Three British scientists have won the Nobel prize in physics for their work on exotic states of matter that may pave the way for quantum computers and other revolutionary technologies.

David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz will share half of the 8m Swedish kronor (£718,000) prize with announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm today.

“I was very surprised and very gratified,” Haldane said in a telephone interview with the Nobel Foundation soon after he was named a co-winner. “It’s only now that a lot of tremendous new discoveries based on this work are now happening.”

The scientists were credited for their theoretical work on “topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”. Thouless, 82, who was born in Bearsden in Scotland was awarded half of the prize. The other half will be shared equally between Duncan Haldane, 65, who was born in London, and Michael Kosterlitz, who was born in Aberdeen in 1942.

(The Guardian)