Arkadi Beinussowitsch Migdal

Arkady Beinusovich's grave (left, Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow)

Arkady Migdal ( Russian Аркадий Бейнусович (Бенедиктович) Мигдал * February 26 ^jul. / 11. March  1911 ^greg. In Lida , Vilna Governorate , Russian Empire , now Belarus ; † 9. February 1991 in Princeton (New Jersey) ) was a leading Soviet theoretical physicist.

Life

Migdal attended school in Petrograd and studied at the Leningrad State University with Vladimir Fock , where he also received his doctorate. He published his first work as a pupil in 1927. From 1938 he worked with Lev Landau , who was then just returning from Charkow to Moscow (and was imprisoned there for a year; in the early 1950s Migdal was regularly active in the Landau seminars in Moscow). In 1945 Migdal went to the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, where he was later head of the theory department. He was also a professor at the Institute for Physical Technology (MEPhI) in Moscow. From 1971 Migdal was a professor at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Migdal was a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Migdal is best known for his application of quantum field theoretical methods in solid state physics and nuclear physics , in particular via Landau's quasiparticle method (partly with Viktor Galitskij and Spartak T. Belyaev ). In nuclear physics, for example, the system of strongly interacting nucleons in the nucleus is considered as a Fermi liquid of finite extent of quasiparticles (with an effective mass that differs from the "naked" nucleons) and phenomenological approaches (e.g. with the observed excitation energies of some collective states adapted parameters) for the effective interaction of the quasi-particle and hole excitations. Later he also dealt with the phenomenology of quantum chromodynamics and especially pion condensates in nuclear matter with possible applications on neutron stars and the EMC effect (which in the 1980s showed a different behavior of deep inelastic scattering for quarks in nuclei compared to hadrons).

His son Alexander Arkadyevich Migdal is also a physicist. Since they worked in a similar field, they should not be confused with one another. Arkadi Migdal is usually abbreviated to AB Migdal , Alexander Migdal to AA Migdal .

Fonts (selection)

• Quadrupole and dipole radiation of nuclei ${\displaystyle \gamma }$ . In: J. of Phys. , Volume 8, 1944, p. 331
• Brake radiation and pair production in condensed media at medium energy . In: Phys. Rev. , Volume 103, 1956, pp. 1811-1820
• The momentum distribution of interacting Fermi particles . In: JETP , Vol. 5, No. 2, 1957, pp. 333-334
• Interaction between electrons and lattice vibrations in a normal metal . In: Soviet Physics JETP (Journal of experimental and theoretical Physics), Volume 7, 1958 (also in Pines (Ed.) “The many body problem” 1961)
• with VM Galitskii: Application of the Methods of Quantum field theory to the many body problem . In: Soviet Physics , Volume 7, 1958, p. 96 (also in Pines (Ed.) “The many body problem” 1961)
• Superfluidity and moments of inertia in nuclei , Nucl. Phys., Vol. 13, 1959, pp. 655-674
• Single particle excitations and superfluidity in Fermi systems with arbitrary interactions: application to the nucleus . In: Nucl. Phys. , Vol. 30, 1962, pp. 29-47
• A new approach to the theory of nuclear structure , Nuclear Physics, Volume 57, 1964, pp. 29-47
• with Anatoly Larkin: Theory of superfluid Fermi liquids: Application to the nucleus . In: JETP , Volume 19, 1964, p. 1478
• Nuclear magnetic moments . In: Nucl. Phys. , Vol. 75, 1966, pp. 441-469
• The method of interacting quasi-particles in the theory of the nucleus . Enrico Fermi Course, Volume 36, 1966
• Theory of finite Fermi systems and applications to atomic nuclei . New York, Interscience 1967 (Russian 1965 and 2nd edition, Nauka 1983)
• Nuclear theory- the quasiparticle method , Benjamin 1968
• with Vladimir P. Kraĭnov: Approximation methods of quantum mechanics . Benjamin, 1969 (Translator Anthony Leggett )
• Vacuum stability and maximum fields . In: JETP , Volume 34, 1972, p. 1184
• ${\displaystyle \pi }$condensation in nuclear matter , Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 31, 1972, pp. 257-260
• Phase transition in nuclear matter and multiparticle nuclear forces . In: Nucl. Phys. , A, Vol. 210, 1973, pp. 421-428
• with GA Sorokin, OA Markin, IN Mishustin: Pion condensation and stability of abnormal nuclei . In: Phys. Lett. B, Vol. 65, 1977, pp. 423-426
• Qualitative methods in quantum theory . Benjamin, Reading 1977, Westview Press 2000, ISBN 0-7382-0302-5 (Translator Anthony Leggett)
• Instability of Yang-Mills equations and gluon-field condensation . In: JETP Lett. , Volume 28, 1978, p. 37
• In search of the truth - a physicist tells , Harri Deutsch 1990 (first 1980), ISBN 3-8171-1154-1
• with EE Saperstein, MA Troitsky, DN Voskresensky: Pion degrees of freedom in nuclear matter , Physics Reports, Volume 192, 1990, pp 179-437
• Pion fields in nuclear matter . In: Reviews of Modern Physics , Volume 50, 1978, pp 107-172
• QCD and the structure of hadrons . In: Nucl. Phys. A, Vol. 478, 1988, pp. 95-102
• Phenomenology of QCD and hadron structure . In: Nucl. Phys. A, Vol. 518, 1990, pp. 358-370

literature

• S. Belyaev, Bruno Pontecorvo, Okun, Saperstein, Khalatnikoff, Kogan and others. a .: Obituary. In: Soviet Phys. Uspeki , Vol. 34, 1991, pp. 733-735
• Karl Hall: Arkady Migdal . In : New Dictionary of Scientific Biography . Scribners, 2008, Volume 5
• Victor Khodel, Eduard Saperstein: Arkady B. Migdal . In: Nuclear Physics , Vol. 555, 1993, pp. VII-XV
• NO Agasian et al. a. (Ed.): Memories of Academician AB Migdal (Russian). Fizmatlit, Moscow 2003 (with bibliography)

Web links

• Interview 1977, abstract, Niels Bohr Institute

Remarks

1. ↑ Bejnusovich, sometimes Benediktowitsch is also given
2. ↑ Memories of Joffe - arxiv : hep-ph / 0204295 He took on a special role there, similar to Ginzburg and Pomerantschuk, and was known for practical jokes