ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

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

Most of the technological materials have been developed by very expensive and cumbersome trial and error methods. On the other hand, computer based theoretical design of advanced materials is an area where rapid and extensive developments are taking place. Within my group new theoretical tools have now been established which are extremely well suited to the study of complex materials. In this approach basic quantum mechanical theories are used to describe fundamental properties of alloys and compounds. The utilization of such calculations to investigate possible optimizations of certain key properties represents a major departure from the traditional design philosophy. The purpose of my project is to build up a new competence in the field of computer-aided simulations of advanced materials. The main goal will be to achieve a deep understanding of the behaviour of complex metallic systems under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions at the atomic level by studying their electronic, magnetic and atomic structure using the most modern and advanced computational methods. This will enable us to establish a set of materials parameters and composition-structure-property relations that are needed for materials optimization. The research will be focused on fundamental technological properties related to defects in advanced metallic alloys (high-performance steels, superalloys, and refractory, energy related and geochemical materials) and alloy phases (solid solutions, intermetallic compounds), which will be studied by means of parameter free atomistic simulations combined with continuum modelling. As a first example, we will study the Fe-Cr system, which is of great interest to industry as well as in connection to nuclear waste. The Fe-Cr-Ni system will form another large group of materials under the aegis of this project. Special emphasis will also be placed on those Fe-alloys which exist under extreme conditions and are possible candidates for the Earth core.

2 000 000 €

Start date: 2009-03-01, End date: 2014-02-28

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

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

Axions are hypothetical particles whose existence would solve two major problems: the strong P, T problem (a major blemish on the standard model); and the dark matter problem. It is a most important goal to either observe or rule out the existence of a cosmic axion background. It appears that decisive observations may be possible, but only after orchestrating insight from specialities ranging from quantum field theory and astrophysical modeling to ultra-low noise quantum measurement theory. Detailed predictions for the magnitude and structure of the cosmic axion background depend on cosmological and astrophysical modeling, which can be constrained by theoretical insight and numerical simulation. In parallel, we must optimize strategies for extracting accessible signals from that very weakly interacting source. While the existence of axions as fundamental particles remains hypothetical, the equations governing how axions interact with electromagnetic fields also govern (with different parameters) how certain materials interact with electromagnetic fields. Thus those materials embody “emergent” axions. The equations have remarkable properties, which one can test in these materials, and possibly put to practical use. Closely related to axions, mathematically, are anyons. Anyons are particle-like excitations that elude the familiar classification into bosons and fermions. Theoretical and numerical studies indicate that they are common emergent features of highly entangled states of matter in two dimensions. Recent work suggests the existence of states of matter, both natural and engineered, in which anyon dynamics is both important and experimentally accessible. Since the equations for anyons and axions are remarkably similar, and both have common, deep roots in symmetry and topology, it will be fruitful to consider them together.

2 324 391 €

Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31

Current control applications necessitate the treatment of systems with multiple interconnected components, rather than the traditional single component paradigm that has been studied extensively. The individual subsystems may need to fulfil different and possibly conflicting specifications in a real-time manner. At the same time, they may need to fulfill coupled constraints that are defined as relations between their states. Towards this end, the need for methods for decentralized control at the continuous level and planning at the task level becomes apparent. We aim here towards unification of these two complementary approaches. Existing solutions rely on a top down centralized approach. We instead consider here a decentralized, bottom-up solution to the problem. The approach relies on three layers of interaction. In the first layer, agents aim at coordinating in order to fulfil their coupled constraints with limited communication exchange of their state information and design of appropriate feedback controllers; in the second layer, agents coordinate in order to mutually satisfy their discrete tasks through exchange of the corresponding plans in the form of automata; in the third and most challenging layer, the communication exchange for coordination now includes both continuous state and discrete plan/abstraction information. The results will be demonstrated in a scenario involving multiple (possibly human) users and multiple robots. The unification will yield a completely decentralized system, in which the bottom up approach to define tasks, the consideration of coupled constraints and their combination towards distributed hybrid control and planning in a coordinated fashion require for new ways of thinking and approaches to analysis and constitute the proposal a beyond the SoA and groundbreaking approach to the fields of control and computer science.

1 498 729 €

Start date: 2015-03-01, End date: 2020-02-29

The enormous quantities of frozen carbon in the Arctic, held in shallow soils and sediments, act as “capacitors” of the global carbon system. Thawing permafrost (PF) and collapsing methane hydrates are top candidates to cause a net transfer of carbon from land/ocean to the atmosphere this century, yet uncertainties abound. Our program targets the East Siberian Arctic Ocean (ESAO), the World’s largest shelf sea, as it holds 80% of coastal PF, 80% of subsea PF and 75% of shallow hydrates. Our initial findings (e.g., Science, 2010; Nature, 2012; PNAS; 2013; Nature Geoscience, 2013, 2014) are challenging earlier notions by showing complexities in terrestrial PF-Carbon remobilization and extensive venting of methane from subsea PF/hydrates. The objective of the CC-Top Program is to transform descriptive and data-lean pictures into quantitative understanding of the CC system, to pin down the present and predict future releases from these “Sleeping Giants” of the global carbon system. The CC-Top program combines unique Arctic field capacities with powerful molecular-isotopic characterization of PF-carbon/methane to break through on: The “awakening” of terrestrial PF-C pools: CC-Top will employ great pan-arctic rivers as natural integrators and by probing the δ13C/Δ14C and molecular fingerprints, apportion release fluxes of different PF-C pools. The ESAO subsea cryosphere/methane: CC-Top will use recent spatially-extensive observations, deep sediment cores and gap-filling expeditions to (i) estimate distribution of subsea PF and hydrates; (ii) establish thermal state (thawing rate) of subsea PF-C; (iii) apportion sources of releasing methane btw subsea-PF, shallow hydrates vs seepage from the deep petroleum megapool using source-diagnostic triple-isotope fingerprinting. Arctic Ocean slope hydrates: CC-Top will investigate sites (discovered by us 2008-2014) of collapsed hydrates venting methane, to characterize geospatial distribution and causes of destabilization.

2 499 756 €

Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2021-10-31

Self-assembly is the key construction principle that nature uses so successfully to fabricate its molecular machinery and highly elaborate structures. In this project we will follow nature’s strategies and make a concerted experimental and theoretical effort to study, understand and control self-assembly for a new generation of colloidal building blocks. Starting point will be recent advances in colloid synthesis strategies that have led to a spectacular array of colloids of different shapes, compositions, patterns and functionalities. These allow us to investigate the influence of anisotropy in shape and interactions on aggregation and self-assembly in colloidal suspensions and mixtures. Using responsive particles we will implement colloidal lock-and-key mechanisms and then assemble a library of “colloidal molecules” with well-defined and externally tunable binding sites using microfluidics-based and externally controlled fabrication and sorting principles. We will use them to explore the equilibrium phase behavior of particle systems interacting through a finite number of binding sites. In parallel, we will exploit them and investigate colloid self-assembly into well-defined nanostructures. Here we aim at achieving much more refined control than currently possible by implementing a protein-inspired approach to controlled self-assembly. We combine molecule-like colloidal building blocks that possess directional interactions and externally triggerable specific recognition sites with directed self-assembly where external fields not only facilitate assembly, but also allow fabricating novel structures. We will use the tunable combination of different contributions to the interaction potential between the colloidal building blocks and the ability to create chirality in the assembly to establish the requirements for the controlled formation of tubular shells and thus create a colloid-based minimal model of synthetic virus capsid proteins.

2 498 040 €

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

Microswimmers, i.e., biological and artificial microscopic objects capable of self-propulsion, have been attracting a growing interest from the biological and physical communities. From the fundamental side, their study can shed light on the far-from-equilibrium physics underlying the adaptive and collective behavior of biological entities such as chemotactic bacteria and eukaryotic cells. From the more applied side, they provide tantalizing options to perform tasks not easily achievable with other available techniques, such as the targeted localization, pick-up and delivery of microscopic and nanoscopic cargoes, e.g., in drug delivery, bioremediation and chemical sensing. However, there are still several open challenges that need to be tackled in order to achieve the full scientific and technological potential of microswimmers in real-life settings. The main challenges are: (1) to identify a biocompatible propulstion mechanism and energy supply capable of lasting for the whole particle life-cycle; (2) to understand their behavior in complex and crowded environments; (3) to learn how to engineer emergent behaviors; and (4) to scale down their dimensions towards the nanoscale. This project aims at tackling these challenges by developing biocompatible microswimmers capable of elaborate behaviors, by engineering their performance when interacting with other particles and with a complex environment, and by developing working nanoswimmers. To achieve these goals, we have laid out a roadmap that will lead us to push the frontiers of the current understanding of active matter both at the mesoscopic and at the nanoscopic scale, and will permit us to develop some technologically disruptive techniques, namely, targeted delivery of cargoes within complex environments, which is of interest for drug delivery and bioremediation, and efficient sorting of chiral nanoparticles, which is of interest for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications.

1 497 500 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

Quantum field theory provides a theoretical framework to explain quantitatively natural phenomena as diverse as the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, superconductivity, and elementary particle interactions in colliders. Even if we use quantum field theories in different settings, their structure and dynamics are still largely mysterious. Weakly coupled systems can be studied perturbatively, however many natural phenomena are characterized by strong self-interactions (e.g. high T superconductors, nuclear forces) and their analysis requires going beyond perturbation theory. Supersymmetric field theories are very interesting in this respect because they can be studied exactly even at strong coupling and their dynamics displays phenomena like confinement or the breaking of chiral symmetries that occur in nature and are very difficult to study analytically. Recently it was realized that many interesting insights on the dynamics of supersymmetric field theories can be obtained by placing these theories in curved space preserving supersymmetry. These advances have opened new research avenues but also left many important questions unanswered. The aim of our research programme will be to clarify the dynamics of supersymmetric field theories in curved space and use this knowledge to establish new exact results for strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theories. The novelty of our approach resides in the systematic use of the interplay between the physical properties of a supersymmetric theory and the geometrical properties of the space-time it lives in. The analytical results we will obtain, while derived for very symmetric theories, can be used as a guide in understanding the dynamics of many physical systems. Besides providing new tools to address the dynamics of quantum field theory at strong coupling this line of investigation could lead to new connections between Physics and Mathematics.

1 145 879 €

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

Computing is changing from living on our desktops and in dedicated devices to being everywhere. In phones, sensors, appliances, and robots – computers (from now on devices) are everywhere and affecting all aspects of our lives. The techniques to make them safe and reliable are investigated and are starting to emerge and consolidate. However, these techniques enable devices to work in isolation or co-exist. We currently do not have techniques that enable development of real autonomous collaboration between devices. Such techniques will revolutionize all usage of devices and, as consequence, our lives. Manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, infrastructures, and earth- and space exploration would all transform using techniques that enable development of collaborating devices. When considering isolated (and co-existing) devices, reactive synthesis – automatic production of plans from high level specification – is emerging as a viable tool for the development of robots and reactive software. This is especially important in the context of safety-critical systems, where assurances are required and systems need to have guarantees on performance. The techniques that are developed today to support robust, assured, reliable, and adaptive devices rely on a major change in focus of reactive synthesis. The revolution of correct-by-construction systems from specifications is occurring and is being pushed forward. However, to take this approach forward to work also for real collaboration between devices the theoretical frameworks that will enable distributed synthesis are required. Such foundations will enable the correct-by-construction revolution to unleash its potential and allow a multiplicative increase of utility by cooperative computation. d-SynMA will take distributed synthesis to this new frontier by considering novel interaction and communication concepts that would create an adaptable framework of correct-by-construction application of collaborating devices.

1 871 272 €

Start date: 2018-05-01, End date: 2023-04-30

The continuing increase in Internet data traffic is pushing the capacity of single-mode fiber to its fundamental limits. Space division multiplexing (SDM) offers the only remaining physical degree of freedom – the space dimension in the transmission channel – to substantially increase the capacity in lightwave communication systems. The microresonator comb is an emerging technology platform that enables the generation of an optical frequency comb in a micrometer-scale cavity. Its compact size and compatibility with established semiconductor fabrication techniques promises to revolutionize the fields of frequency synthesis and metrology, and create new mass-market applications. I envision significant scaling advantages in future fiber-optic communications by merging SDM with microresonator frequency combs. One major obstacle to overcome here is the poor conversion efficiency that can be fundamentally obtained using the most stable and broadest combs generated in microresonators today. I propose to look into the generation of dark, as opposed to bright, temporal solitons in linearly coupled microresonators. The goal is to achieve reliable microresonator combs with exceptionally high power conversion efficiency, resulting in optimal characteristics for SDM applications. The scientific and technological possibilities of this achievement promise significant impact beyond the realm of fiber-optic communications. My broad international experience, unique background in fiber communications, photonic waveguides and ultrafast photonics, the preliminary results of my group and the available infrastructure at my university place me in an outstanding position to pioneer this new direction of research.

2 259 523 €

Start date: 2018-05-01, End date: 2023-04-30

Motivated by a series of recent discoveries, DEVOCEAN will provide the first comprehensive evaluation of the emergence of diatoms and their impact on the global biogeochemical cycle of silica, carbon and other nutrients that regulate ocean productivity and ultimately climate. I propose that the proliferation of phytoplankton that occurred after the Permian-Triassic extinction, in particular the diatoms, fundamentally influenced oceanic environments through the enhancement of carbon export to depth as part of the biological pump. Although molecular clocks suggest that diatoms evolved over 200 Ma ago, this result has been largely ignored because of the lack of diatoms in the geologic fossil record with most studies therefore focused on diversification during the Cenozoic where abundant diatom fossils are found. Much of the older fossil evidence has likely been destroyed by dissolution during diagenesis, subducted or is concealed deep within the Earth under many layers of rock. DEVOCEAN will provide evidence on diatom evolution and speciation in the geological record by examining formations representing locations in which diatoms are likely to have accumulated in ocean sediments. We will generate robust estimates of the timing and magnitude of dissolved Si drawdown following the origin of diatoms using the isotopic silicon composition of fossil sponge spicules and radiolarians. The project will also provide fundamental new insights into the timing of dissolved Si drawdown and other key events, which reorganized the distribution of carbon and nutrients in seawater, changing energy flows and productivity in the biological communities of the ancient oceans.

2 500 000 €

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

"The elegant Dirac equation, describing the linear dispersion (energy/momentum) relation of electrons at relativistic speeds, has profound consequences such as the prediction of antiparticles, reflection less tunneling (Klein paradox) and others. Recent discovery of graphene and topological insulators (TI) highlights the scientific importance and technological promise of materials with “relativistic Dirac dispersion"" of electrons for functional materials and device applications with novel functionalities. One might use term ‘Dirac materials’ to encompass a subset of (materials) systems in which the low energy phase space for fermion excitations is reduced compared to conventional band structure predictions (i.e. point or lines of nodes vs. full Fermi Surface). Dirac materials are characterized by universal low energy properties due to presence of the nodal excitations. It is this reduction of phase space due to additional symmetries that can be turned on and off that opens a new door to functionality of Dirac materials. We propose to use the sensitivity of nodes in the electron spectrum of Dirac materials to induce controlled modifications of the Dirac points/lines via band structure engineering in artificial structures and via inelastic scattering processes with controlled doping. Proposed research will expand our theoretical understanding and guide design of materials and engineered geometries that allow tunable energy profiles of Dirac carriers."

