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Getting a charge out of fractions

Robert Laughlin Horst Stoermer Daniel Tsui

(CNN) -- For physicists Horst Stoermer and Daniel Tsui, the road to the Nobel Prize began in 1982 with an experiment that produced puzzling results.

Putting ordinary electrons in a super strong magnetic field at temperatures near absolute zero, Stoermer and Tsui, who were then doing superconductivity research for Bell Labs in New Jersey, began seeing something that appeared to exhibit charges that were just a fraction of an electron's charge.

That was a major surprise because electrons were thought to all have a single, immutable charge.

At the time, Stoermer and Tsui were at a loss to explain why they had observed something that defied conventional wisdom. But a year later, another physicist, Robert Laughlin, working independently, came up with an explanation.

He hypothesized that electrons in a powerful magnetic field condense to form a kind of fluid, made up of so-called "quasi particles" that had charges that were just a fraction of the charge of an electron.

But it wasn't until last year that this hypothesis was confirmed by separate research teams in France and Israel, revolutionizing the study of quantum physics.

For their work, Stoermer, Tsui and Laughlin have been jointly awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize for physics.

The trio's research gives new insight into the study of the most basic makeup of matter, which could have a profound impact on future research by physicists around the world.

But it could have practical uses for everyday consumers as well.

For example, the information could be used to develop more compact computers, televisions and mobile phones.