Project acronym ANTINEUTRINONOVA
Project Probing Fundamental Physics with Antineutrinos at the NOvA Experiment
Researcher (PI) Jeffrey Hartnell
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary "This proposal addresses major questions in particle physics that are at the forefront of experimental and theoretical physics research today. The results offered would have far-reaching implications in other fields such as cosmology and could help answer some of the big questions such as why the universe contains so much more matter than antimatter. The research objectives of this proposal are to (i) make world-leading tests of CPT symmetry and (ii) discover the neutrino mass hierarchy and search for indications of leptonic CP violation.
The NOvA long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment will use a novel ""totally active scintillator design"" for the detector technology and will be exposed to the world's highest power neutrino beam. Building on the first direct observation of muon antineutrino disappearance (that was made by a group founded and led by the PI at the MINOS experiment), tests of CPT symmetry will be performed by looking for differences in the mass squared splittings and mixing angles between neutrinos and antineutrinos. The potential to discover the mass hierarchy is unique to NOvA on the timescale of this proposal due to the long 810 km baseline and the well measured beam of neutrinos and antineutrinos.
This proposal addresses several key challenges in a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment with the following tasks: (i) development of a new approach to event energy reconstruction that is expected to have widespread applicability for future neutrino experiments; (ii) undertaking a comprehensive calibration project, exploiting a novel technique developed by the PI, that will be essential to achieving the physics goals; (iii) development of a sophisticated statistical analyses.
The results promised in this proposal surpass the sensitivity to antineutrino oscillation parameters of current 1st generation experiments by at least an order of magnitude, offering wide scope for profound discoveries with implications across disciplines."
Summary
"This proposal addresses major questions in particle physics that are at the forefront of experimental and theoretical physics research today. The results offered would have far-reaching implications in other fields such as cosmology and could help answer some of the big questions such as why the universe contains so much more matter than antimatter. The research objectives of this proposal are to (i) make world-leading tests of CPT symmetry and (ii) discover the neutrino mass hierarchy and search for indications of leptonic CP violation.
The NOvA long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment will use a novel ""totally active scintillator design"" for the detector technology and will be exposed to the world's highest power neutrino beam. Building on the first direct observation of muon antineutrino disappearance (that was made by a group founded and led by the PI at the MINOS experiment), tests of CPT symmetry will be performed by looking for differences in the mass squared splittings and mixing angles between neutrinos and antineutrinos. The potential to discover the mass hierarchy is unique to NOvA on the timescale of this proposal due to the long 810 km baseline and the well measured beam of neutrinos and antineutrinos.
This proposal addresses several key challenges in a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment with the following tasks: (i) development of a new approach to event energy reconstruction that is expected to have widespread applicability for future neutrino experiments; (ii) undertaking a comprehensive calibration project, exploiting a novel technique developed by the PI, that will be essential to achieving the physics goals; (iii) development of a sophisticated statistical analyses.
The results promised in this proposal surpass the sensitivity to antineutrino oscillation parameters of current 1st generation experiments by at least an order of magnitude, offering wide scope for profound discoveries with implications across disciplines."
Max ERC Funding
1 415 848 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-10-01, End date: 2018-09-30
Project acronym CASAA
Project Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of amines and amides
Researcher (PI) Jeffrey William Bode
Host Institution (HI) EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH
Country Switzerland
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary "Amines and their acylated derivatives – amides – are among the most common chemical functional groups found in modern pharmaceuticals. Despite this there are few methods for their efficient, environmentally sustainable production in enantiomerically pure form. This proposal seeks to provide new catalytic chemical methods including 1) the catalytic, enantioselective synthesis of peptides and 2) catalytic methods for the preparation of enantiopure nitrogen-containing heterocycles. The proposed work features innovative chemistry including novel reaction mechanism and catalysts. These methods have far reaching applications for the sustainable production of valuable compounds as well as fundamental science."
Summary
"Amines and their acylated derivatives – amides – are among the most common chemical functional groups found in modern pharmaceuticals. Despite this there are few methods for their efficient, environmentally sustainable production in enantiomerically pure form. This proposal seeks to provide new catalytic chemical methods including 1) the catalytic, enantioselective synthesis of peptides and 2) catalytic methods for the preparation of enantiopure nitrogen-containing heterocycles. The proposed work features innovative chemistry including novel reaction mechanism and catalysts. These methods have far reaching applications for the sustainable production of valuable compounds as well as fundamental science."
