Trio British scientists win Nobel Physics Prize for exotic matter research

Nobel prize in physics is awarded to three British scientists for revealing the secrets of ‘exotic matter’

– The prize will be shared by the three for their work on states of matter
– Half the prize goes to David Thoules at the University of Washington
– The other other half is awarded to Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz

 

Half of the 2016 physics prize was awarded to David Thoules of the University of Washington, with the other half was awarded to Duncan Haldane at Princeton and Michael Kosterlitz at Brown (pictured)
Half of the 2016 physics prize was awarded to David Thoules of the University of Washington, with the other half was awarded to Duncan Haldane at Princeton and Michael Kosterlitz at Brown (pictured)

Three British scientists have split the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research into the secrets of ‘exotic matter’.

Half of this year’s prize was awarded to David Thoules, with the other half being awarded to Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz.

The Nobel Committee said the three physicists received the top accolade as their work ‘opened the door on an unknown world where matter exists in strange states’.

A statement released by the committee said: ‘This year’s Laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states.

‘They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films.

‘Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter. Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics.’

Speaking on the phone to the committee, Professor Haldane, who is based at the Princeton University, said: ‘As everyone else is, I was very surprised and very gratified.’

‘My work was in the late 80s and at the time it seemed very abstract,’ he added.

The three researchers were all born in the UK, with Thoules born in Bearsden and Haldane and Kosterlitz from London and Aberdeen, respectively.

One of the award committee, Thors Hans Hansson, used a bagel and pretzel to explain the concepts of topology and exotic matter.

Explaining the term ‘exotic’, Professor Hansson said: ‘’Exotic’ is not a precise scientific term. [It is] something that expresses our wonder at something very unusual and very hard to understand.

‘What is exotic now, may not be in 20 or 30 years. I guess electricity was very exotic when it first came around, it is not so exotic any longer.’

The hope is that the research from the three physicists will eventually lead to new materials able to conduct not only electricity, but quantum properties such as spin.

Professor Hansson added: ‘Perhaps you could use these things to code quantum information in an efficient way. Who knows, there might be a future quantum computer where topological effects are important.’

The announcement comes as a surprise as the team behind the ground breaking discoveries of gravitational waves had been seen as the favourites.

Gravitational waves are ‘ripples’ in the fabric of space-time caused by violent processes in the Universe, such as colliding black holes or the collapse of stellar cores.

Physicists Ronald Drever of Britain and Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss of the US first observed them in September 2015, and announced their discovery in February 2016. And since then, they have clinched all the major astrophysics prizes to be had.

Last year, the physics prize went to Japan’s Takaaki Kajita and Canada’s Arthur McDonald for determining that neutrinos have mass, a key piece of the puzzle in understanding the cosmos.

Today’s announcement follows the award in physiology or medicine, which was awarded to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for his work exploring autophagy – the process by which cells recycle their own contents.

The winners were announced just before 11am (BST) this morning in Stockholm. The prize for chemistry will be announced tomorrow with the Nobel Prize for peace awarded on Friday.

The prize committee often awards discoveries that were made decades ago, to make sure that they’re still relevant.

Each prize is worth 8 million Krona ($930,000 or £730,000).

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