Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Nanopore integrated nanoelectrodes for biomolecular manipulation and sensing (PORABEL)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2010-10-01
End date: 2015-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1439840.0
EU funding (EUR): 1439840.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In this proposal we aim to address several complex biophysical problems at single molecule level that remained elusive due to the lack of appropriate experimental approach where one could manipulate independently both interacting biomolecules and in the same time measure the strength of their interaction and correlate it with their electronic signature. In particular we are interested in finding out how biopolymer finds, enters and translocates nanopore. Equally intriguing is still unresolved mechanism of phage DNA ejection. We will also investigate how exactly proteins recognize the target binding places on DNA and if the protein DNA recognition is based on the complementarity of their charge patterns. To allow addressing those biophysical problems we will develop novel experimental framework by integrating electrodes to the nanopore based force spectroscopy. The proposed strategy will enable two directions of the research: single molecule manipulation and single molecule detection /sensing equally suitable for investigating complex biophysical problems and molecular recognition assays. By exploiting superior sensing and detection capabilities of our devices, we will investigate following practical applications improved nucleotide detection, selective protein detection and protein charge profiling via nanopore unfolding. Unique combination of optical manipulation and nanofluidics could lead to new methods of bioanalysis, mechanical characterization and discrimination between specific and non-specific DNA protein interactions. This research proposal combines nanofabrication, optics, nano/microfluidics, electronics, computer programming, and biochemistry

Keywords: nanopores,dna,protein interaction
Ultracold Erbium: Exploring Exotic Quantum Gases (ERBIUM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2015-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1076442.1
EU funding (EUR): 1076442.1
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Ultracold quantum gases have exceptional properties and offer an ideal test-bed to elucidate intriguing phenomena of modern quantum physics. My project proposes to use a new exotic element to study strong dipolar effects in quantum gases. For its appealing properties, we choose erbium (Er), a rare-earth metal that has hardly been explored until now. This species is strongly magnetic and comparatively heavy. Due to these characteristics, we expect the quantum system to be of extreme dipolar character and to exhibit a large number of magnetic Feshbach resonances, necessary to manipulate the low-energy scattering properties. Moreover, this element has a very rich energy level spectrum, which could open up the way to establish novel laser cooling schemes, and it has numerous isotopes, one of them having a fermionic character. Remarkably, none of the species so far used in ultracold quantum gas experiments offers such a unique combination of properties! By using Erbium, we will be in an optimal position to produce a strongly dipolar atomic gases of bosons and fermions with tunable contact interaction. First important goals of the ERBIUM project include: Extensive study of Er scattering properties, realization of the first Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases of erbium atoms, study of dipolar effects in atomic system, production of strongly polar weakly-bound Er molecules and study their properties in a two-dimensional trapping environment. We also have a long-term vision for the ERBIUM project: we will mix heavy erbium atoms with much lighter lithium atoms to produce atomic mixtures with extreme mass imbalance.

Keywords: ultracold quantum gases,bose-einstein condensation,feshbach resonance,laser cooling,dipole-dipole interaction,fermi gases
Fundamental Physics from the Cosmic Microwave Background (FPCMB)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Universe sciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2016-06-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Much of the foundational evidence for our current model of cosmology, describing the origins and evolution of the Universe, has come from observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This is relic light that has been travelling for almost 14 billion years since the Big Bang, carrying a picture of the Universe in its infancy. So far it has told us what the Universe is made of today, as well as its average density and its age. We find that it is only 5% normal matter, with the remainder composed of unknown components: 72% Dark Energy and 23% Dark Matter. We do not yet know their nature. We have also seen signatures that support the idea that structure in the Universe was seeded by tiny ripples in the otherwise smooth space, created during a rapid expansion of the Universe in the first trillionth of a second, called inflation'. In Oxford I now propose to target additional information encoded in the CMB, by looking at measurements with higher resolution and sensitivity than ever before. The main goals of this proposal are to uncover convincing evidence for the inflationary scenario, and to better determine the nature of the Dark Energy component, particularly at early cosmic times. My team will be using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, a 6m telescope in Chile, and from ESA's Planck Satellite mission, which is observing the CMB over the whole sky and launched in 2009. We will have to deal with contamination both from our own Galaxy and from many other distant galaxies in order to convincingly extract the underlying signals from the high energy Universe.

