Nobel prize in Physics in 2008 has been awarded to Yoichiro Nambu (USA), Makoto Kobayashi (Japan), and Toshihide Maskawa (Japan). Among them, Yoichiro Nambu shared one-half of the Nobel Prize for his contribution as described by the Nobel foundation
“for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics”.
In 1960, Nambu introduced spontaneous broken symmetry. Spontaneous broken symmetry means a symmetric system becoming asymmetric when it enters into asymmetrical system. A common example of Spontaneous symmetry breaking is, when a ball which is symmetrical when placed at top of a hill, it is no more symmetrical as small force makes it roll down from hill and it has different symmetries in different directions. Spontaneous broken theory led to the invention of three families of Quarks (the smallest building blocks of matter). He also worked on rapid (fast) conductivity in metals, when electric currents suddenly flow without any resistance.
Makoto Kobayashi shared one-fourth and Toshihide Maskawa shared one-fourth of noble prize
“for their discovery of the origin of three families of quarks in nature”
as described by the Nobel foundation. Yoichiro Nambu’s discovery, mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry laid foundation for the discovery of quarks.
Quarks are fundamental matter particles that combine together to form neutrons and protons in nucleus of atom. They first appeared in particle physics experiments in 1964, and very recently, scientists confirmed the existence of quarks. There are three families of quarks. They are top quark, bottom quark, and charm quark. They vary in mass and electronic charge. Earlier Atomic model was considered to study on particles. Now Quarks are part of the Standard Model of particle physics that combines all the smallest building blocks of matter.