Japan's Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, and Yoichiro Nambu of the United States, have won the Nobel Physics Prize for pioneering work on fundamental particles of matter called quarks.
Mr Nambu won half the prize for developing a ''standard model of elementary particle physics [which] unifies the smallest building blocks of all matter and three of nature's four forces in one single theory'', the Nobel jury said.
The Japanese duo were honoured for their discovery ''of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature'', the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences citation said.
''Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature's order under an apparently jumbled surface. ''Nambu's theories permeate the standard model of elementary particle physics.''
The trio will share the purse of 10 million kronor ($A1.97 million) a diploma, and an invitation to Stockholm. Agencies
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