叶夫根尼·利夫希茨Evgeny Lifshitz

叶夫根尼·利夫希茨的父亲Mikhail Ilyich 利夫希茨是一名医生，也是医学院的教授，专攻胃病。他是一个受过高等教育的人，在整个苏联以杰出医生而闻名。我们从利夫希茨 Mikhailovich的表亲在他去世后写给他妻子的信中获得了关于Mikhail Ilyich以及利夫希茨 Mikhailovich童年的信息（见[24]）。Mikhail Ilyich作为医生的能力使他治疗重要人物，例如他治愈了Vsevolod Apollonovich Balitski（1892-1937），乌克兰内务委员，以及Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinskii（1877-1926），一位党派领导人和革命运动的杰出成员。他还被召去为Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze（1885-1925）和乌克兰政府的其他成员提供建议。利夫希茨 Mikhailovich有一个弟弟Ilya Mikhailovich 利夫希茨（1917-1982），他也成为了一位著名物理学家[24]：-

兄弟俩是不同类型的人，但对彼此有着最大的感情和尊重。每个人都了解对方的优点和缺点，钦佩前者并原谅后者。

利夫希茨·米哈伊洛维奇只在家接受教育，仅在中学的第六和第七年级在哈尔科夫的中学度过了两年。他学习英语和德语作为外语，但除了俄语之外，他更喜欢说英语。他声称德语教学相对较差。除了喜欢数学和科学，他还喜欢音乐、诗歌、文学和历史，这些兴趣贯穿了他的一生。我们引用[24]中他表兄弟的来信。利夫希茨的父亲：-

……经常出国执行任务，带着家人同行。他英语极好。在家里，与孩子们的对话用英语进行，他们因此掌握了良好的英语。从童年到1937年，他们有一位优秀的英语老师戈登。他是来自英国的流亡者。家里还有一位优秀的音乐老师阿丽莎·尼古拉耶夫娜·戈尔登格，她培养了他们的音乐品味，并让他们[利夫希茨·米哈伊洛维奇和他的兄弟伊利亚·米哈伊洛维奇]热爱音乐，他们在这方面有着超乎寻常的才华。[兄弟们]甚至创作音乐，并想过成为音乐家。但他们只是有天赋的男孩，很容易找到自己的道路，并欣赏他们所接触到的一切。

我们从这封信[24]中了解到更多关于少年利夫希茨·米哈伊洛维奇的情况：-

[利夫希茨]小时候有些不合群，沉浸在自己的世界里，但对朋友——无论是孩子还是后来的成年人——都活泼且乐于回应。他从小就向他们表明，他是一个有原则的人，后来也一直如此。他总是捍卫自己的观点直到最后，在判断上克制，但常常专断。[他]吃得不多，是个瘦弱的男孩。作为哥哥，他更独立。他们俩有很好的藏书。他们在餐厅的大桌子上打乒乓球……

男孩们还喜欢玩猜字游戏，以及玩其他游戏，如保龄球、槌球和桌面游戏，这些是他们的父亲出国旅行时买的。他们会作为一个大家庭去度假，叔叔、阿姨等和他们在一起，组成一个20到25人的团体。利夫希茨·米哈伊洛维奇在1929年完成了中学学业，当时他只有十四岁。然后他在化学学院学习了两年，之后于1931年开始在哈尔科夫机械与机器制造学院的物理与力学系上大学。他于1933年毕业，完成了考试并接受了文凭论文。1933年，他开始在乌克兰物理技术研究所作为研究生工作，被接受为列夫·朗道的第一批博士生之一。他在[17]中解释了他必须做什么才能通过列夫·朗道的“理论最低限度”：-

……列夫·朗道给任何想成为他学生的人的第一个测试是数学“实用”计算方面的测验。要求是：能够计算任何不定积分（用初等函数表示）并求解任何标准类型的常微分方程，了解向量分析和张量代数以及复变函数论原理（留数理论，皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯方法）。成功的申请者然后可以继续学习“理论最低限度”计划的七个连续部分，其中包括所有理论物理领域的基础知识，随后参加相应的考试。

