physics

Ilya Lifshitz

Ilya Lifshitz is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ilya Lifshitz rather than just read about it. In short: Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshitz (Russian: Илья́ Миха́йлович Ли́фшиц; Ukrainian: Ілля́ Миха́йлович Лі́фшиць; January 13, 1917 – October 23, 1982) was a Soviet theoretical physicist. He is known for his works in solid-state physics, electron theory of metals, disordered systems, and the theory of polymers.

Key takeaways

Ilya Lifshitz belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ilya Lifshitz to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ilya Lifshitz from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshitz (Russian: Илья́ Миха́йлович Ли́фшиц; Ukrainian: Ілля́ Миха́йлович Лі́фшиць; January 13, 1917 – October 23, 1982) was a Soviet theoretical physicist. He is known for his works in solid-state physics, electron theory of metals, disordered systems, and the theory of polymers. His brother, Evgeny Lifshitz, was also a physicist.

Work Ilya Lifshitz was born into a Ukrainian Jewish family in Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kharkiv, Ukraine). Together with Arnold Kosevich, in 1954 Lifshitz established the connection between the oscillation of magnetic characteristics of metals and the form of an electronic surface of Fermi (Lifshitz–Kosevich formula) from de Haas–van Alphen experiments. Lifshitz was one of the founders of the theory of disordered systems. He introduced some of the basic notions, such as self-averaging, and discovered what is now called Lifshitz tails and Lifshitz singularity. In perturbation theory, Lifshitz introduced the notion of spectral shift function, which was later developed by Mark Krein. A phase transition involving topological changes of the material's Fermi surface is called a Lifshitz phase transition. Starting from the late 1960s, Lifshitz started considering problems of statistical physics of polymers. Together with his students Alexander Grosberg and Alexei R. Khokhlov, Lifshitz proposed a theory of coil-to-globule transition in homopolymers and derived the formula for the conformational entropy of a polymer chain, that is referred to as the Lifshitz entropy.

References

External links Page at KPI Moscow university site

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ilya Lifshitz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ilya Lifshitz claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ilya Lifshitz before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ilya Lifshitz ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ilya Lifshitz

In research: Ilya Lifshitz appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ilya Lifshitz in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ilya Lifshitz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1917 births, 1982 deaths, Academic staff of the National University of Kharkiv, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ilya Lifshitz outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ilya Lifshitz in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ilya Lifshitz means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ilya Lifshitz out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ilya Lifshitz in simple terms?

Why does Ilya Lifshitz matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ilya Lifshitz?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ilya Lifshitz.