CRC/Transregio (TRR) 185 “OSCAR” has been extended for a third funding period. The University of Kaiserslautern-Landau holds the role of lead institution, while a number of researchers from the University of Bonn are also involved. A common presumption in physics is that quantum effects will only have a decisive impact on a system’s properties if it is as isolated as possible from its environment, and many quantum technologies hinge on precisely this isolation. The main approach adopted by CRC/TRR 185 turns this on its head: its researchers are looking at the coupling of quantum systems to reservoirs as a potentially useful tool rather than an unavoidable nuisance. This CRC aims to use external drive and tailored reservoirs to counteract the effects of generic, uncontrolled environments and create a toolbox for controlling single- and many-body quantum systems using open systems. This includes generating, controlling and stabilizing interesting and useful quantum states as well as stimulating and manipulating collective processes. “With our consortium, we’re coming up with new ways of controlling quantum systems by coupling them to outside influences, which we call ‘environments,’” says Professor Corinna Kollath, the speaker in Bonn. “Going forward, our hope is that this will open up new applications and functionalities in quantum technology.”
The researcher is also involved in a project at CRC 1238, “Control and Dynamics of Quantum Materials,” which has likewise had its funding extended. The lead partner here is the University of Cologne, with the University of Bonn and Forschungszentrum Jülich also taking part.
Also celebrating its third round of DFG funding is CRC 1211, “Earth—Evolution at the Dry Limit,” for which the University of Cologne is the lead institution. Several University of Bonn researchers are on board, including the co-speaker Professor Dietmar Quandt and Prof. Dr. Claudia Knief as well as Dr. Ramona Mörchen. The consortium is investigating the interrelationships between biological and landscape evolution in the driest deserts on the planet (the Atacama and Namib), where both biological activity and Earth surface processes are constrained by the availability of liquid water. During the first two funding phases, its research focused on developing new experimental and numerical methods and studying the dynamics of hyper-arid soil landscape systems and the hyper-arid biosphere. For the third phase, the researchers intend to concentrate on the co-evolution that took place between the hyper-arid biosphere and the respective soil landscape systems in the context of climate and environmental changes during the past 15 to 20 million years. The lead institution for this consortium is the University of Cologne, and the partners are Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of Bonn, Ruhr University Bochum, Heidelberg University, RWTH Aachen University and the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – German Research Centre for Geosciences.
In addition, the DFG is funding a total of 11 new CRCs. The Grants Committee also voted to extend 22 CRCs by a further funding period in each case, including 11 CRC/TRRs. CRCs allow innovative, complex and long-term research projects to be tackled by a group of institutions and are thus designed to help the universities submitting proposals for them to set their priorities and build the relevant structures. They can be funded for up to 12 years. The new funding period starts in October.
More information about the CRCs at the University of Bonn:
https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/research-and-teaching/research-profile/collaborative-research-projects/dfg-projects?set_language=en
... Pressemitteilung Uni Bonn: