Alexander Markovich Polyakov (
Russian: Алекса́ндр Ма́ркович Поляко́в; born 27 September 1945) is a Russian theoretical
physicist, formerly at the
Landau Institute in Moscow and, since 1989, at
Princeton University, where he is the
Joseph Henry Professor of Physics Emeritus.[1][2]
Important discoveries
Polyakov is known for a number of fundamental contributions to
quantum field theory, including work on what is now called the
't Hooft–Polyakov monopole in
non-Abelian gauge theory, independent from
Gerard 't Hooft. Polyakov and coauthors discovered the so-called
BPST instanton which, in turn, led to the discovery of the
vacuum angle in
QCD.[3][4] His
path integral formulation of
string theory[5] had profound and lasting impacts on the conceptual and mathematical understanding of the theory. His paper "Infinite conformal symmetry in two-dimensional quantum field theory"[6] written with
Alexander Belavin and
Alexander Zamolodchikov laid down the foundations of
two-dimensional conformal field theory and has classic status.[1] Polyakov also played an important role in elucidating the conceptual framework behind
renormalization independent of
Kenneth G. Wilson's Nobel Prize–winning work. He formulated pioneering ideas in gauge/string duality long before the breakthrough of
AdS/CFT using
D-branes. Other insightful conjectures that came years or even decades before active work by others include integrability of gauge and string theories and certain ideas about turbulence.
Very early in his career, in a 1965 student work, Polyakov suggested (with
Alexander Migdal) a dynamical
Higgs mechanism, slightly after but independently[7] from the publications of
Peter Higgs and others. The paper was delayed by the Editorial Office of JETP, and was published only in 1966.[8]
In February-March 2022, he signed an open letter by Russian scientists condemning the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,[13] and another open letter by Breakthrough Prize laureates with the same message.[14]
Famous quotes
“The garbage of the past often becomes the treasure of the present (and vice versa).”[15]
“There are no tables for path integrals.” (quoted in [16])
“I wanted to learn about elementary particles by studying boiling water.” [17] (paraphrased in [18])