Project acronym CanCoop
Project Understanding the Proximate Mechanisms of
Canine Cooperation
Researcher (PI) Friederike Range
Host Institution (HI) VETERINAERMEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary Although it is clear that human collaborative skills are exceptional, elucidating similarities and differences of proximate processes underlying cooperative interactions between non-primate and primate taxa may have important implications for our understanding of cooperation in humans and non human-animals via a profound knowledge of 1) socio-cognitive skills as adaptations to specific environments and/or 2) the evolutionary background and origin of our own skills. The closely related wolves and dogs constitute the ideal non-primate model to implement this approach, since cooperation is at the core of their social organization and they are adapted to very different environments.
I propose a series of experiments with wolves (N = 20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 20) that will focus on cognitive processes closely linked to the emotional system such as empathy, inequity aversion and delayed gratification that are thought to be involved in triggering and maintaining primate cooperation. In Part 1 of the project, we will investigate whether and to what extent these processes are present in canines, while in Part 2 we will elucidate how they influence partner choice in cooperative interactions. Using social network theory, we will integrate knowledge about animals’ emotional tendencies and cognitive abilities to model canine cooperation. This is an important step towards unifying theoretical and empirical approaches in animal behaviour.
CanCoop incorporates innovative methods and a novel approach that has the potential to elucidate the interactions between proximate and ultimate processes in regard to cooperation. The nature of CanCoop guarantees public and media attention needed for proper societal dissemination of the results, which will be relevant for animal behaviour, social sciences, wildlife and zoo management.
Summary
Although it is clear that human collaborative skills are exceptional, elucidating similarities and differences of proximate processes underlying cooperative interactions between non-primate and primate taxa may have important implications for our understanding of cooperation in humans and non human-animals via a profound knowledge of 1) socio-cognitive skills as adaptations to specific environments and/or 2) the evolutionary background and origin of our own skills. The closely related wolves and dogs constitute the ideal non-primate model to implement this approach, since cooperation is at the core of their social organization and they are adapted to very different environments.
I propose a series of experiments with wolves (N = 20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 20) that will focus on cognitive processes closely linked to the emotional system such as empathy, inequity aversion and delayed gratification that are thought to be involved in triggering and maintaining primate cooperation. In Part 1 of the project, we will investigate whether and to what extent these processes are present in canines, while in Part 2 we will elucidate how they influence partner choice in cooperative interactions. Using social network theory, we will integrate knowledge about animals’ emotional tendencies and cognitive abilities to model canine cooperation. This is an important step towards unifying theoretical and empirical approaches in animal behaviour.
CanCoop incorporates innovative methods and a novel approach that has the potential to elucidate the interactions between proximate and ultimate processes in regard to cooperation. The nature of CanCoop guarantees public and media attention needed for proper societal dissemination of the results, which will be relevant for animal behaviour, social sciences, wildlife and zoo management.
Max ERC Funding
1 295 716 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym Dynamic Delegation
Project Implications of the Dynamic Nature of Portfolio Delegation
Researcher (PI) Ron Kaniel
Host Institution (HI) INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER (IDC) HERZLIYA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH1, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary The asset management industry is a 60 trillion euros industry world wide, with a ratio of assets under management by asset managers to GDP around 100 percent. Despite the prominence of financial intermediaries in financial markets, our understanding of the portfolio delegation relationship, and its equilibrium asset pricing and contracting implications is at its infancy. The recent financial crisis has further underscored the importance of better understanding the incentives of financial intermediaries, the distortions induced by these incentives, the contracts that can help mitigate these distortions, and the impact of their trading on asset pricing dynamics.
One key feature that is at the core of the asset management relationship is its dynamic nature: investors can, and do, periodically re-allocate funds between managers and between funds and other investment vehicles. The magnitude of fund flows, both over time and accross funds at a given point in time, have been shown to be quantitatively large relative to assets under management. The ability of investors to quickly pull money out of funds at a time of crisis can have significant ramifications for the stability of the financial system.
