Project acronym COULOMBUS
Project Electric Currents in Sediment and Soil
Researcher (PI) Lars Peter Nielsen
Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "With COULOMBUS I will explore the new electronic world I recently found in marine sediment; a living world featuring transmission of coulombs of electrons over long distances through a grid of unknown origin and composition. This is a great challenge to science, and I will specifically
- Unravel function, expansion, resilience, and microbial engineering of the conductive grid
- Identify microbial and geological processes related to long distance electron transfer today and in the past
- Introduce the electron as a new element in biogeochemical and ecological models.
- Map the range of sediment and soil habitats featuring biogeoelectric currents
Incubations of marine sediment will serve as the “base camp” for the surveys. Here I consistently observe that current sources extending centimetres down deliver electrons for most of the oxygen consumption, and here my array of advanced microsensors and biogeochemical methods works well. My team will record electric currents and biogeochemical changes as we manipulate mechanical, chemical, and biological conditions, thereby getting to an understanding of the interplay between conductors, microorganisms, electron donors, electron acceptors, and minerals. Next we take the methods out in the sea to evaluate biogeoelectricity in situ using robots. Other aquatic environments will also be screened. The ultimate outdoor challenge will come as I lead the team into soils where surface potentials suggest biogeoelectric currents deep down. All observations, experiments, and models will be directed to answer the groundbreaking questions: What physics and microbial engineering can explain long distance electron conductance in nature? How do electric microbial communities evolve and how do they shape element cycling? What signatures of biogeoelectricity are left in the geological record of earth history? If I succeed I will have opened up many new exciting research routes for the followers."
Summary
"With COULOMBUS I will explore the new electronic world I recently found in marine sediment; a living world featuring transmission of coulombs of electrons over long distances through a grid of unknown origin and composition. This is a great challenge to science, and I will specifically
- Unravel function, expansion, resilience, and microbial engineering of the conductive grid
- Identify microbial and geological processes related to long distance electron transfer today and in the past
- Introduce the electron as a new element in biogeochemical and ecological models.
- Map the range of sediment and soil habitats featuring biogeoelectric currents
Incubations of marine sediment will serve as the “base camp” for the surveys. Here I consistently observe that current sources extending centimetres down deliver electrons for most of the oxygen consumption, and here my array of advanced microsensors and biogeochemical methods works well. My team will record electric currents and biogeochemical changes as we manipulate mechanical, chemical, and biological conditions, thereby getting to an understanding of the interplay between conductors, microorganisms, electron donors, electron acceptors, and minerals. Next we take the methods out in the sea to evaluate biogeoelectricity in situ using robots. Other aquatic environments will also be screened. The ultimate outdoor challenge will come as I lead the team into soils where surface potentials suggest biogeoelectric currents deep down. All observations, experiments, and models will be directed to answer the groundbreaking questions: What physics and microbial engineering can explain long distance electron conductance in nature? How do electric microbial communities evolve and how do they shape element cycling? What signatures of biogeoelectricity are left in the geological record of earth history? If I succeed I will have opened up many new exciting research routes for the followers."
Max ERC Funding
2 155 300 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2017-02-28
Project acronym DE-CO2
Project Quantifying CO2 emissions from tropical deforestation to ‘close’ the global carbon budget
Researcher (PI) Guido Van Der Werf
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING VU
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The land and oceans have mitigated climate change by taking up about half of the anthropogenic CO2 emitted since the industrial revolution. However, these ‘sinks’ are predicted to lose their efficiency. Globally, the combined sink strength of the land and ocean can be calculated indirectly as the difference between anthropogenic emissions – from fossil fuel burning and deforestation – and the atmospheric CO2 increase. However, large uncertainty in the deforestation term masks out potential changes in sink strength contained in the better-constrained fossil fuel and atmospheric terms. This creates the need for a new accurate approach to quantify emissions from deforestation and its variability over the past decades.
I propose to quantify deforestation emissions from the novel fire perspective. A substantial share of deforestation emissions stems from burning vegetation, and this focus enables validation of emissions by comparing atmospheric enhancements of fire-emitted carbon monoxide (CO) with satellite-derived concentrations of CO. The proposed multidisciplinary work will follow three steps: 1) quantify net emissions from fires and decomposition in deforestation and degradation regions, combining satellite data with biogeochemical modelling, 2) validate these emissions by combining newly measured CO:CO2 ratios and the isotopic signature of CO2 downwind of deforestation regions, atmospheric chemistry transport modelling, and satellite-derived CO concentrations, and 3) use relations between fire emissions and visibility reported at airports as a novel way to extend the new deforestation emissions estimates back in time before high-quality satellite observations were available. The new approach will lead to the first constrained, monthly resolved estimate of deforestation emissions. Applying the global CO2 mass balance equation will then provide a better quantitative understanding of the (changing) sink capacity of the Earth's oceans and land surface.
Summary
The land and oceans have mitigated climate change by taking up about half of the anthropogenic CO2 emitted since the industrial revolution. However, these ‘sinks’ are predicted to lose their efficiency. Globally, the combined sink strength of the land and ocean can be calculated indirectly as the difference between anthropogenic emissions – from fossil fuel burning and deforestation – and the atmospheric CO2 increase. However, large uncertainty in the deforestation term masks out potential changes in sink strength contained in the better-constrained fossil fuel and atmospheric terms. This creates the need for a new accurate approach to quantify emissions from deforestation and its variability over the past decades.
I propose to quantify deforestation emissions from the novel fire perspective. A substantial share of deforestation emissions stems from burning vegetation, and this focus enables validation of emissions by comparing atmospheric enhancements of fire-emitted carbon monoxide (CO) with satellite-derived concentrations of CO. The proposed multidisciplinary work will follow three steps: 1) quantify net emissions from fires and decomposition in deforestation and degradation regions, combining satellite data with biogeochemical modelling, 2) validate these emissions by combining newly measured CO:CO2 ratios and the isotopic signature of CO2 downwind of deforestation regions, atmospheric chemistry transport modelling, and satellite-derived CO concentrations, and 3) use relations between fire emissions and visibility reported at airports as a novel way to extend the new deforestation emissions estimates back in time before high-quality satellite observations were available. The new approach will lead to the first constrained, monthly resolved estimate of deforestation emissions. Applying the global CO2 mass balance equation will then provide a better quantitative understanding of the (changing) sink capacity of the Earth's oceans and land surface.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31
Project acronym EQU
Project Exploring the Quantum Universe
Researcher (PI) Jan Ambjørn
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "One of the main unsolved problems in theoretical physics today is to reconcile the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics. The starting point of this proposal is a new background-independent theory of quantum gravity, which has been constructed from first principles as a sum over space-time histories and has already passed its first non-trivial tests. The theory can be investigated analytically as well as by Monte Carlo simulations. The aim is to verify that it is a viable theory of quantum gravity. Thus we want to show that it has the correct long-distance behaviour (classical Einstein gravity) and to investigate its short-distance behaviour in detail. We expect new physics to show up at the shortest distances, physics which might help us understand the origin of our universe and why the universe looks the way we observe today."
Summary
"One of the main unsolved problems in theoretical physics today is to reconcile the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics. The starting point of this proposal is a new background-independent theory of quantum gravity, which has been constructed from first principles as a sum over space-time histories and has already passed its first non-trivial tests. The theory can be investigated analytically as well as by Monte Carlo simulations. The aim is to verify that it is a viable theory of quantum gravity. Thus we want to show that it has the correct long-distance behaviour (classical Einstein gravity) and to investigate its short-distance behaviour in detail. We expect new physics to show up at the shortest distances, physics which might help us understand the origin of our universe and why the universe looks the way we observe today."
Max ERC Funding
2 187 286 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2017-06-30
Project acronym Interface
Project Quantum Optical Interfaces for Atoms and Nano-electro-mechanical Systems
Researcher (PI) Eugene Polzik
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary Quantum interfaces capable of transferring quantum states and generating entanglement between fields and matter are set to play a growing role in the development of science and technology. Development of such interfaces has been a crucial component in quantum information processing and communication. In the past decade quantum interfaces between atoms and optical photons have been extensively explored by a number of leading groups. Quantum state transfer between light and atoms, such as quantum memory and quantum teleportation, entanglement of massive objects, as well as measurements and sensing beyond standard quantum limits have been demonstrated by the group of the PI.