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-12-01, End date: 2017-11-30
Project acronym ESSOG
Project Extracting science from surveys of our Galaxy
Researcher (PI) James Jeffrey Binney
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE9, ERC-2012-ADG_20120216
Summary "The goal is to put in place the infrastructure required to extract the promised science for large surveys of our Galaxy that are underway and will culminate in ESA's Cornerstone Mission Gaia. Dynamical models are fundamental to this process because surveys are heavily biased by the Sun's location in the Galaxy. Novel dynamical models will be built and novel methods of fitting them to the data developed. With their help we will be able to constrain the distribution of dark matter in the Galaxy. By modelling the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Galaxy we expect to be able to infer much information about how the Galaxy was assembled, and thus test the prevailing cosmological paradigm. During the grant period we will be applying our tools to ground-based surveys, but the first version of the Gaia Catalogue will become available at the end of the grant period, and our goal is to have everything ready and tested for its prompt exploitation."
Summary
"The goal is to put in place the infrastructure required to extract the promised science for large surveys of our Galaxy that are underway and will culminate in ESA's Cornerstone Mission Gaia. Dynamical models are fundamental to this process because surveys are heavily biased by the Sun's location in the Galaxy. Novel dynamical models will be built and novel methods of fitting them to the data developed. With their help we will be able to constrain the distribution of dark matter in the Galaxy. By modelling the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Galaxy we expect to be able to infer much information about how the Galaxy was assembled, and thus test the prevailing cosmological paradigm. During the grant period we will be applying our tools to ground-based surveys, but the first version of the Gaia Catalogue will become available at the end of the grant period, and our goal is to have everything ready and tested for its prompt exploitation."
Max ERC Funding
1 954 460 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-04-01, End date: 2018-03-31
Project acronym HBAR12
Project Spectroscopy of Trapped Antihydrogen
Researcher (PI) Jeffrey Scott Hangst
Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2012-ADG_20120216
Summary Antihydrogen is the only stable, neutral antimatter system available for laboratory study. Recently, the ALPHA Collaboration at CERN has succeeded in synthesizing and trapping antihydrogen atoms, storing them for up to 1000 s, and performing the first resonant spectroscopy, using microwaves, on trapped antihydrogen. This last, historic result paves the way for precision microwave and laser spectroscopic measurements using small numbers of trapped antihydrogen atoms. Because of the breakthroughs made in our collaboration, it is now possible, for the first time, to design antimatter spectroscopic experiments that have achievable milestones of precision. These measurements require a next-generation apparatus, known as ALPHA-2, which is the subject of this proposal. The items sought are hardware components and radiation sources to help us to test CPT (charge conjugation, parity, time reversal) symmetry invariance by comparing the spectrum of antihydrogen to that of hydrogen. More generally, we will address the very fundamental question: do matter and antimatter obey the same laws of physics? The Standard Model says that they must, but mystery continues to cloud our understanding of antimatter - as evidenced by the unexplained baryon asymmetry in the universe. ALPHA's experiments offer a unique, high precision, model-independent view into the internal workings of antimatter.
Summary
Antihydrogen is the only stable, neutral antimatter system available for laboratory study. Recently, the ALPHA Collaboration at CERN has succeeded in synthesizing and trapping antihydrogen atoms, storing them for up to 1000 s, and performing the first resonant spectroscopy, using microwaves, on trapped antihydrogen. This last, historic result paves the way for precision microwave and laser spectroscopic measurements using small numbers of trapped antihydrogen atoms. Because of the breakthroughs made in our collaboration, it is now possible, for the first time, to design antimatter spectroscopic experiments that have achievable milestones of precision. These measurements require a next-generation apparatus, known as ALPHA-2, which is the subject of this proposal. The items sought are hardware components and radiation sources to help us to test CPT (charge conjugation, parity, time reversal) symmetry invariance by comparing the spectrum of antihydrogen to that of hydrogen. More generally, we will address the very fundamental question: do matter and antimatter obey the same laws of physics? The Standard Model says that they must, but mystery continues to cloud our understanding of antimatter - as evidenced by the unexplained baryon asymmetry in the universe. ALPHA's experiments offer a unique, high precision, model-independent view into the internal workings of antimatter.