Understanding implications of the dynamic nature of the delegation relationship is imperative in order to understand multiple aspects related to delegation and financial markets at large, including: risk taking behavior by funds; welfare implications for investors who invest in funds; what regulatory restrictions should be imposed on contracts; the evolution, past and future, of the asset management industry; securities return dynamics.
The objective is to develope models that will incorporate dynamic flows in settings that will allow studying implications and deriving empirical predictions on multiple dimensions: portfolio choice; optimal contracting; distribution of assets across funds; equilibrium asset pricing dynamics.
Summary
The asset management industry is a 60 trillion euros industry world wide, with a ratio of assets under management by asset managers to GDP around 100 percent. Despite the prominence of financial intermediaries in financial markets, our understanding of the portfolio delegation relationship, and its equilibrium asset pricing and contracting implications is at its infancy. The recent financial crisis has further underscored the importance of better understanding the incentives of financial intermediaries, the distortions induced by these incentives, the contracts that can help mitigate these distortions, and the impact of their trading on asset pricing dynamics.
One key feature that is at the core of the asset management relationship is its dynamic nature: investors can, and do, periodically re-allocate funds between managers and between funds and other investment vehicles. The magnitude of fund flows, both over time and accross funds at a given point in time, have been shown to be quantitatively large relative to assets under management. The ability of investors to quickly pull money out of funds at a time of crisis can have significant ramifications for the stability of the financial system.
Understanding implications of the dynamic nature of the delegation relationship is imperative in order to understand multiple aspects related to delegation and financial markets at large, including: risk taking behavior by funds; welfare implications for investors who invest in funds; what regulatory restrictions should be imposed on contracts; the evolution, past and future, of the asset management industry; securities return dynamics.
The objective is to develope models that will incorporate dynamic flows in settings that will allow studying implications and deriving empirical predictions on multiple dimensions: portfolio choice; optimal contracting; distribution of assets across funds; equilibrium asset pricing dynamics.
Max ERC Funding
728 436 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym EDUCATION-LONG-RUN
Project Long-Run Effects of Education Interventions: Evidence from Randomized Trials
Researcher (PI) Haim Victor Lavy
Host Institution (HI) THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411
Summary The vast majority of published research on the impact of school interventions has examined their effects on short-run outcomes, primarily test scores. While important, a possibly deeper question of interest to society is the impact of such interventions on long-run life outcomes. This is a critical question because the ultimate goal of education is to improve lifetime well-being. Recent research has begun to look at this issue but much work remains to be done, particularly with regard to the long-term effects of interventions explicitly targeting improvement in general quality and students’ educational attainment. This proposal examines the impact of seven different schooling interventions – teachers’ quality, school quality, remedial education, school choice, teacher incentive payments, students' conditional cash transfers and an experiment with an increase in the return to schooling – on long-run life outcomes, including educational attainment, employment, income, marriage and fertility, crime and welfare dependency. To address this important question I will exploit unique data from seven experimental programs and natural experiments implemented simultaneously at different schools in Israel. All programs were successful in achieving their short-term objectives, though the cost of the programs varied. This undertaking presents a unique context with unusual data and very compelling empirical settings. I will examine whether these programs also achieved a longer-term measure of success by improving students’ life outcomes. Another unique feature of the proposed study is that the interventions vary widely and touch on some emergent educational trends. The body of empirical evidence from this study will provide a more complete picture of the individual and social returns from these educational interventions, and will allow policymakers to make more informed decisions when deciding which educational programs lead to the most beneficial use of limited school resources.
Summary
The vast majority of published research on the impact of school interventions has examined their effects on short-run outcomes, primarily test scores. While important, a possibly deeper question of interest to society is the impact of such interventions on long-run life outcomes. This is a critical question because the ultimate goal of education is to improve lifetime well-being. Recent research has begun to look at this issue but much work remains to be done, particularly with regard to the long-term effects of interventions explicitly targeting improvement in general quality and students’ educational attainment. This proposal examines the impact of seven different schooling interventions – teachers’ quality, school quality, remedial education, school choice, teacher incentive payments, students' conditional cash transfers and an experiment with an increase in the return to schooling – on long-run life outcomes, including educational attainment, employment, income, marriage and fertility, crime and welfare dependency. To address this important question I will exploit unique data from seven experimental programs and natural experiments implemented simultaneously at different schools in Israel. All programs were successful in achieving their short-term objectives, though the cost of the programs varied. This undertaking presents a unique context with unusual data and very compelling empirical settings. I will examine whether these programs also achieved a longer-term measure of success by improving students’ life outcomes. Another unique feature of the proposed study is that the interventions vary widely and touch on some emergent educational trends. The body of empirical evidence from this study will provide a more complete picture of the individual and social returns from these educational interventions, and will allow policymakers to make more informed decisions when deciding which educational programs lead to the most beneficial use of limited school resources.
Max ERC Funding
1 519 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30
Project acronym GlobalTrust
Project Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity: The Obligations of Nations in an Era of Global Interdependence
Researcher (PI) Eyal Benvenisti
Host Institution (HI) TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411
Summary Should sovereign governments be accountable only to their citizens or should they also consider the welfare of foreign stakeholders? Traditional doctrines on state sovereignty and citizenship offer a generally negative answer: Absent a specific, voluntarily accepted, treaty-based commitment, sovereign governments usually have no obligation to weigh foreigners’ interests. This traditional vision conceptualizes sovereigns as Janus-faced: Their public face is for domestic stakeholders to whom they are accountable and to whom they owe negative and positive obligations, and their private face is for all other stakeholders to whom their only obligation is the negative one of not inflicting a set of narrowly defined harms. The aim of this project is to revisit this Janus-faced concept of responsibility and to explore broader alternatives and their ramifications. This study will examine the scope of obligations sovereign governments currently have toward foreign stakeholders and humanity at large and will analyze the normative desirability and political feasibility of potential alternative strategies for enhancing sovereign accountability to non-citizens and promoting a more democratic, sustainable, and egalitarian management of public life and scarce global resources. This project will systematically review the extent to which current law (international law and comparative constitutional law) and institutions already regard sovereigns as public authorities accountable to foreign stakeholders. More specifically, this project will apply the general insights to examine the necessary and possible legal and institutional responses to climatic changes in an era of erratic and extreme weather conditions.
Summary
Should sovereign governments be accountable only to their citizens or should they also consider the welfare of foreign stakeholders? Traditional doctrines on state sovereignty and citizenship offer a generally negative answer: Absent a specific, voluntarily accepted, treaty-based commitment, sovereign governments usually have no obligation to weigh foreigners’ interests. This traditional vision conceptualizes sovereigns as Janus-faced: Their public face is for domestic stakeholders to whom they are accountable and to whom they owe negative and positive obligations, and their private face is for all other stakeholders to whom their only obligation is the negative one of not inflicting a set of narrowly defined harms. The aim of this project is to revisit this Janus-faced concept of responsibility and to explore broader alternatives and their ramifications. This study will examine the scope of obligations sovereign governments currently have toward foreign stakeholders and humanity at large and will analyze the normative desirability and political feasibility of potential alternative strategies for enhancing sovereign accountability to non-citizens and promoting a more democratic, sustainable, and egalitarian management of public life and scarce global resources. This project will systematically review the extent to which current law (international law and comparative constitutional law) and institutions already regard sovereigns as public authorities accountable to foreign stakeholders. More specifically, this project will apply the general insights to examine the necessary and possible legal and institutional responses to climatic changes in an era of erratic and extreme weather conditions.
