Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger and condensed matter physics in the Soviet Union

R. R. Mukhin

Izvestiya VUZ. Applied Nonlinear Dynamics, Tome 26 (2018) no. 5, pp. 113-142.

Résumé

Aim. The aim of the paper is to study the impact of the works of R. Feynman and J. Schwinger on the development of condensed matter physics in the Soviet Union in the end 1940s and early 1960s. Method. The research is based on the analysis of original works with the use of available literature concerning the issue under consideration. Results. The transfer of the methods of quantum field theory to the many-body problem was a very complex and nontrivial task. The main contribution to its solution was made by physicists from the environment of L.D. Landau. The created apparatus has a great degree of visibility and provides method of calculations brought to automatism. With its help in a large number were solved a variety of problems that are not available with other approaches. The works of Soviet physicists, in turn, had an impact on the work of R. Feynman and J. Schwinger in such areas as the theory of superfluidity, the polaron problem, the Casimir effect. Discussion. The quantum-field theory of many bodies that has been created has decisively contributed to the rapid development of the physics of condensed matter in the next decades, and until now remains the most powerful and effective tool for theoretical research in this field. Here the contribution of Soviet physicists can not be overestimated.

Détail

Keywords: quantum field theory, many-body problem, Green’s function, Feynman diagram, Fermi and Bose systems, Bose–Einstein condensation, superconductivity, superfluidity.