David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were on Tuesday chosen for this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited their “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”
This was announced by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Tuesday. The prize goes to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz.
They all work in the field of condensed matter physics. The three of them 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.