2017 Nobel Prize in Physics - Opinions and Expectations

[ISamson]

Hello,

The Nobel Prize in Physics is upcoming soon and I wanted to hear your opinions and expectations about some important discoveries or inventions which might end up receiving this most major prize in science. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Thanks.

 

[George Jones]

Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss for gravitational waves.

 

[Orodruin]

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 will be announced tomorrow (Tuesday October 3) at 11.45 CEST at the earliest.

The live announcement can be followed at https://www.nobelprize.org/ where you can already see the announcement of the prize in medicine or physiology and will be able to see the other prizes announced in the upcoming days.

This year's clear frontrunner is the detection of gravitational waves in September 2015 (announced in the beginning of 2016). Note that this is the discovery of 2015, the recent joint observation of a merger by LIGO and Virgo came far too late to be considered for this year's prize, although it lends additional weight to the detection.

If selected, the detection of gravitational waves will likely be awarded for the detection technique and not for the underlying theory (Einstein is long dead).

We have not had this kind of clear cut favourite since, well ... 2013.

Edit: See post #4 for the result and motivation. The link above will still let you see the announcement and contains more information about the Nobel Prize. See post #7 for the link to the press release.

 

[fresh_42]

I told you, Stockholm was the place to be!

 

[ISamson]

Hello all!

After long expectations and hard work, the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics will be soon announced!

It is possible to watch it live on:



https://www.nobelprize.org/
Can't wait to see what it will be awarded for!

 

[Orodruin]

Most likely gravitational waves detection. See my discussion at https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/nobel-prize-in-physics-2017-announcement.927282/

 

[ISamson]

Most likely gravitational waves detection. See my discussion at https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/nobel-prize-in-physics-2017-announcement.927282/

Yes, quite possible. That has been in the news for some time, but to who?

 

[Orodruin]

When it comes to actual laureates, a not so far-fetched bet would be a joint award (1/3 each) to Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Barry Barish. If so, they will have a busy schedule in December. It was announced last week that they will receive the Fudan-Zongzhi Science Award, which has its award ceremony on December 17. Just one week after the Nobel ceremony on December 10.

 

[ISamson]

Finally!

 

[Orodruin]

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 has been awarded to Rainer Weiss (1/2), Barry Barish (1/4), and Kip Thorne (1/4)

for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.

Edit: I did not get the order of presentation of the laureates correctly in my pre-composed post ...

 

[ISamson]

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 has been awarded to Rainer Weiss (1/2), Kip Thorne (1/4), and Barry Barish (1/4)

You were right!

 

[robphy]

LIGO folks it is.

 

[Orodruin]

You were right!

I got the distribution of the prize money wrong ...

 

[Orodruin]

Prof. Olga Botner quoting Star Wars in the technical announcement (@ 28:23 in the announcement video). Kudos.

Here is the link to the press release. It comes accompanied by a https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2017/popular-physicsprize2017.pdf and a https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2017/advanced-physicsprize2017.pdf description.

 

[Orodruin]

I would also like to underline the fact that the Prize was awarded for both the contributions to the detector technology as well as the actual observation itself.

 

[robphy]

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/

 

[jedishrfu]

Awarded to:

Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish for their work on LIGO-VIRGO and the detection of gravity waves:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41476648

 

[robphy]

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/meet-college-dropout-who-invented-gravitational-wave-detector

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Correctly predicted by @George Jones (among others as gravitational waves was a clear favorite)
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...pinions-and-expectations.925889/#post-5843794

Ronald Drever, who shared the Breakthrough Prize with Thorne and Weiss, would have been sure to be included had he not passed away earlier this year.

 

[ISamson]

Press Release: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017

3 October 2017

https://www.nobelprize.org/redirect/links_out/prizeawarder.php?from=/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2016/press.html&object=kva&to=http://www.kva.se/en/ has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 with one half to

Rainer Weiss
LIGO/VIRGO Collaboration

and the other half jointly to

Barry C. Barish
LIGO/VIRGO Collaboration

and

Kip S. Thorne
LIGO/VIRGO Collaboration

"for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves"

Gravitational waves finally captured
On 14 September 2015, the universe’s gravitational waves were observed for the very first time. The waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago, came from a collision between two black holes. It took 1.3 billion years for the waves to arrive at the LIGO detector in the USA.

The signal was extremely weak when it reached Earth, but is already promising a revolution in astrophysics. Gravitational waves are an entirely new way of observing the most violent events in space and testing the limits of our knowledge.

LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a collaborative project with over one thousand researchers from more than twenty countries. Together, they have realized a vision that is almost fifty years old. The 2017 Nobel Laureates have, with their enthusiasm and determination, each been invaluable to the success of LIGO. Pioneers Rainer Weiss and Kip S. Thorne, together with Barry C. Barish, the scientist and leader who brought the project to completion, ensured that four decades of effort led to gravitational waves finally being observed.

In the mid-1970s, Rainer Weiss had already analysed possible sources of background noise that would disturb measurements, and had also designed a detector, a laser-based interferometer, which would overcome this noise. Early on, both Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss were firmly convinced that gravitational waves could be detected and bring about a revolution in our knowledge of the universe.

Gravitational waves spread at the speed of light, filling the universe, as Albert Einstein described in his general theory of relativity. They are always created when a mass accelerates, like when an ice-skater pirouettes or a pair of black holes rotate around each other. Einstein was convinced it would never be possible to measure them. The LIGO project’s achievement was using a pair of gigantic laser interferometers to measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus, as the gravitational wave passed the Earth.

