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 The Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LPI RAS or just LPI) (in russian: Физи́ческий институ́т имени П.Н.Ле́бедева Российской академии наук (ФИАН)), situated ...

. 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 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 (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...

. In 1987, he obtained the Russian doctoral title. In 1966, he and

Georgiy Zatsepin Georgy Timofeyevich Zatsepin (russian: Гео́ргий Тимофе́евич Заце́пин; – 8 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian astrophysicist known for his works in cosmic ray physics and neutrino astrophysics. Biography He was bo ...

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 own ...

. 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 (aluminiu ...

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 neighbors s ...

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 smal ...

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 beh ...

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. Bary ...

. Also in 1970, he independently discovered the

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

. In the 1980s, he was a pioneer in the theory of

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

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

. 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 "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 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