Max ERC Funding
1 405 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28
Project acronym MAGNETIC BEAMS
Project Magnetically manipulated molecular beams; a novel ultra-sensitive approach for studying the structure and dynamics of water surfaces
Researcher (PI) Gil Alexandrowicz
Host Institution (HI) TECHNION - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE4, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary This proposal is aimed at developing and applying novel ultra-sensitive methods for studying the structure and dynamics of surfaces on an atomic scale, focusing on water surfaces in particular.
The proposal consists of two main instrument development projects which are based on magnetic manipulation of molecular beams: (1) Developing a ground-breaking apparatus which uses a pre-polarized H2O molecular beam in order to perform NMR measurements on dilute surface science systems, measurements which were impossible using conventional NMR approaches. (2) Developing a unique second-generation helium spin echo spectrometer which is sensitive to motion on an unprecedentedly wide time scale range. This instrument will be capable of measuring atomic scale surface dynamics of systems which were previously beyond the realm of experimentalists.
Both of these novel instruments will be primarily used to study the atomic scale structure and dynamics of water surfaces. Studying these systems is particularly challenging due to the delicate and complex nature of the surface, nevertheless, there is an extensive interest in studying water surfaces due to the key role they play in a wide range of research fields and applications. Examples include atmospheric chemistry, where ozone depleting reactions are catalyzed on ice surfaces, Material sciences and nano-technology, where the interaction and reactivity of a surface with water can determine the performance of novel miniature devices and even astrophysics where star birth reactions take place on ice surfaces. We intend to exploit the new contrast mechanisms and the unique time scales made available by the novel instruments we will develop, in order to obtain new experimental insights into this exciting research field.
Summary
This proposal is aimed at developing and applying novel ultra-sensitive methods for studying the structure and dynamics of surfaces on an atomic scale, focusing on water surfaces in particular.
The proposal consists of two main instrument development projects which are based on magnetic manipulation of molecular beams: (1) Developing a ground-breaking apparatus which uses a pre-polarized H2O molecular beam in order to perform NMR measurements on dilute surface science systems, measurements which were impossible using conventional NMR approaches. (2) Developing a unique second-generation helium spin echo spectrometer which is sensitive to motion on an unprecedentedly wide time scale range. This instrument will be capable of measuring atomic scale surface dynamics of systems which were previously beyond the realm of experimentalists.
Both of these novel instruments will be primarily used to study the atomic scale structure and dynamics of water surfaces. Studying these systems is particularly challenging due to the delicate and complex nature of the surface, nevertheless, there is an extensive interest in studying water surfaces due to the key role they play in a wide range of research fields and applications. Examples include atmospheric chemistry, where ozone depleting reactions are catalyzed on ice surfaces, Material sciences and nano-technology, where the interaction and reactivity of a surface with water can determine the performance of novel miniature devices and even astrophysics where star birth reactions take place on ice surfaces. We intend to exploit the new contrast mechanisms and the unique time scales made available by the novel instruments we will develop, in order to obtain new experimental insights into this exciting research field.
Max ERC Funding
1 850 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-10-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym MONGOL
Project Mobility, Empire and Cross-Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia
Researcher (PI) Michal Biran
Host Institution (HI) THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary This project seeks to study the Mongol Empire in its full Eurasian context. It combines a world history perspective with close reading in a huge array of primary sources in various languages (mainly Persian, Arabic and Chinese) and different historiographical traditions, and classifies the acquired information into a sophisticated prosopographical database, which records the individuals acting under Mongol rule in the 13th and 14th centuries. On the basis of this unique corpus, the project maps and analyzes mobility patterns, and the far-reaching effects that this mobility generated. More specifically, it aims:
(a) to analyze modes of migrations in Mongol Eurasia: why, how, when and into where people- along with their ideas and artefacts - moved across Eurasia, portraying the full spectrum of such populations movements from the coerced to the voluntary.
