Alexander "Sasha" Abramovich Belavin (, born 1942) is a Russian physicist, known for his contributions to

string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...

. He is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the

Independent University of Moscow The Independent University of Moscow (IUM) () is an educational organisation with rather informal status located in Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1991 by a group of Russian mathematicians that included Vladimir Arnold (chairman) and Sergei No ...

and а researcher at the

Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics Landau (), officially Landau in der Pfalz (, ), is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990), a long ...

. He is also a member of the editorial board of the

Moscow Mathematical Journal The ''Moscow Mathematical Journal'' (MMJ) is a mathematics journal published quarterly by the Independent University of Moscow and the HSE Faculty of Mathematics and distributed by the American Mathematical Society. The journal published its first ...

Work

Belavin participated in the discovery of the

BPST instanton In theoretical physics, the BPST instanton is the instanton with winding number 1 found by Alexander Belavin, Alexander Polyakov, Albert Schwarz and Yu. S. Tyupkin. It is a classical solution to the equations of motion of SU(2) Yang–Mills t ...

(1975) which aided the understanding of the

chiral anomaly In theoretical physics, a chiral anomaly is the anomalous nonconservation of a chiral current. In everyday terms, it is analogous to a sealed box that contained equal numbers of left and right-handed bolts, but when opened was found to have mor ...

and gave new directions within

quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...

. With G. Avdeeva he showed evidence of new coupling regimes for gauge field theory (1973). He also developed the Belavin S-matrices, exactly solvable models in two-dimensional relativistic theories (1981). He co-authored the BPZ paper (1984) with Alexander Polyakov and

Alexander Zamolodchikov Alexander Borisovich Zamolodchikov (; born September 18, 1952) is a Russian-American theoretical physicist, known for his contributions to conformal field theory, statistical mechanics, string theory and condensed matter physics. He is widel ...

two-dimensional conformal field theory A two-dimensional conformal field theory is a quantum field theory on a Euclidean two-dimensional space, that is invariant under local conformal transformations. In contrast to other types of conformal field theories, two-dimensional conformal fi ...

, which became important for string theory. With Vadim Knizhnik he obtained the Belavin–Knizhnik theorem on dual amplitudes in string theory (1986).

Awards

Pomeranchuk Prize The Pomeranchuk Prize is an international award for theoretical physics, awarded annually since 1998 by the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) from Moscow. It is named after Russian physicist Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk, wh ...

2007 for remarkable achievements in quantum field theory, such as instanton solutions in QCD, and deep insights in two-dimensional conformal string theory. *

Lars Onsager Prize The Lars Onsager Prize is a prize in theoretical statistical physics awarded annually by the American Physical Society. Prize recipients receive a medal, certificate, and $10,000. It was established in 1993 by Drs. Russell and Marian Donnelly in m ...

2011, with A. M. Polyakov and A. Zamolodchikov for creating conformal field theory.

Political positions

In February 2022, he signed an open letter by Russian scientists condemning the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Publications

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References

External links