building blocks toward a control theory of bacteria in porous media and innovative designs of microbial bioreactors. Building upon the previous objective, we first aim to extract from the complexity of biological responses the most universal engineering principles applying to such systems. We will then design a novel porous micro-bioreactor to demonstrate how the permeability and solute residence times can be controlled in a dynamic, reversible and stable way - an initial step toward controlling reaction rates. We envision that this will unlock a new generation of biotechnologies and novel bioreactor designs enabling translation from proof-of-concept synthetic microbiology to industrial processes.

1 649 861 €

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

The management of anthropogenic CO2 will be one of the main challenges of this century given the dramatic impact of greenhouse gases on our living environment. A fascinating strategy to restore the advantages of stored CO2 as a raw material would be to consider a slow biological upgrading process of CO2 in deep geological formations. Significantly, the recent development of microfluidic tools to study pore-scale phenomena under high pressure, opens new avenues to investigate such strategies. Thus, the strategic objective of this project is to develop and to use “Biological Geological Laboratories on a Chip - BioGLoCs” mimicking reservoir conditions in order to gain greater understanding in the mechanisms associated with the biogeological conversion process of CO2 to methane in CGS environment at pore scale. The specific objectives are: (1) to determine the experimental conditions for the development of competent micro-organisms (methanogens) and to establish the methane production rates depending on the operating parameters, (2) to evaluate the feasibility of a H2 in situ production strategy (required to sustain the methanogenesis process), (3) to investigate the full bioconversion process in 2D and 3D, (4) to demonstrate the process scaling from pore scale to liter scale and (5) to evaluate the overall process performance. This multidisciplinary project gathering expertise in chemical engineering and geomicrobiology will be the first ever use of microfluidics approaches to investigate a biogeological transformation taking into account the thermo-hydro-bio-chemical processes. It will result in the identification of efficient geomicrobiological methods and materials to accelerate the CO2 to methane biogeoconversion process. New generic lab scale tools will be also made available for investigating geological-related topics (enhanced oil recovery, deep geothermal energy, bioremediation of groundwater, shale gas recovery).

1 995 354 €

Start date: 2017-11-01, End date: 2022-10-31

"Nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes or graphene sheets represent the future of material science, due to their potentially exceptional mechanical properties. One great drawback of all artificial materials, however, is the decrease of strength with increasing toughness, and viceversa. This problem is not encountered in many biological nanomaterials (e.g. spider silk, bone, nacre). Other biological materials display exceptional adhesion or damping properties, and can be self-cleaning or self-healing. The “secret” of biomaterials seems to lie in “hierarchy”: several levels can often be identified (2 in nacre, up to 7 in bone and dentine), from nano- to micro-scale. The idea of this project is to combine Nature and Nanotechnology to design hierarchical composites with tailor made characteristics, optimized with respect to both strength and toughness, as well as materials with strong adhesion/easy detachment, smart damping, self-healing/-cleaning properties or controlled energy dissipation. For example, one possible objective is to design the “world’s toughest composite material”. The potential impact and importance of these goals on materials science, the high-tech industry and ultimately the quality of human life could be considerable. In order to tackle such a challenging design process, the PI proposes to adopt ultimate nanomechanics theoretical tools corroborated by continuum or atomistic simulations, multi-scale numerical parametric simulations and Finite Element optimization procedures, starting from characterization experiments on biological- or nano-materials, from the macroscale to the nanoscale. Results from theoretical, numerical and experimental work packages will be applied to a specific case study in an engineering field of particular interest to demonstrate importance and feasibility, e.g. an airplane wing with a considerably enhanced fatigue resistance and reduced ice-layer adhesion, leading to a 10 fold reduction in wasted fuel."

