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Nobel Committee member explains theory using pastries

(CNN) Three British physicists working at US universities have won the Nobel Prize in Physics for revealing the secrets of exotic matter.

The 8 million Swedish Krona prize (more than US $931,000) was divided between the three laureates according to their contributions -- one half awarded to David Thouless of the University of Washington, and the other half jointly to Duncan Haldane of Princeton University and Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University.

"This year's laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states," said the Nobel Foundation in a statement Tuesday.

"They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films"

What was their discovery?