(b) to shed light on the economic and cultural exchange that this mobility engendered, with a stress on the religious, scientific and commercial networks both within and beyond the empire’s frontiers.
(c) to reconstruct the new elite of the empire by scrutinizing the personnel of key Mongolian institutions, such as the guard, the judicial and postal systems, the diplomatic corps, and the local administration.
These issues will be studied comparatively, in the period of the united Mongol empire (1206-1260) and across its four successor khanates that centred at China, Iran, Central Asia and Russia.
The result will be a quantum leap forward in our understanding of the Mongol empire and its impact on world history, and a major contribution to the theoretical study of pre-modern migrations, cross-cultural contacts, nomad-sedentary relations and comparative study of empires. Moreover, the re-conceptualization of the economic and cultural exchange in Mongol Eurasia will lead to a broader and more nuanced understanding of the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern era.
Summary
This project seeks to study the Mongol Empire in its full Eurasian context. It combines a world history perspective with close reading in a huge array of primary sources in various languages (mainly Persian, Arabic and Chinese) and different historiographical traditions, and classifies the acquired information into a sophisticated prosopographical database, which records the individuals acting under Mongol rule in the 13th and 14th centuries. On the basis of this unique corpus, the project maps and analyzes mobility patterns, and the far-reaching effects that this mobility generated. More specifically, it aims:
(a) to analyze modes of migrations in Mongol Eurasia: why, how, when and into where people- along with their ideas and artefacts - moved across Eurasia, portraying the full spectrum of such populations movements from the coerced to the voluntary.
(b) to shed light on the economic and cultural exchange that this mobility engendered, with a stress on the religious, scientific and commercial networks both within and beyond the empire’s frontiers.
(c) to reconstruct the new elite of the empire by scrutinizing the personnel of key Mongolian institutions, such as the guard, the judicial and postal systems, the diplomatic corps, and the local administration.
These issues will be studied comparatively, in the period of the united Mongol empire (1206-1260) and across its four successor khanates that centred at China, Iran, Central Asia and Russia.
The result will be a quantum leap forward in our understanding of the Mongol empire and its impact on world history, and a major contribution to the theoretical study of pre-modern migrations, cross-cultural contacts, nomad-sedentary relations and comparative study of empires. Moreover, the re-conceptualization of the economic and cultural exchange in Mongol Eurasia will lead to a broader and more nuanced understanding of the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern era.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym PIPP
Project Proportionality in Public Policy:
Towards a Better Balance between Interests and Rights in Decision-Making
Researcher (PI) Mordechai Kremnitzer
Host Institution (HI) THE ISRAEL DEMOCRACY INSTITUTE ASSOCIATION-IDI
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411
Summary This research project seeks to improve the quality and consistency of policy decisions by offering a novel approach to the study and practice of proportionality, one of the most important meta-constitutional principles for adjudicating among competing values.
Although proportionality is well-established as a legal principle, its abstractness produces inconsistent application across judges and cases. Moreover, proportionality has been poorly integrated into policymaking, where it has the greatest potential to enhance the quality of democratic governance. We propose to shift scholarly attention away from its traditional focus on judicial review to the policy making process. Our aim is to develop procedural guidelines for deeper integration of Proportionality Analysis (PA) into the policy making process, in order to help policymakers make decisions that achieve a better balance between competing public interests and protected constitutional rights, and facilitate judicial review processes.
Relying on choice architecture, we hypothesize that it is possible to reduce potential biases and cognitive errors and better protect human rights in policy choices by structuring policy analysis in ways that: (1) integrate elements of proportionality analysis; (2) offer a simultaneous process for the evaluation of alternatives and criteria; and (3) include normative guidelines. In the first stage of the project, we intend to employ comparative legal and policy research in six democracies, in order to better understand the challenges involved with integrating PA into the policymaking world. In the project's second stage, we will conduct a series of empirical behavioural experiments with policymakers in order to test the proposed procedural measures. The fruits of our research will serve legal scholars and students of public policy as well as policy-makers and judges throughout the democratic world.
