Nobel Prize for Physics 2016
Three British-born scientists have been awarded Nobel Prize for Physics. [Representational Image] In Picture: Members of the media attend a news conference at the Royal Swedich Academy in Stockholm on 6 October 2015.Reuters

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics to three British scientists for their research and eventual discoveries. The eight million Swedish Kronor (Rs 6.18 crore) prize will be shared by David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz.

The committee said these three scientists "opened the door on an unknown world" into a world "where matter can assume strange states."

They used advanced mathematical methods, topological concepts that helped them in the discoveries. The pioneering work can have future application in science and electronics. There has been "frontline research in condensed matter physics" due to original work from these three Laureates.

There is hope that topological materials could be used in new generations of electronics and superconductors, or in future quantum computers, the committee noted.

One half of the prize will be awarded to David Thouless, with Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz sharing the other half.