Project acronym ABEP
Project Asset Bubbles and Economic Policy
Researcher (PI) Jaume Ventura Fontanet
Host Institution (HI) Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI)
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary Advanced capitalist economies experience large and persistent movements in asset prices that are difficult to justify with economic fundamentals. The internet bubble of the 1990s and the real state market bubble of the 2000s are two recent examples. The predominant view is that these bubbles are a market failure, and are caused by some form of individual irrationality on the part of market participants. This project is based instead on the view that market participants are individually rational, although this does not preclude sometimes collectively sub-optimal outcomes. Bubbles are thus not a source of market failure by themselves but instead arise as a result of a pre-existing market failure, namely, the existence of pockets of dynamically inefficient investments. Under some conditions, bubbles partly solve this problem, increasing market efficiency and welfare. It is also possible however that bubbles do not solve the underlying problem and, in addition, create negative side-effects. The main objective of this project is to develop this view of asset bubbles, and produce an empirically-relevant macroeconomic framework that allows us to address the following questions: (i) What is the relationship between bubbles and financial market frictions? Special emphasis is given to how the globalization of financial markets and the development of new financial products affect the size and effects of bubbles. (ii) What is the relationship between bubbles, economic growth and unemployment? The theory suggests the presence of virtuous and vicious cycles, as economic growth creates the conditions for bubbles to pop up, while bubbles create incentives for economic growth to happen. (iii) What is the optimal policy to manage bubbles? We need to develop the tools that allow policy makers to sustain those bubbles that have positive effects and burst those that have negative effects.
Summary
Advanced capitalist economies experience large and persistent movements in asset prices that are difficult to justify with economic fundamentals. The internet bubble of the 1990s and the real state market bubble of the 2000s are two recent examples. The predominant view is that these bubbles are a market failure, and are caused by some form of individual irrationality on the part of market participants. This project is based instead on the view that market participants are individually rational, although this does not preclude sometimes collectively sub-optimal outcomes. Bubbles are thus not a source of market failure by themselves but instead arise as a result of a pre-existing market failure, namely, the existence of pockets of dynamically inefficient investments. Under some conditions, bubbles partly solve this problem, increasing market efficiency and welfare. It is also possible however that bubbles do not solve the underlying problem and, in addition, create negative side-effects. The main objective of this project is to develop this view of asset bubbles, and produce an empirically-relevant macroeconomic framework that allows us to address the following questions: (i) What is the relationship between bubbles and financial market frictions? Special emphasis is given to how the globalization of financial markets and the development of new financial products affect the size and effects of bubbles. (ii) What is the relationship between bubbles, economic growth and unemployment? The theory suggests the presence of virtuous and vicious cycles, as economic growth creates the conditions for bubbles to pop up, while bubbles create incentives for economic growth to happen. (iii) What is the optimal policy to manage bubbles? We need to develop the tools that allow policy makers to sustain those bubbles that have positive effects and burst those that have negative effects.
Max ERC Funding
1 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-04-01, End date: 2015-03-31
Project acronym APMPAL
Project Asset Prices and Macro Policy when Agents Learn
Researcher (PI) Albert Marcet Torrens
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACIÓ MARKETS, ORGANIZATIONS AND VOTES IN ECONOMICS
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2012-ADG_20120411
Summary "A conventional assumption in dynamic models is that agents form their expectations in a very sophisticated manner. In particular, that they have Rational Expectations (RE). We develop some tools to relax this assumption while retaining fully optimal behaviour by agents. We study implications for asset pricing and macro policy.
We assume that agents have a consistent set of beliefs that is close, but not equal, to RE. Agents are ""Internally Rational"", that is, they behave rationally given their system of beliefs. Thus, it is conceptually a small deviation from RE. It provides microfoundations for models of adaptive learning, since the learning algorithm is determined by agents’ optimal behaviour. In previous work we have shown that this framework can match stock price and housing price fluctuations, and that policy implications are quite different.
In this project we intend to: i) develop further the foundations of internally rational (IR) learning, ii) apply this to explain observed asset price price behavior, such as stock prices, bond prices, inflation, commodity derivatives, and exchange rates, iii) extend the IR framework to the case when agents entertain various models, iv) optimal policy under IR learning and under private information when some hidden shocks are not revealed ex-post. Along the way we will address policy issues such as: effects of creating derivative markets, sovereign spread as a signal of sovereign default risk, tests of fiscal sustainability, fiscal policy when agents learn, monetary policy (more specifically, QE measures and interest rate policy), and the role of credibility in macro policy."
Summary
"A conventional assumption in dynamic models is that agents form their expectations in a very sophisticated manner. In particular, that they have Rational Expectations (RE). We develop some tools to relax this assumption while retaining fully optimal behaviour by agents. We study implications for asset pricing and macro policy.
We assume that agents have a consistent set of beliefs that is close, but not equal, to RE. Agents are ""Internally Rational"", that is, they behave rationally given their system of beliefs. Thus, it is conceptually a small deviation from RE. It provides microfoundations for models of adaptive learning, since the learning algorithm is determined by agents’ optimal behaviour. In previous work we have shown that this framework can match stock price and housing price fluctuations, and that policy implications are quite different.
In this project we intend to: i) develop further the foundations of internally rational (IR) learning, ii) apply this to explain observed asset price price behavior, such as stock prices, bond prices, inflation, commodity derivatives, and exchange rates, iii) extend the IR framework to the case when agents entertain various models, iv) optimal policy under IR learning and under private information when some hidden shocks are not revealed ex-post. Along the way we will address policy issues such as: effects of creating derivative markets, sovereign spread as a signal of sovereign default risk, tests of fiscal sustainability, fiscal policy when agents learn, monetary policy (more specifically, QE measures and interest rate policy), and the role of credibility in macro policy."
Max ERC Funding
1 970 260 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-06-01, End date: 2018-08-31
Project acronym BILITERACY
Project Bi-literacy: Learning to read in L1 and in L2
Researcher (PI) Manuel Francisco Carreiras Valina
Host Institution (HI) BCBL BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary Learning to read is probably one of the most exciting discoveries in our life. Using a longitudinal approach, the research proposed examines how the human brain responds to two major challenges: (a) the instantiation a complex cognitive function for which there is no genetic blueprint (learning to read in a first language, L1), and (b) the accommodation to new statistical regularities when learning to read in a second language (L2). The aim of the present research project is to identify the neural substrates of the reading process and its constituent cognitive components, with specific attention to individual differences and reading disabilities; as well as to investigate the relationship between specific cognitive functions and the changes in neural activity that take place in the course of learning to read in L1 and in L2. The project will employ a longitudinal design. We will recruit children before they learn to read in L1 and in L2 and track reading development with both cognitive and neuroimaging measures over 24 months. The findings from this project will provide a deeper understanding of (a) how general neurocognitive factors and language specific factors underlie individual differences – and reading disabilities– in reading acquisition in L1 and in L2; (b) how the neuro-cognitive circuitry changes and brain mechanisms synchronize while instantiating reading in L1 and in L2; (c) what the limitations and the extent of brain plasticity are in young readers. An interdisciplinary and multi-methodological approach is one of the keys to success of the present project, along with strong theory-driven investigation. By combining both we will generate breakthroughs to advance our understanding of how literacy in L1 and in L2 is acquired and mastered. The research proposed will also lay the foundations for more applied investigations of best practice in teaching reading in first and subsequent languages, and devising intervention methods for reading disabilities.
Summary
Learning to read is probably one of the most exciting discoveries in our life. Using a longitudinal approach, the research proposed examines how the human brain responds to two major challenges: (a) the instantiation a complex cognitive function for which there is no genetic blueprint (learning to read in a first language, L1), and (b) the accommodation to new statistical regularities when learning to read in a second language (L2). The aim of the present research project is to identify the neural substrates of the reading process and its constituent cognitive components, with specific attention to individual differences and reading disabilities; as well as to investigate the relationship between specific cognitive functions and the changes in neural activity that take place in the course of learning to read in L1 and in L2. The project will employ a longitudinal design. We will recruit children before they learn to read in L1 and in L2 and track reading development with both cognitive and neuroimaging measures over 24 months. The findings from this project will provide a deeper understanding of (a) how general neurocognitive factors and language specific factors underlie individual differences – and reading disabilities– in reading acquisition in L1 and in L2; (b) how the neuro-cognitive circuitry changes and brain mechanisms synchronize while instantiating reading in L1 and in L2; (c) what the limitations and the extent of brain plasticity are in young readers. An interdisciplinary and multi-methodological approach is one of the keys to success of the present project, along with strong theory-driven investigation. By combining both we will generate breakthroughs to advance our understanding of how literacy in L1 and in L2 is acquired and mastered. The research proposed will also lay the foundations for more applied investigations of best practice in teaching reading in first and subsequent languages, and devising intervention methods for reading disabilities.
Max ERC Funding
2 487 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2017-04-30
Project acronym BUBPOL
Project Monetary Policy and Asset Price Bubbles
Researcher (PI) Jordi GalI Garreta
Host Institution (HI) Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI)
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2013-ADG
Summary "The proposed research project seeks to further our understanding on two important questions for the design of monetary policy:
(a) What are the effects of monetary policy interventions on asset price bubbles?
(b) How should monetary policy be conducted in the presence of asset price bubbles?
The first part of the project will focus on the development of a theoretical framework that can be used to analyze rigorously the implications of alternative monetary policy rules in the presence of asset price bubbles, and to characterize the optimal monetary policy. In particular, I plan to use such a framework to assess the merits of a “leaning against the wind” strategy, which calls for a systematic rise in interest rates in response to the development of a bubble.
The second part of the project will seek to produce evidence, both empirical and experimental, regarding the effects of monetary policy on asset price bubbles. The empirical evidence will seek to identify and estimate the sign and response of asset price bubbles to interest rate changes, exploiting the potential differences in the joint behavior of interest rates and asset prices during “bubbly” episodes, in comparison to “normal” times. In addition, I plan to conduct some lab experiments in order to shed some light on the link between monetary policy and bubbles. Participants will trade two assets, a one-period riskless asset and a long-lived stock, in an environment consistent with the existence of asset price bubbles in equilibrium. Monetary policy interventions will take the form of changes in the short-term interest rate, engineered by the experimenter. The experiments will allow us to evaluate some of the predictions of the theoretical models regarding the impact of monetary policy on the dynamics of bubbles, as well as the effectiveness of “leaning against the wind” policies."
Summary
"The proposed research project seeks to further our understanding on two important questions for the design of monetary policy:
(a) What are the effects of monetary policy interventions on asset price bubbles?
(b) How should monetary policy be conducted in the presence of asset price bubbles?
The first part of the project will focus on the development of a theoretical framework that can be used to analyze rigorously the implications of alternative monetary policy rules in the presence of asset price bubbles, and to characterize the optimal monetary policy. In particular, I plan to use such a framework to assess the merits of a “leaning against the wind” strategy, which calls for a systematic rise in interest rates in response to the development of a bubble.
The second part of the project will seek to produce evidence, both empirical and experimental, regarding the effects of monetary policy on asset price bubbles. The empirical evidence will seek to identify and estimate the sign and response of asset price bubbles to interest rate changes, exploiting the potential differences in the joint behavior of interest rates and asset prices during “bubbly” episodes, in comparison to “normal” times. In addition, I plan to conduct some lab experiments in order to shed some light on the link between monetary policy and bubbles. Participants will trade two assets, a one-period riskless asset and a long-lived stock, in an environment consistent with the existence of asset price bubbles in equilibrium. Monetary policy interventions will take the form of changes in the short-term interest rate, engineered by the experimenter. The experiments will allow us to evaluate some of the predictions of the theoretical models regarding the impact of monetary policy on the dynamics of bubbles, as well as the effectiveness of “leaning against the wind” policies."
Max ERC Funding
799 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym CDAC
Project "The role of consciousness in adaptive behavior: A combined empirical, computational and robot based approach"
Researcher (PI) Paulus Franciscus Maria Joseph Verschure
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2013-ADG
Summary "Understanding the nature of consciousness is one of the grand outstanding scientific challenges and two of its features stand out: consciousness is defined as the construction of one coherent scene but this scene is experienced with a delay relative to the action of the agent and not necessarily the cause of actions and thoughts. Did evolution render solutions to the challenge of survival that includes epiphenomenal processes? The Conscious Distributed Adaptive Control (CDAC) project aims at resolving this paradox by using a multi-disciplinary approach to show the functional role of consciousness in adaptive behaviour, to identify its underlying neuronal principles and to construct a neuromorphic robot based real-time conscious architecture. CDAC proposes that the shift from surviving in a physical world to one that is dominated by intentional agents requires radically different control architectures combining parallel and distributed control loops to assure real-time operation together with a second level of control that assures coherence through sequential coherent representation of self and the task domain, i.e. consciousness. This conscious scene is driving dedicated credit assignment and planning beyond the immediately given information. CDAC advances a comprehensive framework progressing beyond the state of the art and will be realized using system level models of a conscious architecture, detailed computational studies of its underlying neuronal substrate focusing, empirical validation with a humanoid robot and stroke patients and the advancement of beyond state of the art tools appropriate to the complexity of its objectives. The CDAC project directly addresses one of the main outstanding questions in science: the function and genesis of consciousness and will advance our understanding of mind and brain, provide radically new neurorehabilitation technologies and contribute to realizing a new generation of robots with advanced social competence."
Summary
"Understanding the nature of consciousness is one of the grand outstanding scientific challenges and two of its features stand out: consciousness is defined as the construction of one coherent scene but this scene is experienced with a delay relative to the action of the agent and not necessarily the cause of actions and thoughts. Did evolution render solutions to the challenge of survival that includes epiphenomenal processes? The Conscious Distributed Adaptive Control (CDAC) project aims at resolving this paradox by using a multi-disciplinary approach to show the functional role of consciousness in adaptive behaviour, to identify its underlying neuronal principles and to construct a neuromorphic robot based real-time conscious architecture. CDAC proposes that the shift from surviving in a physical world to one that is dominated by intentional agents requires radically different control architectures combining parallel and distributed control loops to assure real-time operation together with a second level of control that assures coherence through sequential coherent representation of self and the task domain, i.e. consciousness. This conscious scene is driving dedicated credit assignment and planning beyond the immediately given information. CDAC advances a comprehensive framework progressing beyond the state of the art and will be realized using system level models of a conscious architecture, detailed computational studies of its underlying neuronal substrate focusing, empirical validation with a humanoid robot and stroke patients and the advancement of beyond state of the art tools appropriate to the complexity of its objectives. The CDAC project directly addresses one of the main outstanding questions in science: the function and genesis of consciousness and will advance our understanding of mind and brain, provide radically new neurorehabilitation technologies and contribute to realizing a new generation of robots with advanced social competence."
Max ERC Funding
2 469 268 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2019-01-31
Project acronym DIDONE
Project The Sources of Absolute Music: Mapping Emotions in Eighteenth-Century Italian Opera
Researcher (PI) alvaro TORRENTE SANCHEZ GUISANDE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary The belief that ‘the end of music is to move human affections’ (Descartes, Compendium musicae) has been a central issue in European musical thought since Plato. Opera was invented to recover the power of Ancient music to move the human heart, and its history is a permanent exploration of the capacity of action, words and music to convey emotions.
In the eighteenth century a new type of opera consolidated with the chief concern of expressing the character’s emotions as they changed throughout the drama, inspired by Descartes’ theory of human passions. The key expressive medium was the aria col da capo, where a single, distinct passion was represented, like a concentrated pill of emotional meaning. The ideal corpus to study this issue are the 900 operas set to music by 300 composers on the 27 dramas by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). It contains a comprehensive catalogue of emotions in music, a unique window of opportunity to scrutinize conventions that defined music expression and meaning for over a century, paving the way for the emergence of ‘absolute’ instrumental music, autonomous from any other art form.
DIDONE presents an innovative approach to unveil these conventions: the creation of a corpus of 4,000 digitized arias from 200 opera scores based on Metastasio’s eight most popular dramas, to be analysed using traditional methods and big data computer technology. The comparative scrutiny of dozens of different musical settings of the same librettos will reveal how composers correlate specific dramatic circumstances and emotions with distinct poetic and musical features. The results will be applicable to three main fields: (i) opera performance; (ii) analysis and interpretation of other types of music; and (iii) composition in several scenarios, from film soundtracks to creation by Artificial Intelligence. An opera festival will be designed to recover and disseminate this hitherto ignored repertoire, which was essential to define the European musical identity.
Summary
The belief that ‘the end of music is to move human affections’ (Descartes, Compendium musicae) has been a central issue in European musical thought since Plato. Opera was invented to recover the power of Ancient music to move the human heart, and its history is a permanent exploration of the capacity of action, words and music to convey emotions.
In the eighteenth century a new type of opera consolidated with the chief concern of expressing the character’s emotions as they changed throughout the drama, inspired by Descartes’ theory of human passions. The key expressive medium was the aria col da capo, where a single, distinct passion was represented, like a concentrated pill of emotional meaning. The ideal corpus to study this issue are the 900 operas set to music by 300 composers on the 27 dramas by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). It contains a comprehensive catalogue of emotions in music, a unique window of opportunity to scrutinize conventions that defined music expression and meaning for over a century, paving the way for the emergence of ‘absolute’ instrumental music, autonomous from any other art form.
DIDONE presents an innovative approach to unveil these conventions: the creation of a corpus of 4,000 digitized arias from 200 opera scores based on Metastasio’s eight most popular dramas, to be analysed using traditional methods and big data computer technology. The comparative scrutiny of dozens of different musical settings of the same librettos will reveal how composers correlate specific dramatic circumstances and emotions with distinct poetic and musical features. The results will be applicable to three main fields: (i) opera performance; (ii) analysis and interpretation of other types of music; and (iii) composition in several scenarios, from film soundtracks to creation by Artificial Intelligence. An opera festival will be designed to recover and disseminate this hitherto ignored repertoire, which was essential to define the European musical identity.
Max ERC Funding
2 498 690 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym DYSTRUCTURE
Project The Dynamical and Structural Basis of Human Mind Complexity: Segregation and Integration of Information and Processing in the Brain
Researcher (PI) Gustavo Deco
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary "Perceptions, memories, emotions, and everything that makes us human, demand the flexible integration of information represented and computed in a distributed manner. The human brain is structured into a large number of areas in which information and computation are highly segregated. Normal brain functions require the integration of functionally specialized but widely distributed brain areas. Furthermore, human behavior entails a flexible task- dependent interplay between different subsets of these brain areas in order to integrate them according to the corresponding goal-directed requirements. We contend that the functional and encoding roles of diverse neuronal populations across areas are subject to intra- and inter-cortical dynamics. More concretely, we hypothesize that coherent oscillations within frequency-specific large-scale networks and coherent structuring of the underlying fluctuations are crucial mechanisms for the flexible integration of distributed processing and interaction of representations.
The project aims to elucidate precisely the interplay and mutual entrainment between local brain area dynamics and global network dynamics and their breakdown in brain diseases. We wish to better understand how segregated distributed information and processing are integrated in a flexible and context-dependent way as required for goal-directed behavior. It will allow us to comprehend the mechanisms underlying brain functions by complementing structural and activation based analyses with dynamics. We expect to gain a full explanation of the mechanisms that mediate the interactions between global and local spatio-temporal patterns of activity revealed at many levels of observations (fMRI, EEG, MEG) in humans under task and resting conditions, complemented and further constrained by using more detailed characterization of brain dynamics via Local Field Potentials and neuronal recording in animals under task and resting conditions."
Summary
"Perceptions, memories, emotions, and everything that makes us human, demand the flexible integration of information represented and computed in a distributed manner. The human brain is structured into a large number of areas in which information and computation are highly segregated. Normal brain functions require the integration of functionally specialized but widely distributed brain areas. Furthermore, human behavior entails a flexible task- dependent interplay between different subsets of these brain areas in order to integrate them according to the corresponding goal-directed requirements. We contend that the functional and encoding roles of diverse neuronal populations across areas are subject to intra- and inter-cortical dynamics. More concretely, we hypothesize that coherent oscillations within frequency-specific large-scale networks and coherent structuring of the underlying fluctuations are crucial mechanisms for the flexible integration of distributed processing and interaction of representations.
The project aims to elucidate precisely the interplay and mutual entrainment between local brain area dynamics and global network dynamics and their breakdown in brain diseases. We wish to better understand how segregated distributed information and processing are integrated in a flexible and context-dependent way as required for goal-directed behavior. It will allow us to comprehend the mechanisms underlying brain functions by complementing structural and activation based analyses with dynamics. We expect to gain a full explanation of the mechanisms that mediate the interactions between global and local spatio-temporal patterns of activity revealed at many levels of observations (fMRI, EEG, MEG) in humans under task and resting conditions, complemented and further constrained by using more detailed characterization of brain dynamics via Local Field Potentials and neuronal recording in animals under task and resting conditions."
Max ERC Funding
2 467 530 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2017-06-30
Project acronym INFOCOMP
Project Information and Competition
Researcher (PI) F Xavier Vives Torrents
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary The project deals with economies with private information. Despite the growing body of work about economies with dispersed information there are at least three important stumbling blocks in the received literature that prevent scientific progress: lack of understanding of the dynamics of markets involving complementarities and information; consideration of public information as exogenous; and avoidance or extreme simplification of welfare analysis (e.g. because of the lack of a well-defined welfare benchmark and/or the presence of reduced-form un-modeled agents such as noise traders). I plan to contribute to remove these obstacles to progress by developing the theory of games with strategic complementarities and incomplete information; introducing static and dynamic models where public information is endogenous; doing away with noise traders and replacing them by hedgers, and performing a welfare analysis with an appropriate welfare benchmark for private information economies. This will be accomplished by developing a series of models where agents can use complex strategies (such as supply functions or demand schedules) and where dynamics matter. The tools used will involve game theory, information economics, market microstructure analysis, theoretical industrial organization and financial intermediation theory. The potential applications will concentrate mostly on industrial organization, and banking and finance.
Summary
The project deals with economies with private information. Despite the growing body of work about economies with dispersed information there are at least three important stumbling blocks in the received literature that prevent scientific progress: lack of understanding of the dynamics of markets involving complementarities and information; consideration of public information as exogenous; and avoidance or extreme simplification of welfare analysis (e.g. because of the lack of a well-defined welfare benchmark and/or the presence of reduced-form un-modeled agents such as noise traders). I plan to contribute to remove these obstacles to progress by developing the theory of games with strategic complementarities and incomplete information; introducing static and dynamic models where public information is endogenous; doing away with noise traders and replacing them by hedgers, and performing a welfare analysis with an appropriate welfare benchmark for private information economies. This will be accomplished by developing a series of models where agents can use complex strategies (such as supply functions or demand schedules) and where dynamics matter. The tools used will involve game theory, information economics, market microstructure analysis, theoretical industrial organization and financial intermediation theory. The potential applications will concentrate mostly on industrial organization, and banking and finance.
Max ERC Funding
1 290 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-05-01, End date: 2014-04-30
Project acronym IRQUAT
Project Information and Randomness in Quantum Theory
Researcher (PI) Andreas Winter
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2010-AdG_20100224
Summary Quantum information science is one of the most dynamic and exciting areas of science today, its significance ranging from the ultimate physical limits of information processing, to fundamental issues of quantum mechanics, to new mathematics and prospects of realising novel, enhanced computation and communication
technologies.
Drawing on ideas from physics, mathematics and computer science, one of the core programmes of this highly interdisciplinary field is to understand and harness quantum mechanics in terms of information theory.
Past steps in this programme include Shor's quantum factoring algorithm, quantum cryptography, and the creation of quantum Shannon and entanglement theory. Dramatic recent developments, while opening up exciting new avenues, at the same time pose major challenges: the proof that quantum capacities can be non-additive showed that the landscape of quantum Shannon theory is actually much richer than previously envisaged; the information theory of generalized non-locality pointed out a completely new take on the foundations of quantum mechanics; and mathematical tools such as the probabilistic method have had a major impact across the board from entanglement theory to quantum Shannon theory and statistical mechanics.
In the proposed research I will address key current open questions in quantum Shannon theory, including long-standing coding problems, and a deeper understanding of the pervasive non-additivity of quantum capacities; develop probabilistic tools directly related to quantum information; find new entropy inequalities and entropic uncertainty relations; characterise entanglement and non-local correlations in information theoretic terms; and realise an ambitious programme of founding statistical mechanics on generic quantum dynamics.
