Strange matter wins Physics Nobel

[n2doc]

Source: BBC

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for discoveries about strange forms of matter.
Three Britons, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, will share the 8m kronor (£727,000) prize.
They were named at a press conference in Sweden, and join a prestigious list of 200 other Physics laureates recognised since 1901.
The Nobel Committee said this year's laureates had "opened the door on an unknown world".

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37486373

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. British trio of physicists working in US universities win Nobel for work on exotic states of matter

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 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.”

The scientists were credited for their theoretical work on “topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/04/david-thouless-duncan-haldane-and-michael-kosterlitz-win-nobel-prize-in-physics

Guardian live blog: https://www.theguardian.com/science/live/2016/oct/04/nobel-prize-in-physics-2016-to-be-announced-live

The prize has gone to three physicists working in the field of condensed matter physics. They discovered totally unexpected behaviours of solid materials - and came up with a mathematical framework ( in the field of topology) to explain these weird properties. The discoveries have paved the way for designing new materials with all sorts of novel properties.
...
The Nobel Assembly speaker has brought out a cinnamon bun, a bagel and pretzel to explain what topology means. He says that if you are a topologist there is only one interesting way in which these pastries differ - the bun has no hole, the bagel has one and the pretzel has two. Well that makes everything crystal clear then.
...
Topology, which was central to this year’s discoveries, explains why electrical conductivity inside thin layers changes in integer steps. Kosterlitz and Thouless studied the electrical behaviour of surfaces or inside extremely thin layers (physicists call these two-dimensional materials). Haldane studied matter that forms threads so thin they can be considered one-dimensional.

[VWolf]

2. This is freaking fascinating

Now I need to research ... their research

[Ilsa]

3. University of Washhington, Princeton, and Brown. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. All 3 were undergraduates at Cambridge University (nt)