他完成了课程，并于1934年参加了博士学位考试。同年，他的父亲米哈伊尔·伊里奇去世，同时他的第一篇论文On the production of electrons and positrons by a collision of two particles，与列夫·朗道合著，也付印了。此时我们注意到，利夫希茨米哈伊洛维奇的母亲贝尔塔·叶夫佐罗夫娜比她的丈夫多活了42年，一直活到1976年。获得博士学位后，利夫希茨在该研究所工作至1938年，担任高级研究员。1935年，又发表了两篇与列夫·朗道合著的论文，一篇是他们第一篇论文的延续，而第二篇On the theory of the dispersion of magnetic permeability in ferromagnetic bodies被认为是他与列夫·朗道合作研究论文中最重要的。论文[24]：-

……包含了所谓的列夫·朗道-利夫希茨铁磁体中磁化的运动等效方程。这篇论文还讨论了铁磁体的畴结构以及铁磁共振问题。

1935年，他开始与列夫·朗道合作进行他们的联合项目，即十卷本的Course of Theoretical Physics。该书的第一部分基于讲义。利夫希茨在列夫·朗道去世后继续撰写此书，直到1979年才完成。这部著作包含了许多列夫·朗道和利夫希茨多年研究的结果，包括许多合著研究论文的成果。

参见 Landau 和 利夫希茨 的序言摘录：Course of Theoretical Physics 见 THIS LINK

参见 Landau 和 利夫希茨 的书评摘录：Course of Theoretical Physics 见 THIS LINK

阅读自 利夫希茨 去世以来关于他作为个人和作为科学家的各种描述，人们会惊讶于它们之间的巨大差异。可以清楚地看到，与许多家庭一样，利夫希茨 的家庭和 列夫·朗道 的家庭中都存在紧张和矛盾，这在很大程度上影响了文章中表达的观点。然而，有几件事非常清楚。利夫希茨 和 列夫·朗道 是亲密的朋友，列夫·朗道 是杰出的研究者，而 利夫希茨 是杰出的阐述者。他们的才能极好地互补，组成了一个非凡的团队。然而，他们的工作在 1930 年代后期因约瑟夫·斯大林的“大清洗”所造成的极其困难的局面而严重中断。从 1935 年开始，斯大林在“大清洗”中开始系统地清除他的反对者。很快，他的党内领导成员、军队成员以及各行各业的重要人物都被送往监狱、劳改营或劳动营。不久，列夫·朗道 受到 KGB 的调查，KGB 从告密者那里得到信息，称他发表了反政府言论。利夫希茨 于 1938 年初在莫斯科，从那年 2 月起在全联盟皮革学院任教。1938 年 4 月 28 日，列夫·朗道 被捕并被带到卢比扬卡监狱。利夫希茨 决定，对他来说最安全的做法是躲起来，以防他引起 KGB 的同样注意。他在莫斯科待到 5 月，然后与妻子前往克里米亚，在那里住了三个月，在此期间他一直担心 KGB 会来找他。1938 年 9 月，他回到哈尔科夫，在那里在化学技术学院任教至 1939 年 6 月。

1939年，利夫希茨的列宁格勒国立大学理学博士学位论文被接受。从1939年9月起，他完全在莫斯科的科学院物理问题研究所工作。事实上，正是物理问题研究所所长彼得·卡皮察邀请利夫希茨到莫斯科，并安排他与列夫·朗道合住一套两层五室的公寓。列夫·朗道住在楼上，那里有三个房间，而利夫希茨和他的妻子叶莲娜·康斯坦丁诺夫娜·别列佐夫斯卡娅住在楼下。列夫·朗道能够获释，很大程度上归功于卡皮察，因为卡皮察曾多次写信给政府领导人，强烈主张释放他。利夫希茨深深钦佩卡皮察写这些信的勇气，他珍藏着这些信的副本，终生保存。这里我们可以注意到对利夫希茨政治观点的一点评论。他从不喜欢共产主义方式，这意味着他的观点与列夫·朗道的观点非常不同，后者坚信共产主义原则。在列夫·朗道被捕并在监狱度过一年后，尽管他继续相信共产主义原则，但他开始强烈反对斯大林的领导，这意味着从那时起，列夫·朗道和利夫希茨在政治观点上更加相互同情。然而，这两位朋友仍然喜欢争论许多话题，但最常争论的是Course of Theoretical Physics。