1 700 000 €

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

Forests slow global climate change by absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide but this ecosystem service is limited by soil nutrients. Herbivores potentially alter soil nutrients in a range of ways, but these have mostly only been recorded for large mammals. By comparison, the impacts of the abundant invertebrates in forests have largely been ignored and are not included in current models used to generate the climate predictions so vital for designing governmental policies The proposed project will use a pioneering new interdisciplinary approach to provide the most complete picture yet available of the rates, underlying drivers and ultimate impacts of key nutrient inputs from invertebrate herbivores across forest ecosystems worldwide. Specifically, we will: (1) Establish a network of herbivory monitoring stations across all major forest types, and across key environmental gradients (temperature, rainfall, ecosystem development). (2) Perform laboratory experiments to examine the effects of herbivore excreta on soil processes under different temperature and moisture conditions. (3) Integrate this information into a cutting-edge ecosystem model, to generate more accurate predictions of forest carbon sequestration under future climate change. The network established will form the foundation for a unique long-term global monitoring effort which we intend to continue long after the current funding time scale. This work represents a powerful blend of several disciplines harnessing an array of cutting edge tools to provide fundamentally novel insights into an area of direct and urgent importance for the society.

1 750 000 €

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

We will develop and use imaging techniques for direct probing of electron dynamics in low dimensional structures with orders of magnitude improvements in time and spatial resolution. We will perform our measurements not only on static structures, but on complex structures under operating conditions. Finally as our equipment can also probe structural properties from microns to single atom defects we can directly correlate our observations of electron dynamics with knowledge of geometrical structure. We hope to directly answer central questions in nanophysics on how complex geometric structure on several length-scales induces new and surprising electron dynamics and thus properties in nanoscale objects. The low dimensional semiconductors and metal (nano) structures studied will be chosen to have unique novel properties that will have potential applications in IT, life-science and renewable energy. To radically increase our diagnostics capabilities we will combine PhotoEmission Electron Microscopy and attosecond XUV/IR laser technology to directly image surface electron dynamics with attosecond time resolution and nanometer lateral resolution. Exploring a completely new realm in terms of timescale with nm resolution we will start with rather simple structure such as Au nanoparticles and arrays nanoholes in ultrathin metal films, and gradually increase complexity. As the first group in the world we have shown that atomic resolved structural and electrical measurements by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy is possible on complex 1D semiconductors heterostructures. Importantly, our new method allows for direct studies of nanowires in devices. We can now measure atomic scale surface chemistry and surface electronic/geometric structure directly on operational/operating nanoscale devices. This is important both from a technology point of view, and is an excellent playground for understanding the fundamental interplay between electronic and structural properties.

1 419 120 €

Start date: 2010-10-01, End date: 2015-09-30

The progress of materials science depends critically on the access to advanced characterization methods. During the last decades there has been an almost revolutionary development of modern X-ray based tools. We are today at a turning point in the development of synchrotron radiation based electron spectroscopy, where the program of the PI has maintained a leading position since 20 years. New techniques are evolving parallel to the development of a new generation of ultra-brilliant synchrotron radiation (SR) facilities. Electron spectroscopy is one of the most important techniques for the advancement of materials science and is one of the corner stones for the research at SR facilities. It is of highest priority to introduce new types of instruments to push the spectroscopy into new domains of time, spatial, energy and angular resolution. We have recently accomplished a break-through in this field with a new type of electron analyzer, the ArTOF instrument, capable of increasing the energy resolution down to the micro-eV range with a simultaneous increase of the transmission of almost three orders of magnitude, compared to the earlier instruments. In addition the emission angles of all electrons are determined, with high precision and within a wide cone. This allows us to obtain three dimensional electronic structure information in real time. The present ERC proposal defines an ambitious program to fully exploit the new possibilities in urgent fields of research: In situ time resolved electronic band structure of organic crystals for electronic applications, time resolved studies of 3D band structure of solids and new 2D materials (graphene, topological insulators), electron structure and dynamics of materials for solar cell applications, and in other important research fields. The research program will also adapt the new technique to take advantage of new opportunities opened by emerging ultra-brilliant X-ray sources.

2 486 128 €

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

Spectrum is a key and scarce resource in wireless communication networks, and it remains tightly controlled by regulation authorities. Most of the frequency bands are exclusively allocated to a single system licensed to use it everywhere and for long periods of time. This rigid spectrum management model inevitably leads to significant inefficiencies in spectrum use. The explosion of demand for broadband wireless services also calls for more flexible models where much larger spectrum parts could be dynamically shared among users in a fluid manner. In such models, Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) techniques will play a major role. These techniques make it possible for radio devices to become frequency-agile, i.e. able to rapidly and dynamically access bands of a wide spectrum part. The success and spread of dynamic spectrum access strongly rely on the ability for many frequency-agile devices (or systems) to coexist peacefully and efficiently. With multiple interacting devices, the research agenda shifts from spectrum access problems to spectrum sharing problems, which raises original and challenging questions. There may be limited or no communication between the different devices or systems sharing spectrum. We further expect systems to be heterogeneous in their transmission capabilities, but also in the type of service they support. In that context, the design of spectrum access strategies resulting in an efficient and fair spectrum resource use constitutes a challenging puzzle. The broad objective of the proposed research is to develop original analytical and simulation tools to tackle dynamic spectrum sharing issues. The project leverages and marries techniques from distributed optimization and machine learning to design decentralized, efficient, and fair spectrum sharing algorithms. We believe that such algorithms are critical for the birth and rapid expansion of DSA technologies and hence for the development of future wireless broadband systems.

1 197 040 €

Start date: 2012-11-01, End date: 2017-10-31

I aim to achieve a fundamental understanding of the atomistic kinetic pathways responsible for nanostructure formation and to explore the concept of self-organization by thermodynamic segregation in functional ceramics. Model systems are advanced ceramic thin films, which will be studied under two defining cases: 1) deposition of supersaturated solid solutions or nanocomposites by magnetron sputtering (epitaxy) and arc evaporation. 2) post-deposition annealing (ageing) of as-synthesized material. Thin film ceramics are terra incognita for compositions in the miscibility gap. The field is exciting since both surface and in-depth decomposition can take place in the alloys. The methodology is based on combined growth experiments, characterization, and ab initio calculations to identify and describe systems with a large miscibility gap. A hot topic is to elucidate the bonding nature of the cubic-SiNx interfacial phase, discovered by us in TiN/Si3N4 with impact for superhard nanocomposites. I have also pioneered studies of self-organization by spinodal decomposition in TiAlN alloy films (age hardening). Here, the details of metastable c-AlN nm domain formation are unknown and the systems HfAlN and ZrAlN are predicted to be even more promising. Other model systems are III-nitrides (band gap engineering), semiconductor/insulator oxides (interface conductivity) and carbides (tribology). The proposed research is exploratory and has the potential of explaining outstanding phenomena (Gibbs-Thomson effect, strain, and spinodal decomposition) as well as discovering new phases, for which my group has a track-record, backed-up by state-of-the-art in situ techniques. One can envision a new class of super-hard all-crystalline ceramic nanocomposites with relevance for a large number of research areas where elevated temperature is of concern, significant in impact for areas as diverse as microelectronics and cutting tools as well as mechanical and optical components.

