Evgeny Lifshitz — LLMpedia

Evgeny Lifshitz
Name	Evgeny Lifshitz
Birth date	13 May 1915
Birth place	Kharkiv, Russian Empire
Death date	29 October 1985
Death place	Moscow, Soviet Union
Nationality	Soviet
Fields	Theoretical physics, general relativity, statistical mechanics, solid state physics, quantum electrodynamics
Alma mater	Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute, Leningrad State University
Doctoral advisor	Lev Landau
Notable students	Isaak Khalatnikov, Lev Pitaevskii
Known for	Lifshitz–Khalatnikov theory, Lifshitz tail, Landau–Lifshitz series
Awards	Lenin Prize, Order of Lenin

Contents

Evgeny Lifshitz (13 May 1915 – 29 October 1985) was a Soviet theoretical physicist best known for his long-standing collaboration with Lev Landau and for coauthoring the multi-volume Course of Theoretical Physics with Lev Landau. He made influential contributions across general relativity, condensed matter physics, quantum field theory, and statistical mechanics, and shaped generations of physicists through teaching and mentorship at institutions such as Moscow State University and the Institute for Physical Problems. Lifshitz's work on cosmological singularities, phase transitions, and disordered systems left a durable imprint on 20th-century physics.

Early life and education

Born in Kharkiv in the Russian Empire, Lifshitz studied engineering and physics during the interwar years at the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute and later at Leningrad State University, where he encountered the intellectual milieu surrounding figures like Lev Landau, Isaac Pomeranchuk, and Nikolay Bogolyubov. During his formative years he was exposed to seminars linked to the Landau school and to research centers such as the Lebedev Physical Institute and the Institute for Physical Problems, which connected him with contemporaries including Pyotr Kapitsa and Yakov Frenkel. His early education overlapped with major events such as the Russian Revolution aftermath and the consolidation of the Soviet Union, which influenced academic networks like the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Lifshitz held positions at prominent Soviet institutions including the Institute for Physical Problems, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Moscow State University, serving in faculties and research groups that interacted with centers such as the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Steklov Institute of Mathematics. He collaborated closely with Lev Landau on the Course of Theoretical Physics, while maintaining independent research programs in areas related to Alexander Fokker-era topics and trends pursued at the Institute of Physical Chemistry. During World War II he worked alongside scientists mobilized at facilities like the Kurchatov Institute and in postwar years participated in exchanges with researchers connected to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and to institutes in Moscow and Leningrad.

Lifshitz made seminal contributions across multiple domains: in general relativity he co-developed the Belinski–Khalatnikov–Lifshitz (BKL) analysis of cosmological singularities with Isaak Khalatnikov and Vladimir Belinski, addressing the approach to singularities in models related to the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker family and touching on ideas later explored in inflationary cosmology contexts. In condensed matter physics he elucidated phenomena such as the Lifshitz transition in electronic structure and the Lifshitz tail in disordered systems, influencing research by groups studying Anderson localization and the physics of impurities treated in frameworks akin to the Akhiezer–Polovin methods. His work in statistical mechanics and phase transitions contributed to the theoretical underpinning used by researchers at places like the Landau Institute and resonated with analyses by Kadanoff, Wilson, and Onsager regarding critical phenomena. In quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory Lifshitz's investigations paralleled developments by Richard Feynman and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga while being embedded in the Soviet tradition with figures such as Lev Pitaevskii and Isaac Khalatnikov. The Landau–Lifshitz volumes coauthored with Lev Landau remain standard references in subjects comparable to the texts of Dirac and Feynman.

Lifshitz's close collaborator was Lev Landau, with whom he produced the multi-volume Course of Theoretical Physics that influenced students across institutions like Moscow State University and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He coauthored influential papers with Isaak Khalatnikov and Vladimir Belinski on cosmological singularities, and worked with contemporaries such as Lev Pitaevskii, Evgenii Feinberg, and Yakov Zeldovich. His mentorship extended to doctoral students who became prominent scientists in their own right, including Lev Pitaevskii and Isaak Khalatnikov, and his pedagogical lineage connects to later generations at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Steklov Institute, and international centers influenced by émigré scholars like Alexander Polyakov and Andrei Sakharov.

Lifshitz received major Soviet distinctions, including the Lenin Prize and the Order of Lenin, reflecting recognition from institutions such as the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and committees associated with the Soviet government. His contributions were acknowledged by membership and fellowships in organizations connected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences and by citations in classic texts alongside recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics like Lev Landau and peers such as Pyotr Kapitsa and Nikolay Bogolyubov.

Lifshitz lived and worked predominantly in Moscow, participating in intellectual life that intertwined with salons and seminars at venues associated with Moscow State University and the Lebedev Physical Institute. His legacy endures through the Course of Theoretical Physics, through concepts bearing his name such as the Lifshitz transition and Lifshitz tail, and through the scientific lineage of students and collaborators at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, and beyond to international research centers like CERN and Princeton University. Commemorations include citations in memorial volumes and continued teaching use of the texts he coauthored alongside Lev Landau.

Category:Soviet physicists Category:20th-century physicists Category:People from Kharkiv