Soviet Physicist, 1908-1968
Landau was born in
Azerbaijan and quickly began to
distinguish himself in
theoretical and
mathematical physics. A
student of
Niels Bohr, the depth and breadth of his
research is
staggering, ranging from
condensed matter physics to
quantum field theory to
atomic and
nuclear physics.
Landau was jailed by
Stalin in 1938 on the
suspicion of his being a
German spy. There is no
evidence that this
accusation contained the slightest element of
truth and it is likely that he was simply a
victim of
Stalin's purges. He was
imprisoned for a
year and was
freed after a
number of
notable physicists sent
letters to
Stalin asking for his
release
Perhaps Landau's greatest
achievements came in the
field of
quantum liquids where,
among other things he
successfully predicted
superfluidity in ultracold
helium. Another
significant contribution (which was to
foreshadow many
decades of
future research) was his
Landau Theory (
aka Landau
Phenomenological Theory), a
mean-field theory which serves as a basis for understanding a broad range of
physical problems, most notably
phase transitions and
magnetisation.
Landau is also rather
famous for
authoring a number of
textbooks on a broad
range of
subjects in
physics, including the multi-
volume "Course in Theoretical Physics" which he co-authored with his
student Evgenij Lifschitz.
Landau received the
Nobel Prize in
physics in 1962 "for his
pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially
liquid helium".