2 292 000 €

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

Computer vision concerns itself with understanding the real world through the analysis of images. Typical problems are object recognition, medical image segmentation, geometric reconstruction problems and navigation of autonomous vehicles. Such problems often lead to complicated optimization problems with a mixture of discrete and continuous variables, or even infinite dimensional variables in terms of curves and surfaces. Today, state-of-the-art in solving these problems generally relies on heuristic methods that generate only local optima of various qualities. During the last few years, work by the applicant, co-workers, and others has opened new possibilities. This research project builds on this. We will in this project focus on developing new global optimization methods for computing high-quality solutions for a broad class of problems. A guiding principle will be to relax the original, complicated problem to an approximate, simpler one to which globally optimal solutions can more easily be computed. Technically, this relaxed problem often is convex. A crucial point in this approach is to estimate the quality of the exact solution of the approximate problem compared to the (unknown) global optimum of the original problem. Preliminary results have been well received by the research community and we now wish to extend this work to more difficult and more general problem settings, resulting in thorough re-examination of algorithms used widely in different and trans-disciplinary fields. This project is to be considered as a basic research project with relevance to industry. The expected outcome is new knowledge spread to a wide community through scientific papers published at international journals and conferences as well as publicly available software.

1 440 000 €

Start date: 2008-07-01, End date: 2013-06-30

Halogen bonding is an electron density donation-based weak interaction that has so far almost exclusively been investigated in computational and crystallographic studies. It shows high similarities to hydrogen bonding; however, its applicability for molecular recognition processes long remained unappreciated and has not been thoroughly explored. The main goals of this project are (1) to take the major leap from solid state/computational to /solution/ investigations of halogen bonding by developing novel NMR methods, using these (2) perform the first ever systematic physicochemical study of halogen bonding in solutions, and (3) to apply the gained knowledge in structural biology through elucidation of the anaesthetic binding site of native proteins. This in turn is of direct clinical relevance by providing a long-sought understanding of the disease malignant hyperthermia. Model compounds will be prepared using solution-phase and solid-supported organic synthesis; NMR methods will be developed for physicochemical studies of molecular recognition processes and applied in structural biology through the study of the interaction of anaesthetics with proteins involved in cellular calcium regulation. Using a peptidomimetic model system and an outstandingly sensitive NMR technique I will systematically study the impact of halogen bond donor and acceptor sites, and of electronic and solvent effects on the strength of the interaction. The proposed method will quantify relative stability of a strategically-designed, cooperatively folding model system. A second NMR technique will utilize paramagnetic effects and permit simultaneous characterization of bond strength and geometry of weak intermolecular complexes in solution. The technique will first be validated on small, organic model compounds and subsequently be transferred to weak, protein-ligand interactions. It will be exploited to gain an atomic level understanding of anaesthesia.

1 495 630 €

Start date: 2010-09-01, End date: 2015-08-31

It is estimated that almost half of all enzymes utilize metal cofactors for their function, for example the respiratory complexes and the oxygen-evolving photosystem II, the most fundamental requirements for aerobic life as we know it. If we could mimic nature’s use of metals for harvesting sunlight, energy conversion and chemical synthesis it would eliminate the need for fossil fuels and greatly increase the possibilities of chemical industry while reducing the environmental impact. Achieving this type of chemistry is an outstanding testament to evolution and understanding it is a glaring challenge to mankind. These types of reactions are based on very challenging redox chemistry (involving one or several electrons). The key catalytic species are generally high-valent metal clusters with a varying ligand environment, provided by the protein and other bound molecules, that directly controls the reactivity of the inorganic core. To be able to understand and mimic this chemistry it is of central importance to know the geometric and electronic structures of the metal core as well as the entire ligand environment for these usually short-lived and very reactive intermediates. It has, for a number of reasons, proven extremely challenging to obtain these for protein-coordinated catalysts. The central goal of this project is to determine true and accurate geometric and electronic structures of high-valent di-nuclear Fe/Fe and Mn/Fe metal sites coordinated in protein matrices known to direct these for varied and important chemistry. By combining new X-ray diffraction based techniques with advanced spectroscopy we aim to define how the protein controls the entatic state as well as reactivity and mechanism for some of the most potent catalysts in nature. The results will serve as a basis for design of oxygen-activating catalysts with novel properties.

1 968 375 €

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

The Swedish historical data base project will put together and make publicly available highly disaggregated data on roughly a yearly basis for about 2500 Swedish administrative districts over the period 1749-1952. The finished data set will consist of comprehensive and detailed information on economic activity, political characteristics, vital statistics, occupational structure, education, social and agriculture statistics and infrastructure investments (e.g., railway construction). The comprehensiveness and complete coverage of historical data at the local administrative level is what makes this project unique from an international perspective. Since Sweden has the longest continuous and reliable data series on population and vital statistics in the world,starting as early as 1749, makes it possible to construct a comprehensive panel data set over all 2,500 Swedish local administrative units covering a 200 year period. Consequently, the total number of observations for each variable can be as large as 0.5 million (N=2500×T=200). With this type of rich and disaggregated historical data it become possible to get a better understanding of economic growth, structural transformation and economic development. Also, within-country variation allows for more satisfying empirical identification strategies such as instrumental variables, regression discontinuities or difference-in-differences estimation. As a case in point, I have demonstrated the potential usefulness of the Swedish historical data by addressing the question of whether redistribution of resources towards the poor differs between types of democracy after democratization. The identification strategy is based on a regression-discontinuity design where the type of democracy partly is a function of population size. This paper is currently “revise and resubmit” 2nd round at Econometrica. After collecting the new data, we intend to studying a number of questions related to economic development and growth.

1 200 000 €

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

Metabolic engineering is the development of new cell factories or improving existing ones, and it is the enabling science that allows for sustainable production of fuels and chemicals through biotechnology. With the development in genomics and functional genomics, it has become interesting to evaluate how advanced high-throughput experimental techniques (transcriptome, proteome, metabolome and fluxome) can be applied for improving the process of metabolic engineering. These techniques have mainly found applications in life sciences and studies of human health, and it is necessary to develop novel bioinformatics techniques and modelling concepts before they can provide physiological information that can be used to guide metabolic engineering strategies. In particular it is challenging how these techniques can be used to advance the use of mathematical modelling for description of the operation of complex metabolic networks. The availability of robust mathematical models will allow a wider use of mathematical models to drive metabolic engineering, in analogy with other fields of engineering where mathematical modelling is central in the design phase. In this project the advancement of novel concepts, models and technologies for enhancing metabolic engineering will be done in connection with the development of novel cell factories for high-level production of different classes of products. The chemicals considered will involve both commodity type chemicals like 3-hydroxypropionic acid and malic acid, that can be used for sustainable production of polymers, an industrial enzyme and pharmaceutical proteins like human insulin.

2 499 590 €

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

The objective of this project is to use rich Swedish registry data to learn about mechanisms behind intergenerational correlations. Typically, considerably effort has been spent on estimating correlations between outcome variables, such as education and income, for parents and children. However, the estimated correlations are driven by the causal effect of the parental variable of interest as well as unobservable factors such as other family background related variables and a part that is due to genetic transmission between parent and child. Disentangling these parts is very difficult and only recently has researchers made serious attempts to disentangling these different parts. However, findings vary widely across methods and this literature is still in its infancy. Among questions we ask are: How much of the association between outcome variables for the child and a parent is due to a causal effect from the parental variable, and how much is transmitted through unobservable family factors and genetic transmission? What are the intergenerational transmission and channels for life expectancy and health? What is the importance of genes-environmental interaction? Has the importance of genes, environment and its interactions for the intergenerational associations changed during the growth of the Scandinavian welfare state? How many generations does it take for ancestors placement in the income distribution to not longer matter for life success? These questions are directly relevant for policy, and relate to classical social science issues such as inequality of opportunity and level-of-living in general. The innovativeness of this project is based on using the uniqueness of Swedish registry data (ideal to answer these questions), with which one can match biological and adoptive parents, children and siblings, and hence can identify whether children are reared by their biological or adoptive parents, for the population of Swedes.

