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 M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

and his PhD in 1971 at Lebedev Institute. He has been a member of the

Institute for Nuclear Research Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INR RAS, russian: Институт ядерных исследований) is a Russian scientific research center "for further development of the experimental base and fundament ...

in Moscow since its founding in 1970. There, he became a professor and chair of the department of

particle astrophysics Astroparticle physics, also called particle astrophysics, is a branch of particle physics that studies elementary particles of astronomical origin and their relation to astrophysics and cosmology. It is a relatively new field of research emerging ...

and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosophe ...

. 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 Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our ow ...

. In neutrino physics, he proposed an experiment using

gallium Gallium is a chemical element with the symbol Ga and atomic number 31. Discovered by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, Gallium is in group 13 of the periodic table and is similar to the other metals of the group ( alum ...

germanium Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid in the carbon group that is chemically similar to its group neighbo ...

detectors to detect low-energy

solar neutrino A solar neutrino is a neutrino originating from nuclear fusion in the Sun's core, and is the most common type of neutrino passing through any source observed on Earth at any particular moment. Neutrinos are elementary particles with extremely sm ...

s. In 1970, he proposed

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons behav ...

antineutron The antineutron is the antiparticle of the neutron with symbol . It differs from the neutron only in that some of its properties have equal magnitude but opposite sign. It has the same mass as the neutron, and no net electric charge, but has opp ...

oscillations as a possibility for observing violation of

baryon number In particle physics, the baryon number is a strictly conserved additive quantum number of a system. It is defined as ::B = \frac\left(n_\text - n_\bar\right), where ''n''q is the number of quarks, and ''n'' is the number of antiquarks. Baryo ...

. Also in 1970, he independently discovered the Sakharov conditions. In the 1980s, he was a pioneer in the theory of

electroweak In particle physics, the electroweak interaction or electroweak force is the unified description of two of the four known fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very differe ...

baryogenesis In physical cosmology, baryogenesis (also known as baryosynthesis) is the physical process that is hypothesized to have taken place during the Big Bang, early universe to produce baryonic asymmetry, i.e. the imbalance of matter (baryons) and anti ...

. In 1985, his influential work with

Valery Rubakov Valery Anatolyevich Rubakov (russian: Валерий Анатольевич Рубаков, 16 February 1955 – 18 October 2022) was a Russian theoretical physicist. His scientific interests included quantum field theory, elementary particle p ...

and Mikhail Shaposhnikov estimated the rate of anomalous electroweak process that violated

conservation in the cosmic plasma of the early universe. In 1999 the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded Kuzmin and Rubakov the

Friedmann Prize The Friedmann Prize is a Soviet and Russian physics prize, awarded for outstanding work in cosmology and gravity. It is named after the Russian cosmologist Alexander Alexandrovich Friedmann. Between 1972 and 1990 the prize was awarded by the USSR ...

"for a series of works on the formation of the baryon asymmetry of the universe". In 2000, he became a corresponding member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

. In 2003, he received the

Markov Prize Markov (Bulgarian, russian: Марков), Markova, and Markoff are common surnames used in Russia and Bulgaria. Notable people with the name include: Academics *Ivana Markova (born 1938), Czechoslovak-British emeritus professor of psychology at t ...

for his contributions to neutrino physics. In 2006, he received the

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 ...

"for his pioneering work on baryon-number violating processes, baryogenesis, and on the fundamental properties of high-energy cosmic rays", together with

Howard Georgi Howard Mason Georgi III (born January 6, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist and the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Harvard College Professor at Harvard University. He is also Director of Undergraduate Studies in Physics. He was Co-M ...

References

External links

Homepage at the INR, Russian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuzmin, Vadim Russian physicists Soviet physicists Moscow State University alumni 1937 births 2015 deaths Cosmic ray physicists Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences