14. Fundamentals of fluxonics, superconducting devices

We will study the devices that control the motion of flux quanta in superconductors and could address a central problem in many superconducting devices; namely, the removal of trapped magnetic flux that produces noise. The controllable vortex motion will be used in nanostructured superconductors for making pumps, diodes and lenses of quantised magnetic flux. Vortex ratchets effects will be studied and then used to achieve vortex manipulation.

One of the important aspects of this work is to investigate superconducting nanostructured materials for which the confinement of the condensate inside the samples can be controlled by imposing the proper boundary conditions for the order parameter at the nanofabricated boundaries. Remarkably, the order parameter, the analogue of the wave function for normal quantum mechanical systems, obeys the Ginzburg-Landau equations, which play a role similar to that of the Schrödinger equation. This gives a theoretical background for proving the feasibility of the fundamentals of the quantum design and nano-engineering of the superconducting critical parameters. The concept of quantum design is now the backbone for developing new elements and systems for microelectronics and information technology (quantum computing, sensors, etc.).

15. The aim of the European Science Foundation (the esf) Research Networking Programme funcdyn is to establish and support a competitive European research community in functional dynamics.

Living organisms are characterised by a plethora of chemical, structural and physical details at several levels of complexity. As a consequence, the comprehensive understanding and modelling of processes and mechanisms on every spatial and temporal scale is a difficult task. One of the aims of the FUNCDYN programme is the development and the dissemination of systematic methods of reduction of model complexity. Without losing the quantitative predictability of models, this can be done by restricting the modelling of the relevant temporal and spatial scales to the phenomena under analysis. During the last 30 years, in the fields of physics and chemistry, analogous spatio-temporal problems have been successfully approached by the implementation of theoretical and experimental methods derived from the theories of non-linear dynamics and dynamical systems.

Studies of non-biological systems, which are dynamically similar to living cells, are equally within the scope of the FUNCDYN programme. These studies serve as inspiration for similar approaches in bio-systems and are essential for testing the feasibility of new analytic and experimental ideas.

16. Soil organic matter

Soil organic matter (SOM) represents the largest terrestrial carbon (C) reservoir. This C is stored in the form of a highly complex mixture of organic molecules. A wide range of plant molecules enters the soil system, from soluble amino acids to structural lignin polymers, from labile starch to recalcitrant tannin structures, from hydrophilic sugars to hydrophobic alkanes. Depending on their properties, such as size, structure and functional group content, as well as soil and climatic conditions, these molecular structures undergo abiotic reactions, are directly adsorbed on mineral surfaces, or assimilated by soil microbes.

New chemical structures are produced, such as microbial amino sugars and phospholipid fatty acids. The molecular nature of these various compounds is therefore a determining factor for C stabilisation in soils. Certain compounds might be strongly adsorbed on soil mineral surfaces and become directly stabilised. Other compounds will be quickly assimilated by the microbial biomass. The growth efficiency of soil microbes, i.e. their ability to maximise C assimilation versus CO2

losses, also depends on the molecular structure of the assimilated compounds. Multiple non-biotic reactions can further alter the molecular composition of soil organic matter.