Evgeny Lifshitz

Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz^[1] ForMemRS^[2] (Russian: Евге́ний Миха́йлович Ли́фшиц; February 21, 1915 – October 29, 1985) was a leading Soviet physicist and the brother of physicist Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshitz.

Work

Lifshitz is well known in the field of general relativity for coauthoring the BKL conjecture concerning the nature of a generic curvature singularity. As of 2006, this is widely regarded as one of the most important open problems in the subject of classical gravitation.^[3]

With Lev Landau, Lifshitz co-authored Course of Theoretical Physics, an ambitious series of physics textbooks, in which the two aimed to provide a graduate-level introduction to the entire field of physics. These books are still considered invaluable and continue to be widely used.

Lifshitz was the second of only 43 people ever to pass Landau's "Theoretical Minimum" examination. He made many invaluable contributions, in particular to quantum electrodynamics, where he calculated the Casimir force in an arbitrary macroscopic configuration of metals and dielectrics.

See also

• Lev Landau
• Course of Theoretical Physics
• Landau–Lifshitz equation

References

1. Some commonly encountered alternative transliterations of his names include Yevgeny or Evgenii and Lifshits or Lifschitz.
2. Zel'Dovich, Y. B.; Kaganov, M. I.; Sykes, J. B. (1990). "Evgenii Mikhailovich Lifshitz. 21 February 1915-29 October 1985". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 36: 336. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1990.0035.
3. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Evgeny Lifshitz", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.

Further reading

• Belinskii, V. A.; Khalatnikov, I. M.; Lifshttz, E. M. (1970). "Oscillatory approach to a singular point in the relativistic cosmology". Advances in Physics 19 (80): 525. doi:10.1080/00018737000101171. The paper introducing the BKL conjecture.
• Landau, L. D.; and Lifschitz, E. M. (1976). Mechanics. Course of Theoretical Physics. Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). London: Pergamon. ISBN 0-08-021022-8.
• Landau, L. D.; and Lifschitz, E. M. (1971). Classical Theory of Fields. Course of Theoretical Physics. Vol. 2 (3rd ed.). London: Pergamon. ISBN 0-08-016019-0.
• Landau, L. D.; and Lifschitz, E. M.; (1977). Quantum Mechanics: Non-relativistic Theory. Course of Theoretical Physics. Vol. 3 (3rd ed.). London: Pergamon. ISBN 0-08-020940-8.
• Berestetskii, V. B.; Lifschitz, E. M.; and Pitaevskii, L. P. (1982). Quantum Electrodynamics. Course of Theoretical Physics. Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). London: Pergamon. ISBN 0-08-026503-0.
• Lifschitz, E. M.; and Pitaevskii, L. P. (1981). Physical Kinetics. Course of Theoretical Physics. Vol. 10 (1st ed.). Oxford: Pergamon. ISBN 0-08-026480-8.

External links

• Quotations related to Evgeny Lifshitz at Wikiquote