Background
Polyakov, Alexander was born on September 27, 1945 in Moscow. Son of Mark and Ada (Pevznei) Polyakov. came to the United States, 1989.
physicist university professor
Polyakov, Alexander was born on September 27, 1945 in Moscow. Son of Mark and Ada (Pevznei) Polyakov. came to the United States, 1989.
Doctor of Philosophy, Landau Institute, Moscow, 1969.
Polyakov is known for a number of basic 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. His path integral formulation of string theory 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, with Alexander Belavin, and Alexander Zamolodchikov, founded the two-dimensional Conformal Field Theory.
It has classic status. He 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 from the publications of Peter Higgs and others. The paper was delayed by the Editorial Ofiice of JETP, and was published only in 1966.
National Academy of Sciences. Russian Academy of Sciences. Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
French Academy of Sciences.
Married Daria Makogonenko, June 22, 1981. Children: Dimitry, Alex.