we explained the 2016 Nobel physics
prize meat test she relies on technology
throughout her day which simplifies her
life she knows that innovations in
technology rely on our abilities to
understand the materials that create
them and that physics is one way to
uncover these insights so she is curious
to learn more about the Nobel laureates
who discovered a new set of regularities
in the way matter behaves test learns
that David Thewlis Duncan Hall Dane and
Michael Koster let's made new
discoveries in physics using concepts
found in a branch of mathematics called
topology topology describes properties
that are preserved under deformations
and manipulations in topology an integer
number called a topological invariant
can be assigned to all objects that
share the same properties one example of
a topological invariant is the number of
holes an object has an orange a ball and
a muffin all have zero holes so they can
all be assigned the topological
invariant n equals zero
in contrast a coffee cup and a bagel
each have one hole and can be assigned
the topological invariant N equals one
objects can't transform from one
topology class to another unless a
significant force is applied to them
like cutting gluing or telling them
their topological properties are
protected against small changes this was
noteworthy to scientists because
microscopic objects are usually observed
as being fragile they typically can only
survive in very specific conditions but
physicists observed some objects that
had surprisingly robust properties they
were puzzled by these exceptions
this year's Nobel laureates discovered
that the robust properties were caused
by the topological nature of electrons
in those objects from this realization
Phyllis used topology to explain the
famous quantum Hall effect experiment
this experiment showed that in very thin
layers at in the presence of high
magnetic fields electrons behave in such
a way that the conductance through the
system is robust against disorder and
can only change in steps as the magnetic
field is increased Phyllis was able to
explain this behavior by assigning an
integer n to each of the conductance
steps observed later all day and
predicted that a similar effect was
possible without having a magnetic field
before scientists believed phase
transitions could not occur in extremely
thin layers of matter however Koster
litsen tholos found that it was possible
for vortices to appear in some 2d
materials because of their topological
nature they found that each vortex could
be assigned an integer number determined
by the number of times it turns at low
temperatures the vortices are always
seen in tight pairs that stay together
these pairs influence the electric
conductivity of the matter but when the
temperature is raised the vortex pairs
break away from each other this is a
completely new kind of phase transition
finally all Dane studied one-dimensional
chains of atomic magnets he found
another example of topological order a
different type of topological object
called s karien explained the change
from conducting to insulating behavior
of the chain
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Tess is excited to hear that the ideas
developed by the Nobel laureates have
sparked revolutions in many other fields
scientists hope these discoveries can be
applied to the development of new
materials used for electronics Tess
thinks that's pretty cool and wonders
what their future may hold
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