Three UK scientists win Nobel prize in physics

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 8 million Swedish kronor (€833,032) prize, as announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm today.

The Academy awarded half the amount to Thouless and the other half to Haldane and Kosterlitz.

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

The Nobel Committee said the work had "opened the door on an unknown world".

According to reports, when matter is very cold or extremely flat, scientists start to see unusual behaviour from the atoms. These phenomena complement the more familiar phases of matter, namely when things change from solid to liquid to gas.

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 was possible in thin surface layers of materials.

The laureates' discoveries had helped scientists designing new materials.