Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Light-induced NanoAssembly (LINASS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-04-01
End date: 2018-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2049999.6
EU funding (EUR): 2049999.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

NanoMaterials have huge promise in a wide range of applications of societal importance. Intricate combinations of metals, semiconductors, dielectrics, and molecular components in three-dimensional configurations, have new and unusual properties. Such advanced functions are at the heart of photovoltaics, magnetic and quantum information technologies, photosynthesis, water splitting, electronics, batteries, fuel cells, catalysis and many more crucial areas. Despite much research, we simply cannot yet make such nanomaterials at will. This problem is thus a major challenge for the future decades that we need to solve. The proposal here uses bottom-up assembly of nano-components combined with the application of controlling beams of light, as a new approach to sub-nm precision capable of scale-up. The exact arrangement of nano-sized components can drastically change the optical response of a nanostructure. We directly exploit this optical sensitivity to structure. Irradiation by specific wavelengths of laser light builds up strong optical fields only in parts of the structure which transiently have the right configuration. These regions of high field can be spatially localised to 1nm, far smaller than the wavelength of light. If this induces enhanced binding then optical selection preferentially selects specific morphologies. The principal goal of this proposal is to demonstrate the new strategies for reliable nano-constructs at the 1nm scale, which can be produced in large numbers with essentially identical architecture. Several approaches will be explored in parallel, using the light to either glue together nano building blocks, or to deposit the energy needed to grow nanostructures directly. In addition developing ways for light to flex structures can result in significant changes to the optical spectra, thus providing exquisitely-sensitive feedback on the nanoscale. Light is a crucial observational tool, requiring development of real-time sub-ms spectroscopies.

Keywords: plasmonics,quantum tunnelling,soft materials,polymers,metamaterials,photovoltaics,photonic crystals
Active large-scale learning for visual recognition (ALLEGRO)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Computer science and informatics
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2493322.0
EU funding (EUR): 2493322.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

A massive and ever growing amount of digital image and video content is available today, on sites such as Flickr and YouTube, in audiovisual archives such as those of BBC and INA, and in personal collections. In most cases, it comes with additional information, such as text, audio or other metadata, that forms a rather sparse and noisy, yet rich and diverse source of annotation, ideally suited to emerging weakly supervised and active machine learning technology. The ALLEGRO project will take visual recognition to the next level by using this largely untapped source of data to automatically learn visual models. The main research objective of our project is the development of new algorithms and computer software capable of autonomously exploring evolving data collections, selecting the relevant information, and determining the visual models most appropriate for different object, scene, and activity categories. An emphasis will be put on learning visual models from video, a particularly rich source of information, and on the representation of human activities, one of today's most challenging problems in computer vision. Although this project addresses fundamental research issues, it is expected to result in significant advances in high-impact applications that range from visual mining of the Web and automated annotation and organization of family photo and video albums to large-scale information retrieval in television archives.

Keywords: visual object recognition,action recognition,large scale classification
Coherent trajectories through symmetry breaking transitions (TRAJECTORY)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Slovenia
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2018-12-31
Duration (months): 68.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1503600.0
EU funding (EUR): 1503600.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

We propose to investigate the coherent trajectories of many-body systems undergoing symmetry-breaking transitions (SBTs) in real time, where trajectories are meant here in a mathematical sense used to describe the dynamics of nonlinear systems. The key idea which makes this project possible is the development of a specific femtosecond laser spectroscopy technique which allows us to distinguish the order parameter dynamics in complex matter systems from hot-electron energy relaxation, quasiparticle recombination processes, damping and dephasing of coherent phonon oscillations. This allows real-time high resolution investigations of the critical system trajectories through SBTs, beyond the capabilities of current state of the art time-resolved techniques. We will investigate coherent collective field oscillations and the fundamentals of topological defect creation by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism including a study of their annihilation in the aftermath of SBTs. We will aim to control the coherent trajectories at bifurcation points by laser pulses and external fields. We will address fundamental questions on the effect of symmetry and fundamental interactions of underlying microscopic vacua on global behaviour. Systems included in our study belong to a number of different universality classes and include the study of nontrivial transitions to newly discovered hidden states of matter. In the general framework of reductionism, we expect our findings to have fundamental bearing on our understanding of SBTs revealing predictive tell-tale signatures of critical events of relevance in areas beyond many-body condensed matter physics, in elementary particle physics, primordial cosmological events and tipping points in nonlinear systems. Transition trajectories to and from hidden states are of particular interest for practical applications in new femtosecond state change memory devices.

