2016 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three British-born scientists for discoveries about strange forms of matter.

David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, will share the 8m kronor (£727,000) prize.

They were named at a press conference in Sweden, and join a prestigious list of 200 other Physics laureates recognised since 1901.

The Nobel Committee said the work had “opened the door on an unknown world”.

When matter is very cold or extremely flat, scientists start to see unusual behaviour from the atoms.

These phenomena complement the more familiar phases of matter, namely when things change from solid to liquid to gas.

The laureates’ discoveries had helped scientists in designing new materials.