下午，利夫希茨会顺便去列夫·朗道的住处，从书房紧闭的门后可以听到他们大声争论。几个小时后，利夫希茨会离开，激动得满脸通红。

1962年1月7日，列夫·朗道在从莫斯科到杜布纳的路上遭遇车祸。尽管事故后他又活了六年，但他再也无法回到科学工作中。利夫希茨不得不负责Course of Theoretical Physics最后几卷的出版，并负责定期出版的早期书籍的新版本。例如，1966年4月，当他为Statistical Physics第二版撰写前言时，利夫希茨写道：-

令我深感遗憾的是，我的老师和朋友列夫·朗道因交通事故受伤，无法亲自为这一新版本的准备工作做出贡献。

一些评论者声称，在列夫·朗道去世后撰写的卷册未能完全达到早期卷册的标准。例如[11]：-

本卷是在列夫·朗道去世后撰写的，不幸的是，它未能与之前的卷册共享这些独特的品质。并非呈现方式有问题——量子场论的传统主题得到了充分的处理——而是材料上没有个人的印记。

然而，其他人认为，与列夫·朗道合写的文本的异常高标准在后期卷册中得到了保持，其中利夫希茨是主要作者。在列夫·朗道去世后，后续撰写的卷册是与利夫希茨共同撰写的，他非常谨慎地选择了他的合著者。[24]的作者描述了他在莫斯科研究所工作时的行为：-

如果你几乎任何一天走进研究所的院子，你都会遇到利夫希茨 Mikhailovich。无论什么季节，他都不穿大衣，尽管在冬天会戴贝雷帽，脖子上围着围巾，他会快步从一个建筑走到另一个建筑，但从来不会让人觉得他只是一个忙碌的人；他确实无法浪费时间。知道他用多种语言撰写的《教程》的巨大工作量（因为他在每个新版本中都做了修改和更正），知道他在撰写后续卷册上花费的时间，知道《理论物理学教程》的严谨和彻底性，我们都明白他没有时间可以浪费。这并不意味着，当他穿过院子时，他没有注意到人们，或者避免与他们见面和交谈。远非如此；经常可以看到两三个人在交谈，并可以加入其中。……然而，当话题耗尽，当事情解决，或者当清楚无法再添加任何内容时，谈话就结束了，利夫希茨 Mikhailovich继续以他快速的步伐前进，直到下一个人出现在他的路上。

在大约三十年的时间里，他一直担任Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics的副主编。主编是Kapitza，但利夫希茨完全负责Journal的日常运营。他会为提交给期刊的论文选择审稿人，并与作者通信，其精确和准确的特点贯穿了他所有的工作。

1966年，利夫希茨当选为苏联科学院的通讯院士，1979年当选为正式院士。1954年，他被授予国家奖，1962年与列夫·朗道共同获得列宁奖，以表彰他们的Course of Theoretical Physics。USSR Academy of Sciences于1958年授予他M V 罗蒙诺索夫奖，以表彰他关于凝聚体之间分子相互作用力的理论，并于1974年授予他列夫·朗道奖。1974年的这个奖项是共同授予利夫希茨、V A 别林斯基和I M 哈拉特尼科夫的，以表彰他们关于引力方程宇宙学解奇点的工作，这些工作在1961年至1985年间发表在十六篇论文中。1983年，他当选为伦敦皇家学会会士，两年后，他获得了布达佩斯大学的荣誉博士学位。

