Metamaterials for control of acoustic radiation forces. This project aims to investigate how sound waves exert forces on objects, and how these forces can be controlled by artificially engineered structures known as acoustic metamaterials. The project is expected to lead to a new understanding of acoustic radiation forces, and how they can be efficiently manipulated with high resolution. The expected outcome is a new capability for the measurement of delicate mechanical structures, which avoids ....Metamaterials for control of acoustic radiation forces. This project aims to investigate how sound waves exert forces on objects, and how these forces can be controlled by artificially engineered structures known as acoustic metamaterials. The project is expected to lead to a new understanding of acoustic radiation forces, and how they can be efficiently manipulated with high resolution. The expected outcome is a new capability for the measurement of delicate mechanical structures, which avoids the cost, complexity and side-effects of existing systems. This should benefit many high-tech areas, including inflatable space structures, micro-mechanical sensors and actuators and precise optical components, as well as biological areas such as the study of insect flight and communication.Read moreRead less
Billiards within confocal quadrics and beyond. This project aims to analyse mathematical billiards within domains bounded by confocal conics. Mathematical billiards have applications in any situation that involves collisions and reflections, and any phenomenon that includes reflections and collisions can be modelled using mathematical billiards. This project aims to revolutionise the analysis of billiards within domains bounded by several confocal conics by exploring the relations of such billia ....Billiards within confocal quadrics and beyond. This project aims to analyse mathematical billiards within domains bounded by confocal conics. Mathematical billiards have applications in any situation that involves collisions and reflections, and any phenomenon that includes reflections and collisions can be modelled using mathematical billiards. This project aims to revolutionise the analysis of billiards within domains bounded by several confocal conics by exploring the relations of such billiards with polygonal billiards, and making research advances with the higher-dimensional generalisations within confocal quadrics and their relations with billiards within polyhedra. The project will link several significant areas of scientific work including polygonal billiards, classical integrable systems, Teichmuller spaces, and relativity theory. The project outcomes will have impact across areas of mathematics such as geometry, algebraic geometry, and dynamical systems.Read moreRead less
The physics and art of expressive performance on wind instruments. This project aims to understand the non-linear physics underlying how musicians produce beautiful, expressive phrases. Elegant, expressive playing is much more than just the right notes. Using techniques unique to this team, we will give a deeper understanding of how breath pressure, mouth geometry and forces, tongue action and finger motions interact to communicate expression in musical phrases on a wind instrument. The outcome ....The physics and art of expressive performance on wind instruments. This project aims to understand the non-linear physics underlying how musicians produce beautiful, expressive phrases. Elegant, expressive playing is much more than just the right notes. Using techniques unique to this team, we will give a deeper understanding of how breath pressure, mouth geometry and forces, tongue action and finger motions interact to communicate expression in musical phrases on a wind instrument. The outcome will be the understanding of how varying control parameters interact at the physical level and how this communicates expression to listeners. Understanding interactions that expert players perform unconsciously will have significant benefits to music learning and teaching.Read moreRead less
Multi-dimensionally consistent integrable systems in geometry and algebra. This project aims to address in an innovative manner a long-standing open problem in nonlinear mathematics, namely the determination of the algebraic and geometric origin of integrable systems. It is expected to make a fundamental contribution towards integrable systems theory. The latter provides unique access to the analytic treatment of nonlinear phenomena not only in physics but also a remarkably diverse range of area ....Multi-dimensionally consistent integrable systems in geometry and algebra. This project aims to address in an innovative manner a long-standing open problem in nonlinear mathematics, namely the determination of the algebraic and geometric origin of integrable systems. It is expected to make a fundamental contribution towards integrable systems theory. The latter provides unique access to the analytic treatment of nonlinear phenomena not only in physics but also a remarkably diverse range of areas in mathematics. Expected outcomes include extended, unified and novel key mathematical concepts in a discrete setting and their applications in algebraic and geometric contexts. Due to the choice of participants, it is anticipated that Australia will benefit from strengthened research collaborations with Germany.Read moreRead less
Theatre and autocracy in Ancient Greece. This project aims to study the relations between theatre and autocratic power in antiquity. Theatre, from the start, appealed just as much to autocrats as to democrats and throve in autocratic states for half a millennium after the extinction of the Classical democracies. While many studies trace ancient Greek theatre’s links to democracy, none explore its links to specific tyrants, monarchs or emperors. This project will examine how autocrats moulded the ....Theatre and autocracy in Ancient Greece. This project aims to study the relations between theatre and autocratic power in antiquity. Theatre, from the start, appealed just as much to autocrats as to democrats and throve in autocratic states for half a millennium after the extinction of the Classical democracies. While many studies trace ancient Greek theatre’s links to democracy, none explore its links to specific tyrants, monarchs or emperors. This project will examine how autocrats moulded the world’s first mass medium of communication to consolidate their power, and how competing interests used the theatre to share, limit or challenge that power.Read moreRead less