Keywords: symmetry-breaking transitions,ultrafast spectroscopy,condensed matter physics,superconductivity,charge density waves
The calm before the storm: Pre-stellar cores as Astrophysical Laboratories (PALS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Universe sciences
Countries involved: Germany,Netherlands,United States,United Kingdom,Canada
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499291.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499291.0
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

Stars like our Sun and planets like our Earth form in dense regions within interstellar molecular clouds, called pre-stellar cores (PSCs). PSCs provide the initial conditions in the process of star and planet formation, but large uncertainties exist concerning basic astrophysical processes and parameters, such as surface chemistry, the cosmic-ray ionization rate, the H2 ortho-to-para ratio, the abundance of atomic Oxygen and "metals". In current models, these parameters/processes are typically fixed to some "canonical" values and variations across PSCs are neglected. With the new generation of telescopes and the advances in radiative transfer and dynamical/chemical modelling, the time has now come to develop theoretical models without highly uncertain parameters. PCSs are dark, cold and quiescent. They are the simplest units in the process of star formation. Thus, they provide a unique opportunity for the study of fundamental astrophysical processes in a "calm" environment, just before the battering of the protostellar "storm". For this reason, PSCs can be used as ideal laboratories to refine our understanding of how stars and planets form. With this advanced grant fellowship, I plan to connect state of the art dynamical and chemical models and test them against detailed observations of prototypical PCSs to first deliver parameters and processes that are needed to understand basic physical mechanisms. I will then explore in detail the formation, evolution and physical/chemical structure of PSCs in different environments. Finally, with the help of ALMA data, I will focus on the central few thousands AU and study the first steps toward the formation and early evolution of proto-planetary disks (PPDs). This is sorely needed to enable us to understand the initial conditions in the process of star and planet formation and to link PSCs with PPDs, currently studied by different communities, with the ultimate aim of understanding our chemical/physical heritage.

Keywords: molecular astrophysics,dust,astrochemistry
Advancing computational chemistry with new accurate, robust and scalable electronic structure methods (ASES)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Physical and Analytical Chemical sciences
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-02-01
End date: 2018-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2454000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2454000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of this proposal is to tackle two of the greatest challenges in quantum chemistry: (i) extending the applicability of highly accurate wave function methods to large molecular systems, and (ii) developing accurate and robust multi-reference methods that can be used for studying important but very difficult problems in transition metal chemistry, catalysis, and photochemistry. Solutions to these problems have now come within reach due to three advances we recently reported: first, the steep scaling of the computational cost with molecular size can be reduced to linear by exploiting the short-range character of electron correlation (local correlation methods). Second, the accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of these local correlation methods can be strongly improved by new tensor decomposition approaches and the inclusion of terms depending explicitly on the inter-electronic distances (F12 methods). Third, the development of highly complex electronic structure theories can be greatly facilitated and accelerated by new automated tensor network evaluation techniques. We are certain that by combining and generalizing these advances the long-standing problems (i) and (ii) can be solved. We will focus especially on highly scalable algorithms in order to use massively parallel computer systems efficiently. For linear-scaling methods this means that the size of the molecules that can be treated in a fixed time will grow linearly with the number of available processors. We will furthermore explore new multi-reference ansätze and implement analytical energy gradients and response properties for local methods. Hybrid and embedding methods to account for solvent and environment effects will also be investigated. It is our priority to make our new methods as easy to use, robust, and widely applicable as possible. We believe that they will open entirely new horizons for innumerable applications in chemistry, physics, biology, and materials science.

Keywords: elelctronic structure methods,electron correlation,local correlation,explicit correlation,multireference methods,coupled-cluster methods,perturbation theory,high-performance computing
Scattering and absorption of electromagnetic waves in particulate media (SAEMPL)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Universe sciences
Countries involved: Finland
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-04-01
End date: 2018-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2749532.0
EU funding (EUR): 2749532.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The canonical problem of electromagnetic scattering in complex particulate media is solved numerically using multiple-scattering theory based on the Maxwell equations, with an exact treatment of the leading ladder and cyclical interaction diagrams. The numerical methods are validated using a nanotechnology-based scattering experiment that, simultaneously with the measurement of the full scattering matrix at arbitrary illumination and observation geometries, allows for a detailed physical characterization of the scattering object using Atomic Force Microscopy. The numerical and experimental methods will have a major impact on how knowledge is accrued on objects in our Solar System based on their scattering characteristics, with wavelengths spanning from the ultraviolet to radio, using both space-based and ground-based observing programs. The methods will have immediate applications in Earth observation, including remote sensing of the atmosphere, land, and sea.

