Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : QAffine (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 792750.0 €

Quantum affine algebras are important examples of Drinfeld-Jimbo quantum groups. They can be defined as quantizations of affine Kac-Moody algebras or as affinizations of finite type quantum groups (Drinfeld Theorem). The representation theory of quantum affine algebras is very rich. It has been studied intensively during the past twenty five years from different point of views, in particular in connections with various fields in mathematics and in physics, such as geometry (geometric representation theory, geometric Langlands program), topology (invariants in small dimension), combinatorics (crystals, positivity problems) and theoretical physics (Bethe Ansatz, integrable systems). In particular, the category C of finite-dimensional representations of a quantum affine algebra is one of the most studied object in quantum groups theory. However, many important and fundamental questions are still unsolved in this field. The aim of the research project is to make significant advances in the understanding of the category C as well as of its applications in the following five directions. They seem to us to be the most promising directions for this field in the next years : 1. Asymptotical representations and applications to quantum integrable systems, 2. G-bundles on elliptic curves and quantum groups at roots of 1, 3. Categorications (of cluster algebras and of quantum groups), 4. Langlands duality for quantum groups, 5. Proof of (geometric) character formulas and applications. The resources would be used for the following : (1) Hiring of 2 PhD students (in 2015 and 2017). (2) Hiring of 2 Postdocs (in 2015 and 2017). (3) Invitations and travel for ongoing and future scientific collaborations. (4) Organization of a summer school in Paris on quantum affine algebras.

Mots-clés : quantum groups,quantum integrable models,representations,infinite dimensional lie algebras,cluster algebras,categorification and geometry
Projet ERC : QAFA (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 853981.69 €

Quantum computers are designed to use quantum mechanics to go beyond the power of any standard computer based only on classical physics. Following intensive experimental efforts, it is predicted that a demonstration of so-called "quantum computational supremacy" will occur in the near future. However, many urgent questions remain regarding the usefulness of quantum computers for problems of real practical interest, and the timescale on which such usefulness will be achieved. The overall goal of this project is to address the most significant near-term and long-range theoretical challenges involved in bringing quantum algorithms to practical applications. The project comprises three programmes of work, with the following goals: - Design quantum algorithms that accelerate general classical algorithmic frameworks; develop efficient quantum communication protocols; and characterise the features of problems that allow a quantum speedup; - Demonstrate larger quantum-classical separations than previously known, and enable rigorous verification of quantum computational supremacy experiments; - Find new quantum algorithms for key problems in quantum physics, including learning and testing algorithms for large quantum systems. Simulation of quantum-mechanical systems is considered the most important application area for quantum computers, yet current algorithms are still beyond the reach of near-term devices. A unique feature of this project is its approach encompassing the full spectrum of quantum algorithms research, from underpinning mathematics through to detailed analysis of applications. Making progress on the foundations will enable progress on the more technically challenging aspects of applications, while having particular applications in mind will raise interesting new foundational questions.

Mots-clés : quantum algorithms,quantum computational complexity,theory of computation
Projet ERC : IQFT (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Southampton — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1992452.0 €

Quantum field theory forms the foundation of our understanding of elementary particle physics. It provides the theoretical background for the interpretation of data from collider experiments. While quantum field theory is an old subject, over the last decade new features have begun to emerge which reveal new ways to understand it. In particular an astonishing simplicity has been found at the heart of the maximally supersymmetric gauge theory in four spacetime dimensions, a close cousin of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), which describes the strong interactions. My research team will use the new methods I have been developing to construct explicit results for scattering amplitudes and correlation functions. We will develop these results into general statements about the analytic behaviour of scattering amplitudes. The approach will be based on my recent work on new dualities between amplitudes and Wilson loops and on new symmetries revealing an underlying integrable structure. This research will allow us to answer key foundational questions such as the origin of Regge behaviour of scattering amplitudes in the high energy limit, and the connection to string theory in the limit of strong coupling. We will also pursue the connection to quantum groups and formulate the problem of scattering amplitudes in this language. This provide a solid mathematical underpinning to the formulation of the scattering problem in quantum field theories and allow application of techniques from the field of integrable systems to gauge theories. An enormous effort goes into performing the calculations of scattering amplitudes needed to make precise predictions for collider experiments. New techniques to handle such calculations are much needed. We will develop new tools, such as the application of differential equation methods for loop integrals and analytic bootstrap methods for amplitudes. This research will allow us to greatly improve on existing efforts to calculate processes in QCD.
Projet ERC : PERSISMO (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999611.0 €

Quantum leaps in observations have recently upended our classical view of earthquakes & tsunamis and have demonstrated that our understanding of these destructive natural events is not unified and still too limited to perform reliable predictions. Fortunately, catastrophic events remain relatively rare. Yet this scarcity also implies that their fine scale and long-term dynamics can only be studied in detail through numerical simulations. The goal of PERSISMO is to build a physics based Virtual Earthquake Simulator to make seismic and tsunami hazard estimates on fault networks. Indeed, the modern view emanating from observations is that fault networks continuously release stored energy over a wide range of spatiotemporal scales. With this philosophy in mind, we have been developing simulation tools to capture the behaviour of these fault networks and our recent work has demonstrated that these networks indeed control the dominant portion of the continuous energy release, whatever the time and length scales considered. Within PERSISMO, we will build a physics-based framework, which will include all known physical contributions to dynamic fracturing. This will unify a never achieved range of spatiotemporal scales, from meters to hundreds of kilometres, seconds to millenniums. Using available data and catalogues, our results will be validated along natural fault networks to capture slow and fast seismic energy release. Building on this, we will develop a Machine Learning based framework to run thousands of ensemble and future hazard scenarios on a given fault network. Only then, we might be able to make reliable predictions about their behaviour in the future. Our project to build a physics-driven Virtual Earthquake Simulator is interdisciplinary by nature, as it must combine expertise in mechanics, earth sciences and computation. In the long-term, our simulator will have the potential to become key in helping decision makers on possible natural hazard scenarios.

Mots-clés : fracture mechanics  friction,natural hazard,prediction
Projet ERC : QLite (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Universität Hamburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UHH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149850.0 €

Quantum noise of laser light limits the sensitivity of many optical measurement devices. This project will proof the concept of a new innovative idea that is able to reduce the quantum noise of laser light."

Mots-clés : squeezed light,vibrometer,photometer,cryptography
Projet ERC : 2DQP (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Heriot-Watt University — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999135.0 €

Quantum optics, the study of how discrete packets of light (photons) and matter interact, has led to the development of remarkable new technologies which exploit the bizarre properties of quantum mechanics. These quantum technologies are primed to revolutionize the fields of communication, information processing, and metrology in the coming years. Similar to contemporary technologies, the future quantum machinery will likely consist of a semiconductor platform to create and process the quantum information. However, to date the demanding requirements on a quantum photonic platform have yet to be satisfied with conventional bulk (three-dimensional) semiconductors. To surmount these well-known obstacles, a new paradigm in quantum photonics is required. Initiated by the recent discovery of single photon emitters in atomically flat (two-dimensional) semiconducting materials, 2DQP aims to be at the nucleus of a new approach by realizing quantum optics with ultra-stable (coherent) quantum states integrated into devices with electronic and photonic functionality. We will characterize, identify, engineer, and coherently manipulate localized quantum states in this two-dimensional quantum photonic platform. A vital component of 2DQP’s vision is to go beyond the fundamental science and achieve the ideal solid-state single photon device yielding perfect extraction - 100% efficiency - of on-demand indistinguishable single photons. Finally, we will exploit this ideal device to implement the critical building block for a photonic quantum computer.

Mots-clés : two dimensional materials,quantum dot
Projet ERC : QLev4G (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Vienna — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Univie
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2155285.0 €

Quantum physics and general relativity are probably the most successful and well-tested theories of modern science. At the same time, their fundamental concepts are so dramatically different that there is disagreement on the most obvious questions such as “how does a mass in a quantum superposition state gravitate?“. Achieving progress on such foundational questions requires experiments at the interface between quantum physics and gravity, of which to date only a few of exist. The main objective of the proposed research is to establish quantum control of levitated massive objects as a new paradigm system for such experiments and to enter a hitherto inaccessible parameter regime of large mass and long quantum coherence. The proposal builds on the enormous recent success in quantum control of the motion of solid-state mechanical resonators, which has emerged over the last decade as a new branch of interdisciplinary research in quantum and solid-state physics. Applied to optically or magnetically levitated systems this methodology promises (i) exceptional sensitivity to weak gravitational forces, hence enabling measurements of gravity between sub-millimeter objects; (ii) unprecedented levels of decoupling from the environment, thereby opening up a new route for long-lived quantum coherence of genuinely massive systems. Quantum control is achieved by coupling the motion either of optically trapped particles to an optical cavity field or of magnetically trapped particles to superconducting circuits. We will explore both methods for systematically expanding the available parameter space of macroscopic quantum systems and for first proof-of-concept experiments aimed towards addressing fundamental questions of gravitational quantum physics. If successful, this research program will become a door-opener to the quantum regime of genuinely massive objects, where gravity of the quantum system itself may start to play a role for the correct description of a quantum experiment.

Mots-clés : quantum mechanics,quantum optomechanics,optical levitation,superconducting levitation,macroscopic quantum physics,gravitational quantum physics
Projet ERC : Q-Feedback (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : Inria
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Quantum technologies, such as quantum computers and simulators, have the potential of revolutionizing our computational speed, communication security and measurement precision. The power of the quantum relies on two key but fragile resources: quantum coherence and entanglement. This promising field is facing a major open question: how to design machines which exploit quantum properties on a large scale, and efficiently protect them from external perturbations (decoherence), which tend to suppress the quantum advantage? Making a system robust and stable to the influence of external perturbations is one of the core problems in control engineering. The goal of this project is to address the above question from the angle of control systems. The fundamental and scientific ambition is to elaborate theoretical control methods to analyse and design feedback schemes for protecting and stabilizing quantum information. Q-Feedback develops mathematical methods to harness the inherently stochastic aspects of quantum measurements. Relying on the development of original mathematical perturbation techniques specific to open quantum systems, Q-Feedback proposes a new hierarchical strategy for quantum feedback modeling, design and analysis. The building block of a quantum machine is the quantum bit (qubit), a system which can adopt two quantum states. Despite major progress, qubits remain fragile and lose their quantum properties before a meaningful task can be accomplished. For this reason, a qubit must be both protected against external perturbations, and manipulated to perform a task. Today, no such qubit has been built. In collaboration with experimentalists, the practical ambition is to design, relying on the control tools developed here, qubits readily integrable in a quantum processing unit. The physical platform will be Josephson superconducting circuits. Q-Feedback is expected to demonstrate the crucial role of control engineering in emerging quantum technologies.

Mots-clés : quantum control,coherent feedback,decoherence control,control of open quantum systems
Projet ERC : REPAC (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Vienna — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Univie
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1494198.0 €

REPAC is a contribution to the intellectual history of Ancient Mesopotamia, one of mankind’s earliest civilizations. The project investigates the relationship between textual form and function in Mesopotamian literature and scholarly compositions. It focuses on exact and variant repetition as a text structuring device and demonstrates that the use of repetition is grounded in a fundamental aspect of the worldview of Mesopotamian learned scribes. REPAC studies literary, magical and mantic texts written on clay tablets inscribed in the Cuneiform script in the Akkadian language dating from the first millennium BCE. Parallelism, refrain, ring composition and similar types of regular, part-repetitive patterning occur on all levels of these erudite textual genres. Textual elements which are separate but yoked together through contiguity and similarity were a major vector for poetic creativity, rhetorical effectiveness and inventiveness in argumentation. Repetition in its various forms was used not only as a means of aesthetic ornamentation. In mantic texts, it opened a way to understand the world through analogical reasoning. Literary texts constructed arguments by elucidating different aspects of their theme through sequences of parallel, but slightly divergent, statements. In magical rituals, repetition was used for magical action through the construction of persuasive analogies. The ubiquity of textual repetition was rooted in the scribes’ belief in the meaningful and causally effective interconnection of words, concepts and things sharing an element of similarity. No sustained effort at understanding this worldview and the importance of analogy as a principle of Mesopotamian literary and scholarly method has ever been made. The project fills this major knowledge gap. It will lead to a significantly improved understanding of the creative effort of Ancient Mesopotamia.

