physics

Nikita Nekrasov

Nikita Nekrasov 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 Nikita Nekrasov rather than just read about it. In short: Nikita Alexandrovich Nekrasov (Russian: Ники́та Алекса́ндрович Некра́сов; born 10 April 1973) is a Russian mathematical and theoretical physicist at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics and C.N.Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University in New York, and a professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Career Nekrasov studied at the Moscow State 57th School in 1986–1989.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Nikita Alexandrovich Nekrasov (Russian: Ники́та Алекса́ндрович Некра́сов; born 10 April 1973) is a Russian mathematical and theoretical physicist at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics and C.N.Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University in New York, and a professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Career Nekrasov studied at the Moscow State 57th School in 1986–1989. He graduated with honors from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1995. In parallel, in 1994–1996 Nekrasov did his graduate work at Princeton University, under the supervision of David Gross. His Ph.D. thesis on Four Dimensional Holomorphic Theories was defended in 1996. There he introduced a four dimensional variant of Chern-Simons theory, rediscovered and developed by Kevin Costello in 2013. He joined Harvard Society of Fellows at Harvard University as a Junior Fellow 1996–1999. He was then a Robert. H. Dicke Fellow at Princeton University from 1999 to 2000. In 2000-2013 he was a permanent professor at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques. Since 2013, he is a full professor at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics and C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University in New York.

Research Nekrasov is mostly known for his work on supersymmetric gauge theory, quantum integrability, and string theory. The Nekrasov partition function, which he introduced in his 2002 paper, relates in an intricate way the instantons in gauge theory, integrable systems, and representation theory of infinite-dimensional algebras.

Honours and awards

For his discovery of noncommutative instantons together with Albert Schwarz in 1998, noncommutative monopoles and monopole strings with David Gross in 2000 and for his work with Alexander S. Gorsky on the relations between gauge theories and many-body systems he was awarded the Grand Prix Jacques Herbrand of the French Academy of Sciences in 2004. For his contributions to topological string theory and the ADHM construction he received the Hermann Weyl Prize in 2004. In 2008 together with Davesh Maulik, Andrei Okounkov and Rahul Pandharipande he formulated a set of conjectures relating Gromov–Witten theory and Donaldson–Thomas theory, for which the four authors were awarded the Compositio Prize in 2009. Nekrasov was awarded the 2023 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the American Physical Society (APS). for his “elegant application of powerful mathematical techniques to extract exact results for quantum field theories, as well as shedding light on integrable systems and non-commutative geometry.” In 2024, Uppsala University of Sweden, awarded Nekrasov with an honorary doctorate.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nikita Nekrasov

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nikita Nekrasov 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 Nikita Nekrasov 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 Nikita Nekrasov 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 Nikita Nekrasov

In research: Nikita Nekrasov 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 Nikita Nekrasov 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: Nikita Nekrasov is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 births, French physicists, Jewish Russian physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nikita Nekrasov 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 Nikita Nekrasov in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nikita Nekrasov 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 Nikita Nekrasov out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nikita Nekrasov in simple terms?

Why does Nikita Nekrasov 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 Nikita Nekrasov?

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 Nikita Nekrasov.