With this money, a maximum of 280,000 euros, they can further develop their own research in the coming three years. The Veni grants have been awarded to the following projects:
Quantum by quantum: Simulation of photochemistry with Green’s function embedding methods
Arno Förster
A major problem in chemistry and biology is to understand how large molecules react to light. Theoretical simulations can help unravelling the underlying mechanisms. The currently known simulation techniques are either cheap but limited in their accuracy, or accurate but costly. Chemist Arno Förster suggests a partitioning of the problem in which the costly method is only applied to a small subproblem for which high accuracy is required, but the major part of the calculation is performed with the cheaper method where limited accuracy suffices. This technique will simplify studying the excitations of complex molecules with high accuracy.
Dynamic graph algorithms: distances and clustering
Yasamin Nazari
Many fundamental computational tasks are performed on a graph, which is a mathematical abstraction of interactions in a network. In many applications the input graph is dynamic, i.e. it undergoes changes over time, and the output must be efficiently adjusted after each update. The project of computer scientist Yasamin Nazari focuses on developing algorithms for two problems in dynamic graphs. The first problem is maintaining data structures that return good estimates to shortest path distances between elements in the network. The second problem is partitioning the graph into clusters such that more similar elements are clustered together, where similarity is modelled by distances between elements.
Graphs and Hypergraphs: from Combinatorics to Network Science and back
Raffaella Mulas
Graphs and hypergraphs have been challenging combinatorialists since 1736 and 1931, respectively. Moreover, in the past two decades, scientists have been rapidly finding applications of graphs which has led to the emergence of network science as its own discipline, where hypergraphs are gaining increasing attention. Nevertheless, combinatorialists and network scientists often use distinct languages and methodologies. Mathematician Raffaella Mulas' goal is to exploit her interdisciplinary profile to work on a braid where combinatorics, spectral theory and applications (to areas such as network science and machine learning) will inspire each other and will advance together in a unified manner rather than independently.
Studying isotopes, elements and binders of pigments in paintings for authentication
Paolo d'Imporzano
Lead isotope ratios reveal detailed information on lead white pigments present in paintings. This information can be used for attribution/authentication purposes but is often insufficient. The project of chemist Paolo d'Imporzano solves this problem, by integrating lead isotope analysis of lead white with elemental and binder data of the same pigment. New state-of-the-art analytical techniques will be used to measure the composition of painting samples from well-documented paintings and reveal their chemical composition. The data will be combined to generate models used to obtain a better understanding of pictorial techniques over time across Europe and painting attribution/authentication.
New cases of zeta functions of Shimura varieties
Pol van Hoften
Hasse–Weil zeta functions are generalizations of the famous Riemann zeta function, and play a central role in modern algebraic number theory. Mathematician Pol van Hoftens proposal suggests new strategies to compute the Hasse–Weil zeta functions of Shimura varieties. These are products of local zeta functions, one for each prime number. Local zeta functions of Shimura varieties are well understood at all but finitely many primes, and this proposal concerns the computation of the local zeta functions at the remaining primes (the so-called “very bad” primes).
Talent programme
Veni is part of the NWO Talent Programme It allows researchers who have recently obtained their PhD to conduct independent research and develop their ideas for a period of three years. Read more on the NWO website.