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| British trio win Nobel prize in physics for work on exotic states of matter | |
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| Three British scientists have won the Nobel prize in physics for their work on exotic states of matter that may pave the way for quantum computers and other revolutionary technologies. | Three British scientists have won the Nobel prize in physics for their work on exotic states of matter that may pave the way for quantum computers and other revolutionary technologies. |
| David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz will share the 8m Swedish kronor (£718,000) prize with announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm today. | David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz will share the 8m Swedish kronor (£718,000) prize with announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm today. |
| “I was very surprised and very gratified,” Haldane said in a telephone interview with the Nobel Foundation soon after he was named a co-winner. “It’s only now that a lot of tremendous new discoveries based on this work are now happening.” | “I was very surprised and very gratified,” Haldane said in a telephone interview with the Nobel Foundation soon after he was named a co-winner. “It’s only now that a lot of tremendous new discoveries based on this work are now happening.” |
| “There’s great hope for these new materials to have a big impact,” he added. | “There’s great hope for these new materials to have a big impact,” he added. |
| The scientists were credited for their theoretical work on “topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”. Thouless, 82, who was born in Bearsden in Scotland was awarded half of the prize. The other half will be shared equally between Duncan Haldane, 65, who was born in London, and Michael Kosterlitz, who was born in Aberdeen in 1942. | The scientists were credited for their theoretical work on “topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”. Thouless, 82, who was born in Bearsden in Scotland was awarded half of the prize. The other half will be shared equally between Duncan Haldane, 65, who was born in London, and Michael Kosterlitz, who was born in Aberdeen in 1942. |
| The scientists used a branch of mathematics called topology to redefine what was thought possible in materials. In work that began in the 1970s, they demonstrated that superconductivity - the ability of electrons to whizz through matter with zero resistance - was possible in thin surface layers of materials. | The scientists used a branch of mathematics called topology to redefine what was thought possible in materials. In work that began in the 1970s, they demonstrated that superconductivity - the ability of electrons to whizz through matter with zero resistance - was possible in thin surface layers of materials. |
| Thors Hans Hansson, a member of the Nobel physics committee, drew on a number of edible props to explain topology. Holding up a bagel, a pretzel and a cinnamon bun, he said that while they varied in many ways, the only difference in the eyes of a topologist was the number of holes: the pretzel has two, the bagel has one, the bun has none. | Thors Hans Hansson, a member of the Nobel physics committee, drew on a number of edible props to explain topology. Holding up a bagel, a pretzel and a cinnamon bun, he said that while they varied in many ways, the only difference in the eyes of a topologist was the number of holes: the pretzel has two, the bagel has one, the bun has none. |
| Topology covers the properties of materials that are unchanged when an object is stretched, twisted, or deformed in some other way. Holes are one such property. The number of holes in a material remain the same no matter what shape it is bent into. It was a way of thinking that helped the scientists explain the behaviour of not only thin slivers of materials, but threads and other structures. | Topology covers the properties of materials that are unchanged when an object is stretched, twisted, or deformed in some other way. Holes are one such property. The number of holes in a material remain the same no matter what shape it is bent into. It was a way of thinking that helped the scientists explain the behaviour of not only thin slivers of materials, but threads and other structures. |
| Steve Bramwell, a physicist at UCL, said the prize was “richly deserved”. | Steve Bramwell, a physicist at UCL, said the prize was “richly deserved”. |
| “The behaviour of the materials around us is extremely complex - the job of physics is to identify simple principles by which we can understand the material world and predict new phenomena. This is a really difficult challenge because the average substance may contain a trillion trillion atoms, all interacting with each other,” he said. | “The behaviour of the materials around us is extremely complex - the job of physics is to identify simple principles by which we can understand the material world and predict new phenomena. This is a really difficult challenge because the average substance may contain a trillion trillion atoms, all interacting with each other,” he said. |
| “The ingenuity of Kosterlitz, Thouless and Haldane has been to show how a large class of real materials - particularly films and chains of atoms - can be understood in terms of the simple mathematical principles of topology - that is how the atoms are connected: a doughnut and a teacup have the same topology as they each have a hole in them. | “The ingenuity of Kosterlitz, Thouless and Haldane has been to show how a large class of real materials - particularly films and chains of atoms - can be understood in terms of the simple mathematical principles of topology - that is how the atoms are connected: a doughnut and a teacup have the same topology as they each have a hole in them. |
| “The breakthroughs of these three scientists allowed massive progress to be made in understanding and calculating the properties of many material systems. In my own case it opened up 25 years of research into magnetic thin films - which is what computer hard drives store information on. Many other scientists across many disciplines owe an equal debt to the theoretical insights of Kosterlitz, Thouless and Haldane.” | “The breakthroughs of these three scientists allowed massive progress to be made in understanding and calculating the properties of many material systems. In my own case it opened up 25 years of research into magnetic thin films - which is what computer hard drives store information on. Many other scientists across many disciplines owe an equal debt to the theoretical insights of Kosterlitz, Thouless and Haldane.” |
| Last year’s prize went to physicists who solved a mystery known as the solar neutrino problem. Named after the Italian for “little neutral one”, neutrinos are ghostly particles that stream out of the sun and zip through almost anything in their path. Thousands of billions of them pass through each of us every second of the day without us noticing. | Last year’s prize went to physicists who solved a mystery known as the solar neutrino problem. Named after the Italian for “little neutral one”, neutrinos are ghostly particles that stream out of the sun and zip through almost anything in their path. Thousands of billions of them pass through each of us every second of the day without us noticing. |
| At first scientists thought that, just like photons, the particles were massless. But if that was the case, the best measurements of neutrinos from the sun were alarming. They detected only one third of the expected number, a potential sign that the sun would burn out sooner than thought. The prize winners, Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald, discovered that neutrinos had mass after all, and can flip from one form to another as they fly through space. | At first scientists thought that, just like photons, the particles were massless. But if that was the case, the best measurements of neutrinos from the sun were alarming. They detected only one third of the expected number, a potential sign that the sun would burn out sooner than thought. The prize winners, Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald, discovered that neutrinos had mass after all, and can flip from one form to another as they fly through space. |