We propose to develop a robust, integrated and scalable atom-light interface and to incorporate it into a hybrid multi-facet quantum network with other relevant quantum systems, such as nano-mechanical oscillators and electronic circuits.
Towards this ambitious goal we will develop room temperature atomic quantum memories in spin protecting micro-cells (mu-cells) and opto-mechanical and electromechanical strongly coupled systems. Interfacing atoms, electronic circuits and nano-mechanical oscillators we will perform ultrasensitive quantum limited field and force measurements and quantum teleportation of states across the range of these systems.
In the fundamental sense, this research program will further broaden the horizons of quantum physics and quantum information processing by expanding it into new and unexplored macroscopic domains.
Summary
Quantum interfaces capable of transferring quantum states and generating entanglement between fields and matter are set to play a growing role in the development of science and technology. Development of such interfaces has been a crucial component in quantum information processing and communication. In the past decade quantum interfaces between atoms and optical photons have been extensively explored by a number of leading groups. Quantum state transfer between light and atoms, such as quantum memory and quantum teleportation, entanglement of massive objects, as well as measurements and sensing beyond standard quantum limits have been demonstrated by the group of the PI.
We propose to develop a robust, integrated and scalable atom-light interface and to incorporate it into a hybrid multi-facet quantum network with other relevant quantum systems, such as nano-mechanical oscillators and electronic circuits.
Towards this ambitious goal we will develop room temperature atomic quantum memories in spin protecting micro-cells (mu-cells) and opto-mechanical and electromechanical strongly coupled systems. Interfacing atoms, electronic circuits and nano-mechanical oscillators we will perform ultrasensitive quantum limited field and force measurements and quantum teleportation of states across the range of these systems.
In the fundamental sense, this research program will further broaden the horizons of quantum physics and quantum information processing by expanding it into new and unexplored macroscopic domains.
Max ERC Funding
2 493 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2017-06-30
Project acronym PHOXY
Project Phosphorus dynamics in low-oxygen marine systems: quantifying the nutrient-climate connection in Earth’s past, present and future
Researcher (PI) Caroline Slomp
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Phosphorus (P) is a key and often limiting nutrient for phytoplankton in the ocean. A strong positive feedback exists between marine P availability, primary production and ocean anoxia: increased production leads to ocean anoxia, which, in turn, decreases the burial efficiency of P in sediments and therefore increases the availability of P and production in the ocean. This feedback likely plays an important role in the present-day expansion of low-oxygen waters (“dead zones”) in coastal systems worldwide. Moreover, it contributed to the development of global scale anoxia in ancient oceans. Critically, however, the responsible mechanisms for the changes in P burial in anoxic sediments are poorly understood because of the lack of chemical tools to directly characterize sediment P. I propose to develop new methods to quantify and reconstruct P dynamics in low-oxygen marine systems and the link with carbon cycling in Earth’s present and past. These methods are based on the novel application of state-of-the-art geochemical analysis techniques to determine the burial forms of mineral-P within their spatial context in modern sediments. The new analysis techniques include nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS), synchotron-based scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). I will use the knowledge obtained for modern sediments to interpret sediment records of P for periods of rapid and extreme climate change in Earth’s history. Using various biogeochemical models developed in my research group, I will elucidate and quantify the role of variations in the marine P cycle in the development of low-oxygen conditions and climate change. This information is crucial for our ability to predict the consequences of anthropogenically-enhanced inputs of nutrients to the oceans combined with global warming.
Summary
Phosphorus (P) is a key and often limiting nutrient for phytoplankton in the ocean. A strong positive feedback exists between marine P availability, primary production and ocean anoxia: increased production leads to ocean anoxia, which, in turn, decreases the burial efficiency of P in sediments and therefore increases the availability of P and production in the ocean. This feedback likely plays an important role in the present-day expansion of low-oxygen waters (“dead zones”) in coastal systems worldwide. Moreover, it contributed to the development of global scale anoxia in ancient oceans. Critically, however, the responsible mechanisms for the changes in P burial in anoxic sediments are poorly understood because of the lack of chemical tools to directly characterize sediment P. I propose to develop new methods to quantify and reconstruct P dynamics in low-oxygen marine systems and the link with carbon cycling in Earth’s present and past. These methods are based on the novel application of state-of-the-art geochemical analysis techniques to determine the burial forms of mineral-P within their spatial context in modern sediments. The new analysis techniques include nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS), synchotron-based scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). I will use the knowledge obtained for modern sediments to interpret sediment records of P for periods of rapid and extreme climate change in Earth’s history. Using various biogeochemical models developed in my research group, I will elucidate and quantify the role of variations in the marine P cycle in the development of low-oxygen conditions and climate change. This information is crucial for our ability to predict the consequences of anthropogenically-enhanced inputs of nutrients to the oceans combined with global warming.
