Project acronym EMERGRAV
Project Emergent Gravity, String Theory and the Holographic Principle
Researcher (PI) Erik Peter Verlinde
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2010-AdG_20100224
Summary The study of black hole physics and string theory are leading to a novel perspective on gravity and space-time. The old frameworks are replaced by a new paradigm in which gravity is understood as an emergent phenomenon. A central role in this revolution is played by the holographic principle put forward by ‘t Hooft. It states that the microscopic information associated with the physical world can be stored on the boundary of space. From this holographic viewpoint I have recently derived the familiar laws of Newton and Einstein using only first principles. Gravity appears as an entropic force caused by changes in information associated with matter. With this ERC proposal I am aiming to build a research group that will further develop this new entropic view on gravity. The powerful string theoretic tools, such as the holographic correspondence between gauge theory and gravity, will be used to illuminate and further clarify gravity’s entropic origin. In addition, I plan to investigate the implications of the emergence of the gravitational force for the areas in which gravity plays a crucial role, in particular cosmology. For instance, the entropic viewpoint is expected to shed new light on the nature of dark energy and possibly dark matter. It may also lead to a new perspective on the other fundamental forces, since the notions of inertia and mass need to be reconsidered as well. The understanding of gravity as an emergent phenomenon will also influence and benefit from the conceptual ideas developed in condensed matter physics, such as the recently discovered connection between quantum critical electron systems and black hole horizons. The university of Amsterdam and the Netherlands provide an excellent environment for a successful completion of these goals.
Summary
The study of black hole physics and string theory are leading to a novel perspective on gravity and space-time. The old frameworks are replaced by a new paradigm in which gravity is understood as an emergent phenomenon. A central role in this revolution is played by the holographic principle put forward by ‘t Hooft. It states that the microscopic information associated with the physical world can be stored on the boundary of space. From this holographic viewpoint I have recently derived the familiar laws of Newton and Einstein using only first principles. Gravity appears as an entropic force caused by changes in information associated with matter. With this ERC proposal I am aiming to build a research group that will further develop this new entropic view on gravity. The powerful string theoretic tools, such as the holographic correspondence between gauge theory and gravity, will be used to illuminate and further clarify gravity’s entropic origin. In addition, I plan to investigate the implications of the emergence of the gravitational force for the areas in which gravity plays a crucial role, in particular cosmology. For instance, the entropic viewpoint is expected to shed new light on the nature of dark energy and possibly dark matter. It may also lead to a new perspective on the other fundamental forces, since the notions of inertia and mass need to be reconsidered as well. The understanding of gravity as an emergent phenomenon will also influence and benefit from the conceptual ideas developed in condensed matter physics, such as the recently discovered connection between quantum critical electron systems and black hole horizons. The university of Amsterdam and the Netherlands provide an excellent environment for a successful completion of these goals.
Max ERC Funding
2 033 983 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31
Project acronym FIRSTLIGHT
Project Unveiling first light from the infant Universe
Researcher (PI) Luitje Vincent Ewoud Koopmans
Host Institution (HI) RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE9, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary I request ERC funding to set up a dedicated science team to detect, for the first time, the redshifted 21-cm radio line emission of neutral hydrogen (HI) with LOFAR coming from the first billion years of the age of the Universe (the Epoch of Reionization and the Dark Ages ).
The study of this pristine neutral hydrogen gas is a rapidly emerging field of astrophysics, both theoretically and observationally. A number of expert international groups in the US/Australia (MWA), China (21CMA), India (GMRT) and the Netherlands (LOFAR) are contending to be the first to detect this hydrogen gas. My proposed ERC project is high-risk and high-gain; however, all risks are controlled and the scientific rewards of detection of neutral hydrogen at these early times would have a tremendous impact and open a new frontier in astronomy. The study of neutral hydrogen, as in the nearby Universe, will revolutionize our knowledge of astrophysical processes in the first phases of the Universe, just after recombination.
The LOFAR Epoch-of-Reionization Key-Science Project (LOFAR EoR-KSP), of which I am a PI, aims to be the first, and if being the first fails, to provide the best detection of this neutral HI gas. Indeed, we are in a very good starting position to reach both goals. Our team has access to the most sensitive telescope available for these studies (LOFAR) and leads a Key Science Project with guaranteed observing time. Our KSP is rapidly ramping up to the observational phase of the project (2010), and now more than ever requires dedicated scientists that together in a small team maximize the scientific return of the project (i.e. detect and study HI). If successful, our research team would be in a position to start leading similar projects with the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). It is crucial that we gear up for the use of that future instrument and retain Europe s position at the forefront of astrophysics and radio astronomy.
Summary
I request ERC funding to set up a dedicated science team to detect, for the first time, the redshifted 21-cm radio line emission of neutral hydrogen (HI) with LOFAR coming from the first billion years of the age of the Universe (the Epoch of Reionization and the Dark Ages ).
The study of this pristine neutral hydrogen gas is a rapidly emerging field of astrophysics, both theoretically and observationally. A number of expert international groups in the US/Australia (MWA), China (21CMA), India (GMRT) and the Netherlands (LOFAR) are contending to be the first to detect this hydrogen gas. My proposed ERC project is high-risk and high-gain; however, all risks are controlled and the scientific rewards of detection of neutral hydrogen at these early times would have a tremendous impact and open a new frontier in astronomy. The study of neutral hydrogen, as in the nearby Universe, will revolutionize our knowledge of astrophysical processes in the first phases of the Universe, just after recombination.
The LOFAR Epoch-of-Reionization Key-Science Project (LOFAR EoR-KSP), of which I am a PI, aims to be the first, and if being the first fails, to provide the best detection of this neutral HI gas. Indeed, we are in a very good starting position to reach both goals. Our team has access to the most sensitive telescope available for these studies (LOFAR) and leads a Key Science Project with guaranteed observing time. Our KSP is rapidly ramping up to the observational phase of the project (2010), and now more than ever requires dedicated scientists that together in a small team maximize the scientific return of the project (i.e. detect and study HI). If successful, our research team would be in a position to start leading similar projects with the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). It is crucial that we gear up for the use of that future instrument and retain Europe s position at the forefront of astrophysics and radio astronomy.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym LIFE-HIS-T
Project Mapping the life histories of T cells
Researcher (PI) Antonius Nicolaas Maria Schumacher
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING HET NEDERLANDS KANKER INSTITUUT-ANTONI VAN LEEUWENHOEK ZIEKENHUIS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS6, ERC-2010-AdG_20100317
Summary T cells display many different phenotypes and functions, depending on the nature of previously encountered signals. If we want to understand how these different T cell subsets arise, we need to be able to follow individual T cells and their progeny through time. With the aim to map the life histories of individual T cells we have developed unique technologies that allow us to determine whether different T cell populations arise from common or distinct progenitors.
Within this project we will utilize genetic reporter systems to determine:
1. How T cell recruitment, proliferation and death shape antigen-specific T cell responses
2. At which stage the resulting T cells commit to the effector or the memory T cell lineage
3. The self renewal potential of the tissue-resident memory T cells that remain after infection is cleared
By following T cells and their progeny through time, this project will describe the regulation of cell fate in antigen-specific T cell responses. Furthermore, this project will lead to the creation of novel reporters of cellular history that will be of broad value to analyze cell fate and kinship for a variety of cell types.
Summary
T cells display many different phenotypes and functions, depending on the nature of previously encountered signals. If we want to understand how these different T cell subsets arise, we need to be able to follow individual T cells and their progeny through time. With the aim to map the life histories of individual T cells we have developed unique technologies that allow us to determine whether different T cell populations arise from common or distinct progenitors.
Within this project we will utilize genetic reporter systems to determine:
1. How T cell recruitment, proliferation and death shape antigen-specific T cell responses
2. At which stage the resulting T cells commit to the effector or the memory T cell lineage
3. The self renewal potential of the tissue-resident memory T cells that remain after infection is cleared
By following T cells and their progeny through time, this project will describe the regulation of cell fate in antigen-specific T cell responses. Furthermore, this project will lead to the creation of novel reporters of cellular history that will be of broad value to analyze cell fate and kinship for a variety of cell types.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 640 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2017-01-31
Project acronym ROSETTA
Project Rosetta s Way Back to the Source:
Towards Reverse Engineering of Complex Software
Researcher (PI) Hendrik Jaap Bos
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING VU
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary We propose a research program (Rossetta) towards reverse engineering of complex software that is available only in binary form. Most of the commercial software industry assumes that compilation (the translation of source code to binary code), is irreversible in practice for real applications. The research question for Rosetta is whether this irreversibility assumption is reasonable. If successful, the project will have a major impact on the software industry.
The challenge is daunting, because binary code after compilation lacks most of the visible structure and semantic information that is available at the source code level. There is no definition of data structures, no helpful names of variables and functions, no semantic information, and no indication of what chunks of instructions are supposed to do.
However, the Rosetta project has a clear methodology for source recovery. Reverse engineering is approached as an iterative process with an initial focus on recovering data structures, followed by recovery of code. We combine static and dynamic techniques with usage monitoring and machine learning. A key insight is that even if all visible structure has been removed from the data in memory, the structures will still be *used* in a way that corresponds to the source code. By observing the use of data and application of machine learning techniques, we will recover both the data and the source.