Max ERC Funding
2 136 888 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-05-01, End date: 2018-12-31
Project acronym INNODYN
Project Integrated Analysis & Design in Nonlinear Dynamics
Researcher (PI) Jakob Soendergaard Jensen
Host Institution (HI) DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Imagine lighter and more fuel economic cars with improved crashworthiness that help save lives, aircrafts and wind-turbine blades with significant weight reductions that lead to large savings in material costs and environmental impact, and light but efficient armour that helps to protect against potentially deadly blasts. These are the future perspectives with a new generation of advanced structures and micro-structured materials.
The goal of INNODYN is to bring current design procedures for structures and materials a significant step forward by developing new efficient procedures for integrated analysis and design taking the nonlinear dynamic performance into account. The assessment of nonlinear dynamic effects is essential for fully exploiting the vast potentials of structural and material capabilities, but a focused endeavour is strongly required to develop the methodology required to reach the ambitious goals.
INNODYN will in two interacting work-packages develop the necessary computational analysis and design tools using
1) reduced-order models (WP1) that enable optimization of the overall topology of structures which is today hindered by excessive computational costs when dealing with nonlinear dynamic systems
2) multi-scale models (WP2) that facilitates topological design of the material microstructure including essential nonlinear geometrical effects currently not included in state-of-the-art methods.
The work will be carried out by a research group with two PhD-students and a postdoc, led by a PI with a track-record for original ground-breaking research in analysis and optimization of linear and nonlinear dynamics and hosted by one of the world's leading research groups on topology optimization, the TOPOPT group at the Technical University of Denmark.
Summary
Imagine lighter and more fuel economic cars with improved crashworthiness that help save lives, aircrafts and wind-turbine blades with significant weight reductions that lead to large savings in material costs and environmental impact, and light but efficient armour that helps to protect against potentially deadly blasts. These are the future perspectives with a new generation of advanced structures and micro-structured materials.
The goal of INNODYN is to bring current design procedures for structures and materials a significant step forward by developing new efficient procedures for integrated analysis and design taking the nonlinear dynamic performance into account. The assessment of nonlinear dynamic effects is essential for fully exploiting the vast potentials of structural and material capabilities, but a focused endeavour is strongly required to develop the methodology required to reach the ambitious goals.
INNODYN will in two interacting work-packages develop the necessary computational analysis and design tools using
1) reduced-order models (WP1) that enable optimization of the overall topology of structures which is today hindered by excessive computational costs when dealing with nonlinear dynamic systems
2) multi-scale models (WP2) that facilitates topological design of the material microstructure including essential nonlinear geometrical effects currently not included in state-of-the-art methods.
The work will be carried out by a research group with two PhD-students and a postdoc, led by a PI with a track-record for original ground-breaking research in analysis and optimization of linear and nonlinear dynamics and hosted by one of the world's leading research groups on topology optimization, the TOPOPT group at the Technical University of Denmark.
Max ERC Funding
823 992 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2016-01-31
Project acronym M4D
Project Metal Microstructures in Four Dimensions
Researcher (PI) Dorte JUUL JENSEN
Host Institution (HI) DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE8, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary The goals are:
1) to develop a universal laboratory-based 4D X-ray microscope with potentials in the broad field of materials science and beyond;
2) to advance metal research by quantifying local microstructural variations using the new 4D tool and by including the effects hereof in the understanding and modelling of industrially relevant metals.
Today, high resolution 4D (x,y,z,time) crystallographic characterization of materials is possible only at large international facilities. This is a serious limitation preventing the common use. The new technique will allow such 4D characterization to be carried out at home laboratories, thereby wide spreading this powerful tool.
Whereas current metal research mainly focuses on average properties, local microstructural variations are present in all metals on several length scales, and are often of critical importance for the properties and performance of the metal. In this project, the new technique will be the cornerstone in studies of such variations in three types of metallic materials: 3D printed, multilayered and micrometre-scale metals. Effects of local variations on the subsequent microstructural evolution will be followed during deformation and annealing, i.e. during processes typical for manufacturing, and occurring during in-service operation.
Current models largely ignore the presence of local microstructural variations and lack predictive power. Based on the new experimental data, three models operating on different length scales will be improved and combined, namely crystal plasticity finite element, phase field and molecular dynamics models. The main novelty here relates to the full 4D validation of the models, which has not been possible hitherto because of lack of sufficient experimental data.
The resulting fundamental understanding of the inherent microstructural variations and the new models are foreseen to be an integral part of the future design of metallic materials for high performance applications.
Summary
The goals are:
1) to develop a universal laboratory-based 4D X-ray microscope with potentials in the broad field of materials science and beyond;
2) to advance metal research by quantifying local microstructural variations using the new 4D tool and by including the effects hereof in the understanding and modelling of industrially relevant metals.
