Ilya Michailowitsch Lifschitz

Ilja Michailowitsch Lifschitz ( Russian Илья́ Миха́йлович Ли́фшиц ; * December 31, 1916 ^July / January 13,  1917 ^greg. In Kharkov ; † October 23, 1982 in Moscow ) was a Soviet theoretical physicist , solid-state physicist , polymer physicist and university professor .

Life

Lifschitz, son of a medicine professor and younger brother of Yevgeny Michailowitsch Lifschitz , studied at the University of Kharkov until 1936 and then at the Polytechnic Institute of Kharkov , graduating in 1938. His academic teacher was LD Landau .

Lifschitz began his scientific work in 1937 in the Kharkov Physical-Technical Institute , where his brother was already working. In 1941, with the beginning of the German-Soviet War , Lifschitz became head of the theory department there, which had previously headed LD Landau, and in 1944 professor and head of a chair at the University of Kharkov. In 1967 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine .

1964 Lifschitz was appointed to the chair of electrodynamics and quantum theory at Lomonossow University in Moscow . In 1969 he became head of the theory department of the Institute for Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now Kapiza -Institute for Physical Problems ) in Moscow , again later as the successor to LD Landau. In 1970 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1978 he moved to the chair for low-temperature physics at Lomonossow University in Moscow, which he held until his death.

Lifschitz worked in the field of condensed matter physics and especially solid state physics . His investigations into the behavior of electrons in disordered systems were groundbreaking. In 1948 he developed a theory of twin formation . He determined the dependence of the observable properties of metals on the geometry and topology of the Fermi surface . In the early 1950s he introduced the spectral shift function in perturbation theory . 1954–1965 he and his students developed the modern electron theory of metals. In 1960 he predicted the phase transition of the order 2 1/2 and in 1969 quantum diffusion and, with Alexander Fyodorowitsch Andreyev, suprasolidity . 1969–1972, Lifschitz and AF Andrejew worked out the theory of quantum crystals and quantum diffusion. In 1972 Lifschitz and JM Kagan developed the quantum theory of first-order phase transitions.

In the 1970s, Lifschitz focused on polymer physics . Together with AJ Grosberg and AR Chochlow he developed a theory of the coil-droplet transition in polymers and biopolymer systems using conformational entropy and density functional theory . He founded the School of Solid State and Polymer Physics (with his students AJ Grosberg, AR Chochlow, MJ Asbel , MI Kaganow , AM Kossewitsch and others). In 1982 he became a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences .

Lifschitz found his grave in the Trojekurovo cemetery in Moscow .

Honors

• Order of the Red Banner of Labor
• LI Mandelstam Prize of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1952)
• Francis Simon Prize of the Institute of Physics (1961)
• Honorary Member of Trinity College (Cambridge) (1962)
• Lenin Prize (1967) for the joint development of a modern electron theory of metals that explains the energy spectrum of metals.

Individual evidence

1. ^ T. Odijk: Ilya M. Lifshitz. An appreciation . Physics Reports 288 (1997) p. 9.
2. ↑ Chair of Quantum Theory and High Energy Physics at Lomonossow University, Moscow: Lifschitz Ilja Michailowitsch (Russian, accessed on May 9, 2016)
3. ↑ Great Soviet Encyclopedia 1969: Lifschitz Ilja Michailowitsch (Russian, accessed on May 9, 2016)
4. ↑ SA Gredeskul, LA Pastur: Works of IM Lifshitz on disordered systems . Journal of Statistical Physics 38 (1/2) (1985) pp. 25-36.
5. ↑ A. Yu. Grosberg, AR Khokhlov: Statistical Physics of Macromolecules . Springer 1994, ISBN 978-1-56396-071-0 .