Vadim Kuzmin (physicist)

Vadim Alekseyevich Kuzmin
Вадим Алексеевич Кузьмин
Born(1937-04-16)16 April 1937
Moscow
Died17 September 2015(2015-09-17) (aged 78)
Moscow
EducationMoscow State University
Lebedev Physical Institute
Known forGZK limit
AwardsRAS Friedmann Prize (1999)
INR Markov Prize (2003)
ITEP Pomeranchuk Prize (2006)
Scientific career
InstitutionsInstitute for Nuclear Research

Vadim Alekseyevich Kuzmin (Russian: Вади́м Алексе́евич Кузьми́н; 16 April 1937 – 17 September 2015) was a Russian theoretical physicist.

Biography

Kuzmin completed his undergraduate studies in 1961 at Moscow State University and his PhD in 1971 at Lebedev Institute. He has been a member of the Institute for Nuclear Research in Moscow since its founding in 1970. There, he became a professor and chair of the department of particle astrophysics and cosmology. In 1987, he obtained the Russian doctoral title.

In 1966, he and Georgiy Zatsepin predicted (what is now called) the GZK limit for cosmic rays.[1]

In neutrino physics, he proposed an experiment using gallium/germanium detectors to detect low-energy solar neutrinos. In 1970, he proposed neutron/antineutron oscillations as a possibility for observing violation of baryon number.

Also in 1970, he independently discovered the Sakharov conditions.

In the 1980s, he was a pioneer in the theory of electroweak baryogenesis. In 1985, his influential work with Valery Rubakov and Mikhail Shaposhnikov estimated the rate of anomalous electroweak process that violated baryon number conservation in the cosmic plasma of the early universe.[2]

In 1999 the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded Kuzmin and Rubakov the Friedmann Prize "for a series of works on the formation of the baryon asymmetry of the universe".[3]

In 2000, he became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2003, he received the Institute for Nuclear Research Markov Prize for his contributions to neutrino physics.[4] In 2006, he received the Pomeranchuk Prize "for his pioneering work on baryon-number violating processes, baryogenesis, and on the fundamental properties of high-energy cosmic rays", together with Howard Georgi.[5]

References

  1. ^ Zatsepin, G. T.; Kuz'min, V. A. (1966). "Upper Limit of the Spectrum of Cosmic Rays" (PDF). Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters. 4: 78–80. Bibcode:1966JETPL...4...78Z.
  2. ^ Kuzmin, V. A.; Rubakov, V. A.; Shaposhnikov, M. E. (1985-05-16). "On anomalous electroweak baryon-number non-conservation in the early universe". Physics Letters B. 155 (1–2): 36–42. Bibcode:1985PhLB..155...36K. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(85)91028-7.
  3. ^ "Премия имени А.А. Фридмана" [A. A. Friedmann Prize]. Russian Academy of Sciences (in Russian). Retrieved 25 September 2018. За серию работ "Образование барионной ассиметрии Вселенной"
  4. ^ "INR Markov Prize". Institute for Nuclear Research. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  5. ^ "Pomeranchuk Prize Winners 2006". ITEP. Retrieved 26 September 2018.