Keywords: light scattering,coherent backscattering,opposition effect,negative linear polarization,small solar system objects,asteroids,comets,atmosphereless solar system objects
Modeling the Physics of Nano-Friction (MODPHYSFRICT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Italy,France
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1550000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1550000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

In the next five years, novel nanoscale friction experiments will provide decisive data on the physics of a century-old, central, yet incompletely understood area of physics. Nano and mesoscopic phenomena without historical precedent in classic friction are emerging in tip based and other sliding and dissipation measurements. Opportunities for the control of friction, based on harnessing and modifying collective phenomena in the substrate are in the works; and fresh spectroscopic insights into the quantum phenomena in solids and surfaces are currently obtained by nanofrictional means. Finally, exciting laser based sliding nanosystems just appeared. All this experimental opulence demands a strong matching theoretical effort: and just that is the scope of this project. I and my group will model, calculate and simulate the frictional anomalies accompanying structural and ferroelectric phase transitions as an opportunity for friction control; and will pursue the noncontact dissipation anomalies as a local spectroscopic tool of electronic, magnetic and quantum transitions. A strong priority will be the theory and simulation of sliding in trapped colloids and cold ions on laser generated periodic potentials, where nanoscale and mesoscale sliding phenomena promise to be uniquely accessible. The range of approaches will cover phenomenology, model building and testing, molecular dynamics atomistic simulations of sliding, both empirical and ab initio, electronic and magnetic dissipation modeling; and ordinary condensed matter theory, along with non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. To achieve that scope, I will put together students, postdocs, and leading condensed matter theorists operating mostly in SISSA Trieste, but also in ICTP Trieste and elsewhere, assembling a strong team in good contact with European experimental groups. Their complementarity will allow this unified project to attain results much beyond what the team members could individually achieve.

Keywords: friction,nanotribology,nanofriction control,afm,qcm,superlubricity,atomic stick-slip,colloids,electronic/magnetic friction,nonequilibrium,cold ions,surface phase transitions,mott insulator
Graph Theory: Colourings, flows, and decompositions. (GRACOL)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Mathematical foundations
Countries involved: Denmark
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-02-01
End date: 2018-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1518471.0
EU funding (EUR): 1518471.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Graph theory is a relatively new branch of mathematics. Early sources of inspiration are Kirchhoff’s theory of electrical networks and the 4-color problem, both from the 19th century. In the 20th century graph theory was one of the most rapidly growing branches of mathematics with applications to theoretical computer science (design and analysis of algorithms), operations research (combinatorial optimization) and models in engineering and economics. The internet may be thought as a graph. There are also strong ties to geometry, topology, probability theory and logic. The main subjects in the project are graphs in the plane and on higher surfaces, graph decomposition, the Tutte polynomial and the graph flow conjectures, and also combinatorial problems arising from differential geometry. The project is centered around applying new approaches to some classical problems in graph theory, in particular problems in chromatic graph theory and flow theory. In some sense these problems have an algebraic unification in the Tutte polynomial of two variables. The Tutte polynomial has as special valuations (fixing one of the variables) the chromatic polynomial (introduced in 1912 by Birkhoff) and the flow polynomial. More recently, the Tutte polynomial has also become of interest in statistical mechanics. Among the specific problems to be investigated is Tutte’s 3-flow conjecture from the early 1970es, the problem if the flow polynomial can have arbitrarily large roots (motivated by Tutte’s 5-flow conjecture), the Merino-Welsh conjecture on the numbers of spanning trees, acyclic orientations and totally cyclic orientations, and Wegner’s conjecture from 1977 about squares of planar cubic graphs. We expect to get significant new insight (but not complete solutions) to the two notoriously hard flow conjectures of Tutte (both of which are also described in Wikipedia). We expect to almost solve the Merino-Welsh conjecture. We expect to completely solve the Wegner conjecture.

Keywords: msc2010: 05c graph theory 10
Global Glacier Mass Continuity (ICEMASS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth system science
Countries involved: Norway
Call:  (ERC-2012-ADG_20120216, 2012)
Start date: 2013-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2395320.0
EU funding (EUR): 2395320.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

For the first time in history satellite data and respective archive holdings are now sufficient in terms of their spatial and temporal resolution, and their accuracy, to measure volume changes, velocities and changes in these velocities over time for glaciers and ice caps other than ice sheets on a global scale. The ICEMASS project will derive and analyse glacier thickness changes using satellite laser and radar altimetry, and satellite-derived and other digital elevation models, and convert these to a global glacier mass budget. Such data set will enable major steps forward in glacier and Earth science, in particular: constrain current sea-level contribution from glaciers; complete climate change patterns as reflected in glacier mass changes; quantify the contribution of glacier imbalance to river run-off; allow to separate glacier mass loss from other components of gravity changes as detected through satellite gravimetry; and allow improved modelling of the isostatic uplift component due to current changes in glacier load. These results will be connected to global-scale glacier dynamics, for which a global set of repeat optical and radar satellite images will be processed to measure displacements due to glacier flow and their annual to decadal-scale changes. The analysis of these data will enable several major steps forward in glacier and Earth science, in particular: progress the understanding of glacier response to climate and its changes; provide new insights in processes underlying spatio-temporal variability and instability of glacier flow on decadal scales; improve understanding of dynamic thickness change effects; allow estimating global calving fluxes; progress understanding of transport in glaciers and their role in landscape development; and help to better assess potentially hazardous glacier lakes.

Keywords: glaciers and ice caps,dynamics,volume changes,thickness changes,mass balance,satellite image matching,satellite altimetry,satellite optical stereo