Seeking your insight on Synergy-scale concept in magnetic topology and energy control
vid.b...@fotonika-lv.eu
Dear Paul,
I hope this message finds you well.
I’m reaching out to share an early-stage concept for a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant proposal I’ve been developing in collaboration with colleagues in Latvia and beyond. The theme may resonate with your longstanding interest in foundational physics, field theory, and structured energy. In the late 1970s I told sf stories to my kids. One of the stories about three kids living on Mars included the discovery of strange, glasslike cylinders that had very unusual properties, including their arrangement in an array, to enable star travel. In the story I said a magnetic monopole had been trapped, engineered in the cylinder. Looking through them now I started thinking what science could account for the properties, which raise basic questions in quantum physics. This led to the formulation of a concept for a research project.
The working concept focuses on engineered field configurations in synthetic materials — topological solitons, Dirac strings, and quasiparticle analogues of magnetic monopoles. Inspired in part by recent experimental work in spin ice and hematite, the project asks whether control of magnetic topology in synthetic lattices could enable radical advances in energy localization, potentially informing future propulsion or quantum photonic systems.
We see potential to gather a small transnational team of theorists and materials physicists for a 2026 ERC Synergy proposal, with Riga as the coordination base. Bernard Foing, recently appointed ERA Chair at the University of Latvia, may potentially play a guiding role, but I’m also reaching out beyond his network at this formative stage.
Would you be open to reviewing a short 2-page concept note and offering your thoughts on its feasibility or refinement? Your experience at NSF and your unique cross-disciplinary intuition could help tune the signal here before we begin formal partner development.
With warm regards, Vid
Vidvuds Beldavs
Special projects
Riga Photonics Centre
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vid.beldavs@fotonika-lv.eu
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