The trio of septuagenarians is rewarded for their discoveries on "quantum entanglement", a mechanism where two quantum particles are perfectly correlated, whatever the distance which separates them, announced the Nobel jury.

The demonstration of this astonishing property has paved the way for new technologies in quantum computing and ultra-secure communications, or even ultra-sensitive quantum sensors that would allow extremely precise measurements, such as that of gravity in the atmosphere. 'space.

This puzzling mechanics was predicted by quantum theory.

Yet even Albert Einstein did not believe it: two particles joined at the start - as twins could be - could keep the mark of their common past and behave similarly, at a distance.

Affiliated with the French University of Paris-Saclay and Polytechnique, Alain Aspect is 75, while John Clauser is 79 and Anton Zeilinger, from the University of Vienna, is 77.

The trio are awarded "for their experiments with entangled photons, establishing violations of Bell's inequalities and opening a pioneering path to quantum computing", according to the Nobel jury.

"Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger have each conducted groundbreaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave as a single unit even when separated."

Quantum

The prize is endowed with 10 million Swedish crowns (approximately 920,000 euros) in each discipline, to be shared in the event of co-winners.

An award for quantum physics had been awaited for many years, with the names of Aspect, Clauser and Zeiliger among the favorites to win in this field.

Pioneering work on light or photovoltaic energy was also among the speculations this year.

The award was given last year to two experts in climate change modeling, the American-Japanese Syukuro Manabe and the German Klaus Hasselmann, as well as the Italian Giorgio Parisi, a specialist in complex physical systems.

Like the economics prize and other science prizes, the Nobel Prize for Physics suffers from a shortage of women laureates, but few women's names were among the speculation this year.

Only four women have won in physics since the awards were established in 1901, the first being Marie Curie in 1903 and the last being American astrophysicist Andrea Ghez two years ago.

On Monday, the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology had crowned the Swede Svante Pääbo, discoverer of the DNA of Neanderthals and Denisova and founder of paleogenomics.

Based in Germany where he works at the prestigious Max-Planck Institute, the laureate compared his research on Monday to "archaeological excavations in the human genome".

Paleogenetics may look at our distant ancestors, but its discoveries can shed light on the world today, as during the Covid pandemic.

The Nobel Prizes in Science end on Wednesday with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and then give way to the highly anticipated Literature Prizes on Thursday and Peace Prizes on Friday, the only ones to be awarded in Oslo.

The economy prize, a more recent creation, will close the ball next Monday.

© 2022 AFP