1 004 400 €

Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31

The use of bioinorganic nanohybrids (nanoscaled systems based on an inorganic and a biological component) has already resulted in several innovative medical breakthroughs for drug delivery, therapeutics, imaging, diagnosis and biocompatibility. However, researchers still know relatively little about the structure, function and mechanism of these nanodevices. Theoretical investigations of bioinorganic interfaces are mostly limited to force-field approaches which cannot grasp the details of the physicochemical mechanisms. The BIOINOHYB project proposes to capitalize on recent massively parallelized codes to investigate bioinorganic nanohybrids by advanced quantum chemical methods. This approach will allow to master the chemical and electronic interplay between the bio and the inorganic components in the first part of the project, and the interaction of the hybrid systems with light in the second part. The ultimate goal is to provide the design principles for novel, unconventional assemblies with unprecedented functionalities and strong impact potential in nanomedicine. More specifically, in this project the traditional metallic nanoparticle will be substituted by emerging semiconducting metal oxide nanostructures with photocatalytic or magnetic properties capable of opening totally new horizons in nanomedicine (e.g. photocatalytic therapy, a new class of contrast agents, magnetically guided drug delivery). Potentially efficient linkers will be screened regarding their ability both to anchor surfaces and to bind biomolecules. Different kinds of biomolecules (from oligopeptides and oligonucleotides to small drugs) will be tethered to the activated surface according to the desired functionality. The key computational challenge, requiring the recourse to more sophisticated methods, will be the investigation of the photo-response to light of the assembled bioinorganic systems, also with specific reference to their labelling with fluorescent markers and contrast agents.

1 748 125 €

Start date: 2016-02-01, End date: 2021-01-31

The main objective nowadays in the field of biomaterials is to design highly performing bioinspired materials learning from natural processes. Importantly, biochemical and physical cues are key parameters that can affect cellular processes. Controlling processes that occur at the cell/material interface is also of prime importance to guide the cell response. The main aim of the current project is to develop novel functional bio-nanomaterials for in vitro biological studies. Our strategy is based on two related projects. The first project deals with the rational design of smart films with foreseen applications in musculoskeletal tissue engineering. We will gain knowledge of key cellular processes by designing well defined self-assembled thin coatings. These multi-functional surfaces with bioactivity (incorporation of growth factors), mechanical (film stiffness) and topographical properties (spatial control of the film s properties) will serve as tools to mimic the complexity of the natural materials in vivo and to present bioactive molecules in the solid phase. We will get a better fundamental understanding of how cellular functions, including adhesion and differentiation of muscle cells are affected by the materials s surface properties. In the second project, we will investigate at the molecular level a crucial aspect of cell adhesion and motility, which is the intracellular linkage between the plasma membrane and the cell cytoskeleton. We aim to elucidate the role of ERM proteins, especially ezrin and moesin, in the direct linkage between the plasma membrane and actin filaments. Here again, we will use a well defined microenvironment in vitro to simplify the complexity of the interactions that occur in cellulo. To this end, lipid membranes containing a key regulator lipid from the phosphoinositides familly, PIP2, will be employed in conjunction with purified proteins to investigate actin regulation by ERM proteins in the presence of PIP2-membranes.

1 499 996 €

Start date: 2011-06-01, End date: 2016-05-31

This project will focus on the use of nanoporous metal organic frameworks (Fe, Zn, Ti) for bioapplications. These systems are exciting porous solids, built up from inorganic clusters and polycarboxylates. This results in open-framework solids with different pore shapes and dimensions, and applications such as catalysis, separation and storage of gases. I have recently initiated the synthesis of new trivalent transition metal carboxylates. Among them, the metal carboxylates MIL-100 and MIL-101 (MIL: Materials of Institut Lavoisier) are spectacular solids with giant pores (25-34 Å), accessible metal sites and huge surface areas (3100-5900 m2.g-1). Recently, it was shown that these solids could be used for drug delivery with a loading of 1.4 g of Ibuprofen per gram of MIL-101 solid and a total release in six days. This project will concentrate on the implication of MOFs for drug release and other bioapplications. Whereas research on drug delivery is currently focused either on the use of bio-compatible polymers or mesoporous materials, our method will combine advantages of both routes including a high loading and a slow release of therapeutic molecules. A second application will use solids with accessible metal sites to coordinate NO for its controlled delivery. This would provide exogenous NO for prophylactic and therapeutic processes, anti-thrombogenic medical devices, improved dressings for wounds and ulcers, and the treatment of fungal and bacterial infections. Finally, other applications will be envisaged such as the purification of physiological fluids. The project, which will consist of a systematic study of the relation between these properties and both the composition and structure of the hybrid solids, will be assisted by a strong modelling effort including top of the art computational methods (QSAR and QSPKR). This highly impact project will be realised by assembling experienced researchers in multidisplinary areas including materials science, biology and modelling. It will involve P. Horcajada (Institut Lavoisier), whose background in pharmaceutical science will fit with my experience in inorganic chemistry and G. Maurin (Institut Gerhardt, Montpellier) expert in computational chemistry.