Mots-clés : ancient mesopotamia,textual repetition,divination,literature,magic,analogical reasoning
Projet ERC : RIVERS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Deusto — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

RIVERS’s main challenge is to produce ground-breaking knowledge, from an empirical, interdisciplinary and dialoguing perspective, about the contentions and challenges intrinsic to reconceptualising human rights with different ways of understanding and relating to water. Worldwide, indigenous peoples are mobilising against the neoliberalisation of nature, demonstrating radically different ways of knowing, being and living. At the same time, in 2010 the UN acknowledged water as a human right, while in 2017 New Zealand, India and Colombia established ground-breaking legal precedents by granting rivers human rights. RIVERS’s overarching research question is: To what extent can international human rights law come to grips with plurilegal water realities? This project engages with one of the most pressing questions of this century: the relationship between humans and nature. RIVERS tackles two intertwined core objectives: 1) analysing different ways of knowing and relating to water and life among indigenous peoples and their understanding of its (potential) violation by extractive projects; 2) discussing the contributions, challenges and pitfalls of interlegal translation of differing water natures in plurilegal encounters at domestic and international levels. RIVERS will develop a multi-sited analysis and empirical case-studies in three contexts: Colombia, Nepal and the UN human rights protection system. Through the lens of legal pluralism, this will foreground competing political and legal water realities that interrogate dominant understandings of the modern world. RIVERS will address two interrelated research challenges: 1) indigenous visions/practices: beyond water as a natural resource and human right; 2) the UN human rights system: towards counter-hegemonic water knowledge production. This project will pioneer new ways of thinking about water beyond the modern divides of nature/culture, providing clues about future paths towards reconceptualising human rights.

Mots-clés : human rights,legal anthropology,human right to water,indigenous peoples,legal pluralism,extractivism,natural resources,ontological turn,decolonial theories
Projet ERC : RadiCool (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 125386.31 €

Radicals are paramagnetic species – atoms or molecules with an unpaired electron – and they are prevalent in gas-phase environments such as the atmosphere, combustion systems and the interstellar medium. In spite of their real-world importance, very few experimental methods can be applied to the precise study of gas-phase radical reactions. This is primarily due to the significant challenges associated with such studies; there are no established methods for generating a pure beam of atomic or molecular gas-phase radicals with tuneable properties. In this proposal, I provide a solution. I will develop a versatile and innovative “magnetic guide”, for the generation of a pure and state-selected beam of radicals. The magnetic guide will feature a series of specially-designed permanent magnets (Halbach arrays) and skimming blades. It will act as a stand-alone device, producing a pure beam of radicals with continuously tuneable velocity from an effusive mixture (containing radicals, precursor molecules and seed gases). The magnetic guide will be combined with two existing experiments – an ion trap and a liquid-surface set-up – and will enable us to study ion-radical and radical-liquid surface interactions with unprecedented control and precision. We will examine important gas-phase reactions involving radicals in isolation (i.e. without competing side reactions) for the first time. Our measurements will provide the missing experimental data needed to improve the accuracy of (for example) complex atmospheric chemistry models – replacing untested predictions from capture theory calculations.

Mots-clés : magnetic guide,ion radical reactions,ion liquid surface collisions,instrument development,theoretical method development