Max ERC Funding
1 498 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym TDMET
Project Time-resolving electron dynamics in molecules by time-dependent many-electron theory
Researcher (PI) Lars Bojer Madsen
Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The interaction of atoms and molecules with new light sources such as attosecond and free-electron lasers is under strong current experimental investigation. Within the next few years the interest will shift from relatively simple systems with a few atoms and electrons to bigger systems with many atoms and may electrons. The aims will be to study time-resolved dynamics and chemical reactions on the natural timescales for these processes. To fulfill this ambitious goal, there will be a strong need for the development of new theory to guide the experiments and to analyze and understand the results. Currently there is no satisfactory theory in this research area that can treat more than the nonperturbative response of a single electron in a model potential. It is the purpose of the present project to develop such theory.
Summary
The interaction of atoms and molecules with new light sources such as attosecond and free-electron lasers is under strong current experimental investigation. Within the next few years the interest will shift from relatively simple systems with a few atoms and electrons to bigger systems with many atoms and may electrons. The aims will be to study time-resolved dynamics and chemical reactions on the natural timescales for these processes. To fulfill this ambitious goal, there will be a strong need for the development of new theory to guide the experiments and to analyze and understand the results. Currently there is no satisfactory theory in this research area that can treat more than the nonperturbative response of a single electron in a model potential. It is the purpose of the present project to develop such theory.
Max ERC Funding
1 330 305 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2016-11-30
Project acronym TIMEINTERCULTURAL
Project Time in Intercultural Context: The Indigenous Calendars of Mexico and Guatemala
Researcher (PI) Maarten Evert Reinoud Gerard Nicolaas Jansen
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary European libraries and museums hold a small corpus of – still quite enigmatic – ancient screenfold manuscripts from the Aztecs, Mixtecs, Mayas and other indigenous cultures in Mexico and neighbouring Central America. The central structuring principle of these pictographic and hieroglyphic texts is the prehispanic calendar, which was not only the dominant framework for historiography and astronomical observations, but was also used for divination, medical treatment, ritual performance, community organisation and moral codes. The comments from authors writing shortly after the Spanish conquest (A.D. 1521) are crucial, but give a generalised, incomplete and biased picture. A wealth of additional and very relevant information is still to be found in the on-going use of this calendar by “daykeepers” (specialists in traditional healing and other rituals) in contemporary indigenous communities in the region. So far, however, little attention has been paid to this fascinating cultural continuity, which is very rapidly disappearing.
This research project, then, has three interrelated aims.
1) To document the endangered knowledge, ideas, practices and oral literature related to the indigenous calendar, still in use in Mexico and Guatemala, through simultaneous ethnographic fieldwork in seven indigenous regions: PhD cands, PI, field assistants, documentary-video team.
2) Connect the resulting data and insights to the historical information in order to extract an in-depth interpretation and reading of the ancient manuscripts, which in turn will lead to a better grasp of the symbolic meaning and social function of time in Mesoamerican thought and culture: PhD cands, PI.
3) Produce a comparative and theoretical analysis of the role of perceptions and conceptualisations of time in the construction of memory and identity, and of how this role is affected by (and influences) long-term and intensive cultural interaction (colonization – modernization - globalization): Postdoc, PI.
Summary
European libraries and museums hold a small corpus of – still quite enigmatic – ancient screenfold manuscripts from the Aztecs, Mixtecs, Mayas and other indigenous cultures in Mexico and neighbouring Central America. The central structuring principle of these pictographic and hieroglyphic texts is the prehispanic calendar, which was not only the dominant framework for historiography and astronomical observations, but was also used for divination, medical treatment, ritual performance, community organisation and moral codes. The comments from authors writing shortly after the Spanish conquest (A.D. 1521) are crucial, but give a generalised, incomplete and biased picture. A wealth of additional and very relevant information is still to be found in the on-going use of this calendar by “daykeepers” (specialists in traditional healing and other rituals) in contemporary indigenous communities in the region. So far, however, little attention has been paid to this fascinating cultural continuity, which is very rapidly disappearing.