We store all information that we uncover in the Rosetta database. The database provides a handle on both the data structures and large sections of the code (and at various levels of abstraction). We believe that our methods will allow reverse engineering of very complex commercial software. Doing so will be our main criterion for success. In addition, however, we propose to demonstrate the usefulness of our analysis by automatically hardening software (to make it resilient against many types of attack) without requiring any access to the source co
Summary
We propose a research program (Rossetta) towards reverse engineering of complex software that is available only in binary form. Most of the commercial software industry assumes that compilation (the translation of source code to binary code), is irreversible in practice for real applications. The research question for Rosetta is whether this irreversibility assumption is reasonable. If successful, the project will have a major impact on the software industry.
The challenge is daunting, because binary code after compilation lacks most of the visible structure and semantic information that is available at the source code level. There is no definition of data structures, no helpful names of variables and functions, no semantic information, and no indication of what chunks of instructions are supposed to do.
However, the Rosetta project has a clear methodology for source recovery. Reverse engineering is approached as an iterative process with an initial focus on recovering data structures, followed by recovery of code. We combine static and dynamic techniques with usage monitoring and machine learning. A key insight is that even if all visible structure has been removed from the data in memory, the structures will still be *used* in a way that corresponds to the source code. By observing the use of data and application of machine learning techniques, we will recover both the data and the source.
We store all information that we uncover in the Rosetta database. The database provides a handle on both the data structures and large sections of the code (and at various levels of abstraction). We believe that our methods will allow reverse engineering of very complex commercial software. Doing so will be our main criterion for success. In addition, however, we propose to demonstrate the usefulness of our analysis by automatically hardening software (to make it resilient against many types of attack) without requiring any access to the source co
Max ERC Funding
1 339 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2016-04-30
Project acronym VERCORS
Project Verification of Concurrent Data Structures
Researcher (PI) Marieke Huisman
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary Increasing performance demands, application complexity and explicit multi-core parallelism makes concurrency omnipresent in software applications. However, due to the complex interferences between threads in an application, concurrent software is also notoriously hard to get correct. Instead of spending large amounts of money to fix incorrect software, formal techniques are needed to reason about the behaviour of concurrent programs.
In earlier work, we developed a variant of permission-based separation logic that is particularly suited to reason about multithreaded Java programs with dynamic thread creation and termination, and reentrant locks. The VerCors project will extend expressiveness of the logic, to specify and verify concurrent data structures. The verification logic will be parameterised over the locking policy, so that a high-level specification of the behaviour of a data structure can be reused for different implementations. Thus the implementation of a concurrent data structure can be changed, without affecting correctness of the applications using it.
The logic will also be parameterised with concurrency and synchronisation primitives, so that a logic for a different programming language can be defined as an instance of the general logic. It will also be adapted to reason about programs with benign data races, i.e., data races where the same value is written simultaneously by different threads. Also techniques to generate part of the specifications automatically will be developed. Finally, the logic will be adapted to a distributed setting, where data consistency between the different sites has to be maintained.
All results will be integrated in a tool set that generates and proves proof obligations automatically. It will be validated on realistic case studies.
Summary
Increasing performance demands, application complexity and explicit multi-core parallelism makes concurrency omnipresent in software applications. However, due to the complex interferences between threads in an application, concurrent software is also notoriously hard to get correct. Instead of spending large amounts of money to fix incorrect software, formal techniques are needed to reason about the behaviour of concurrent programs.
In earlier work, we developed a variant of permission-based separation logic that is particularly suited to reason about multithreaded Java programs with dynamic thread creation and termination, and reentrant locks. The VerCors project will extend expressiveness of the logic, to specify and verify concurrent data structures. The verification logic will be parameterised over the locking policy, so that a high-level specification of the behaviour of a data structure can be reused for different implementations. Thus the implementation of a concurrent data structure can be changed, without affecting correctness of the applications using it.
The logic will also be parameterised with concurrency and synchronisation primitives, so that a logic for a different programming language can be defined as an instance of the general logic. It will also be adapted to reason about programs with benign data races, i.e., data races where the same value is written simultaneously by different threads. Also techniques to generate part of the specifications automatically will be developed. Finally, the logic will be adapted to a distributed setting, where data consistency between the different sites has to be maintained.
All results will be integrated in a tool set that generates and proves proof obligations automatically. It will be validated on realistic case studies.
Max ERC Funding
1 306 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2016-01-31