利夫希茨与Elena Konstantinovna结婚，但他早在1948年就与Zinaida Ivanovna Gorobetc成为朋友，他与她的关系相当公开。他于1978年与Zinaida结婚。他有一个儿子Mikhail，生于1946年，毕业于医学院。1982年，利夫希茨的兄弟Ilya Mikhailovich去世。这对利夫希茨打击很大，从那时起他的健康开始恶化。利夫希茨一生中大部分时间都享有极佳的健康。他最后的疾病是心脏问题，并迅速恶化。然而，利夫希茨一直是一个工作极其努力的人，因此尽管生病，他还是努力保持同样的高强度工作节奏。尽管有健康问题，他仍继续前往许多国家，在领先机构讲学。例如，他于1985年在英国剑桥大学讲学。然而，他对疾病反应很差，尤其是在被送往莫斯科医院时，并一直到最后都在安排他的Course工作继续进行。他去世后被安葬在莫斯科的Kuntsevo公墓。

Evgenii Mikhailovich Lifshitz's father, Mikhail Ilyich Lifshitz, was a doctor and a professor at the Institute of Medicine specialising in gastric diseases. He was a highly educated man who had a reputation throughout the Soviet Union as an outstanding doctor. We have information about Mikhail Ilyich, and also about Evgenii Mikhailovich's childhood, from a letter written by Evgenii Mikhailovich's cousins to his wife after he died (see [24]). Mikhail Ilyich's abilities as a doctor led to him treating important people, for example he cured Vsevolod Apollonovich Balitski (1892-1937), the Ukraine commissar for internal affairs, and Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinskii (1877-1926), a party leader and prominent member the revolutionary movement. He was also called to advise Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze (1885-1925) and other members of the Ukraine government. Evgenii Mikhailovich had a younger brother Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshitz (1917-1982) who also became a famous physicist [24]:-

The brothers were different kinds of person, but had the greatest affection and regard for each other. Each knew the other's strengths and weaknesses, admiring the former and excusing the latter.

Evgenii Mikhailovich was educated at home only spending only two years, the sixth and the seventh, in the secondary school in Kharkov. He learnt English and German as foreign languages, but next to Russian he preferred to speak English. He claimed that the German teaching had been relatively poor. As well as enjoying mathematics and science, he also enjoyed music, poetry, literature and history, keeping up these interests throughout his life. We quote from the letter from his cousins given in [24]. Lifshitz's father:-

... often went on missions abroad, taking the family with him. He knew English extremely well. In the family, conversation with the children was in English, and they acquired a good knowledge of it. They had an excellent English teacher, Gordon, from their childhood until 1937. He was an émigré from Britain. The family also had an excellent music teacher, Alisa Nikolaevna Goldenger, who educated their musical taste and gave them [Evgenii Mikhailovich and his brother Ilya Mikhailovich] a love of music, for which they had more than ordinary talent. [The brothers] even wrote music and thought of becoming musicians. But they were simply talented boys who easily found their way to and appreciated anything they became aware of.

We learn more about the young boy Evgenii Mikhailovich from this letter [24]:-

[Evgenii] as a child was somewhat unsociable, wrapped up in himself, but lively and responsive to his friends, either children or, later, adults. He showed them from childhood that he was the person of principle he afterwards remained. He defended his view always to the end, was restrained, but often peremptory, in his judgements. [He] did not eat much and was a thin boy. As the elder brother, he was the more independent. The two of them had a good collection of books. They played table tennis on the big table in the dining room ...

The boys also loved to play charades and played other games such as bowling, croquet and table top games that their father had bought when on his trips abroad. They would go on holiday as a large extended family with the uncles, aunts etc being with them and making up a group of between 20 and 25 people. Evgenii Mikhailovich completed his secondary school studies in 1929 when he was only fourteen years old. He then studied for two years at the chemical college before beginning his university studies in 1931 in the physics and mechanics faculty of Kharkov Mechanics and Machine Building Institute. He graduated in 1933, having completed the examinations and had a diploma thesis accepted. In 1933 he began working as a graduate student at the Ukrainian Physicotechnical Institute having been accepted as one of Lev Landau's first Ph.D. students. He explains in [17] what he had to do to pass Landau's "theoretical minimum":-

... the first test which Landau gave to any one who desired to become one of his students was a quiz in mathematics in its "practical" calculational aspects. The requirements were: ability to evaluate any indefinite integral (in terms of elementary functions) and to solve any ordinary differential equation of the standard type, knowledge of vector analysis and tensor algebra as well as of principles of the theory of functions of complex variable (theory of residues, Laplace method). The successful applicant could then pass on to the study of the seven successive sections of the programme for the "theoretical minimum," which includes basic knowledge of all the domains of theoretical physics, and subsequently take an appropriate examination.