Geometric analysis of nonlinear systems. Modern science derives its power from mathematics. The project aims to capture, identify and describe pivotal, transcendental solutions of nonlinear systems that are universal in science, in the sense that they always arise as mathematical models under certain physical limits. The project expects to produce new mathematical methods to describe such functions by using a newly discovered geometric framework. Expected outcomes include the description of elus ....Geometric analysis of nonlinear systems. Modern science derives its power from mathematics. The project aims to capture, identify and describe pivotal, transcendental solutions of nonlinear systems that are universal in science, in the sense that they always arise as mathematical models under certain physical limits. The project expects to produce new mathematical methods to describe such functions by using a newly discovered geometric framework. Expected outcomes include the description of elusive solutions of discrete and higher-dimensional nonlinear systems. This should provide significant benefits, such as new mathematical knowledge, innovative techniques, enhanced scientific capacity in Australia.Read moreRead less
The Vandal Renaissance: Latin Literature in Post-Roman Africa (435-534CE). The project aims to investigate the Latin literature of the Vandal kingdom of North Africa. It expects to identify a vibrant literary culture that celebrated multicultural diversity, embraced the Classical tradition, and contributed to Christian theology, while helping form a distinct Vandal identity. Expected outcomes include a more detailed understanding of the intellectual influences on Vandal African authors, the mech ....The Vandal Renaissance: Latin Literature in Post-Roman Africa (435-534CE). The project aims to investigate the Latin literature of the Vandal kingdom of North Africa. It expects to identify a vibrant literary culture that celebrated multicultural diversity, embraced the Classical tradition, and contributed to Christian theology, while helping form a distinct Vandal identity. Expected outcomes include a more detailed understanding of the intellectual influences on Vandal African authors, the mechanics of Vandal court patronage, and the breadth of these authors' contribution to the history of Latin literature. The project will benefit Australian culture by providing a detailed historical example of the benefits and challenges of a multicultural society.Read moreRead less
Outmaneuvering correlated noise in quantum computers. The project aims to characterise and control quantum machines available today. These machines overwhelmingly suffer from noise with complex structures. Thus, a key target of the project is to develop a theory to describe and manipulate complex quantum processes. The project then intends to apply this theory to commercial-grade quantum computers. This approach is anticipated to lead to a new understanding of time-correlated complex quantum pro ....Outmaneuvering correlated noise in quantum computers. The project aims to characterise and control quantum machines available today. These machines overwhelmingly suffer from noise with complex structures. Thus, a key target of the project is to develop a theory to describe and manipulate complex quantum processes. The project then intends to apply this theory to commercial-grade quantum computers. This approach is anticipated to lead to a new understanding of time-correlated complex quantum processes and develop methods to enhance the performance of today's quantum computers. Noise characterisation and mitigation should have commercial value and benefit research groups working to develop quantum technologies, both in Australia and internationally.Read moreRead less
From Where the Fine Warships Come: Democratic Athens at War . This project aims to transform our understanding of classical Athens. This Greek state is famous for developing democracy to an extremely high level and for being the leading cultural innovator of classical Greece. Less well known is the dark side of this success story. Athens revolutionised warfare, killing tens of thousands of combatants and civilians. There is a good case that democracy itself sustained this military record. But th ....From Where the Fine Warships Come: Democratic Athens at War . This project aims to transform our understanding of classical Athens. This Greek state is famous for developing democracy to an extremely high level and for being the leading cultural innovator of classical Greece. Less well known is the dark side of this success story. Athens revolutionised warfare, killing tens of thousands of combatants and civilians. There is a good case that democracy itself sustained this military record. But this case has hardly ever been studied. By filling this big gap in our knowledge this project will be highly significant. It will massively increase capacities in research training and international collaboration. The benefits will include new ideas for better understanding the wars that democracies wage today. Read moreRead less
Quantum measurement as a resource. Advanced quantum computers will use modular measurements significantly enhancing their capabilities. However, due to the noisy environment, the measurements may have nontrivial effects on the computation. Making best use of realistic (hence imperfect) measurements is a challenging problem that hinders the development of these technologies. This project, using modern tools of resource theory, aims to design optimal realistic measurement procedures for near-term ....Quantum measurement as a resource. Advanced quantum computers will use modular measurements significantly enhancing their capabilities. However, due to the noisy environment, the measurements may have nontrivial effects on the computation. Making best use of realistic (hence imperfect) measurements is a challenging problem that hinders the development of these technologies. This project, using modern tools of resource theory, aims to design optimal realistic measurement procedures for near-term noisy quantum devices. The expected outcomes of the project are refined methods to optimise quantum measurements in today's rudimentary quantum machines. This will provide a significant benefit to the Australian community, advancing the development of disruptive quantum technologies.Read moreRead less