Prof. Dr. Marko Žnidarič Awarded ERC Advanced Grant for the NUMBS Project
ERC Advanced Grants are among the most prestigious and competitive funding schemes for frontier research worldwide. In this year’s call, 319 projects were selected from a record 3,329 applications, with a total funding budget of 838 million euros.
With the success of Prof. Dr. Marko Žnidarič, the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (UL FMF) becomes the only faculty in Slovenia serving as the host institution for seven ERC-funded projects. This achievement highlights the international excellence of research at UL FMF and the quality of the research environment it provides for researchers and their teams.
NUMBS: Exploring Complex Quantum Systems
The NUMBS project addresses one of the fundamental questions of modern physics: how a simple description emerges from the enormous complexity of quantum many-body systems. Prof. Dr. Marko Žnidarič explains: "The project deals with systems composed of many quantum particles. The difficulty in studying them is that they become extremely complex very quickly: the more particles there are, the less tracta-ble they become — and this grows exponentially with the number of particles and also with the observa-tion time. In practice, it is therefore only possible to describe relatively small systems exactly. If such a system is left to itself, it usually loses its complexity over time and becomes simpler.Therefore, there is no longer any need to track every detail - for instance, exact position of every atom, but only a few general quantities, such as temperature." The central question of the project is therefore: how can we understand and explain this transi-tion from large to small complexity?" The project approaches this problem in a novel way. As Žnidarič explains:"The research direction of the ERC project Effective non-unitarity in many-body systems tackles this problem differently from previous work. Instead of a fully exact (unitary) description, the project focuses only on the quantities that really matter. The emphasis thereby shifts from theoretical elegance to practical relevance, leading to a non-unitary description. He adds:"The idea is essentially some 40 years old, yet only recent results from our research group indicate how it might actually be carried out — and, in the process, reveal appealing connections with areas of math-ematics that are less familiar in physics," and adds: "If successful, the project can be expected to yield a new method for studying such systems and a fresh perspective on questions such as how to quantify chaos in quantum systems with many particles. This is also important for the de-velopment of future quantum computers."
The Significance of the Project
The significance of the project is also highlighted by Prof. Dr. Tomaž Prosen, head of the laboratory in which Prof. Dr. Žnidarič works and himself a recipient of two ERC grants: "Marko Žnidarič’s ERC project touches on the very foundations of statistical physics. For many years, he has been developing innovative methodological approaches, several of which have become part of the standard toolbox used throughout this research field. I am delighted that the ERC has recognized the breakthrough potential of his proposal and selected it for funding in what is arguably the most competitive Advanced Grant call to date."
About the ERC
The European Research Council (ERC) was established in 2007 by the European Union as the leading European institution for funding frontier, pioneering research across all scientific fields. In its selection it follows a single criterion — scientific excellence — regardless of the nationality or age of the research-ers. It offers four core schemes: the Starting Grant (to begin an independent research career), the Con-solidator Grant (to consolidate it), the Advanced Grant (for established researchers), and the Synergy Grant (for collaborative research). The ERC budget is part of the Horizon Europe programme.
Marko, sincere congratulations!