631 600 €

Start date: 2010-09-01, End date: 2015-08-31

Micro- and nanoelectromechanical system (MEMS and NEMS) components are vital for many industrial and consumer products such as airbag systems in cars and motion controls in mobile phones, and many of these MEMS and NEMS enabled applications have a large impact on European industry and society. However, the potential of MEMS and NEMS is being critically hampered by their dependence on integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing technologies. Most micro- and nano-manufacturing methods have been developed by the IC industry and are characterized by highly standardized manufacturing processes that are adapted for extremely large production volumes of more than 10.000 wafers per month. In contrast, the vast majority of MEMS and NEMS applications only demands production volumes of less than 100 wafers per month in combination with different non-standardized manufacturing and integration processes for each product. If a much wider variety of diverse and even low-volume MEMS and NEMS products shall be exploited, the semiconductor manufacturing paradigm has to be broken. In this project, we therefore will focus on frontier research on new paradigms for flexible and cost-efficient manufacturing and integration of MEMS and NEMS within three related research areas: (1) Wafer-Level Heterogeneous Integration for MEMS and NEMS, where we explore new and improved wafer-level heterogeneous integration technologies for MEMS and NEMS devices; (2) Integration of Materials into MEMS Using High-Speed Wire Bonding Tools, where we explore new ways of integrating various types of wire materials into MEMS devices; (3) Free-Form 3D Printing of Mono-Crystalline Silicon Micro- and Nanostructures, where we explore entirely novel ways of implementing mono-crystalline silicon MEMS and NEMS structures that can be arbitrarily shaped.

1 495 982 €

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

While the origin of magnetic order in condensed matter is in the exchange and spin-orbit interactions, with time scales in the subpicosecond ranges, it has been long believed that magnetism could only be manipulated at nanosecond rates, exploiting dipolar interactions with external magnetic fields. However, in the past decade researchers have been able to observe ultrafast magnetic dynamics at its intrinsic time scales without the need for magnetic fields, thus revolutionising the view on the speed limits of magnetism. Despite many achievements in ultrafast magnetism, the understanding of the fundamental physics that allows for the ultrafast dissipation of angular momentum is still only partial, hampered by the lack of experimental techniques suited to fully explore these phenomena. However, the recent appearance of two new types of coherent radiation, single-cycle THz pulses and x-rays generated at free electron lasers (FELs), has provided researchers access to a whole new set of capabilities to tackle this challenge. This proposal suggests using these techniques to achieve an encompassing view of ultrafast magnetic dynamics in metallic ferromagnets, via the following three research objectives: (a) to reveal ultrafast dynamics driven by strong THz radiation in several magnetic systems using table-top femtosecond lasers; (b) to unravel the contribution of lattice dynamics to ultrafast demagnetization in different magnetic materials using the x-rays produced at FELs and (c) to directly image ultrafast spin currents by creating femtosecond movies with nanometre resolution. The proposed experiments are challenging and explore unchartered territories, but if successful, they will advance the understanding of the speed limits of magnetism, at the time scales of the exchange and spin-orbit interactions. They will also open up for future investigations of ultrafast magnetic phenomena in materials with large electronic correlations or spin-orbit coupling.

1 967 755 €

Start date: 2017-02-01, End date: 2022-01-31

The general theme is to explore the connections between reasoning and computations in mathematics. There are two main research directions. The first research direction is a refomulation of Hilbert's program, using ideas from formal, or pointfree topology. We have shown, with multiple examples, that this allows a partial realization of this program in commutative algebra, and a new way to formulate constructive mathematics. The second research direction explores the computational content using type theory and the Curry-Howard correspondence between proofs and programs. Type theory allows us to represent constructive mathematics in a formal way, and provides key insight for the design of proof systems helping in the analysis of the logical structure of mathematical proofs. The interest of this program is well illustrated by the recent work of G. Gonthier on the formalization of the 4 color theorem.

1 912 288 €

Start date: 2010-04-01, End date: 2015-03-31

This project will study political economics issues, that is, how public policies are influenced by political considerations. The emphasis is on the mass media's role in shaping government policies. A smaller part will also analyze how different political institutions and economic outcomes influence policy and the impact of extreme weather events. The project will mainly be empirical, using statistical methods with a focus on identifying causal effects, rather than correlations. The study of media effects will analyze the political impact of having a press actively covering politics. This is an important issue, largely unanswered because the presence of an active press is endogenous to things like corruption and voter information. We will address this question in the special case of media coverage of US Congressional elections. To identify the effect of news, we will use the fact that the amount of coverage is driven to a large extent by the coincidental match between media markets and congressional districts. We intend to analyze the effect of active press coverage on, (i) voter information, (ii) politicians actions, and (iii) federal funds per capita. The project will also investigate how political institutions and economic outcomes influences the health impacts (such as mortality among old and infants) of weather extremes. Historical weather data at a very detailed geographical level will be combined with socio-economic data in a panel (longitudinal) form. This is joint work with meteorologists who will construct historical weather data at fine grids across the globe. The part dealing with structural political economics aims to develop a framework for investigating the effects of institutions on economic policy. In existing work, there is a disconnect between the theoretical modelling and empirical applications. The aim is to close this gap.

799 945 €

Start date: 2008-09-01, End date: 2014-08-31

Molecular simulation has become a standard tool for studying the function of biomolecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids and lipids. Due to increasing computer power and decreasing length scales in engineering, molecular simulation is also increasingly used in microfluidics and the study of, for instance, small water droplets. All these applications would benefit strongly from simulations that are several orders of magnitude longer than the current state of art. Although currently Moore's law still holds, the performance of processor cores no longer doubles every 18 months, but rather the number of cores increases. Therefore to improve the performance and to scale to a million cores, each core should do less work. With the classical single-program multiple-data parallelism the communication time will quickly become a bottleneck. To advance the molecular simulation field and efficiently use upcoming million core computers, a switch to multiple-program multiple-data parallelism (MPMD) is required. Domain decomposition should be applied over the nodes, whereas within a node MPMD parallelism should be used. This requires workloads being divided and dispatched efficiently to different threads. To hide the communication times, calculation should be overlapped with communication. Because simulation time steps will soon take in the order of 100 microseconds, global communication will become a bottleneck. However,global communication is required for, among other things, full electrostatics algorithms. Thus new algorithms need to be derived to ensure parallel scaling. Only with such efforts we will be able to fully utilize the potential of upcoming hardware to solve current and future scientific problems.

899 448 €

Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2017-04-30

This project will develop macroeconomic models with household heterogeneity and partially demand-determined output to study how the economy is affected by monetary and fiscal policy, and to investigate the importance of housing in macroeconomic fluctuations and the transmission and efficacy of policy. The objective is to provide a modelling framework that simultaneously is consistent with both empirical micro evidence on household consumption and savings behaviour, and macro evidence on the response of the aggregate economy to a variety of economic shocks. The ultimate goal is to help make these models the new standard for the study of fluctuations and policy evaluation in macro. Inequality and incomplete markets will be a central theme. The first objective of the project is to establish the importance of incomplete financial markets for the response of the economy to changes in monetary policy. The framework will then be used to evaluate the size of the fiscal multiplier and quantitatively evaluate the stimulative effect of extensions to unemployment benefits. The second theme of the project will focus on housing and mortgage debt as an amplification and propagation mechanism. The recent Great Recession–preceded by an unparalleled boom and bust in house prices – has brought to light the importance of housing for the economy. The project will develop a rich benchmark model of housing and the aggregate economy for policy evaluation. First, the project will investigate how heterogeneity in housing and debt affects the transmission of monetary policy. Next, a cross-country analysis will be performed to quantify the importance of different arrangements in the mortgage market for the response of the economy to shocks. Finally, I will introduce imperfect information above the driving forces of the economy to study booms and busts in the housing market and real economic activity, with the goal of evaluating macroprudential policies geared at the housing market.

1 299 165 €

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

The proposal describes two main projects. Both of them concern cohomology of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, but the aims are rather different. The first is a natural continuation of my work on tautological rings, which I intend to work on with Qizheng Yin and Mehdi Tavakol. In this project, we will introduce a new perspective on tautological rings, which is that the tautological cohomology of moduli spaces of pointed Riemann surfaces can be described in terms of tautological cohomology of the moduli space M_g, but with twisted coefficients. In the cases we have been able to compute so far, the tautological cohomology with twisted coefficients is always much simpler to understand, even though it “contains the same information”. In particular we hope to be able to find a systematic way of analyzing the consequences of the recent conjecture that Pixton’s relations are all relations between tautological classes; until now, most concrete consequences of Pixton’s conjecture have been found via extensive computer calculations, which are feasible only when the genus and number of markings is small. The second project has a somewhat different flavor, involving operads and periods of moduli spaces, and builds upon recent work of myself with Johan Alm, who I will continue to collaborate with. This work is strongly informed by Brown’s breakthrough results relating mixed motives over Spec(Z) and multiple zeta values to the periods of moduli spaces of genus zero Riemann surfaces. In brief, Brown introduced a partial compactification of the moduli space M_{0,n} of n-pointed genus zero Riemann surfaces; we have shown that the spaces M_{0,n} and these partial compactifications are connected by a form of dihedral Koszul duality. It seems likely that this Koszul duality should have further ramifications in the study of multiple zeta values and periods of these spaces; optimistically, this could lead to new irrationality results for multiple zeta values.

1 091 249 €

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

Chemical reactions in solution are strongly influenced by femtosecond solvent-solute dynamics. Likewise, proteins provide specific environments to control the outcome of substrate reactions. The molecular understanding of these effect are currently poorly developed. I propose to fill this knowledge gap by ‘filming’ elementary chemical reactions in solution and in proteins. I will pioneer new time-resolved scattering and diffraction experiments using X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs). Using femtosecond time-resolved X-ray scattering, I plan to decipher the structural dynamics of bond breaking and bond formation in iodine containing compounds in solution. I will pioneer time-resolved fluctuation correlation X-ray scattering to recover full electron density maps of the reaction trajectories at an atomic resolution. I will visualize the as yet unknown structures of reaction intermediates and the solvent response. Furthermore, I propose to investigate the molecular photoresponse of phytochrome photoconversion with femtosecond time-resolved serial microcrystallography. Phytochromes are ubiquitous photosensory proteins in plants and are essential to all vegetation on earth. I will resolve how the chromophore and the protein react collectively to photoexcitation and how this leads to conformational changes. Combined, this interdisciplinary project will yield microscopic understanding on how the surrounding of reactants guides the outcome of elementary (bio)chemical reactions. This program builds on my strengths in structural biology of phytochromes (Takala et al., Nature, 2014), time-resolved X-ray scattering (Westenhoff et al., Nature Methods 2010), and femtosecond spectroscopy (21 papers in PRL, JACS, Nature Methods 2006-2012 & 2016). The new XFEL-based methods will have wide-ranging applications in chemistry and biology. My work will open new horizons in physical chemistry and structural biology.

2 000 000 €

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

Massive stars are important throughout astrophysics, yet there remain many open questions about how they form. These include: What is the accretion mechanism of massive star formation? What sets the initial mass function of stars, especially at the highest masses? What is the relation of massive star formation to star cluster formation? How do massive star and star cluster formation vary with galactic environment? What was the nature of the first stars to form in the universe and could these have been the seeds for supermassive black holes? With recent advances in both theoretical/computational techniques and observational facilities, the time is now ripe for progress on answering these questions. Here we propose an ambitious research program that combines latest theoretical studies of massive star and star cluster formation, including analytic, semi-analytic and full numerical simulations, with state-of-the-art observational programs, including several large surveys. We will: 1) Develop new theoretical models for how individual massive stars form from gas cores, focusing on diagnostics and including study of how the process depends on galactic environment; 2) Test these protostar models against observations, especially with ALMA, SOFIA, JVLA, HST and in the near future with JWST and eventually TMT & E-ELT; 3) Develop theoretical models for star cluster formation, including both magneto-hydrodynamics of the gas and N-body modeling of the young stellar population, with the focus on how massive stars form and evolve in these systems; 4) Test these protocluster models against observational data of young and still-forming star clusters, especially with ALMA, HST, Chandra, JWST and ground-based near-IR facilities; 5) Explore new theoretical models of how the first stars formed, with potential implications for the origins of supermassive black holes - one of the key unsolved problems in astrophysics.

2 500 000 €

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

My overall aim is to develop a Magnonic technology platform where Spintronic, Spin-Caloritronic and Nano-plasmonic devices and structures combine to create ground-breaking functionality from novel interactions between charge, spin, heat and light. With traditional Magnonic studies typically geared towards the low GHz range, and nanoplasmonic phenomena primarily focusing on visible light, my proposed platform will also attempt to bridge the so-called “THz gap” and create ultra-broadband and rapidly tuneable spin wave (SW) based signal generators, manipulators, detectors, and even spectrometers, in the 10–200 GHz frequency range. I will reach this goal by transferring my documented nano-contact spin torque oscillator (NC-STO) expertise into the magnonics world of both metal and insulator based SW propagation, add recently discovered spin hall (SHE) and inverse spin hall effect (ISHE) SW manipulation/detection, and combine it with my recently acquired know-how in nanoplasmonics. My specific aims are: 1. SW generation and manipulation using metal and YIG based NC-STOs 2. SW-light/heat interaction using nanoplasmonic structures and Spin-Caloritronics 3. ISHE/SHE detection and control of propagating SWs in metals and YIG

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31

The long-term goal of this research is to establish the chain of molecular events associated with (1) neurotransmitter release at the single cell and subcellular level and (2) with cell differentiation and reprogramming. These are incredibly important goals for which there are few analytical chemistry methods that are available and useful. The immediate goal therefore includes development of three chemical methodologies at the cutting edge of analytical chemistry: 1) the development of arrays of nanometer electrodes that can be used to spatially measure the release of easily oxidized substances across the cell surface; 2) to improve the combination of MALDI and cluster SIMS ion sources on an orthogonal QStar instrument to enable protein and glycoprotein analysis at the single whole cell level, lipid domain analysis at the subcellular level, and importantly, depth profiling; and 3) the application of information discovered at single cells and of the methods developed in goals 1 and 2 to an in vitro model of cell-to-cell communication and regeneration. I intend to build on my expertise in both electrochemistry and SIMS imaging to develop these approaches. The work described here constitutes two new directions of research in my group as well as new analytical chemistry, and, if successful, will lead to researchers being able to gather incredibly important new data about cell-to-cell communication and cell differentiation and reprogramming as well as to a better understanding the role of lipids in exocytosis and endocytosis.

