Who among the following is not a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022?
- (a)Alain Aspect
- (b)John F. Clauser
- (c)Klaus Hasselmann
- (d)Anton Zeilinger
Correct — C, Klaus Hasselmann. The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, 'for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science'. Klaus Hasselmann is not among them; he won the prize the year before. The 2021 Physics prize was shared between Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann, for physical modelling of the Earth's climate and the quantification of variability, and Giorgio Parisi, for work on disordered and fluctuating systems. So the odd name out is a real laureate, just of a different year and a different subject — the paper is testing whether a candidate can hold two consecutive years apart rather than whether the name sounds familiar. What the 2022 trio did is worth a sentence. John Clauser ran the first laboratory test of Bell's inequality in the early 1970s; Alain Aspect closed a major loophole in it in the early 1980s by switching the measurement settings while the photons were in flight; Anton Zeilinger turned entanglement into a tool, demonstrating quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping.
- (a)Alain Aspect — A 2022 laureate. His experiments in the early 1980s changed the measurement settings after the photons had left the source, closing the loophole that a hidden signal between the detectors could explain the result.
- (b)John F. Clauser — A 2022 laureate. He developed Bell's argument into a testable form and carried out the first practical experiment on entangled photons, finding the violation the theory predicted.
- (d)Anton Zeilinger — A 2022 laureate. His group demonstrated quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping, the steps that took entanglement from a philosophical puzzle to the basis of quantum information science.
Quantum mechanics predicts that two particles can be prepared in an entangled state whose measurement outcomes are correlated more strongly than any theory of local hidden variables allows. John Bell showed in 1964 that the difference is measurable, in the form of an inequality that local hidden-variable theories must obey. The experiments recognised in 2022 tested that inequality, found it violated, and then built technology on the result.
Nobel questions are almost always about the boundary between adjacent years, because that is where a well-prepared candidate can still slip. Hold each year by its theme rather than by its names — 2021 in physics was the climate and complex systems year, 2022 the entanglement year — and a name asked out of context sorts itself. Present-day note for a candidate revising now: the 2022 prize is no longer the latest, so use it as a fixed historical anchor and revise the most recent year separately. India's own physics laureate remains C. V. Raman, in 1930, and no Indian citizen has won a science Nobel since.
- The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for experiments with entangled photons and the violation of Bell inequalities.
- The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi, for climate modelling and for the physics of disordered systems.
- Bell's inequality, formulated in 1964, is the test that separates quantum mechanics from local hidden-variable theories.
- Nobel Prizes are announced in October and presented on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
- C. V. Raman, in 1930, remains the only Indian citizen to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Hasselmann is a laureate of 2021, which is why he is the name that does not belong in a 2022 list.
- Assuming a familiar-sounding name in a list of laureates must belong to the year asked; here all four are laureates.
- Confusing quantum teleportation with the transport of matter; what is transferred is a quantum state.
- Treating the economics prize as an original Nobel category; it was instituted later by the Swedish central bank.
As a who-did-not-win item, as a match between laureates and their fields, or as a which-year item on a recent prize.
Who among the following scientists shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with his son?
- (a) Max Planck
- (b) Albert Einstein
- (c) William Henry Bragg
- (d) Enrico Fermi
Answer(c) William Henry Bragg
The physics prize asked as an identification item. Papers use the Nobel roll as a way of testing whether a candidate can attach a name to a discovery, and the trap in both cases is a list of names that are all genuinely famous.
Which of the following UN organisations has been awarded with Nobel Prize twice?
- (a) IPCC
- (b) IAEA
- (c) UNHCR
- (d) UNICEF
Answer(c) UNHCR
The Nobel Prize as a recurring CDS subject, here on the peace side. Every session since has carried at least one item drawn from the prize lists, so the roll is worth revising by year.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for experimental work in which one of the following areas?
- (a)Detection of gravitational waves
- (b)Entangled photons and the violation of Bell inequalities
- (c)Physical modelling of the Earth's climate
- (d)Development of blue light-emitting diodes
Answer(b) Entangled photons and the violation of Bell inequalities — the citation shared by Aspect, Clauser and Zeilinger.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Klaus Hasselmann shared his Nobel Prize in Physics for work in which one of the following fields?
- (a)Quantum information science
- (b)Particle physics
- (c)Climate modelling
- (d)Condensed matter physics
Answer(c) Climate modelling — he shared the 2021 prize with Syukuro Manabe for physical modelling of Earth's climate, and with Giorgio Parisi, who was cited for disordered systems.