The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Phase 2 will take advantage of Advanced Technologies based on densely packed phased array systems for observing directly the sky, or for use as the receiver system at the focus of large collectors. These systems will provide extremely large fields of view for unprecedented mapping speeds, thus making it possible to make large all-sky surveys which will be used to understand fundamental problems in physics, including the nature of Dark Energy and the process of formation of the first stars in the Universe. The development of these phased array systems as a viable technology for SKA depend not only on their performance, but on their affordability. Recent advances in integrated circuits have made it possible to demonstrate the feasibility of densely packed phased arrays, in particular with the EMBRACE system currently operational at Nançay and at Westerbork in the Netherlands. The current proposal is concerned with further integration of components in an analog integrated circuit, ultimately combining a filter with Low Noise Amplifier in a single chip, and Analog to Digital Converters with Serialiser in a single chip. This will represent an enormous savings in manufacturing cost and operating cost with reduced power consumption compared to discrete components. The technology also has a large number of applications outside radio astronomy, and novel techniques developed during the course of this study may be submitted for patent.

The present project is put into the context of the international projects ITER and DEMO aiming at managing nuclear fusion to produce energy. In tokamaks (nuclear fusion reactors), a hot plasma composed of deuterium and tritium nuclei is magnetically confined to achieve fusion. The heating of the plasma is mainly obtained by the injection of high-energy deuterium neutral beams, coming from the neutralization of high-intensity D- negative-ion beams. D- negative-ions are produced in a low-pressure plasma source and subsequently extracted and accelerated. The standard and most efficient solution to produce high negative-ion current uses cesium (Cs) injection and deposition inside the source to enhance negative-ion surface-production mechanisms. However, ITER and DEMO requirements in terms of extracted current push this technology to its limits. The already identified drawbacks of cesium injection are becoming real technological and scientific bottlenecks, and alternative solutions to produce negative-ions would be highly valuable. The first objective of the present project is to find an alternative solution to produce high yields of H-/D- negative-ions on surfaces in Cs-free H2/D2 plasmas. The proposed study is based on a physical effect discovered at PIIM in collaboration with LSPM, namely the enhancement of negative-ion yield on boron-doped-diamond at high temperature. The yield increase observed places diamond material as the most up to date relevant alternative solution for the generation of negative-ions in Cs-free plasmas. The project aims at fully characterizing and evaluating the relevance and the capabilities of diamond films (intrinsic and doped polycrystalline, single crystal as well as nanodiamond films…) as negative-ion enhancers in a negative-ion source. The second objective is to investigate diamond erosion under hydrogen (deuterium) plasma irradiation, with two main motivations. First, material erosion could be a limitation of the use of diamond as a negative-ion enhancer in a negative-ion source and must be evaluated. Second, the inner-parts of the tokamaks receiving the highest flux of particles and power are supposed to be made of tungsten, but its self-sputtering and its melting under high thermal loads are still major issues limiting its use. It has been shown in the past by one of the partners that diamond is a serious candidate as an efficient alternative-material for fusion reactors. Therefore, diamond erosion in hydrogen plasmas will also be investigated from this perspective. At the moment when all the efforts are put on tungsten, maintaining a scientific watch on backup solutions for tokamak materials is crucial. The project associates partners with complementary expertise in the field of plasma-surface interactions on the one hand, and diamond deposition and characterization on the other hand. Furthermore, in order to span the gap between fundamental science and real-life applications, negative-ion surface-production and diamond erosion will be studied in laboratory plasmas (PIIM in collaboration with LSPM ) as well as in real devices (Cybele negative-ion source at IRFM and Magnum-PSI experiment at DIFFER ). PIIM: Physique des Interactions Ioniques et Moléculaires, Université Aix-Marseille, CNRS LSPM: Laboratoire des Sciences des Procédés et des Matériaux, CNRS, Université de Paris 13 IRFM: Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion Magnétique, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Cadarache DIFFER: Dutch Institute For Fundamental Energy Research, The Netherlands

