The prizes were awarded for the three researchers’ “experiments with entangled photons, which established the violation of Bell’s inequalities and pioneered quantum information science,” the academy said in a statement.
STOCKHOLM, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) — Alain Aspect of France, John F. Clauser of the United States and Anton Zeilinger of Austria won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on quantum information science, the Royal Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday.
The prizes were awarded for their “experiments with entangled photons, which established the violation of Bell’s inequalities and pioneered quantum information science,” the academy said in a statement.
“Their results have paved the way for new technologies based on quantum information,” it added.
“The untold effects of quantum mechanics are beginning to find applications. There is now a vast field of research that includes quantum computers, quantum networks and secure quantum encrypted communication,” the statement said.
At the awarding of this year’s physics prize on Tuesday, a PPT slide of China’s Micius quantum communication satellite above locations between China and Europe was used to show an intercontinental quantum link.
Thors Hans Hansson, a member of the Nobel Committee for Physics, which presented the achievements of this year’s laureates, told Xinhua that the reason he chose to show the Chinese quantum communication satellite was because “it shows international cooperation in physics, it also shows a lot of work in this field China has done. It fits spectacularly with this year’s award ceremony.”
Hansson said that China had the world’s first quantum communication satellite, and the quantum communication satellite was also first used in China between different places. China is at the forefront of the fields of quantum satellites and quantum communications, he said, adding “It’s the most spectacular thing. You couldn’t see a future without it.”
Aspect, born in 1947 in Agen, France, is a professor at Paris-Saclay University. Clauser, 80, is a research physicist at JF Clauser and Associates in the US. Zeilinger, 77, serves as a professor at the University of Vienna.
This year’s prize sum is 10 million Swedish kronor (920,000 US dollars), to be divided equally between the three prize winners.