Members of the Nobel Committee for Physics announce physicist Francis Halzen as the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. (EPA Images pic)

STOCKHOLM: Belgian physicist Francis Halzen on Tuesday won the Nobel Prize in Physics for work on subatomic particles at the South Pole, the award jury said.

"This year's prize is about ghostly messengers from space," Ellen Moons, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, told a news conference.

Halzen was honoured "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin", the jury said.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that Halzen's "vision and scientific leadership" had been fundamental for the observatory, which it described as "a cubic kilometre of ice that is equipped with light sensors".