Septins are conserved, ubiquitous cytoskeletal proteins that have a central role in cell division, cell motility and animal cell morphogenesis. Septins organize into palindromic protomers (hexamers and octamers), which can polymerize into filaments and bind the plasma membrane, as well as actin filaments and microtubules. Although human septin dysfunction is linked to infertility, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, the molecular mechanisms underlying the function of human septins are not clear. SEPTIMORF aims at elucidating the function of human septins by using animal cell division as a model morphogenetic process whose success depends on septins. Several different septin protomers interact with membranes, actin and microtubules, yet how these different protomers differentially contribute to function is not known. Our central hypothesis is that the type of septin protomer tunes the ability of septins to polymerize and determines their affinity and specificity for membranes, actin filaments and microtubules, and thereby determines septin function. To decipher the link between human septin organization and function and to tease apart the hierarchy of septin interactions with other cytoskeletal elements, SEPTIMORF uniquely combines bottom-up approaches using purified components with functional studies in dividing cells. Our multi-scale interdisciplinary approach will provide a first of its kind comprehensive understanding of how septins functionally organize in human cells thus providing insights into the role of septins in health and disease.

Summary The proposal is primarily a theoretical project aimed at resolving several of the most important outstanding problems associated with a promising type of cryogenic detector, the superconducting Transition Edge Sensor (TES), which offers unique capabilities far exceeding that of traditional semiconductor technology. Over the past decade TES-based detectors have found application in diverse areas from dark matter searches, X-ray astrophysics, time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy, quantum information processing, biological sensors, industrial material analysis and homeland security. Practical instruments require a complex optimization of speed, linearity, energy resolution and array size. However, lack of understanding of the superconducting transition in TESs limits our ability to optimise performance and predict the behaviour of a new detector designs. The present models of TESs have played an important role during a period of extensive development of technology. However, based on empirical observations the models lack knowledge of the fundamental details of superconductivity, which determine the transition, and ultimately the performance of TESs. They cannot explain the observable energy resolution, and such fundamental properties as recently-discovered weak superconductivity of TESs. As a result, the current development path of TES detector for a certain applications is still very time consuming and costly, being in many aspects based on trial and error. Significant advances are expected if better understanding of the fundamental physics of TESs is achieved, because this would underpin accurate and streamlined design processes, leading to shorter periods of experiments with targeted design options. The project aims to develop new a theoretical model of the resistive transition in TESs based on fundamental superconductivity theory. The objectives are: 1. Understanding the mechanisms of the resistive transition in TESs as spatially inhomogeneous superconducting systems, simulating electrical and thermal fluctuations, which determine the energy resolution of TES micro- and nano- calorimeters and noise performance of bolometers 2. Developing a model of non-local energy transport in multilayered TES structures, including energy escape and fluctuations over the extremely short time scale of energy deposition and down-conversion. 3. stimulating the development of the next generation of high-performance TESs by evaluating the potential of graphene and few-layer boron nitride for engineering the coupling to a thermal bath and shaping the resistive transition An expected outcome of this project is a new approach to complex optimization of speed, linearity, energy resolution and array size for individual applications. A few examples illustrate the potential impact. An improvement of the energy resolution of TES-based soft X-ray detectors below 2 eV will allow the Athena X-ray mission proposal to ESA to study turbulence in the hot gas of clusters of galaxies, and will also allow the mapping of chemical shifts in X-ray fluorescence signals in Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), thus opening exciting possibilities for Industrial Materials Analysis. An increase in the number of pixels per array would lead to efficient imaging on a future X-ray telescope, and also provides the ability to sustain higher flux levels in emerging synchrotron applications, such as time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy. With several potential markets for high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy equipment, most notably synchrotron facilities and manufacturers of TEM equipment, the emergence of new companies is a likely consequence. For gamma-ray and neutron spectroscopy, larger arrays of TES detectors with higher energy resolution imply more efficient and faster screening, facilitating assessment tasks in such fields as non-destructive assay of spent nuclear fuel, and the operational detection of nuclear materials.

ANR-PROTECT is a fund-raising project aiming to consolidate an ongoing initiative to federate the leading European research institutes working on the contribution of land ice melt to sea-level rise. The consortium thus established will apply to the H2020 call LC-CLA-07-2019: “The changing cryosphere: uncertainties, risks and opportunities”, specifically the action on sea level changes. The foundation of a very strong multidisciplinary consortium is already laid, bringing together the leading European experts on (i) atmosphere and surface mass balance of ice sheets and glaciers, (ii) ocean and sub ice shelf melting, (ii) ice sheet flow, (iv) the coupling of these components, (v) mass balance of mountain glaciers, (vi) regional sea level changes and (vii) coastal impacts. In accordance with the requirements of LC-CLA-07-2019, the expertise of the PROTECT consortium will allow to tackle the essential societal issue of improving the regional and local projections of sea level change by including a better representation of the evolution of the cryosphere mass balance.