2 491 881 €

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

Nanoporous polymer membranes (NPMs) play a crucial, irreplaceable role in fundamental research and industrial usage, including separation, filtration, water treatment and sustainable environment. The vast majority of advances concentrate on neutral or weakly charged polymers, such as the ongoing interest on self-assembled block copolymer NPMs. There is an urgent need to process polyelectrolytes into NPMs that critically combine a high charge density with nanoporous morphology. Additionally, engineering structural asymmetry/gradient simultaneously in the membrane is equally beneficial, as it would improve membrane performance by building up compartmentalized functionalities. For example, a gradient in pore size forms high pressure resistance coupled with improved selectivity. Nevertheless, developing such highly charged, nanoporous and gradient membranes has remained a challenge, owing to the water solubility and ionic nature of conventional polyelectrolytes, poorly processable into nanoporous state via common routes. Recently, my group first reported an easy-to-perform production of nanoporous polyelectrolyte membranes. Building on this important but rather preliminary advance, I propose to develop the next generation of NPMs, nanoporous asymmetric poly(ionic liquid) membranes (NAPOLIs). The aim is to produce NAPOLIs bearing diverse gradients, understand the unique transport behavior, improve the membrane stability/sustainability/applicability, and finally apply them in the active fields of energy and environment. Both the currently established route and the newly proposed ones will be employed for the membrane fabrication. This proposal is inherently interdisciplinary, as it must combine polymer chemistry/engineering, physical chemistry, membrane/materials science, and nanoscience for its success. This research will fundamentally advance nanoporous membrane design for a wide scope of applications and reveal unique physical processes in an asymmetric context.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2015-03-01, End date: 2021-01-31

Semiconductor nanowires composed of III-V materials have enormous potential to add new functionality to electronics and optical applications. However, integration of these promising structures into applications is severely limited by the current near-universal reliance on gold nanoparticles as seeds for nanowire fabrication. Although highly controlled fabrication is achieved, this metal is entirely incompatible with the Si-based electronics industry. It also presents limitations for the extension of nanowire research towards novel materials not existing in bulk. To date, exploration of alternatives has been limited to selective-area and self-seeded processes, both of which have major limitations in terms of size and morphology control, potential to combine materials, and crystal structure tuning. There is also very little understanding of precisely why gold has proven so successful for nanowire growth, and which alternatives may yield comparable or better results. The aim of this project will be to explore alternative nanoparticle seed materials to go beyond the use of gold in III-V nanowire fabrication. This will be achieved using a unique and recently developed capability for aerosol-phase fabrication of highly controlled nanoparticles directly integrated with conventional nanowire fabrication equipment. The primary goal will be to deepen the understanding of the nanowire fabrication process, and the specific advantages (and limitations) of gold as a seed material, in order to develop and optimize alternatives. The use of a wide variety of seed particle materials in nanowire fabrication will greatly broaden the variety of novel structures that can be fabricated. The results will also transform the nanowire fabrication research field, in order to develop important connections between nanowire research and the semiconductor industry, and to greatly improve the viability of nanowire integration into future devices.

1 496 246 €

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

Conventional CO2 capture processes have significant cost and energy penalties associated with gas separation. Chemical-looping combustion (CLC), an entirely new combustion principle avoids this difficulty by inherent CO2 capture, using metal oxides for oxygen transfer from air to fuel. The process has been demonstrated in small scale with gaseous fuels. However, with solid fuels it would be difficult to reach high fuel conversion, with the oxygen-carrier materials used so far. But a new type of combined oxides based on manganese has the ability not only to react with gaseous fuel, but also to release gaseous oxygen, which would fundamentally change the concept. The programme would provide 1) new oxygen-carrier materials with unique properties that would make this low-cost/high-efficiency option of CO2 capture possible, 2) cold-flow model investigation of suitable reactor system configurations and components, 3) a demonstration of this new combustion technology at the pilot plant level, 4) a model of the process comprising a full understanding, including kinetics, equilibria, hydrodynamics of fluidized reactors, mass and heat balances. The basis of this programme is the discovery of a number of oxygen-releasing combined manganese oxides, having properties that can make a CLC with solid fuels a break-through process for CO2 capture. The purpose of the programme is to perform a comprehensive study of these materials, to demonstrate that they work in real systems, to achieve a full understanding of how they work in interaction with solid fuels in fluidized beds and to assess how this process would work in the full scale. Climate negotiations and agreements could be significantly facilitated by this low cost option for CO2 capture which, in principle, should be applicable to 25% of the global CO2 emissions, i.e. coal fired power plants. It would also provide a future means of removing CO2 from the atmosphere at low cost by burning biofuel and capture CO2. .

2 500 000 €

Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2017-02-28

This project aims at pushing the limits of optical sensing on a microchip by orders of magnitude, thereby allowing for ultra-high sensitivity in optical detection and enabling first-time-ever demonstrations of several optical sensing principles on a microchip. My idea is based upon our distributed-feedback lasers in rare-earth-ion-doped aluminum oxide waveguides on a silicon chip with ultra-narrow linewidths of 1 kHz, corresponding to Q-factors exceeding 10^11, intra-cavity laser intensities of several watts over a waveguide cross-section of 2 micrometer, and light interaction lengths reaching 20 km. Optical read-out of the laser frequency and linewidth is achieved by frequency down-conversion via detection of the GHz beat signal of two such lasers positioned in the same waveguide or in parallel waveguides on the same microchip. The sensitivity of optical detection is related to the laser linewidth, interaction length, and transverse mode overlap with the measurand; its potential of optically exciting ions or molecules and its optical trapping force are related to the laser intensity. By applying novel concepts, we will decrease the laser linewidth to 1 Hz (Q-factor > 10^14), thereby also significantly increasing the intra-cavity intensity and light interaction length, simplify the read-out by reducing the line-width separation between two lasers to the MHz regime, and increase the mode interaction with the environment by either increasing its evanescent field or perpendicularly intersecting a nanofluidic channel with the optical waveguide, thereby allowing for unprecedented sensitivity of optical detection on a microchip. We will exploit this dual-wavelength distributed-feedback laser sensor for the first-ever demonstrations of intra-laser-cavity (ILC) optical trapping and detection of nano-sized biological objects in an optofluidic chip, ILC trace-gas detection on a microchip, ILC Raman spectrometry on a microchip, and ILC spectroscopy of single rare-earth ions.

2 499 958 €

Start date: 2014-11-01, End date: 2019-10-31

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

Oxidation reactions are of fundamental importance in Nature and are key transformation in organic synthesis. There is currently a need from society to replace waste-producing expensive oxidants by environmentally benign oxidants in industrial oxidation reactions. The aim with the proposed research is to develop novel green oxidation methodology that also involves hydrogen transfer reactions. In the oxidation reactions the goal is to use molecular oxygen (air) or hydrogen peroxide as the oxidants. In the present project new catalytic oxidations via low-energy electron transfer will be developed. The catalytic reactions obtained can be used for racemization of alcohols and amines and for oxygen- and hydrogen peroxide-driven oxidations of various substrates. Examples of some reactions that will be studied are oxidative palladium-catalyzed C-C bond formation and metal-catalyzed C-H oxidation including dehydrogenation reactions with iron and ruthenium. Coupled catalytic systems where electron transfer mediators (ETMs) facilitate electron transfer from the reduced catalyst to molecular oxygen (hydrogen peroxide) will be studied. Highly efficient reoxidation systems will be designed by covalently linking two electron transfer mediators (ETMs). The intramolecular electron transfer in these hybrid ETM catalysts will significantly increase the rate of oxidation reactions. The research will lead to development of more efficient reoxidation systems based on molecular oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, as well as more versatile racemization catalysts for alcohols and amines.

1 722 000 €

Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31

A new generation of polymeric materials is needed promptly that does not behave like traditional commodity plastics in terms of environmental interaction, degradation pattern, fragmentation tendency, and biological persistency. I herein propose a new paradigm in the design of polymeric materials; the design of polymeric materials through a retro-structural approach where the macroscopic performance is translated to every scale level of structural order so that appropriate molecular recognitions are identified and subsequently synthetically generated in a bottom-up procedure. Inspiration on how to design such materials is best drawn from Nature which is unsurpassed in its ability to combine molecular building blocks into perfectly designed versatile super- and supramolecular structures with well-defined properties, disassembly patterns, and biological functions. A closer look into the structural build-up of biological materials gives important clues on how to design synthetic functional materials with desirable environmental interaction. In addition to advanced synthesis, surface modification and processing, the materials and their degradation behavior will be thoroughly characterized by using traditional characterization techniques in combination with latest spectroscopic and imaging techniques. I have chosen to focus on two areas that stand out as highly prioritized in maintaining or even raising our quality of life; sustainable materials for commodity applications and tissue engineering systems in biomaterials science. This is a bold high risk proposal which if successful will have a ground-breaking influence on how we design polymeric materials.

2 500 000 €

Start date: 2010-03-01, End date: 2016-02-29

Photochromic molecules, or photochromes, can be reversibly isomerized between two thermally stable forms by exposure to light of different wavelengths. Upon isomerization, properties such as excitation energies, redox properties, charge distribution, and structure experience significant changes. These changes can be harnessed to switch “on” or “off” the action of a variety of photophysical processes in the photochromic constructs, e.g., energy and electron transfer. Until now, the focus of my research has been to show proof of principle for a large selection of molecule-based photonically controlled logic devices (solution based) with the functional basis in the switching of the transfer processes mentioned above. Now, I wish to extend the study to include experiments in the solid state, e.g., polymer matrices. Taking the step into doing solid state chemistry is not only a prerequisite for any real-world application. It will also allow for experiments that cannot be performed in fluid solution, such as aligning molecules in a stretched film for chemistry with polarized light, and immobilization of molecules for selective addressing in a three-dimensional array of volume elements. Furthermore, I intend to investigate the possibility to photonically control the membrane penetrating and the DNA-binding abilities of photochromes, aiming at, in a long-term perspective, light-activated cancer drugs. Due to the fact that both the structure and the charge distribution of a photochrome may change drastically upon isomerization, one of the two isomeric forms is often suitable for penetrating a membrane. Inside the membrane, e.g., in a cell, the photochrome can be photo-isomerized to a structure with high affinity for strong binding to DNA. Upon binding, transcription is inhibited and the cell dies. If desired, pH-sensitivity and two-photon processes could be used to further increase the selectivity in addressing very specific regions of the body, such as a tumor.

1 000 000 €

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

Particle acceleration and radiation in plasmas has a wide variety of applications, ranging from cancer therapy and lightning initiation, to the improved design of fusion devices for large scale energy production. The goal of this project is to build a flexible ensemble of theoretical and numerical models that describes the acceleration processes and the resulting fast particle dynamics in two focus areas: magnetic fusion plasmas and laser-produced plasmas. This interdisciplinary approach is a new way of studying charged particle acceleration. It will lead to a deeper understanding of the complex interactions that characterise fast particle behaviour in plasmas. Plasmas are complex systems, with many kinds of interacting electromagnetic (EM) waves and charged particles. For such a system it is infeasible to build one model which captures both the small scale physics and the large scale phenomena. Therefore we aim to develop several complementary models, in one common framework, and make sure they agree in overlapping regions. The common framework will be built layer-by-layer, using models derived from first principles in a systematic way, with theory closely linked to numerics and validated by experimental observations. The key object of study is the evolution of the velocity-space particle distribution in time and space. The main challenge is the strong coupling between the distribution and the EM-field, which requires models with self-consistent coupling of Maxwell’s equations and kinetic equations. For the latter we will use Vlasov-Fokker-Planck solvers extended with advanced collision operators. Interesting aspects include non-Maxwellian distributions, instabilities, shock-wave formation and avalanches. The resulting theoretical framework and the corresponding code-suite will be a novel instrument for advanced studies of charged particle acceleration. Due to the generality of our approach, the applicability will reach far beyond the two focus areas.

1 948 750 €

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

Engineers in nanotechnology research labs have been quite innovative the last decade in designing nanoscale materials for medicine. However, very few of these exciting discoveries are translated to commercial medical products today. The main reasons for this are two inherent limitations of most nanomanufacture processes: scalability and reproducibility. There is too little knowledge on how well the unique properties associated with nanoparticles are maintained during their large-scale production while often poor reproducibility hinders their successful use. A key goal here is to utilize a nanomanufacture process famous for its scalability and reproducibility, flame aerosol reactors that produce at tons/hr commodity powders, and advance the knowledge for synthesis of complex nanoparticles and their direct integration in medical devices. Our aim is to develop the next generation of antibacterial medical devices to fight antimicrobial resistance, a highly understudied field. Antimicrobial resistance constitutes the most serious public health threat today with estimations to become the leading cause of human deaths in 30 years. We focus on flame direct nanoparticle deposition on substrates combining nanoparticle production and functional layer deposition in a single-step with close attention to product nanoparticle properties and device assembly, extending beyond the simple commodity powders of the past. Specific targets here are two devices; a) hybrid drug microneedle patch with photothermal nanoparticles to fight life-threatening skin infections from drug-resistant bacteria and b) smart nanocoatings on implants providing both osteogenic and self-triggered antibacterial properties. The engineering approach for the development of antibacterial devices will provide insight into the basic physicochemical principles to assist in commercialization while the outcome of this research will help the fight against antibiotic resistance improving the public health worldwide.

1 812 500 €

Start date: 2018-03-01, End date: 2023-02-28

Distributed systems form the foundation of our society's infrastructure. Unfortunately, they suffer from a number of problems. First, they are time-consuming to develop because it is difficult for the programmer to envision all possible deployment environments and design adaptation mechanisms that will achieve high performance in all scenarios. Second, the code is complex due to the numerous outcomes that have to be accounted for at development time and the need to reimplement state and network models. Third, the distributed systems are unreliable because of the difficulties of programming a system that runs over an asynchronous network and handles all possible failure scenarios. If left unchecked, these problems will keep plaguing existing systems and hinder development of a new generation of distributed services. We propose a radically new approach to simplifying development and deployment of high-performance, reliable distributed systems. The key insight is in creating a new programming model and architecture that leverages the increases in per-node computational power, bandwidth and storage to achieve this goal. Instead of resolving difficult deployment choices at coding time, the programmer merely specifies the choices and the objectives that should be satisfied. The new runtime then resolves the choices during live execution so as to maximize the objectives. To accomplish this task, the runtime uses a groundbreaking combination of state-space exploration, simulation, behavior prediction, performance modeling, and program steering. In addition, our approach reuses the effort spent in distributed system testing by transmitting a behavior summary to the runtime to further speed up choice resolution.

1 450 000 €

Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2016-12-31

Every breath you take delivers oxygen to mitochondria within the cells of your body. Mitochondria are energy transducing organelles that accept electrons liberated from the food that you eat in order to generate a transmembrane proton concentration gradient. Cytochrome c oxidase is an integral membrane protein complex in the mitochondria that accepts four electrons and reduces molecular oxygen to two water molecules while simultaneously pumping protons against a transmembrane potential. Cytochrome c oxidase homologues are found in almost all living organisms. Because oxygen is the final destination of the transferred electrons, this enzyme family is referred to as the terminal oxidases. Crystal structures of terminal oxidases have been known for more than two decades and these enzymes have been studied with virtually all biophysical and biochemical methods. Despite this scrutiny, it is unknown how redox reactions at the enzyme’s active site are coupled to proton pumping. Here I aim to create a three dimensional movie that reveals how proton exchange between key amino acid residues is controlled by the movements of electrons within the enzyme. This work will utilize state-of-the-art methods of time-resolved serial crystallography, time-resolved wide angle X-ray scattering and time-resolved X-ray emission spectroscopy at European X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) and synchrotron radiation facilities to observe structural changes in terminal oxidases with time. I will develop new approaches for rapidly delivering oxygen or electrons into the protein’s active site in order to initiate the catalytic cycle in microcrystals and in solution. This project will yield completely new insight into one of the most important chemical reactions in biology while opening up the field of time-resolved structural studies of proteins beyond a handful of naturally occurring light-driven systems.

2 500 000 €

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