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2011年诺贝尔奖物理学奖获奖者 2011年10月4日 17：45公布 Nobel Prize in Physics The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded \"for the discovery of the accelera ting expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae\" wi th one half to Saul Perlmutter and the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess. Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, Adam G. Riess Saul Perlmutter的研究成果主要是宇宙膨胀加速度及其黑能量存在的研究。所谓黑能量就是指用一般仪器无法直接观测到的物质，宇宙物质很大一部分都是由黑能量组成的。他不仅在黑能量的探测上取得进展，而且还在宇宙的膨胀加速上取得了突破，在《天体物理学杂志》有一篇引用超过了4600次。 Press Release 4 October 2011 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011 with one half to Saul Perlmutter The Supernova Cosmology Project Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA and the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt The High-z Supernova Search Team Australian National University, Weston Creek, Australia and Adam G. Riess The High-z Supernova Search Team Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA \"for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through obse rvations of distant supernovae\" Written in the stars \"Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice...\" * What will be the final destiny of the Universe? Probably it will end in ice, i f we are to believe this year\'s Nobel Laureates in Physics. They have studied several dozen exploding stars, called supernovae, and discovered that the Uni verse is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. The discovery came as a compl ete surprise even to the Laureates themselves. In 1998, cosmology was shaken at its foundations as two research teams present ed their findings. 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, wher e Adam Riess was to play a crucial role. The research teams raced to map the Universe by locating the most distant supe rnovae. More sophisticated telescopes on the ground and in space, as well as m ore powerful computers and new digital imaging sensors (CCD, Nobel Prize in Ph ysics in 2009), opened the possibility in the 1990s to add more pieces to the cosmological puzzle. The teams used a particular kind of supernova, called type Ia supernova. It is an explosion of an old compact star that is as heavy as the Sun but as small as the Earth. A single such supernova can emit as much light as a whole galaxy . All in all, the two research teams found over 50 distant supernovae whose li ght was weaker than expected - this was a sign that the expansion of the Unive rse was accelerating. The potential pitfalls had been numerous, and the scient ists found reassurance in the fact that both groups had reached the same aston ishing conclusion. For almost a century, the Universe has been known to be expanding as a consequ ence of the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. However, the discovery that t his expansion is accelerating is astounding. If the expansion will continue to speed up the Universe will end in ice. The acceleration is thought to be driven by dark energy, but what that dark en ergy is remains an enigma - perhaps the greatest in physics today. What is kno wn is that dark energy constitutes about three quarters of the Universe. There fore 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 po ssible again. Read more about this year\'s prize Information for the Public Pdf 4,9 MB Scientific Background Pdf 1 MB In order to read the text you need Acrobat Reader. Links and Further Reading Saul Perlmutter, U.S. citizen. Born 1959 in Champaign-Urbana, IL, USA. Ph.D. 1 986 from University of California, Berkeley, USA. Head of the Supernova Cosmol ogy Project, Professor of Astrophysics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/faculty/perlmutter.html Brian P. Schmidt, U.S. and Australian citizen. Born 1967 in Missoula, MT, USA. Ph.D. 1993 from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Head of the High-z Su pernova Search Team, Distinguished Professor, Australian National University, Weston Creek, Australia. msowww.anu.edu.au/~brian/ Adam G. Riess, U.S. citizen. Born 1969 in Washington, DC, USA. Ph.D. 1996 from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Professor of Astronomy and Physics, J ohns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA. www.stsci.edu/~ariess/