Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 awarded to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz
David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz are professors of physics at the University of Washington, Princeton and Brown University respectively.
The 2016 Noble Prize in Physics was awarded to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz on Tuesday. The Prize was awarded "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”, announced Goran K Hansson, the General Secretary of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
David J Thouless, who won one half of the prize, is Emeritus Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. The other half of the prize is shared by Duncan Haldane, Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton, and Michael Kosterlitz, Professor of Physics at Brown University.
The prize in physics is awarded by the Academy which selected the laureate through a majority vote held on Tuesday morning.
Their discovery was explained at the press conference using bagels and pretzels.
Phase transition occurs when phases of matter transition between each other, such as when ice melts and becomes water. The most common phases of matter are gas, liquid & solid. In extremely high or low temperatures matter assumes more exotic states. Topology, key to Nobel Laureates’ discoveries, explains why electrical conductivity inside thin layers changes in integer steps.
Haldane has studied matter that forms threads so thin they can be considered one-dimensional. Kosterlitz and Thouless have studied phenomena on surfaces or inside extremely thin layers that can be considered two-dimensional .
The Nobel prize is currently worth 8 million Swedish kronor. The Physics Laureates are in average the youngest of all Laureates, with an average age of 55.
This is what the medal looks like-
The ceremony where the medals are awarded to the winners will be held in Stockholm in December.