He completed the course and took the Ph.D. examination in 1934. In the same year his father Mikhail Ilyich died and, also his first paper On the production of electrons and positrons by a collision of two particles, written jointly with Landau, appeared in print. Let us note at this point that Evgenii Mikhailovich's mother, Berta Evzorovna, outlived her husband by 42 years, living until 1976. After the award of his Ph.D., Lifshitz worked at the Institute until 1938 as a senior research scientist. In 1935 two further joint papers with Landau were published, one being a continuation of their first paper while the second, On the theory of the dispersion of magnetic permeability in ferromagnetic bodies, is considered the most significant of his joint research papers with Landau. The paper [24]:-

... contains the so-called Landau-Lifshitz equivalent of motion for the magnetisation in ferromagnets. This paper also discusses the domain structure of ferromagnets and the problem of ferromagnetic resonance.

In 1935 he began work on his joint project with Landau, the ten volume Course of Theoretical Physics. The first part of the book is based on lecture notes. Lifshitz continued to work on the book after Landau's death and it was not completed until 1979. The work includes many of the results of Landau and Lifshitz's research over many years including the results of many jointly written research papers.

See extracts from the Prefaces to Landau and Lifshitz: Course of Theoretical Physics at THIS LINK

See extracts from Reviews of Landau and Lifshitz: Course of Theoretical Physics at THIS LINK

Reading the descriptions of Lifshitz, both as a person and as a scientist, that have been written since his death one is struck with the large variation in them. It becomes clear that, common with many families, there was stresses and strains both in Lifshitz's family and in Landau's family which has played a large role in colouring the views that have been expressed in the articles. Several things, however, are very clear. Lifshitz and Landau were close friends, Landau was the brilliant researcher while Lifshitz was the outstanding expositor. Their talents complemented each others extremely well and they made a remarkable team. However, their work was badly disrupted in the late 1930s by the extremely difficult situation that arose because of Joseph Stalin's 'Great Purge'. Beginning in 1935, Stalin began a systematic elimination of his opponents in the 'Great Purge'. Soon it was leading members of his party, of the military, and important people from all walks of life who were being sent to prison, penal camps or work camps. Soon Landau was under investigation by the KGB who had received information from informers that he was making anti-government statements. Lifshitz was in Moscow in early 1938, teaching from February of that year at the All-Union Leather Institute. On 28 April 1938, Landau was arrested and taken to Lubyanka prison. Lifshitz decided that the safest thing for him to do was to keep out of sight in case he attracted the same attention from the KGB. He remained in Moscow until May, then went with his wife to the Crimea where he lived for three months, during which time he was in continual fear that he would be visited by the KGB. In September 1938 he returned to Kharkov where he taught at the Chemical Technology Institute until June 1939.

In 1939 Lifshitz's thesis for the DSc examination of Leningrad State University was accepted. From September 1939 he worked entirely at the Academy of Sciences Institute of Physical Problems in Moscow. In fact it was Peter Kapitsa, the director of the Institute of Physical Problems, who invited Lifshitz to Moscow and arranged for him to share with Landau a 5-room apartment on two floors. Landau lived on the upper floor where there were three rooms, and Lifshitz and his wife, Elena Konstantinovna Berezovskaya, lived on the lower floor. It had been largely due to Kapitsa that Landau had been released from prison for Kapitsa had written several letters to leading government members arguing forcibly for his release. Lifshitz deeply admired Kapitsa's courage in sending these letters and he treasured copies of the letters which he kept throughout his life. We could note here a comment on Lifshitz's political views. He never liked the Communist way and this meant that his views were very different from those of Landau who strongly believed in the Communist principles. After Landau's arrest and year in prison, although he continued to believe in Communist principles he became strongly opposed to Stalin's leadership and this meant that from that time on Landau and Lifshitz had more sympathy with each others political views. However, the two friends still loved to argue about many topics, but most of all about the Course of Theoretical Physics.