Today, high resolution 4D (x,y,z,time) crystallographic characterization of materials is possible only at large international facilities. This is a serious limitation preventing the common use. The new technique will allow such 4D characterization to be carried out at home laboratories, thereby wide spreading this powerful tool.
Whereas current metal research mainly focuses on average properties, local microstructural variations are present in all metals on several length scales, and are often of critical importance for the properties and performance of the metal. In this project, the new technique will be the cornerstone in studies of such variations in three types of metallic materials: 3D printed, multilayered and micrometre-scale metals. Effects of local variations on the subsequent microstructural evolution will be followed during deformation and annealing, i.e. during processes typical for manufacturing, and occurring during in-service operation.
Current models largely ignore the presence of local microstructural variations and lack predictive power. Based on the new experimental data, three models operating on different length scales will be improved and combined, namely crystal plasticity finite element, phase field and molecular dynamics models. The main novelty here relates to the full 4D validation of the models, which has not been possible hitherto because of lack of sufficient experimental data.
The resulting fundamental understanding of the inherent microstructural variations and the new models are foreseen to be an integral part of the future design of metallic materials for high performance applications.
Max ERC Funding
2 496 519 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30
Project acronym MatMech
Project Live Tapings of Material Formation: Unravelling formation mechanisms in materials chemistry through Multimodal X-ray total scattering studies
Researcher (PI) Kirsten Marie oernsbjerg Jensen
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2018-STG
Summary With this proposal, I want to develop a new, multimodal approach to in situ X-ray scattering studies to unravel formation mechanisms of the solid state. The aim of the project is to develop a unified view of metal oxide nucleation processes on the atomic scale: From precursor complexes over pre-nucelation clusters to the final crystalline particle.
The development of new materials relies on our understanding of the relation between material structure, properties and synthesis. While the intense focus on ‘materials by design’ have made it possible to predict the properties of many materials given an atomic arrangement, actually knowing how to synthesize it is a completely different story. Material synthesis methods are to a large degree developed by extensive parameter studies based on trial-and-error experiments. Specifically, our knowledge of particle nucleation is lacking, as even non-classical views on nucleation such as the concept of pre-nucleation clusters do not apply an atomistic view of the formation process. Here, I want to use new methods in X-ray total scattering and Pair Distribution Function analysis to follow nucleation processes to establish the framework needed for predictive material synthesis. One of the large challenges in studying nucleation is the lack of a characterization method that can give structural information on materials without long-range order. I have demonstrated that time-resolved X-ray total scattering gives new possibilities for following structural changes in a synthesis, and the use of total scattering has opened for a new view on material formation. However, the complexity of the structures involved in nucleation processes is too large to obtain sufficient information from X-ray total scattering alone. Here, I will combine X-ray total scattering data with complementary techniques using a new multimodal approach for complex modelling analysis, providing a unifying view on material nucleation.
Summary
With this proposal, I want to develop a new, multimodal approach to in situ X-ray scattering studies to unravel formation mechanisms of the solid state. The aim of the project is to develop a unified view of metal oxide nucleation processes on the atomic scale: From precursor complexes over pre-nucelation clusters to the final crystalline particle.
The development of new materials relies on our understanding of the relation between material structure, properties and synthesis. While the intense focus on ‘materials by design’ have made it possible to predict the properties of many materials given an atomic arrangement, actually knowing how to synthesize it is a completely different story. Material synthesis methods are to a large degree developed by extensive parameter studies based on trial-and-error experiments. Specifically, our knowledge of particle nucleation is lacking, as even non-classical views on nucleation such as the concept of pre-nucleation clusters do not apply an atomistic view of the formation process. Here, I want to use new methods in X-ray total scattering and Pair Distribution Function analysis to follow nucleation processes to establish the framework needed for predictive material synthesis. One of the large challenges in studying nucleation is the lack of a characterization method that can give structural information on materials without long-range order. I have demonstrated that time-resolved X-ray total scattering gives new possibilities for following structural changes in a synthesis, and the use of total scattering has opened for a new view on material formation. However, the complexity of the structures involved in nucleation processes is too large to obtain sufficient information from X-ray total scattering alone. Here, I will combine X-ray total scattering data with complementary techniques using a new multimodal approach for complex modelling analysis, providing a unifying view on material nucleation.
Max ERC Funding
1 493 269 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
