German, U.S. physicists win Nobel

By MATT MOORE

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Americans John Hall and Roy Glauber and German Theodor Haensch won the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for their work in advancing the precision of optic technology, which could improve communication worldwide and help spacecraft navigate more accurately.

The prize was given to the three for their work in applying modern quantum physics to the study of optics - a pursuit that has led to the improvement of lasers, optical clocks, Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and other instruments.

Glauber, 80, of Harvard University, took half of this year's Nobel for showing in the 1960s how the particle nature of light affects its behaviour under certain circumstances. Although those conditions are rarely observed in nature, they are often relevant in sophisticated optical instruments.

Hall, 71, of the University of Colorado, and Haensch, 63, of the Ludwig-Maximilian-Univrsitaet in Munich, won for their work in determining the colour of light at the atomic and molecular level. Haensch used evenly spaced laser pulses to determine the frequencies, and Hall refined the technique.

"It's a huge surprise, a great pleasure," Hall said, noting that the work was a team effort.

"I believe that the subject of precise measurement is really the way of obtaining scientific maturity," he said. "Being able to observe more carefully is more useful. More awareness leads in a powerful way to the next round of questions."

Sune Svanberg, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said Glauber can rightly be considered the father of quantum optics, and that his theories paved the way for the discoveries made by Hall and Haensch.


Until Glauber published his theories in 1963, scientists had dismissed the idea that the quantum theory, originally developed by Albert Einstein, could be applied to the field of optics.

"There were completely different ideas back then about how to view this," Svanberg said. "His results are fundamental for our modern understanding of the behaviour of light."

Hall and Haensch will split the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million Cdn) prize with Glauber.

Speaking from his office in Munich, Haensch called the award a high point of his career.

"I was speechless but of course very happy, exuberant," he said. "Now, I am trying to get used to this."

He said the trio's work could eventually be applied to making communication across the globe - and beyond Earth - more feasible and make the frequencies that carry radio waves, more precise.

Glauber's theories helped explain the behaviour of light particles, while Hall and Haensch were able to determine the frequency of light with extreme precision, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

"The important contributions by John Hall and Theodor Haensch have made it possible to measure frequencies with an accuracy of 15 digits," the academy said. "Lasers with extremely sharp colours can now be constructed, and with the frequency comb technique precise readings can be made of light of all colours.

"This technique makes it possible to carry out studies of, for example, the stability of the constants of nature over time, and to develop extremely accurate clocks and improved GPS technology."

Hall works for JILA, an institute run by the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Two other JILA physicists, Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001.

Alfred Nobel, the wealthy Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who endowed the prizes, left only vague guidelines for the selection committee, saying in his will that the prize should be given to those who "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and "shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics."

The prize is the second Nobel to be announced this week. On Monday, Australians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren won the 2005 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for proving, partly by accident, that bacteria and not stress was the main cause of painful ulcers of the stomach and intestine.

The awards for chemistry and peace will be announced through the end of the week, with the economics prize to be awarded Oct. 10. No date has been set for the literature prize.

The prizes will be awarded by Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

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