So far all sorts of electromagnetic radiation and particles, such as cosmic rays or neutrinos, have been used to explore the universe. However, gravitational waves are direct testimony to disruptions in spacetime itself. This is something completely new and different, opening up unseen worlds. A wealth of discoveries awaits those who succeed in capturing the waves and interpreting their message.

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2017/press.html

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Very exciting! Looks like there was very little doubt who would win. I'm sure there are many other deserving physicists. Who would be your top 3 runner ups?

 

[George Jones]

In a 1992 physics conference in Banff (in celebration of Werner Israel's 60th birthday), I saw Kip Thorne give an interesting talk on the detection of gravitational waves. He said that there was a race between theory and experiment, as theory could calculate gravitational radiation from the in-spiral of two black holes, and from the "ring-down" after merger, but theory at the time could not calculate in detail the gravitational radiation from the actual merger. Very exciting stuff for a grad student. Theory got there in 2005.

I was at the Calgary airport when John Wheeler got off his flight, and I saw Thorne warmly greet the elderly Wheeler, Thorne's Ph.D. advisor. Very touching.

 

[ISamson]

Albert Einstein was the one to predict these gravitational waves.
Einstein right again!

 

[mfb]

Ronald Drever, who shared the Breakthrough Prize with Thorne and Weiss, would have been sure to be included had he not passed away earlier this year.

The prize cannot be shared between more than three people. In theory it can be given to organizations (like the LIGO collaboration), although that has never been done with the science Nobel Prizes.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

The prize cannot be shared between more than three people. In theory it can be given to organizations (like the LIGO collaboration), although that has never been done with the science Nobel Prizes.

Which means that one of the current recipients would likely not have gotten the prize had Drever still been alive. This fact demonstrates the shortcomings of arbitrarily limiting the award to three individuals when in many cases there are clearly more than three individuals who deserve recognition. Furthermore, given that the Nobel prizes form a major way in which the general public engages with science, the focus of the Nobel prize on individuals can distort the public's perception about how science is actually done.

 

[Frimus]

It's time to recall the brilliantly written history of the LOGO project.
Janna Levin: Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space

 

[atyy]

Which means that one of the current recipients would likely not have gotten the prize had Drever still been alive. This fact demonstrates the shortcomings of arbitrarily limiting the award to three individuals when in many cases there are clearly more than three individuals who deserve recognition. Furthermore, given that the Nobel prizes form a major way in which the general public engages with science, the focus of the Nobel prize on individuals can distort the public's perception about how science is actually done.

The distortion of the public's perception about how science is actually done is part of the way science is actually done. So yeah, I won't complain if they give me a Nobel Prize ...

But yes of course, congrats to all of LIGO for the beautiful measurement. Nonetheless, I am very happy that Rainer Weiss did get the prize, as he was a teacher who inspired me. We did hear his story about dropping out of school. And we knew he was trying to do a crazy measurement. In one class he demonstrated how to align lasers for some experiment (Mossbauer, I think), got it wrong, and couldn't figure out his mistake (at least not by the time class ended that day, my lab partner and I did figure it out ourselves the next session). I guess that's why he needed all those other people in LIGO to help him :P

 

[nsaspook]

Bravo to them all.

 

[Orodruin]

This fact demonstrates the shortcomings of arbitrarily limiting the award to three individuals when in many cases there are clearly more than three individuals who deserve recognition.

I think it should be mentioned in this context that this is a result of Nobel’s will and therefore not subject to possible changes.

The prize cannot be shared between more than three people. In theory it can be given to organizations (like the LIGO collaboration), although that has never been done with the science Nobel Prizes.

I think that is only true for the peace prize. The foundations of the Nobel foundation state that the prizes are to be awarded to (at most three) persons. The Norwegians have interpreted the formulation of the will differently.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

I think it should be mentioned in this context that this is a result of Nobel’s will and therefore not subject to possible changes.

Nobel's will does not have any mention of limiting the prize to three individuals (if anything the language seems to limit it to one awardee for work done in the preceding year, which is definitely not how things are done now): https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/

 

[Orodruin]

Nobel's will does not have any mention of limiting the prize to three individuals (if anything the language seems to limit it to one awardee for work done in the preceding year, which is definitely not how things are done now): https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/

Yes, I was reading the statutes of the Nobel foundation, sorry for the confusion.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

From section 4 of the statutes of the Nobel foundation:

Each prize-awarding body shall be competent to decide whether the prize it is entitled to award may be conferred upon an institution or association.

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/statutes.html

There is nothing stopping the foundation (except perhaps stubbornness) from awarding a science prize to an organization.

 

[SciencewithDrJ]

Hello,

The Nobel Prize in Physics is upcoming soon and I wanted to hear your opinions and expectations about some important discoveries or inventions which might end up receiving this most major prize in science. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Thanks.

This is a mind blowing achievement. The level of accuracy is astounding ( millionth of a meter!) Correction by mfb with thanks: one millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a meter. And to see their humble demeanor before announcing the discovery is the mark of admirable scientific attitude. And just to think that two black holes 1.3 billion light years away collided and caused such ripples only to be caught by laser beam reflectors today is a mind blowing achievement to say the least.

 

[mfb]

The level of accuracy is astounding (two millionth of a meter!)

A millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a meter. 0.000000000000000001 meters.

 

[SciencewithDrJ]

Ooops, yes, thanks for the correction.

It is one 10 thousands of the width of a proton, and a proton is 0.87 x 10 to the -15 power of a meter wide.