Sweden: Nobel Prize in Physics goes to ghost particle researchers

Halzen therefore realized that the ice at the South Pole could be used to track particles known as neutrinos. His vision and scientific leadership were fundamental to “IceCube” – a cubic kilometer of ice equipped with sensors. With the observatory, researchers can detect neutrinos from extremely high-energy processes in the distant universe.

Neutrinos – also called ghost particles – are among the most mysterious elementary particles. They have no electrical charge and almost no mass and react only very weakly with normal matter. Therefore, detection is extremely difficult. A neutrino is a ghostly messenger from space, said Nobel Physics Committee Chairman Mark Pearce. On average, ten billion neutrinos hit every square centimeter of the Earth's surface every second. At least some of these are supposed to be detected by large detector systems such as “IceCube” in the Antarctic ice.

Last year, the quantum researchers John Clarke (Great Britain), Michel Devoret (France) and John Martinis (USA) were honored with the prize.

The Nobel Prizes go back to the dynamite inventor and prize donor Alfred Nobel (1833–1896). He stipulated in his will that the awards should be given to those who have rendered the greatest benefit to humanity in each award category over the past year. Physics was the first category that Nobel mentioned in his will. The first Nobel Prize winner in physics was the German Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1901 for his discovery of the X-rays named after him.

This year, the coveted awards are worth twelve million Swedish crowns – the equivalent of around one million euros – per prize category. The Nobel Prizes are traditionally presented on the anniversary of Nobel's death, December 10th.

This week the Nobel Prizes for Chemistry (October 7th), Literature (October 8th), Peace (October 9th) and, on Monday next week, the Swedish Riksbank Prize for Economic Sciences (October 12th) will also be announced. The latter has only been awarded since 1969 and is the only prize that does not go back to Alfred Nobel.

For the first time in Nobel Prize history, the winners in the categories of physics, chemistry and economics will be announced this year by a woman, namely Ellen Moons, who was born in Belgium. She has been the general secretary of the KVA since the beginning of the year and is the first woman to hold this position since the academy was founded in 1739.