Haensch, of the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universitaet in Munich

Glauber, physics professor at Harvard University

Hall, of the University of Colorado

    STOCKHOLM, Oct. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics to Americans Roy Glauber and John Hall and German Theodor Haensch.

    The three won the prize for their work of "optical research that could lead to better long-distance communication and more precise navigation worldwide and in space".

    "As long as humans have populated the Earth, we have been fascinated by optical phenomena and gradually unraveled the nature of light," the Academy said. "With the aid of light, we can orient ourselves in our daily lives or observe the most distant galaxies of the universe."

    Glauber, an 80-year-old physics professor at Harvard University, took half the Nobel prize for establishing the basis of quantum optics, which explained the fundamental difference between sources of light such as light bulbs and lasers, the Academy said.

    Hall, 71, of the University of Colorado, and Haensch, 63, of the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universitaet in Munich, shared the other half "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique," it said.

    The prize is the second Nobel announced this week. On Monday, Australians Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren won the prize in medicine for proving that bacteria rather than stress was the main cause of painful ulcers of the stomach and intestine.

    The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday and the Peace Prize on Friday. The Economics Prize is scheduled for Oct. 10, while the date for the Literature Prize has yet to be announced but it is traditionally on Thursday.

    The 2005 laureates will receive a gold medal and share a cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor (1.1 million euros, 1.3 million US dollars) at the formal prize ceremony held on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prize's creator Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Enditem