The 2016 Physics Nobel Prize goes to…!

Wow! Topology in the mainstream news. I never thought I’d see the day. Congratulations to the winners! Citation:

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 was divided, one half awarded to David J. Thouless, the other half jointly to F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz “for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”.

Here is a link to the Nobel Prize site with more information, and also, here’s a BBC breakdown of some of the science.

An important (to some) side note: Duncan Haldane was at USC when he wrote the cited papers. Great that USC was supportive of this kind of work, especially in that early part of his career. [Update*: You can download the pdf of one of them for free here.]

-cvj

*Thanks Nikolay!

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25 Responses to The 2016 Physics Nobel Prize goes to…!

  1. Clifford says:

    Nikolay:- You’d think, right? See your email.

    -cvj

  2. Mark Peifer says:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Youngman

    His best known one-liner was (NOT) “Take my electricity and magnetism….please

  3. Nikolay says:

    “Duncan Haldane was at USC when he wrote the cited papers.” One would think that this information should be made available on USC’s main website…