Francis Halzen wins Nobel physics prize for work on ghost particles

Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for his efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos, tiny cosmic particles that scientists believe offer clues to how the universe evolved. “It was a great surprise and I obviously didn’t expect it,” Halzen said, speaking to the committee by phone from Italy, in a call broadcast at the news conference to announce the winner.Halzen said it was predicted before that he would win the Nobel Prize but the announcement still made him feel “strange.”“I am working on a proposal, and I hope that this prize will help getting it approved,” he said to chuckles from the audience.Halzen paved the way for a new kind of astronomyThe Nobel Committee for Physics also said Halzen’s work was instrumental to the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. Story continues below advertisement “Francis Halzen realized that the ice at the South Pole could visualize these neutrino messengers from cosmos,” committee member Eva Olsson said during the news conference. “People joined him in the quest for these neutrino messengers. The messenger is bringing information from cosmos. They opened the door to distant galaxies and tell us...