1 250 000 €

Start date: 2008-06-01, End date: 2013-05-31

Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are nowadays widely exploited for the realization of innovative devices and have a great impact on the development of a variety of biomedical applications ranging from orthodontic archwires to vascular stents. The design, realization, and optimization of such devices are quite demanding tasks. Mathematics is involved in this process as a major tool in order to let the modeling more accurate, the numerical simulations more reliable, and the design more effective. Many material properties of SMAs such as martensitic reorientation, training, and ferromagnetic behavior, are still to be properly and efficiently addressed. Therefore, new modeling ideas, along with original analytical and numerical techniques, are required. This project is aimed at addressing novel mathematical issues in order to move from experimental materials results toward the solution of real-scale biomechanical Engineering problems. The research focus will be multidisciplinary and include modeling, analytic, numerical, and computational issues. A progress in the macroscopic description of SMAs, the computational simulation of real-scale SMA devices, and the optimization of the production processes will contribute to advance in the direction of innovative applications.

700 000 €

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

"Summary: the quest for a general functional tensor framework for blind source separation Our overall objective is the development of a general functional framework for solving tensor based blind source separation (BSS) problems in biomedical data fusion, using tensor decompositions (TDs) as basic core. We claim that TDs will allow the extraction of fairly complicated sources of biomedical activity from fairly complicated sets of uni- and multimodal data. The power of the new techniques will be demonstrated for three well-chosen representative biomedical applications for which extensive expertise and fully validated datasets are available in the PI’s team, namely: • Metabolite quantification and brain tumour tissue typing using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging, • Functional monitoring including seizure detection and polysomnography, • Cognitive brain functioning and seizure zone localization using simultaneous Electroencephalography-functional MR Imaging integration. Solving these challenging problems requires that algorithmic progress is made in several directions: • Algorithms need to be based on multilinear extensions of numerical linear algebra. • New grounds for separation, such as representability in a given function class, need to be explored. • Prior knowledge needs to be exploited via appropriate health relevant constraints. • Biomedical data fusion requires the combination of TDs, coupled via relevant constraints. • Algorithms for TD updating are important for continuous long-term patient monitoring. The algorithms are eventually integrated in an easy-to-use open source software platform that is general enough for use in other BSS applications. Having been involved in biomedical signal processing over a period of 20 years, the PI has a good overview of the field and the opportunities. By working directly at the forefront in close collaboration with the clinical scientists who actually use our software, we can have a huge impact."

