Ilya Lifshitz

Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshitz (Russian: Илья́ Миха́йлович Ли́фшиц; Ukrainian: Ілля́ Миха́йлович Лі́фшиць; January 13, 1917 – October 23, 1982) was a leading Soviet theoretical physicist, brother of Evgeny Lifshitz. He is known for his works in solid-state physics, electron theory of metals, disordered systems, and the theory of polymers.^[1][2]

Ilya Lifshitz
Илья Лифшиц
Born	Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshitz (1917-01-13)January 13, 1917 Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	October 23, 1982(1982-10-23) (aged 65) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Soviet Union
Alma mater	University of Kharkov Kharkov Polytechnic Institute
Known for	Lifshitz tails Lifshitz exponent Lifshitz–Kosevich formula Lifshitz transition Self-averaging Spectral shift function Supersolid Two temperature model
Awards	Lenin Prize Simon Memorial Prize (1961)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology Institute for Physical Problems
Doctoral advisor	Lev Landau
Doctoral students	Arnold Kosevich Alexander Grosberg Alexei Khokhlov Igor Erukhimovich

Work

Ilya Lifshitz was born into a Ukrainian Jewish family in Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kharkiv, Ukraine). Together with Arnold Kosevich, in 1954 Lifshitz established the connection between the oscillation of magnetic characteristics of metals and the form of an electronic surface of Fermi (Lifshitz–Kosevich formula) from de Haas–van Alphen experiments.

Lifshitz was one of the founders of the theory of disordered systems.^[3] He introduced some of the basic notions, such as self-averaging, and discovered what is now called Lifshitz tails and Lifshitz singularity.

In perturbation theory, Lifshitz introduced^[4] the notion of spectral shift function, which was later developed by Mark Krein.

A phase transition involving topological changes of the material's Fermi surface is called a Lifshitz phase transition.^[5][6]

Starting from the late 1960s, Lifshitz started considering problems of statistical physics of polymers. Together with his students Alexander Grosberg and Alexei R. Khokhlov, Lifshitz proposed a theory of coil-to-globule transition in homopolymers and derived the formula for the conformational entropy of a polymer chain, that is referred to as the Lifshitz entropy.^[7]