Pomeranchuk Prize winners 2003

According to the decision of the International Pomeranchuk Prize Committee the Pomeranchuk Prize for 2003 is awarded to V.A.Rubakov (INP, Moscow) and to F.Dyson (Princeton, USA).

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The Prize is awarded to V.A.Rubakov for pioneering contribution to developing and novel application of nonperturbative methods in field theory, and to F.J.Dyson for outstanding contribution to quantum field theory.

Academician Valery Rubakov is one of the well-known and prominent Russian theorists. His scientific style unifies aspiration to unveil a new physical effect and scurpulous calculations, used of advanced mathematics. These features are well exemplified by first of his papers which became famous, that is on the monopole catalysis. The paper claims both a striking qualitative effect (large cross section for a process mediated by very heavy particles) and an exact solution of a field theory. Another observation (made together with V.A.Kuzmin and M.E.Shaposhnikov) of a large effect, namely electroweak non-conservation of baryon and lepton numbers at high temperatures remains one of cornerstone of modern astroparticle physics. Most recently , V.A.Rubakov has been working on the brane world. Actually, the possibility that we are living on a brane was suggested by V.A.Rubakov and M.E.Shaposhnikov as early as in 1983. The ideas of the paper were greatly boosted by recent developments. V.Rubakov wrote an excellent textbook "Classical Gauge Fields". He is founder of scientific scool: many of his former students work successfully in Russia and all over the world.

Freeman Dyson is one of the founders of modern quantum electrodynamics. With the publication in 1949 Dyson's papers related to QED, there was at last a general and systematic formalism that physicists could easily learn to use, and that would provide a common language for the subsequent applications of quantum field theory to the problems of physics. The famous Schwinger-Dyson equations till now are the working tool in solving of many problems of quantum field theory, not only in QED. Dyson was the first, who formulated renormalization procedure in any order of perturbation theory in QED ( including the treatment of so-called overlapping divergences). This procedure is now used in any local field theories. At ITEP the study of new development in QED started from the study of Dyson papers. Particularly Pomeranchuk started just from this. In 1962 Dyson inverstigated the statistical theory of highly exited levels of complex systems. Now he is working on ecological problems, particularely on the problem of global warming.

Photo: Pomeranchuk Prize winners of 2003 Prof. Freeman Dyson (Princeton, USA) and Valery Rubakov (INP, Moscow)
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