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| Academician Lev Landau | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lev Landau |
| Birth date | 22 January 1908 |
| Birth place | Baku, Russian Empire |
| Death date | 1 April 1968 |
| Death place | Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Fields | Theoretical physics, Condensed matter physics, Quantum mechanics, Statistical mechanics |
| Alma mater | Leningrad State University, Kharkiv University |
| Known for | Landau theory of phase transitions, Ginzburg–Landau theory, Landau pole, Fermi liquid theory, Landau levels |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Physics, Lenin Prize, Hero of Socialist Labour |
Academician Lev Landau Lev Davidovich Landau was a Soviet theoretical physicist noted for foundational work across quantum mechanics, condensed matter physics, astrophysics, and statistical mechanics. He developed systematic approaches—often named after him—that reshaped understanding of superconductivity, superfluidity, phase transitions, and the behavior of electrons in magnetic fields, and he trained a prominent school of theoretical physicists in the Soviet Union.
Landau was born in Baku in the Russian Empire to a Lithuanian Jewish family and showed early aptitude in mathematics and physics. He attended gymnasium in Baku before entering Baku State University preparatory classes and later matriculating at Leningrad State University and Kharkiv University. During the 1920s and early 1930s he undertook research visits across Europe, meeting figures such as Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Lev Shubnikov, and Paul Dirac, and worked at institutions including the Niels Bohr Institute and the Cavendish Laboratory.
Landau produced a string of seminal results that became cornerstones of 20th‑century physics. He formulated the phenomenological Ginzburg–Landau theory (with Vitaly Ginzburg) for superconductivity that connected to Abrikosov's work on type II superconductors and to microscopic BCS theory; he introduced the concept of Landau levels describing charged particles in magnetic fields relevant to the quantum Hall effect and to magnetotransport in metals. Landau and Lev Pitaevskii worked on superfluidity in helium-4 and helium-3, while his eponymous Fermi liquid theory explained low-temperature properties of interacting fermions and influenced research on electron gass, neutron stars, and nuclear matter. He developed the theory of second-order phase transitions via expansion in order parameters—commonly called Landau theory of phase transitions—which linked to later renormalization-group analyses by Kenneth Wilson and Michael Fisher. In quantum field theory Landau discussed issues such as the Landau pole and ultraviolet behavior that engaged contemporaries like Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. His work on dissipative systems and kinetic coefficients interfaced with studies by Lars Onsager and Ryogo Kubo.
Landau established the famed "theoretical minimum" examination and ran a research seminar at the Institute for Physical Problems and later at the Kurchatov Institute and Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering. His pedagogical model produced many leading physicists including Evgeny Lifshitz, Isaak Khalatnikov, Alexei Abrikosov, Lev Pitaevskii, Vitaly Ginzburg, B. I. Halperin, and Aleksei Andreev, fostering work on superconductivity, superfluidity, quantum electrodynamics, and cosmology. The multi‑volume Course of Theoretical Physics, coauthored with Evgeny Lifshitz, became a standard reference used also by students such as Nikolay Bogolyubov and informed approaches by theorists like Philip Anderson and Leon Cooper.
Landau received numerous Soviet and international honors. Notably he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962 for his theory of condensed matter, shared recognition in the community with peers such as John Bardeen and Nikolay Bogolyubov. He was named Hero of Socialist Labour and received the Lenin Prize and membership in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Western recognition included invitations and correspondences with institutions like the Royal Society and interactions with laureates such as Enrico Fermi and Lev Davidovich Landau's contemporaries—reflecting broad esteem among figures including Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Born.
Landau married Katia Pomeranchuk (first wife) and later Rita; family and private relationships intersected with colleagues from institutes in Moscow and Kharkiv. Outside research he maintained interests in literature, philosophy, and mountaineering, corresponding and debating with intellectuals such as Andrei Sakharov and Isaac Asimov on scientific and cultural matters. Colleagues often recalled his sharp wit, exacting standards, and terse style, which shaped interactions with contemporaries like Lev Shubnikov and Alexander Kompaneets.
In 1962 Landau was severely injured in a car accident involving a taxi in Moscow that resulted in traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures; Nikolay Bogoliubov and physicians at the Moscow Institute of Hematology and Institute of Experimental Medicine were involved in his care. The international physics community, including figures such as Pyotr Kapitsa and Lev Pitaevskii, campaigned for advanced treatment that led to partial recovery under surgeons and neurologists like A. Granat. Although his active research output diminished after the accident, he continued to correspond with students and peers including Evgeny Lifshitz and Vitaly Ginzburg and remained an influential mentor until his death in Moscow in 1968.
Landau's conceptual frameworks—Landau theory of phase transitions, Fermi liquid theory, and tools such as the notion of quasiparticles—continue to underpin contemporary work in condensed matter physics, quantum field theory, astrophysics, and low-temperature physics. The Course of Theoretical Physics remains a central pedagogical resource cited by researchers like Philip W. Anderson and Steven Weinberg, while institutions such as the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics perpetuate his methods and standards. His students and their descendants populate faculties worldwide—from Moscow State University and the Landau Institute to Princeton University and the University of Cambridge—ensuring Landau's influence persists across generations of scientists including Alexei Abrikosov, Vitaly Ginzburg, and Lev Pitaevskii.
Category:Theoretical physicists Category:Nobel laureates in Physics Category:Soviet scientists