Nobel Prize laureates in physics announced
Nobel Prize Winners in Physics 2016
Today Nobel Prize Winners in Physics were announced in Stokkolm, Sweden. Three British scientists received the award for their contribution to the development of this science: David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz for the “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”.
The results of their work allowed the scientific community to better explain such phenomena as superconductivity, superfluidity, and magnetism of two-dimensional materials (two-dimensional means materials consisting of atomic layers). The relevant information is posted on the official website of the Nobel Prize .
Topology is a branch of mathematics that studies the phenomenon of continuity , in particular, the properties of spaces that remain unchanged during continuous deformations. For example, connectivity and orientability .
Scientists went to their award for more than forty years. Back in the 70s, Michael Kosterlitz, David Towless, and Vadim Berezinsky, experimentally disproved the theory that two-dimensional materials could not have superconductivity. They proved the possibility of superconductivity at extremely low temperatures and the associated phase transition phenomenon, which disappears with increasing temperature. The phenomenon discovered by them was named after researchers as the Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Taules transition.(TKT transition) or simply topological phase transition.
We should also mention the Soviet theoretical physicist Vadim Berezinsky (06/15/1935 - 06/23/1980), who participated in the work. A native of Kiev, in 1959 he graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, in 1963 - a postgraduate study at MEPhI, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. His most important works are works on the theory of phase transitions in two-dimensional systems and the theory of localization in disordered one-dimensional conductors. The work of the scientist is available on the website of the Institute of Theoretical Physics. L.D. Landau , where Vadim Lvovich worked the last years of his life (from 1977 to 1980).
In the 80s, Touless confirmed an earlier experiment with thin conductive layers. Then he fixed that conductivity still has a topological nature. About the same time, Duncan Haldane proved that topological concepts can be used to explain the properties of chains of small magnets found in some materials.
In recent decades, research in this area seriously progressed. The study of topological phase transitions gives physicists hope for the invention of a superconductor and a quantum computer.
Between themselves, physicists will share not only fame, but also a monetary reward from the Nobel Committee, which this year amounted to 8 million Swedish crowns (about 931 thousand US dollars).