Two Scots scientists win Nobel prize for physics for work on strange matter

The trio were unveiled as the winners of the 2016 prize at a press conference in Sweden.

Read more: Study aims to tackle transport dilemma on one of Scotland's most remote islands

They will share the 8m kronor (£727,000) prize.

The three "opened the door" to an unknown world where matter takes unusual states or phases, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

They were awarded for their "theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter".

Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington, Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Their research was conducted in the 1970s and 80s. Nobel judges often award discoveries made decades ago, to make sure they withstand the test of time.

Read more: Study aims to tackle transport dilemma on one of Scotland's most remote islands

The prize was announced by Professor Goran Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The scientists studied phenomena that arise in "flat" layers of material so thin they can be considered two dimensional, or ultra-fine threads.

Events that occur in the "flatlands" are very different from those we are familiar with in the 3D world.

Extremely cold thinly distributed atoms can have unusual collective properties, including material phases that are still not fully understood.

Gases, liquids and solids are all phases of matter that form part of our everyday experience. But other kinds of phase are also possible, such as those that allow electrons and other particles to move without any resistance - giving rise to superconductors and superfluids.

The three Nobel laureates used a branch of mathematics called topology to study how transitions between one phase and another occur in a stepwise fashion.

In the early 1970s, Prof Kosterlitz and Prof Thouless overturned the widely held theory that superconductivity or fluidity could not occur in thin layers.

Prof Thouless showed in the 1980s that electrical conductance in very thin material can be measured in precise integer steps that had a "shape". They were topological in nature.

At around the same time, Prof Haldane discovered how topological concepts could be used to understand the properties of chains of small magnets found in some materials.

Nobel physics committee member Professor Thors Hansson used a bagel and a bun, held in either hand, in an attempt to explain the difficult concepts

He said: "The difference is that the bagel has a hole and the bun doesn't.

"The importance with the hole is that things like taste, shape, and deformation can change continuously. The number of holes, something that we call the topological invariant, can only change like integers - one, two, three, zero.

"This (the bun) has zero holes. This (the bagel) has one hole.

"I challenge you to imagine what is half a hole. You cannot have half a hole. This fact, that you have integers that are of topological nature - that's intimately connected to the effects and the description of these faces that is at the basis of the prize."

John Michael Kosterlitz, one of the scientists that has been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. Photo: Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP

Scientists are now hunting for new materials with unusual quantum mechanical properties, he said.

Quantum effects cause sub-atomic particles to behave in weird ways, such as being in different places at the same time.

Prof Hansson added: "Perhaps you can use these things to code quantum information in an efficient way. Who knows, there might be a future quantum computer where topological effects are important."

This year's Nobel Prize announcements started on Monday with the medicine award going to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for discoveries on autophagy, the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content.

The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

The winners will collect their prize money, a medal and a diploma at the award ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

Prof Haldane revealed on Twitter that his UK roots came out when he was told of the award.

He said: "I'm a bit British, or phlegmatic, about these things so I didn't faint or anything."

Jo Johnson, minister of state for universities, science, research and innovation, said: "David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz winning the Nobel Prize is a phenomenal achievement and recognition of their tireless work in the field of condensed matter physics. Their ground-breaking work furthered our understanding of rare states of matter that can help the design of new materials."

In a telephone interview, Prof Haldane was critical of funding policies that led to the brain drain in the 1970s.

He said: "I suppose in the late seventies I think there was a bit of a de-emphasis ... on fundamental research, as opposed to useful research.

"I think it's a very bad thing when government agencies start to say ... you know, 'what's it used for?' Because all the big discoveries of really useful things don't come about because someone sits down and says: 'I want to discover something useful.'

"They occur because someone discovers something interesting and it turns out to be tremendously useful.

"It's very difficult to know whether something is useful, but one can know that it's exciting."

Prof Haldane said he knew there was a vague possibility of winning the prize, but "didn't think it would happen".