In the afternoon, Evgenii Lifshitz would drop by Landau's place, and from behind the study's closed doors one could hear their loud arguments. After a couple of hours Lifshitz would leave, agitated and red-faced.

On 7 January 1962, Landau was involved in a car accident on the road from Moscow to Dubna. Although he lived for six years after this accident, he was never able to return to scientific work. Lifshitz had to take charge of the production of the final volumes of the Course of Theoretical Physics and also take charge of the new editions of the earlier books which were produced regularly. For example, in April 1966 when he wrote the Preface to the second edition of Statistical Physics, Lifshitz wrote:-

To my profound regret, L D Landau, my teacher and friend, has been prevented by injuries received in a road accident from personally contributing to the preparation of this new edition.

Some reviewers claim that volumes written after Landau's death do not quite come up to the standard of the earlier ones. For example [11]:-

This volume was written after Landau's death and unfortunately does not share with its predecessors these unique qualities. Not that there is anything wrong with the presentation - conventional topics of quantum field theory are adequately treated - but there is no personal imprint on the material.

However, others believe that the exceptionally high standard of the texts written with Landau are maintained in the later volumes where Lifshitz was the main author. After Landau's death, the further volumes that were written were jointly authored with Lifshitz choosing his co-authors with great care. The authors of [24] describe his behaviour when he was working in the Institute in Moscow:-

If you went into the Institute courtyard on almost any day you would come across Evgenii Mikhailovich. Not in an overcoat, whatever the season, though in winter with a beret and with a scarf around his neck, he would be walking with rapid steps from one building to another, but never, one felt, just because he was a bustler; he was genuinely incapable of wasting time. Knowing his vast work on the 'Course' in its many languages (for he made changes and corrections in every new version), the time spent on writing further volumes, the demandingness and thoroughness with which the 'Course of Theoretical Physics' was conducted, we all understood that he had no time to waste. This did not mean that, when he crossed the courtyard, he failed to notice people, or avoided meeting them and conversing. far from it; often one could see a group of two or three in conversation and could join in. ... However, when the topic was exhausted, when the matter was settled, or when it became clear that nothing more could be added, the conversation ended, and Evgenii Mikhailovich continued at his rapid pace, until the next person crossed his path.

For around thirty years he was been the deputy chief editor of Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. The chief editor was Kapitza but it was Lifshitz who was in complete charge of the day-to-day running of the Journal. He would choose referees for the papers submitted to the journal and correspond with the authors with a precision and exactness that characterised all of his work.

In 1966 Lifshitz was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences being elected a full member in 1979. In 1954 he was awarded a State Prize, and in 1962 the Lenin Prize jointly with Lev Landau for their Course of Theoretical Physics. The USSR Academy of Sciences awarded him the M V Lomonosov Prize in 1958 for his theory of molecular interaction forces between condensed bodies, and the Lev Landau Prize in 1974. This 1974 prize was awarded jointly to Lifshitz, V A Belinskii and I M Khalatnikov for their work on the singularities of cosmological solutions of the gravitational equations which was presented in sixteen papers between 1961 and 1985. In 1983 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London and, two years later, he received an honorary doctorate from Budapest University.

Although Lifshitz was married to Elena Konstantinovna, he became friendly with Zinaida Ivanovna Gorobetc as early as 1948 and his relationship with her was quite open. He married Zinaida in 1978. He had a son Mikhail who was born in 1946 and became graduated from the Institute of Medicine. In 1982 Lifshitz's brother Ilya Mikhailovich died. This hit Lifshitz very hard and from this time on his health began to deteriorate. For most of his life Lifshitz had enjoyed excellent health. His final illness was a heart problem which rapidly became worse. However, Lifshitz was always one to work extremely hard and so he battled to continue to keep up the same high work rate despite his illness. Despite his health problem, he continued to travel to many countries where he lectured at leading institutions. For example, he lectured at Cambridge University in England in 1985. However, he took very badly with the illness, particularly when taken to hospital in Moscow, and continued to the end to arrange for his work on the Course to continue. After his death he was buried in Kuntsevo Cemetery in Moscow.