This research project, then, has three interrelated aims.
1) To document the endangered knowledge, ideas, practices and oral literature related to the indigenous calendar, still in use in Mexico and Guatemala, through simultaneous ethnographic fieldwork in seven indigenous regions: PhD cands, PI, field assistants, documentary-video team.
2) Connect the resulting data and insights to the historical information in order to extract an in-depth interpretation and reading of the ancient manuscripts, which in turn will lead to a better grasp of the symbolic meaning and social function of time in Mesoamerican thought and culture: PhD cands, PI.
3) Produce a comparative and theoretical analysis of the role of perceptions and conceptualisations of time in the construction of memory and identity, and of how this role is affected by (and influences) long-term and intensive cultural interaction (colonization – modernization - globalization): Postdoc, PI.
Max ERC Funding
2 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31
Project acronym WIMPS KAIROS
Project The Moment of Truth for WIMP Dark Matter
Researcher (PI) Gianfranco Bertone
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Identifying Dark Matter is a top priority in Particle Physics and Cosmology. Among Dark Matter candidates, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) play a special role, since they naturally arise from well motivated extensions of the standard model of particle physics. As I have argued in a recent \textsl{Nature} paper, with the advent of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and of a new generation of astroparticle experiments, the moment of truth has come for WIMPs, for we will either discover them in the next 5 to 10 years, or we will inevitably witness the decline of the WIMP paradigm.
My collaborators and I have actually been preparing for this crucial moment for Dark Matter searches by setting up sophisticated statistical tools, strong connections with experimental collaborations, and an extensive expertise in theoretical models. We are now ready to perform the most complete analysis of Dark Matter data (from direct, indirect and accelerator searches, including all astrophysical uncertainties) in the framework of the most promising BSM (Beyond the Standard Model) theories, including Supersymmetry and Universal Extra Dimensions.
Backed from a well established network of international collaborators, this project aims at becoming part of the theoretical backbone of astroparticle activities in Europe, and to exploit the data that will become available from the LHC at CERN, as well as from several infrastructures included in the ESFRI and ASPERA roadmaps, such as underground Dark Matter detectors and Neutrinos and Cherenkov Telescopes. No matter what the experimental results are, the impact on our understanding of the Universe will be dramatic, for we will either severely constrain possible extensions of the Standard Model, and push them to unnatural territory, or we will finally obtain incontrovertible for Dark Matter, therefore opening a new era in Particle Physics and Cosmology.
Summary
Identifying Dark Matter is a top priority in Particle Physics and Cosmology. Among Dark Matter candidates, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) play a special role, since they naturally arise from well motivated extensions of the standard model of particle physics. As I have argued in a recent \textsl{Nature} paper, with the advent of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and of a new generation of astroparticle experiments, the moment of truth has come for WIMPs, for we will either discover them in the next 5 to 10 years, or we will inevitably witness the decline of the WIMP paradigm.
My collaborators and I have actually been preparing for this crucial moment for Dark Matter searches by setting up sophisticated statistical tools, strong connections with experimental collaborations, and an extensive expertise in theoretical models. We are now ready to perform the most complete analysis of Dark Matter data (from direct, indirect and accelerator searches, including all astrophysical uncertainties) in the framework of the most promising BSM (Beyond the Standard Model) theories, including Supersymmetry and Universal Extra Dimensions.
Backed from a well established network of international collaborators, this project aims at becoming part of the theoretical backbone of astroparticle activities in Europe, and to exploit the data that will become available from the LHC at CERN, as well as from several infrastructures included in the ESFRI and ASPERA roadmaps, such as underground Dark Matter detectors and Neutrinos and Cherenkov Telescopes. No matter what the experimental results are, the impact on our understanding of the Universe will be dramatic, for we will either severely constrain possible extensions of the Standard Model, and push them to unnatural territory, or we will finally obtain incontrovertible for Dark Matter, therefore opening a new era in Particle Physics and Cosmology.
Max ERC Funding
1 248 120 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31