Summary
This research project seeks to improve the quality and consistency of policy decisions by offering a novel approach to the study and practice of proportionality, one of the most important meta-constitutional principles for adjudicating among competing values.
Although proportionality is well-established as a legal principle, its abstractness produces inconsistent application across judges and cases. Moreover, proportionality has been poorly integrated into policymaking, where it has the greatest potential to enhance the quality of democratic governance. We propose to shift scholarly attention away from its traditional focus on judicial review to the policy making process. Our aim is to develop procedural guidelines for deeper integration of Proportionality Analysis (PA) into the policy making process, in order to help policymakers make decisions that achieve a better balance between competing public interests and protected constitutional rights, and facilitate judicial review processes.
Relying on choice architecture, we hypothesize that it is possible to reduce potential biases and cognitive errors and better protect human rights in policy choices by structuring policy analysis in ways that: (1) integrate elements of proportionality analysis; (2) offer a simultaneous process for the evaluation of alternatives and criteria; and (3) include normative guidelines. In the first stage of the project, we intend to employ comparative legal and policy research in six democracies, in order to better understand the challenges involved with integrating PA into the policymaking world. In the project's second stage, we will conduct a series of empirical behavioural experiments with policymakers in order to test the proposed procedural measures. The fruits of our research will serve legal scholars and students of public policy as well as policy-makers and judges throughout the democratic world.
Max ERC Funding
2 396 952 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-08-01, End date: 2019-07-31
Project acronym RE-AGEING
Project Reassessing Ageing from a Population Perspective
Researcher (PI) Serguei Jakob Scherbov
Host Institution (HI) INTERNATIONALES INSTITUT FUER ANGEWANDTE SYSTEMANALYSE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411
Summary Life expectancies in the EU have increased significantly over the past decades and are expected to continue increasing. Age-specific health statuses have also generally been improving. In contrast to these profound changes, the concepts that demographers have used to analyze ageing on a population level have remained largely static. The substantial changes in life expectancy and health status have rendered these traditional demographic measures inadequate for the analysis of ageing at the population level in the 21st century. A better understanding of age and ageing, for both science and policy, requires new approaches. This project will comprehensively reassess population ageing based on innovative alternative definitions of age and ageing as pioneered by the PI.
The project will develop new approaches to the study of age and ageing that are appropriate for 21st century conditions. It will produce new scientific knowledge that is useful in policy formulation and that can educate the public about population ageing and its consequences. Among other things, the proposed project will ascertain the extent to which advanced societies are actually ageing in multiple dimensions, including health, cognitive abilities, and longevity. By addressing such fundamental issues this project will likely have a pronounced impact on future population ageing research.
The new tools and measures developed in the project will facilitate evaluation of the impacts of future changes in public policies, such as increases in statutory pension ages. Applications will be primarily to the EU, but also selected countries experiencing rapid population ageing will be included. The results will be of utmost socioeconomic and political importance for the necessary future restructuring of European pension and health systems in the context of maintaining Europe’s global competitiveness.
Summary
Life expectancies in the EU have increased significantly over the past decades and are expected to continue increasing. Age-specific health statuses have also generally been improving. In contrast to these profound changes, the concepts that demographers have used to analyze ageing on a population level have remained largely static. The substantial changes in life expectancy and health status have rendered these traditional demographic measures inadequate for the analysis of ageing at the population level in the 21st century. A better understanding of age and ageing, for both science and policy, requires new approaches. This project will comprehensively reassess population ageing based on innovative alternative definitions of age and ageing as pioneered by the PI.
The project will develop new approaches to the study of age and ageing that are appropriate for 21st century conditions. It will produce new scientific knowledge that is useful in policy formulation and that can educate the public about population ageing and its consequences. Among other things, the proposed project will ascertain the extent to which advanced societies are actually ageing in multiple dimensions, including health, cognitive abilities, and longevity. By addressing such fundamental issues this project will likely have a pronounced impact on future population ageing research.
