While some teams confirmed superconductity in LK99 other teams got a negative result. The consensus amongst the solid-state community at the moment is the LK99 is NOT superconductive at room temperature.
How is that possible ? There are often many effects at play in Physics. Certain phenomena can be explained in other ways. There are often measurement issues, modelling issues and a haste to say "me too" as prestige and prizes are in play.
Surely HN or any human would root for room temperature superconductivity. It would be a massive technical progress. It is a pity that it did not pan out.
Until the widespread consensus is that LK99 is a room temperature superconductor and many teams are able to reproduce the result there is no chance a nobel prize will be awarded for this.
There usually a lag between a great discovery and a nobel. The prize committe is conservative that way. They want to make sure the science works out and they did not get carried away in the hype of the moment.
Sometimes I muse that it's the belief of the experimenters themselves that can briefly coerce the world into behaving in a certain way... something quantum many worlds... something something. :)
This is the idea that Schrödinger was attempting to ridicule in his cat thought experiment. The intent is that this idea is intuitively ludicrous. Unfortunately pop culture got hold of it and now, well, "Ooh quantum stuff, put cats everywhere" ...
On the other hand, Greg Egan did a couple of short stories about what if the underlying mathematics (which necessarily governs our universe) is altered when we "discover" weird things about it and this binds us to other universes sharing that mathematics, so we can't go there, and they can't come here, but if they discover something weird about the relationship between Pi and set theory that becomes true here even though we haven't "discovered" that, and if they can choose to discover something different, that is true instead.
Yes it's definitely an idea that can be found here and there in Greg Egan's novels and short stories. Among other places, towards the end of Permutation City when it's suggested that the world beliefs of the inhabitants of Permutation City (humans vs evolved artificial species) are themselves shaping its reality.
It is not how it works. First, they haven’t really made yet a verified discovery. They may be into something but years may pass before it will be designated as a scientific breakthrough. Then their work must be considered influential enough so that they will be nominated by someone who can do that. Then they must be selected by the committee. It is a long journey and many other discoveries are being made along the way reducing their chances. So there’s absolutely no reason to think they could have received a Nobel Prize this year.
To further add to this, one of the fastest Nobel prizes in Physics was also for high temperature superconductivity in 1987, awarded less than 2 years after the discovery was made public (the other which ties with it being the 1957 prize for parity violation).
So even if LK-99 had been easily verified to be a true room temperature superconductor, they'd probably be looking at the 2024 Nobel.
