The three who have won the Physics prize are Prof Robert Laughlin of Stanford University, California; Prof Horst Stoermer of Columbia University, New York; and Prof Daniel Tsui of Princeton University, New Jersey.

Laughlin is American; Tsui is a naturalised American born in Henan, China; and Stoermer is a German from Frankfurt. The Nobel jury said that the three were ``being awarded the Nobel prize for discovering that electrons acting together in strong magnetic fields can form new types of particles with charges that are fractions of electron charges''.

The citation from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that in 1982, Stoermer and Tsui discovered ``a new form of Quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations'' in an experiment using extremelypowerful magnetic fields and low temperatures.

Within a year of this discovery, Laughlin had succeeded in explaining their result. They will each be presented with a medal and a shared cheque for 938,000 dollars at an official ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the 102nd death anniversary of the creator of the prizes, Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel.

Nobel-ld physics two last

It was the 92nd time that the nobel physics prize has been awarded. The united states has taken the lion's share with 67 winners, followed by britain (20), germany (20), france (11), russia/soviet union (7) and sweden (4).

The citation said that the new form of quantum fluid researched by the three laureates was particularly important for researchers because its properties allowed "more profound insights into the general inner structure and dynamics of matter."

"The contributions of the three laureates have thus led to yet another breakthrough in our understanding of quantum physics and to thedevelopment of new theoretical concepts of significance in many branches of modern physics," it read.

Last year the physics prize went jointly to two americans - steven chu and william phillips - and frenchman claude cohen-tannoudji for developing techniques to superfreeze gases.

The physics prize was the third of the six nobel prizes to be awarded this year and was adjudged by the royal swedish academy of sciences.

Portuguese author jose saramago won the nobel literature prize last thursday and american researchers robert furchgott, louis ignarro and ferid murad won the medicine prize yesterday. Afp nb md pak rys 10131752 b

Nobel-chemistry

American, briton win nobel chemistry prize stockholm, oct 13 (afp) the nobel committee announced today.