the EPA / Markku Ojala
The Nobel Committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the October 4 working in the United States by the British scientist David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz- the Nobel Prize in 2016 in physics - "for the theoretical discovery of a topological phase transitivity and topological phase of matter." One of the researchers, Michael Kosterlitz-, is currently in the Finnish Aalto University, where he had gone to work for only a few months. In an interview with Tass, he told about his discovery and how it changed after his normal life.
- How do you know that you won the Nobel Prize?
- When I first heard the news about it, I was in the underground car park in Espoo (satellite city of Helsinki -.. Note TASS) and going up to the shopping center to go for lunch. At this point, I got a call and was told that I won the Nobel Prize. I was not even quite sure what I was told, because it was noisy around.
- Was this unexpected news for you?
- Let's just say I thought that our (and his colleagues) work good enough and that we could have a Nobel Prize. But so much time has passed since then, as we have done, and I decided that this would not happen. So in this sense the award was a big surprise.
- Could you explain the discoveries made by you?
- In the beginning it was a purely theoretical problem - try to combine mathematical theory, which, as it seemed, it was assumed that the phase transition(change of state of matter -. Note Tass.) Does not exist in certain systems with two dimensions, with a number of experimental observations, which showed the phase transition is still probably exists, for example, from solid to liquid. It was interesting to try to explain why the theory in these cases is not valid.
But then began holding some new experiments in systems with two dimensions, for example in a thin film of superfluid liquid helium, were also experiments with crystals and finally with cloud of cold atoms. The behavior of all of these systems can be explained in terms of our theory. This makes it clear why she could be worthy of the Nobel Prize.
- Where's your discovery can be used in which areas of science or in some practical things?
- If we speak about practical things, instruments, or something like that, I can not tell where it will be applied. But it explains, for example, superconductivity in a very delicate matter, it can be used in practice. If something has two dimensions, whereas the theory can be applied to it. But to build some real existing system is not so simple in two dimensions.
- What are you currently working in Finland?
- Here in Finland, I came to work on a completely different problem.
But during my stay here I have not been able to carry out any research since the impression that my life no longer belongs to me. In fact, in Finland, I had wanted to learn from the people I work with now, because they are engaged in a very interesting study.But circumstances have prevailed, and I have not had a chance to discuss with them what they are doing.
Since the award of the Nobel Prize, my life is becoming more and more chaotic. I get a lot of calls and the number of unread messages in the e-mail came close to a thousand. And I have no idea when I can open them
Подробнее на ТАСС:
http://tass.ru/opinions/interviews/3683112
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