Keywords: cosmic microwave background,inflation,neutrinos,markov chain monte carlo,parameter estimation,galactic magnetic field
Expressive Shape: Intuitive Creative and Optimization of 3D Geometry (XSHAPE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Computer science and informatics
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2010-11-01
End date: 2015-12-31
Duration (months): 62.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1348000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1348000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

We propose radically new concepts for creating digital and real shapes with the help of computers, considering characteristics of human perception, cognition, and established workflows in art and design. Traditionally, real objects were created and optimized based directly on their visual impression. With the introduction of CAD/CAM, this immediate feedback has been lost, replaced by an engineering pipeline that capitalizes on mathematical representations and accurate machining. We believe to have identified the fundamental problems in this process, and propose research that leads to tools that support creation of shapes by humans and for humans. The research is concerned with data structures and algorithms that support the optimization of virtual and real shapes so that they possess and clearly convey desired features. This will lead to user interfaces for shape design based on features that humans understand and already use for communication. It will also lead to techniques that optimize the geometry of shapes so that the desired features stand out in likely viewing and illumination conditions. We will further extend the optimization to include the illumination, opening up an entirely new way to create the visual world around us. While the research is primarily concerned with geometry, it relies on results in perception, cognitive science, mathematics, and other disciplines, and by means of cross-pollination might lead to fruitful insights across the boundaries of computer science. The resulting tools will help making digital shapes a commodity, with effects on markets, industry, and society similar to what we have experienced for digital music or images.

Keywords: shape modeling,sketch-based modeling,geometry processing,expressive shading
Quantum fields and Curvature--Novel Constructive Approach via Operator Product Expansion (QC&C)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Mathematical foundations
Countries involved: Germany,United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 818098.6
EU funding (EUR): 818098.6
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

It was realized already from the beginning that the theory of quantized fields (QFT) does not easily fit into known mathematical structures, and the quest for a satisfactory mathematical foundation continues to-day. Parts of this theory have already been tremendously successful, e.g. in the quantitative description of elementary particles, and ideas from QFT have revolutionized entire fields of mathematics. But the non-perturbative construction of the most important QFT s, namely renormalizable theories in 4d, remains unsolved. The aim of this project is to make a substantial contribution to this quest for the mathematical construction of such QFT s (on curved manifolds), and the exploration of their mathematical structure. We want to pursue a novel ansatz to achieve this goal. The essence of our novel approach is to focus attention on the algebraic backbone of the theory, which manifests itself in the so-called operator-product-expansion. The study of such algebraic structures related to operator products has already been tremendously useful in the study of conformal field theories in low dimensions, but we here propose that a suitable version of it also has great potential to be used as a constructive tool for the much more complicated quantum gauge theories in four dimensions. It is not expected that an explicit solution can be obtained for such models-especially so in curved space-but the idea is instead to analyze powerful consistency conditions on the quantum field theory arising from the OPE ( associativity conditions ) and to use them to prove that the theory exists in a mathematically rigorous sense. Our approach will be complemented by other powerful and deep mathematical tools that have been developed over the past decades, such as the sophisticated non-perturbative expansions uncovered in the school of constructive quantum fields theory , Hochschild cohomology, RG-flow equation techniques, microlocal analysis, curvature expansions, and many more.

Keywords: mathematical construction of qft models,curved spacetimes,quantum algebra,functional analytic methods,cohomological methods
Deciphering the Evolution of Galaxies and the Assembly of Structure: Probing the Growth of Non-Linear Structure in the Dark Universe with Statistical Analyses of Galaxy Surveys (DEGAS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Universe sciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2016-12-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1256696.0
EU funding (EUR): 1256696.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

I propose to measure the growth of non-linear structure in the dark universe to answer two fundamental questions in cosmology: Is the Cold Dark Matter structure formation theory compatible with the galaxy distribution on group scales? Is the accelerating expansion of the Universe caused by Dark Energy? This frontier research probes two key components of our standard cosmological model. This study is fundamental for understanding structure formation and galaxy evolution, leading to possible ground-breaking changes in our comprehension of gravitational physics. I will tackle this ambitious research plan by exploiting my extensive knowledge of galaxy survey analyses and propose to critically test our standard model by measuring three key properties: the shape and evolution of the Cold Dark Matter halo mass function; the efficiency of galaxy formation in Local Group sized systems; the evolution of the growth of structure. To achieve those decisive goals, I will build the DEGAS Team, an inter-disciplinary unit dedicated to solve photometric and spectroscopic survey systematics, to develop optimal clustering statistics for imaging surveys and to create a large variety of state-of-the-art mock Universes to interpret the statistical analyses. The techniques developed will be applied to two world-leading galaxy surveys: GAMA, a multi-wavelength redshift survey of which I am a founder and co-PI, and Pan-STARRS PS1, a unique 3/4-sky imaging survey. Using innovative clustering statistics accounting for individual photometric redshift distributions and statistically robust methods for halo mass function estimates, my DEGAS Team will provide the ultimate test for structure formation models, gain key insights on galaxy evolution and present novel constraints on the nature of gravity.

Keywords: exploitation of large galaxy surveys [imaging & spectroscopic] mock galaxy surveys from large n-body simulations statistical analyses galaxy formation
Quark-Gluon Plasma through dilepton studies with the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (QUARKGLUONPLASMACMS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2010-11-01
End date: 2015-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1133600.0
EU funding (EUR): 1133600.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal aims at consolidating a Quark-Gluon Plasma research team recently founded by Raphaël Granier de Cassagnac, the Principal Investigator (PI) of this proposal, at the Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet (LLR). The PI has a deep experience of heavy-ions physics, working since 9 years in the PHENIX collaboration of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. His recognized activities already propelled him soon after having joined the CMS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider, as convener of the world-wide Heavy Ions Physics Analysis Group for a term covering the 2010-2011period. CMS, the Compact Muon Collaboration, is extremely well suited for muon measurements. From di-muon mass spectra we will first measure Z-bosons for the first time in a heavy-ions environment. This provides useful information on quark distribution function in nuclei, and opens the field of Z-jet studies, allowing unbiased studies of jet fragmentation function. We will also measure quarkonia (J/È and Upsilons). Though Upsilons will be novel measurements, J/È have been extensively studied by the PI at RHIC. A larger suppression observed at forward rapidity is still a puzzle, that we will help solving. We propose to enhance a computing centre (the GRIF Tier-2) to conduct heavy-ions specific data reconstruction, analysis and simulations. We also want to open a new activity: electron reconstruction in CMS heavy-ions environment. This very challenging objective will benefit from LLR highly experienced p+p physicists in electron reconstruction. The access to the dielectron mass spectra will raise the statistics of our signal and provide a crucial cross-check of all studies. Finally, we want to keep a phenomenological component in the team, so to have all the tools to properly interpret our own results.

Keywords: quark gluon plasma dilepton quarkonia
CRYSP: A Novel Framework for Collaboratively Building Cryptographically Secure Programs and their Proofs (CRYSP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Computer science and informatics
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2010-11-01
End date: 2015-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1406726.4
EU funding (EUR): 1406726.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The field of software security analysis stands at a critical juncture. Applications have become too large for security experts to examine by hand, automated verification tools do not scale, and the risks of deploying insecure software are too great to tolerate anything less than mathematical proof. A radical shift of strategy is needed if programming and analysis techniques are to keep up in a networked world where increasing amounts of governmental and individual information are generated, manipulated, and accessed through web-based software applications. The basic tenet of this proposal is that the main roadblock to the security verification of a large program is not its size, but rather the lack of precise security specifications for the underlying libraries and security-critical application code. Since, large-scale software is often a collaborative effort, no single programmer knows all the design goals. Hence, this proposal advocates a collaborative specification and verification framework that helps teams of programmers write detailed security specifications incrementally and then verify that they are satisfied by the source program. The main scientific challenge is to develop new program verification techniques that can be applied collaboratively, incrementally, and modularly to application and library code written in mainstream programming languages. The validation of this approach will be through substantial case studies. Our aim is to produce the first verified open source cryptographic protocol library and the first web applications with formal proofs of security. The proposed project is bold and ambitious, but it is certainly feasible, and has the potential to change how software security is analyzed for years to come.

Keywords: security,cryptography,program verification,open source software,collaborative software development
Dynamics of the Quark-Gluon Plasma: A Journey into new phases of the Strong Interaction (QGPDYN)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2011-05-01
End date: 2017-01-31
Duration (months): 69.0
Total project cost (EUR): 655000.0
EU funding (EUR): 655000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The study of the fundamental theory of the strong interaction, Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD), under extreme conditions of temperature and density has captured an increasing interest due to its very rich dynamical content and its relation to the Early Universe physics. Heavy-Ion Collisions (HIC) at ultra-relativistic energy (above ~10 AGeV) provide the possibility to scrutiny the QCD phase diagram reaching energy densities high enough to cause a phase transition of the hadronic matter into a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The experiments conducted at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that such a state of matter behaves like a nearly perfect fluid with a very small shear viscosity, a very high opacity at high transverse momentum pT (>6 GeV) and manifesting evidences for a modification of the hadronization process at intermediate pT (2-6 GeV) . Interestingly and surprisingly enough, also in the heavy quark sector there are hints that viscosity is similarly small. Furthermore some evidence of a new phase of QCD, the color glass condensate (CGC), has been found while its relevance should increase in the upcoming LHC program at CERN. These are the main physics subjects that we deal with in our project. The main objective of the project is to determine the value of the shear viscosity to entropy ratio h/s of the perfect fluid and the implications of a possible primordial CGC phase on the dynamical evolution of the system. The research gains strength from a comprehensive study of the rich phenomenology including both inclusive and more exclusive observables (like the two-three particles correlations triggered by hadronic jets) and from the inclusion of hadronization effects. In addition the study will be conducted considering also the heavy flavor sector where a fluid behaviour similar to the light one is observed. The microscopic origin of such a similarity will be investigated together with its relation to the suppression/regeneration of quarkonia.

Keywords: quark-gluon plasma,transport theory,relativistic heavy-ion collisions,quantum chromodynamics
Dynamics of quasiperiodic type (QUASIPERIODIC)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Mathematical foundations
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2010-StG_20091028, 2010)
Start date: 2010-12-01
End date: 2015-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1020840.0
EU funding (EUR): 1020840.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project is dedicated to the study of two distinct classes of dynamical systems which display a quasiperiodic component. The first class consists of quasiperiodic cocycles, and we will largely focus on connections with the spectral theory of quasiperiodic Schrodinger operators. Up to very recently, our understanding had been mostly restricted to situations where the potential would have some clear characteristics of large or small potentials. In particular, no genuinely global theory had been devised that could go so far as give insight on the phase-transition between large-like and small-like potentials. With the introduction by the PI of techniques to analyze the parameter dependence of one-frequency potentials which involve much less control of the dynamics of associated cocycles, and the discovery of new regularity features of this dependence, it is now possible to elaborate a precise conjectural global picture, whose proof is one of the major goals of the project. The second class consists of translation flows on higher genus surfaces. The Teichmuller flow acts as renormalization in this class, and its chaotic features have permitted a detailed description of the dynamics of typical translation flows. This project will concentrate on the the development of techniques suitable to the analysis of non-typical families of translation flows, which arise naturally in the context of certain applications, as for rational billiards. We aim to obtain results regarding the spectral gap for restrictions of the SL(2,R action, the existence of polynomial deviations outside exceptional cases, and the weak mixing property for certain billiards.

Keywords: quasiperiodic operators,teichmuller flow,renormalization