NP-QED: Exploring the non-perturbative regime of quantum electrodynamics using extreme light
Led by Henri Vincenti (CEA-Iramis) in collaboration with DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Germany) and the University of Rochester (USA), the NP-QEP project aims at testing the predictions of quantum electrodynamics (QED), the theory of light-matter interaction, in unexplored extreme regimes: - The strong-field regime begins when the light field amplitude reaches the vacuum breaking threshold, corresponding to the Schwinger field limit. This intensity level has never been experimentally achieved.
- The fully non-perturbative regime of QED remains unexplored, thus constituting a frontier of contemporary physics. Leveraging key innovations and cutting-edge infrastructures at participating institutions, researchers will deploy and analyze a new class of laboratory experiments dedicated to the exploration of the strong and non-perturbative regimes of QED. These experiments should allow reaching field amplitudes up to 1,000 times the Schwinger limit.
These novel experiments will help validating long-standing strong-field QED predictions and fostering the emergence of new theoretical frameworks in quantum physics, which is at the heart of many current scientific advances.
UniCIPS: Universal equation for non-equilibrium correlations in interacting particle systems
Led by Kirone Mallick (IPhT) in collaboration with Sorbonne University (France) and the King’s College of London (Great Britain), the UniCIPS project intends to discover a universal law describing the behaviour of interacting particle systems when they are out of equilibrium, meaning when they are constantly exchanging matter or energy with their environment. These systems, although ubiquitous, remain misunderstood today. UniCIPS’s researchers rely on simple models, such as the symmetric exclusion process, to explore the fundamental mechanisms of transport and correlations between particles. They have made a recent breakthrough that has revealed, for certain models, the existence of a single, closed equation that can describe all these correlations, radically simplifying a problem that was previously intractable. The project aims to extend this discovery to all systems, whether diffusive, ballistic, or of arbitrary dimensions, in order to establish a unified theoretical framework in non-equilibrium physics.
Carried out by an international team combining expertise in statistical physics, integrability and hydrodynamics, UniCIPS could transform the understanding of collective transport and open new perspectives for the science of complex systems.
CLIMPEAT: Northern peatlands facing climate change and abrupt shifts
The CLIMPEAT project involves Philippe Ciais (LSCE) in partnership with the University of Stockholm (Sweden), the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and the University of Exeter (Great Britain). Its goal: To improve our understanding of northern peatlands and quantify the impact of climate change on them. Northern peatlands contain enormous stocks of vulnerable carbon and nitrogen which, if released with abrupt changes, could amplify climate change by emitting CO₂ and methane.
The most recent IPCC report has concluded that peatlands, permafrost, and fires are the main climate change feedback loops still missing in Earth System Models (ESMs). CLIMPEAT aims to fill this critical knowledge gap in order to improve coupled projections of climate and northern peatland dynamics. For this purpose, it will mobilize synergistic expertise in mapping, remote sensing, biogeochemistry, process modeling, and coupled climate projections.