Two young researchers from NBI awarded ERC starting grants

The projects are part of the EU Horizon Europe Programme and will help researchers across a wide field of different research branches to make discoveries. Stefano and Mathias explain their projects here:

ASPEQT- Stefano Paesani

Light is one of the most powerful tools we have to interrogate Nature and to develop new technologies. However, at its most fundamental level, light is extremely fragile: single photons can be easily lost and their state inevitably erased.

Quantum error correction offers a solution to tolerate such noises by encoding quantum information in the entanglement between multiple photons, making quantum states of light resilient to noise. Successfully implementing this would enable advanced quantum applications, such as quantum computations beyond the reach of conventional computers and unconditionally secure quantum networks.

However, challenges in generating robust entanglement with photons have so far posed severe limitations to demonstrating photonic quantum error correction. ASPEQT will develop a new generation of quantum photonic devices that can generate entanglement at the scale required to support quantum error correction. It will do so by advancing foundational hardware building blocks through the integration of emerging color centers in scalable silicon photonic circuits.

The project will develop novel techniques for embedding and controlling color centers within silicon nanostructures, achieving highly coherent spin-photon interfaces in silicon—a transformative development for scalable photonic quantum technologies.

The technology will be benchmarked by generating robust entanglement between multiple photons and spins, culminating in the experimental realization of quantum error correction of logical photonic qubits that can tolerate photon loss, the dominant noise mechanism for quantum light.

This project represents a highly promising and innovative approach to scalable quantum hardware, building on NBI’s unique expertise in solid-state photonic devices and quantum error correction with photons. Success will unlock transformative possibilities for scaling quantum technologies, from robust quantum networks to photon-based quantum computers.

PHOSCIL - Mathias Heltberg

DNA damage response is a crucial function in living organisms, essential for maintaining genomic integrity. Two key processes prevent damage from propagating through generations:

1) DNA repair and 2) regulation of the cell cycle. Recent discoveries reveal that following DNA double-strand breaks, cells form biomolecular condensates at the site of damage through liquid-liquid phase separation.

Another hallmark of the response is the initiation of oscillatory p53 concentration leading to cell cycle arrest. Despite being one of the most basic responses in cells, the physical mechanisms underlying this remains poorly understood as does the interplay between repair and regulation.

I aim to derive the basic principles for condensates interacting with dynamical and oscillatory concentration fields. Here I will uncover how cells use fundamental mechanisms of physics to control formation and maintenance of condensates and how the emergence of oscillations can facilitate this task.

The main highlights of PHOSCIL are the following:

• Revealing the physical mechanisms and inferring observables of condensate formation, by creating new methods for analysis, guided by theoretical models applied to novel experiments.
• Discovery of out-of-equillibrium phenomena of oscillatory and dynamic fields and their interactions with phase separation, generating conceptual advances in our understanding of biophysical systems.
• Uncovering the functional roles of phase sparation and oscillation on both repair and cell cycle regulation, advancing our fundamental understanding of, and ability to influence, cell fate decisions.

To succesfully take these ambitious steps, I will combine theory and experiments that, taken together, will uncover novel concepts in the physics of phase separating systems and define a new chapter in our understanding of the DNA damage response.