Le physicien français Serge Haroche et le physicien américain David
Wineland viennent d'être récompensés, ce mardi 9 octobre 2012 par l'attribution du Prix Nobel de Physique 2012 pour leurs travaux sur la physique quantique.
Né le 11 septembre 1944, Serge Haroche est normalien, professeur agrégé de physique (Paris V, école Polytechnique et Normale Sup) et membre du Collège de France
depuis 2001. Il a soutenu sa thèse de doctorat en 1971 sous la direction d'un futur autre Prix Nobel de Physique, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. Médaille d'or du CNRS le 2 juin 2009 et le Prix Nobel de
Physique lui est attribué le 9 octobre 2012.
Né le 24 février 1944, David Jeffrey Wineland est professeur de physique à l'Université du Colorado après avoir soutenu sa thèse de doctorat en 1970 à Berkeley, en
Californie. Il a fondé le NIST.
SR
Biographie de Serge Haroche de la SFP (à cliquer pour télécharger le fichier .pdf) :
http://ddata.over-blog.com/0/56/25/34/rakotoarison/_docSergeHarocheMedailleOrCNRS20090602.pdf
Dossiers de vulgarisation scientifique du Comité Nobel (à cliquer pour télécharger le fichier .pdf)
:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2012/popular-physicsprize2012.pdf
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2012/advanced-physicsprize2012.pdf
Communiqué du Comité Nobel du 9 octobre 2012 :
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2012/press.html
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012
Serge Haroche, David J. WinelandThe Nobel Prize in Physics 2012Summary
Press Release
9 October 2012
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2012 to
Serge Haroche
Collège de France and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
and
David J. Wineland
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA
"for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems"
Particle control in a quantum world
Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland have independently invented and developed methods for measuring and manipulating individual particles while preserving their
quantum-mechanical nature, in ways that were previously thought unattainable.
The Nobel Laureates have opened the door to a new era of experimentation with quantum physics by demonstrating the direct observation of individual quantum
particles without destroying them. For single particles of light or matter the laws of classical physics cease to apply and quantum physics takes over. But single particles are not easily
isolated from their surrounding environment and they lose their mysterious quantum properties as soon as they interact with the outside world. Thus many seemingly bizarre phenomena predicted by
quantum physics could not be directly observed, and researchers could only carry out thought experiments that might in principle manifest these bizarre phenomena.
Through their ingenious laboratory methods Haroche and Wineland together with their research groups have managed to measure and control very fragile quantum states,
which were previously thought inaccessible for direct observation. The new methods allow them to examine, control and count the particles.
Their methods have many things in common. David Wineland traps electrically charged atoms, or ions, controlling and measuring them with light, or
photons.
Serge Haroche takes the opposite approach: he controls and measures trapped photons, or particles of light, by sending atoms through a trap.
Both Laureates work in the field of quantum optics studying the fundamental interaction between light and matter, a field which has seen considerable progress since
the mid-1980s. Their ground-breaking methods have enabled this field of research to take the very first steps towards building a new type of super fast computer based on quantum physics. Perhaps
the quantum computer will change our everyday lives in this century in the same radical way as the classical computer did in the last century. The research has also led to the construction of
extremely precise clocks that could become the future basis for a new standard of time, with more than hundred-fold greater precision than present-day caesium clocks.
Read more about this year's prize
Information for the Public
Pdf 365 Kb
Scientific Background
Pdf 410 Kb.
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Serge Haroche, French citizen. Born 1944 in Casablanca, Morocco. Ph.D. 1971 from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. Professor at Collège de France and
Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.
www.college-de-france.fr/site/en-serge-haroche/biography.htm
David J. Wineland, U.S. citizen. Born 1944 in Milwaukee, WI, USA. Ph.D. 1970 from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Group Leader and NIST Fellow at National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA
www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp10/index.cfm
Prize amount: SEK 8 million, to be shared equally between the Laureates.
Contact persons: Erik Huss, Press Officer,
Phone +46 8 673 95 44, mobile +46 70 673 96 50, erik.huss@kva.se
Annika Moberg, Editor,
Phone +46 8 673 95 22, Mobile +46 70 673 96 90, annika.moberg@kva.se
Nobel Prize® är is a registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their
influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various
disciplines.
Communiqué de la SFP du 9 octobre 2012 :
http://www.sfpnet.fr/index.php?page=news&_id=47
Le prix Nobel de physique 2012 a été attribué à Serge Haroche (Ecole normale supérieure et collège de France) et David J. Wineland (National Institute of Standards
and Technology et University of Colorado) pour leurs "travaux expérimentaux pionniers qui ont permis la mesure et la manipulation de système quantiques individuels".
Lauréat de la médaille d'or du CNRS en 2009, Serge Haroche est spécialiste de physique atomique et d'optique quantique. Il est l'un des fondateurs de
l'électrodynamique quantique en cavité. Avec son collègue Jean-Michel Raimond, Serge Haroche a proposé des expériences conceptuellement simples et apporté la preuve expérimentale de fondements de
la théorie quantique. Ces systèmes originaux servent également de prototypes à des systèmes de traitement quantique de l'information.
Professeur au Collège de France depuis 2001, Serge Haroche dirige le groupe d'électrodynamique des systèmes simples au sein du laboratoire Kastler Brossel (École
normale supérieure/Université Pierre et Marie Curie/CNRS).
David Wineland, 68 ans également, a fondé au NIST le groupe le groupe d'ion piégé en 1975. Ses travaux pionniers conduit avec des ions piégés refroidis par laser
sont aujourd'hui récompensés par le prix Nobel.