Lev Landau summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Lev Davidovich Landau.

Lev Landau, (born Jan. 22, 1908, Baku, Azerbaijan, Russian Empire—died April 1, 1968, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Soviet physicist. After graduating from Leningrad State University, he studied at Niels Bohr’s institute in Copenhagen. He is known for his work in low-temperature physics, atomic and nuclear physics, and solid-state, stellar-energy, and plasma physics. For explaining the phenomenon of liquid helium, he was awarded a 1962 Nobel Prize. For his work in many areas of physics, his name is applied to Landau diamagnetism, Landau levels, Landau damping, the Landau energy spectrum, Landau cuts, and the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Moscow.

Nobel Prize Summary

Nobel Prize, any of the prizes (five in number until 1969, when a sixth was added) that are awarded annually from a fund bequeathed for that purpose by the Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel. The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards given for intellectual

helium Summary

Helium (He), chemical element, inert gas of Group 18 (noble gases) of the periodic table. The second lightest element (only hydrogen is lighter), helium is a colourless, odourless, and tasteless gas that becomes liquid at −268.9 °C (−452 °F). The boiling and freezing points of helium are lower than

superfluidity Summary

Superfluidity, the frictionless flow and other exotic behaviour observed in liquid helium at temperatures near absolute zero (−273.15 °C, or −459.67 °F), and (less widely used) similar frictionless behaviour of electrons in a superconducting solid. In each case the unusual behaviour arises from

How scientists use lasers to learn about the universe

plasma Summary

Plasma, in physics, an electrically conducting medium in which there are roughly equal numbers of positively and negatively charged particles, produced when the atoms in a gas become ionized. It is sometimes referred to as the fourth state of matter, distinct from the solid, liquid, and gaseous