Quantum trio share Nobel physics prize
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden (CNN) -- Alexei Abrikosov, Anthony Leggett and Vitaly Ginzburg have won the 2003 Nobel Prize in physics for their contributions to two areas of quantum physics -- superconductivity and superfluidity -- which shed light on the outlandish properties of matter at extremely low temperatures.
Abrikosov, 75, was born in Moscow and is a Russian and U.S. citizen. He received a doctorate's degree in physics in 1951 at the Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow. He is a distinguished Argonne scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois.
Leggett, 65, was born in London and is a British and U.S. citizen. He has a doctorate in physics in 1964 at the University of Oxford. He is MacArthur professor at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
Ginzburg, 87, was born in Moscow and is a Russian citizen. He has a doctorate in physics at the University of Moscow. He is the former head of the theory group at the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow.
The Nobel site said "superconducting material is used, for example, in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for medical examinations and particle accelerators in physics.
"Knowledge about superfluid liquids can give us deeper insight into the ways in which matter behaves in its lowest and most ordered state."
The scientists will equally share a prize of 10-million kronor, or about U.S. $1.3 million.