The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020

with one half to

Roger Penrose
University of Oxford, UK

“for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity”

and the other half jointly to

Reinhard Genzel
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany and University of California, Berkeley, USA

and

Andrea Ghez
University of California, Los Angeles, USA

“for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy”

 Link: Nobel https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/penrose/facts/

Black holes and the Milky Way’s darkest secret

Three Laureates share this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their discoveries about one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe, the black hole. Roger Penrose showed that the general theory of relativity leads to the formation of black holes. Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez discovered that an invisible and extremely heavy object governs the orbits of stars at the centre of our galaxy. A supermassive black hole is the only currently known explanation.

Roger Penrose used ingenious mathematical methods in his proof that black holes are a direct consequence of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Einstein did not himself believe that black holes really exist, these super-heavyweight monsters that capture everything that enters them. Nothing can escape, not even light.

In January 1965, ten years after Einstein’s death, Roger Penrose proved that black holes really can form and described them in detail; at their heart, black holes hide a singularity in which all the known laws of nature cease. His groundbreaking article is still regarded as the most important contribution to the general theory of relativity since Einstein.

Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez each lead a group of astronomers that, since the early 1990s, has focused on a region called Sagittarius A* at the centre of our galaxy. The orbits of the brightest stars closest to the middle of the Milky Way have been mapped with increasing precision. The measurements of these two groups agree, with both finding an extremely heavy, invisible object that pulls on the jumble of stars, causing them to rush around at dizzying speeds. Around four million solar masses are packed together in a region no larger than our solar system.

Using the world’s largest telescopes, Genzel and Ghez developed methods to see through the huge clouds of interstellar gas and dust to the centre of the Milky Way. Stretching the limits of technology, they refined new techniques to compensate for distortions caused by the Earth’s atmosphere, building unique instruments and committing themselves to long-term research. Their pioneering work has given us the most convincing evidence yet of a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

“The discoveries of this year’s Laureates have broken new ground in the study of compact and supermassive objects. But these exotic objects still pose many questions that beg for answers and motivate future research. Not only questions about their inner structure, but also questions about how to test our theory of gravity under the extreme conditions in the immediate vicinity of a black hole”, says David Haviland, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

 

Illustrations

The illustrations are free to use for non-commercial purposes. Attribute ”© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”.

Illustration: Cross section of a black hole (pdf)
Illustration: The Milky Way (pdf)
Illustration: Stars closest to the centre of the Milky Way (pdf)

Read more about this year’s prize

Popular Science Background: Black holes and the Milky Way’s darkest secret (pdf)
Scientific Background: Theoretical foundation for black holes and the supermassive compact object at the galactic centre (pdf)

The Nobel Prize was established in accordance with the will of Swede, Alfred Nobel – inventor of dynamite and holder of more than 350 patents. Awarded annually since 1901, the Nobel Prize is the first annual international award to recognise achievements in Physics, Medicine, Chemistry, Peace and Literature. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to members of Cambridge University for significant advances as diverse as the discovery of the structure of DNA, the development of a national income accounting system, the mastery of an epic and narrative psychological art and the discovery of penicillin.

Affiliates of University of Cambridge have received more Nobel Prizes than those of any other institution.

• 95 affiliates of the University of Cambridge have been awarded the Nobel Prize since 1904.
• Affiliates have received Nobel Prizes in every category, 32 in Physics, 26 in Medicine, 22 in Chemistry, ten in Economics, three in Literature and two in Peace.
• Trinity College has 32 Nobel Laureates, the most of any college at Cambridge.
• Dorothy Hodgkin is the first woman from Cambridge to have been awarded a Nobel Prize, for her work on the structure of compounds used in fighting anaemia.
• In 1950, Bertrand Russell became the first person from Cambridge to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, for his 1946 work, ‘A History of Western Philosophy’.
• Frederick Sanger, from St John’s and fellow of King’s, is one of only four individuals to have been awarded a Nobel Prize twice. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1958 and 1980.

Nobel 2016 in Physics: Gonville & Caius College Cambridge.

2016 David Thouless (Trinity Hall, 1952), Duncan Haldane (Christ’s, 1970) and Michael Kosterlitz (Gonville and Caius, 1962) - Nobel Prize in Physics for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter

Other Gonville & Caius College Nobel Laureates:

2013 Michael Levitt, Gonville and Caius / Peterhouse Colleges, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems

2008 Roger Y. Tsien, Churchill / Caius Colleges: Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP
2001 Joseph Stiglitz, Caius College: Prize in Economics, for analyses of markets with asymmetric information
1984 Richard Stone, Caius College and fellow of King's College: Prize in Economics, for developing a national income accounting system
1977 Nevill Mott, Caius / St John's Colleges: Nobel Prize in Physics, for the behaviour of electrons in magnetic solids
1974 Antony Hewish, Caius / Churchill Colleges: Nobel Prize in Physics, for the discovery of pulsars
1972 John Hicks, Caius College: Prize in Economics, for the equilibrium theory
1962 Francis Crick, Caius / Churchill Colleges: Nobel Prize in Medicine, for determining the structure of DNA
1954 Max Born, Caius College: Nobel Prize in Physics, for fundamental research into quantum mechanics
1945 Howard Florey, Caius College: Nobel Prize in Medicine, for the discovery of penicillin
1935 James Chadwick, Caius College: Nobel Prize in Physics, for discovering the neutron
1932 Charles Sherrington, Caius College: Nobel Prize in Medicine, for work on the function of neurons

P.S What is interesting is that in 1972 when I worked at a West London Hospital, the head of Psychiatry was Haldane's father. What an honour!

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