Three scientists have jointly won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on quantum information science that has significant applications, for example in the field of encryption.

Alain Aspect, John F Clauser and Anton Zeilinger were awarded for “experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the laureates — Dr Aspect is French, Dr Clauser American and Dr Zeilinger Austrian — enabled further fundamental research and also potentially cleared the way for new practical technology.

The scientists all conducted experiments into quantum entanglement, where two particles are linked regardless of the space between them, a field that unsettled Albert Einstein himself, who once referred to it in a letter as “spooky action at a distance”.

Dr Zeilinger said he was “kind of shocked, but very positive” about an hour after receiving the news.

“I have to say that I was always interested in quantum mechanics from the very first moment when I read about it,” he said.

“I was suddenly struck by some of the theoretical predictions because they did not fit in all the usual intuition which one might have.”

New field of research opening ‘doors to another world’

“Quantum information science is a vibrant and rapidly developing field,” said Eva Olsson, a member of the Nobel committee.

“It has broad and potential implications in areas such as secure information transfer, quantum computing and sensing technology.

While physicists often tackle problems that appear, at first glance, to be far removed from everyday concerns — such as tiny particles and the vast mysteries of space and time — their research provides the foundations for many practical applications of science.

Last year, the prize was awarded to three scientists — Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi — whose work has helped to explain and predict complex forces of nature, thereby expanding our understanding of climate change.