Summary
Quantum information science is one of the most dynamic and exciting areas of science today, its significance ranging from the ultimate physical limits of information processing, to fundamental issues of quantum mechanics, to new mathematics and prospects of realising novel, enhanced computation and communication
technologies.
Drawing on ideas from physics, mathematics and computer science, one of the core programmes of this highly interdisciplinary field is to understand and harness quantum mechanics in terms of information theory.
Past steps in this programme include Shor's quantum factoring algorithm, quantum cryptography, and the creation of quantum Shannon and entanglement theory. Dramatic recent developments, while opening up exciting new avenues, at the same time pose major challenges: the proof that quantum capacities can be non-additive showed that the landscape of quantum Shannon theory is actually much richer than previously envisaged; the information theory of generalized non-locality pointed out a completely new take on the foundations of quantum mechanics; and mathematical tools such as the probabilistic method have had a major impact across the board from entanglement theory to quantum Shannon theory and statistical mechanics.
In the proposed research I will address key current open questions in quantum Shannon theory, including long-standing coding problems, and a deeper understanding of the pervasive non-additivity of quantum capacities; develop probabilistic tools directly related to quantum information; find new entropy inequalities and entropic uncertainty relations; characterise entanglement and non-local correlations in information theoretic terms; and realise an ambitious programme of founding statistical mechanics on generic quantum dynamics.
Max ERC Funding
1 440 119 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2017-04-30
Project acronym NEXT
Project Towards the NEXT generation of bb0nu experimets
Researcher (PI) Juan Jose Gomez Cadenas
Host Institution (HI) AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2013-ADG
Summary Neutrinoless double beta decay is a hypothetical, very slow radioactive process whose observation would establish unambiguously that massive neutrinos are Majorana particles --- that is to say, identical to their antiparticles ---, which implies that a new physics scale beyond the Standard Model must exist. Furthermore, it would prove that total lepton number is not a conserved quantity, suggesting that this new physics could also be the origin of the observed asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the Universe.
In recent years, many innovative ideas have been put forward to improve the sensitivity of \bbonu\ experiments. In general, these propositions have sought to increase the number of experimental signatures available to reject backgrounds while attempting to use isotopes and detector techniques which can be more easily scaled to large masses.
The objective of this project is to realize the NEXT experiment, an innovativedetector based on a high-pressure xenon gas (HPXe) TPC that will run at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc (LSC), in Spain.
Our primary goal is to complete the construction and commissioning of a 150 kg HPXe TPC (NEXT-100) by 2014, and start a physics run in 2015 that can improve the present bound set by the EXO experiment and perhaps discover the Majorana nature of neutrinos. In addition, we will carry out an R\&D program focused in demonstrating the scalability of the technology to the ton scale.
Summary
Neutrinoless double beta decay is a hypothetical, very slow radioactive process whose observation would establish unambiguously that massive neutrinos are Majorana particles --- that is to say, identical to their antiparticles ---, which implies that a new physics scale beyond the Standard Model must exist. Furthermore, it would prove that total lepton number is not a conserved quantity, suggesting that this new physics could also be the origin of the observed asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the Universe.
In recent years, many innovative ideas have been put forward to improve the sensitivity of \bbonu\ experiments. In general, these propositions have sought to increase the number of experimental signatures available to reject backgrounds while attempting to use isotopes and detector techniques which can be more easily scaled to large masses.
The objective of this project is to realize the NEXT experiment, an innovativedetector based on a high-pressure xenon gas (HPXe) TPC that will run at the Laboratorio Subterr\'aneo de Canfranc (LSC), in Spain.
Our primary goal is to complete the construction and commissioning of a 150 kg HPXe TPC (NEXT-100) by 2014, and start a physics run in 2015 that can improve the present bound set by the EXO experiment and perhaps discover the Majorana nature of neutrinos. In addition, we will carry out an R\&D program focused in demonstrating the scalability of the technology to the ton scale.
Max ERC Funding
2 791 771 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2019-01-31
