2011 Nobel Prize in Physics Winners Announced

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics goes out to three scientists, “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.” Saul Perlmutter will receive half of the award, whereas the other half will be split between Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess.

Perlmutter is based at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and he also holds an appointment as professor at the University of California in Berkeley (UCB). He is a part of the Supernova Cosmology Project at the Lab.

Schmidt is the leader of the High-z Supernova Search Team, which is based at the Australian National University (ANU), in Weston Creek, Australia. Riess is also a member of the HSST, but he is based at the Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in Baltimore, Maryland.

These three investigators played a critical role in the study of Type Ia supernovae. Measurements conducted on the nature of these objects are responsible for revealing that the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating pace.

Studies conducted by the two teams – and others that followed – are responsible for producing the set of scientific data that led to the proposal of dark matter and dark energy as driving forces for the cosmic expansion.

“In 1998, cosmology was shaken at its foundations as two research teams presented their findings,” an official press release accompanying the Nobel Foundation's announcement says.

“Headed by Saul Perlmutter, one of the teams had set to work in 1988. Brian Schmidt headed another team, launched at the end of 1994, where Adam Riess was to play a crucial role,” the document adds.

It is important to note here that researchers knew for more than a century that the Universe is expanding. What these studies demonstrated was that the expansion was progressing faster and faster. Studies of distant Type Ia supernovae were absolutely critical to this discovery.

“The acceleration is thought to be driven by dark energy, but what that dark energy is remains an enigma – perhaps the greatest in physics today. What is known is that dark energy constitutes about three quarters of the Universe,” the release adds.

“Therefore the findings of the 2011 Nobel Laureates in Physics have helped to unveil a Universe that to a large extent is unknown to science. And everything is possible again,” the statement concludes.