According to the Nobel Committee, several years back the recent prize winners were the first to develop mathematical methods for describing the properties and phases of superconductors and superfluid. Superfluidity is a substance's ability in quantum fluid state to seep through narrow ducts and crevices with no friction in conditions close to absolute zero. Earlier, superfluidity was found only in liquid helium, then in solid-state helium that originates in conditions of extremely low temperatures and colossal pressure. As for superconduction, there are several materials that have such property. Superconductors are used in trains that are based on magnetic levitation. Scientists from the Physics Land club of ITMO university love an experiment that is good at illustrating the process — a magnet levitates above a superconductor cooled with liquid nitrogen.
«In essence, their research results in creating a new theory that explains the phenomena of superconductivity and superfluidity in systems of reduced dimension with respect to strong magnetic fields. This revolutionary theory has been created thanks to the use of a mathematical apparatus that has never been used in physics before — and that is topology», — explains Andrei Bogdanov, Research Associate for ITMO's Department of Nanophotonics and Metamaterials.
Alexandr Atrashenko, staff member for International Nanophotonics and Metamaterials Research Centre, notes that the fundamental research by American scientists already starts to be implemented into applied science.
«Usually, it takes from 30 to 50 years for such research to be put to practice. Still, we can already see these approaches used in nuclear and statistical physics — for instance, in topological approaches to explaining the Quantum Hall effect. Actually, this research getting the Nobel Prize was quite a surprise for me — I expected the experimental detection of gravitational waves to be the one», — underlines the expert.
Most people — both experts and general public — shared this opinion, but the Nobel Prize often shows that everything related to fundamental research is not as simple as it seems. According to Dmitry Malkov, Head of Scientific Communication Center, there are several reasons behind it. For instance, the work on constructing detectors for the gravitational waves has been going for more than 20 years, and thousands of people from the mega-science project LIGO worked on the attempts to detect waves from collision of black holes or supernovas. Processing a signal from the collision of two black holes required the help of all ground-based and space observatories that could detect noises. Still, among the vast numbers of the project's participants three were chosen as Nobel Prize nominees: MIT’s professor Rainer Weiss, physicist Ronald Drever and Kip Thorne — an expert in general relativity theory (he was the consultant for the Interstellar movie). All three of them are among founders of the LIGO collaboration.
«In essence, the Nobel Prize is given for significant contribution to development of science that affected the consecutive research and progress in general. If one looks at the history of the Nobel Prize, the logic of the Committee seems reasonable. I suppose that the experimental discovery of gravitational waves has yet to bring more data and results, as well as the new field of science — gravitational wave astronomy. So, the award for the greatest discovery of 2016 will come in ten years minimum», — concludes Dmitry Malkov.