2 500 000 €

Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31

Multiferroics (i.e. materials where ferroelectricity and magnetism coexist) are presently drawing enormous interests, due to their technologically-relevant multifunctional character and to the astoundingly rich playground for fundamental condensed-matter physics they constitute. Here, we put forward several concepts on how to break inversion symmetry and achieve sizable ferroelectricity in collinear magnets; our approach is corroborated via first-principles calculations as tools to quantitatively estimate relevant ferroelectric and magnetic properties as well as to reveal ab-initio the main mechanisms behind the dipolar and magnetic orders. In closer detail, we focus on the interplay between ferroelectricity and electronic degrees of freedom in magnets, i.e. on those cases where spin- or orbital- or charge-ordering can be the driving force for a spontaneous polarization to develop. Antiferromagnetism will be considered as a primary mechanism for lifting inversion symmetry; however, the effects of charge disproportionation and orbital ordering will also be studied by examining a wide class of materials, including ortho-manganites with E-type spin-arrangement, non-E-type antiferromagnets, nickelates, etc. Finally, as an example of materials-design accessible to our ab-initio approach, we use “chemistry” to break inversion symmetry by artificially constructing an oxide superlattice and propose a way to switch, via an electric field, from antiferromagnetism to ferrimagnetism. To our knowledge, the link between electronic degrees of freedom and ferroelectricity in collinear magnets is an almost totally unexplored field by ab-initio methods; indeed, its clear understanding and optimization would lead to a scientific breakthrough in the multiferroics area. Technologically, it would pave the way to materials design of magnetic ferroelectrics with properties persisting above room temperature and, therefore, to a novel generation of electrically-controlled spintronic devices

684 000 €

Start date: 2008-05-01, End date: 2012-04-30

"Massive black holes (MBHs) weighing million solar masses and above inhabit the centers of today's galaxies, weighing about a thousandth of the host bulge mass. MBHs also powered quasars known to exist just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Owing to observational breakthroughs and remarkable advancements in theoretical models, we do now that MBHs are out there and evolved with their hosts, but we do not know how they got there nor how, and when, the connection between MBHs and hosts was established. To have a full view of MBH formation and growth we have to look at the global process where galaxies form, as determined by the large-scale structure, on Mpc scales. On the other hand, the region where MBHs dominate the dynamics of gas and stars, and accretion occurs, is merely pc-scale. To study the formation of MBHs and their fuelling we must bridge from Mpc to pc scale in order to follow how galaxies influence MBHs and how in turn MBHs influence galaxies. BLACK aims to connect the cosmic context to the nuclear region where MBHs reside, and to study MBH formation, feeding and feedback on their hosts through a multi-scale approach following the thread of MBHs from cosmological, to galactic, to nuclear scales. Analytical work guides and tests numerical simulations, allowing us to probe a wide dynamical range. Our theoretical work will be crucial for planning and interpreting current and future observations. Today and in the near future facilities at wavelengths spanning from radio to X-ray will widen and deepen our view of the Universe, making this an ideal time for this line of research."

1 668 385 €

Start date: 2014-06-01, End date: 2019-05-31

"Many physical models involve nonlinear dispersive problems, like wave or laser propagation, plasmas, ferromagnetism, etc. So far, the mathematical under- standing of these equations is rather poor. In particular, we know little about the detailed qualitative behavior of their solutions. Our point is that an apparent com- plexity hides universal properties of these models; investigating and uncovering such properties has started only recently. More than the equations themselves, these univer- sal properties are essential for physical modelisation. By considering several standard models such as the nonlinear Schrodinger, nonlinear wave, generalized KdV equations and related geometric problems, the goal of this pro- posal is to describe the generic global behavior of the solutions and the profiles which emerge either for large time or by concentration due to strong nonlinear effects, if pos- sible through a few relevant solutions (sometimes explicit solutions, like solitons). In order to do this, we have to elaborate different mathematical tools depending on the context and the specificity of the problems. Particular emphasis will be placed on - large time asymptotics for global solutions, decomposition of generic solutions into sums of decoupled solitons in non integrable situations, - description of critical phenomenon for blow up in the Hamiltonian situation, stable or generic behavior for blow up on critical dynamics, various relevant regularisations of the problem, - global existence for defocusing supercritical problems and blow up dynamics in the focusing cases. We believe that the PI and his team have the ability to tackle these problems at present. The proposal will open whole fields of investigation in Partial Differential Equations in the future, clarify and simplify our knowledge on the dynamical behavior of solutions of these problems and provide Physicists some new insight on these models."

2 079 798 €

Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31