Francis Halzen wins Nobel Physics Prize for Antarctic ‘ghost particle’ hunt

Belgian-American particle physicist Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing an observatory to detect high-energy neutrinos - elusive particles that rarely interact with matter as they pass through Earth and our bodies.

Halzen recognized that the ice at the South Pole could be utilized to track neutrinos, frequently referred to as "ghost particles" due to their ability to traverse the Earth and human bodies without leaving any trace. These particles, which are electrically neutral and unaffected by even the strongest magnetic fields, bring information from distant galaxies and shed light on celestial events such as exploding stars and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars.

The IceCube observatory, located in a cubic kilometre of pristine Antarctic ice, 2,500 meters below the surface near the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, searches for high-energy neutrinos in an effort to trace their origins back to stellar explosions, gamma-ray bursts, and other phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars. The observatory typically detects one neutrino per day.

Halzen first proposed his idea for capturing neutrinos in the South Pole in 1988, and despite many doubting its feasibility, the project was successfully completed in 2011. Neutrinos, unlike other particles, do not lose energy or change direction, which makes them valuable tools in understanding the universe. The main findings of Halzen's discoveries are yet to be realized, and he emphasized that this is just the beginning of the scientific and astronomical advancements that lie ahead.