Behold the winners of 2016 Nobel laureate prize winners

Thouless, Haldane and Kosterlitz win physics Nobel for strange matter

© Jonathan Nackstrand, AFP | Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics (L-R) David J Thouless, F. Duncan M Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz are displayed on a screen during a press conference Oct. 4, 2016, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics for studies of unusual states of matter such as in superconductors, the award-giving body said on Tuesday.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Tuesday announcing the winners of the 8 million Swedish crown ($937,000) prize, "This year's laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter".

"Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics," the academy added.

Thouless was awarded half the prize with the other half divided between Haldane and Kosterlitz.

Physics is the second of this year's crop of Nobels and comes after Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded the prize for medicine on Monday. 

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP, REUTERS)