The new tools and measures developed in the project will facilitate evaluation of the impacts of future changes in public policies, such as increases in statutory pension ages. Applications will be primarily to the EU, but also selected countries experiencing rapid population ageing will be included. The results will be of utmost socioeconomic and political importance for the necessary future restructuring of European pension and health systems in the context of maintaining Europe’s global competitiveness.
Max ERC Funding
2 249 996 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31
Project acronym ULTRAFASTEUVPROBE
Project Ultrafast EUV probe for Molecular Reaction Dynamics
Researcher (PI) Daniel Strasser
Host Institution (HI) THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE4, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary "This research is aimed at developing and validating a novel approach for time resolved imaging of structural dynamics, using single photon Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) with ultrafast extreme UV (EUV) pulses to probe laser initiated ultrafast structural rearrangement and fragmentation dynamics. The emerging field of ultrafast EUV pulses attracts increasing amount of scientific attention, predominantly concentrated on understanding aspects of the generation process, as well as on measuring record breaking attosecond pulses at increasingly high photon energies and photon flux. I propose to direct the unique properties of ultrafast EUV pulses towards time resolved studies of molecular reaction dynamics that are inaccessible with conventional ultrafast laser systems. Time resolved single photon CEI will make possible the visualization of complex dynamics in polyatomic systems; specifically, how laser driven electronic excitation couples into nuclear motion in a wide range of molecular systems. In contrast to earlier attempts, in which CEI was driven with intense near-IR pulses that can alter the observed dynamics, the proposed single photon CEI will remove the masking intense field effects and provide a simple and general probe. A comprehensive experimental effort is proposed - to conduct a direct comparison of intense field CEI to the proposed single EUV photon approach. Successful implementation of this research will endow us with a new way to visualize and understand the underlying quantum mechanisms involved in chemical reactions. With this new technology I hope to be able to provide unique insight into molecular fragmentation and rearrangement dynamics during chemical reactions and to resolve long standing basic scientific questions, such as the concerted or sequential nature of double proton transfer in DNA base-pair models. Finally, the ""table top"" techniques developed in my lab will mature and become applicable to the emerging ultrafast EUV user facilities."
Summary
"This research is aimed at developing and validating a novel approach for time resolved imaging of structural dynamics, using single photon Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) with ultrafast extreme UV (EUV) pulses to probe laser initiated ultrafast structural rearrangement and fragmentation dynamics. The emerging field of ultrafast EUV pulses attracts increasing amount of scientific attention, predominantly concentrated on understanding aspects of the generation process, as well as on measuring record breaking attosecond pulses at increasingly high photon energies and photon flux. I propose to direct the unique properties of ultrafast EUV pulses towards time resolved studies of molecular reaction dynamics that are inaccessible with conventional ultrafast laser systems. Time resolved single photon CEI will make possible the visualization of complex dynamics in polyatomic systems; specifically, how laser driven electronic excitation couples into nuclear motion in a wide range of molecular systems. In contrast to earlier attempts, in which CEI was driven with intense near-IR pulses that can alter the observed dynamics, the proposed single photon CEI will remove the masking intense field effects and provide a simple and general probe. A comprehensive experimental effort is proposed - to conduct a direct comparison of intense field CEI to the proposed single EUV photon approach. Successful implementation of this research will endow us with a new way to visualize and understand the underlying quantum mechanisms involved in chemical reactions. With this new technology I hope to be able to provide unique insight into molecular fragmentation and rearrangement dynamics during chemical reactions and to resolve long standing basic scientific questions, such as the concerted or sequential nature of double proton transfer in DNA base-pair models. Finally, the ""table top"" techniques developed in my lab will mature and become applicable to the emerging ultrafast EUV user facilities."
Max ERC Funding
1 499 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31
