Mikhail Shifman
Ida Cohen Fine Chair in
Theoretical Physics

 
   
 

Postal Address:
William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Minnesota
116 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

E-mail: shifman@physics.umn.edu
Office: 436 Tate Laboratory of Physics
Phone: (612) 626-0723
Fax: (612) 626-8606


 

CURRICULUM VITAE  


   

BORN: April 4, 1949; RIGA, LATVIA
     
EDUCATION

  Ph.D. - Theoretical & Mathematical Physics
Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP)
Moscow, USSR

Dissertation: Non-Leptonic Decays of Strange Particles in QCD and Related Topics

1976  

     
  Diploma with Honors (Masters Degree Equivalent)
Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology
Moscow, USSR

Thesis: The Problem of the Two-Muon Decays of K_L

1966-1972  

      
RESEARCH POSITIONS

  Professor (with Tenure) and Member
        Theoretical Physics Institute
        School of Physics and Astronomy
        University of Minnesota
 

1990 - Present  

  Professor (equivalent)
Senior Researcher
Junior Researcher
        Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP), Moscow, USSR

 1983-1990  
1981-1983  
1975-1981  

      
HONORS AND AWARDS

 

Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, Research Awards (Germany)

Fellow of The American Physical Society

J.J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics

Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences

Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize

1993  

1997  

1999  

1993, 1996  

2006

      
RESEARCH: KEY STAGES

 
1974-1976      The penguin mechanism of flavor changing hadron (quark) transitions introduced. (JETP Lett. 22 (1975) 55; Nucl. Phys. B120 (1977) 316; JETP 45 (1977) 670).    
       
1978-1981     Deriving a new class of low-energy theorems stemming from the trace anomaly of QCD. (Phys. Lett 78B (1978) 443; Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 30 (1979) 716; Nucl. Phys. B191 (1981) 301).    
       
1977-1979   Gluon condensate introduced; the QCD Sum Rule method relating the properties of the low-lying hadronic states to the vacuum condensates ("SVZ sum rules") worked out. (Nucl. Phys. B147 (1979) 385; Nucl. Phys. B147 (1979) 448).  
       
1980   The invisible axion ("KSVZ axion") invented. (Nucl. Phys. B166 (1980) 493).    
       
1983-1991   First exact results in the supersymmetric gauge theories (gluino condensate, beta functions). Solution of the anomaly problem and holomorphy. (Nucl. Phys. B229 (1983) 407; Nucl. Phys. B229 (1983) 381; Nucl. Phys. B277 (1986) 456; Nucl. Phys. B359 (1991) 571).    
       
1986-1988   The heavy quark symmetry introduced. (Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 47 (1988) 511; Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 45 (1987) 292).  
       
1989-1990   Extension of the coset construction in two-dimensional conformal field theory. (Int. J. Mod. Phys. A5 (1990) 803).    
       
1989-1991   Discovery of the premature unitarization in the instanton-induced amplitudes at sphaleron energies. (Nucl. Phys. B371 (1992) 177).    
       
1985-1995   Foundations of the heavy quark expansion formulated; theory of inclusive heavy flavor decays worked out. (Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 41 (1985)120; Sov. Phys. JETP 64 (1986) 698; Phys. Rev. Lett. 71 (1993) 496; Phys. Rev. D49 (1994) 3356; Phys. Rev. D50 (1994) 2234).  
       
1995-1996   Alpha_s crisis revealed. (Mod. Phys. Lett., A10 (1995) 605).  
       
1994-1998   Relation between the divergence of the operatior product expansion in high orders and duality violations in QCD; first semi-quantitative models of duality violations suggested. (Proc. V PASCOS Symp., March 1995, Baltimore, ed. J. Bagger (World Scientific, Singapore, 1996), page 69; Phys. Rev D57 (1998) 2691; Phys. Rev. D59 (1999) 054011).    
       
1996-1999   Central extensions in N=1 superalgebras in the Yang-Mills theory as a result of anomaly. The theory of the BPS-saturated domain walls in supersymmetric gluodynamics and other supersymmetric theories elaborated. (Phys. Lett. B396 (1997) 64; Phys. Rev. D56 (1997) 7990; Phys. Rev. D59 (1999) 045016).    
       
1999-2004  

Pinpointing anomalies in supersymmetric theories with solitons. (Phys. Rev. D59 (1999) 045016; hep-th/0108153); marginal stability through delocalization (Phys. Rev. D63 (2001) 065018).

Theory of supersymmetric solitons: flux tubes (strings), domain walls (D. branes) and their junctions (confined monopoles). (Phys. Rev. D67 (2003) 125007).

 
       
2002   Cosmological Constant Problem in Infinite Volume Extra Dimensions: Solving through Infrared Modification of 4D Gravity (Phys. Rev. D67 (2003) 044020).    
       
2003-2005   Orientifold pairs - Planar equivalence (Nucl. Phys. B667 (2003) 170).    
       
PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS

 

Vacuum Structure and QCD Sum Rules,
516 pp, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1992.

Unpublished foreword
 
 
 

Instantons in Gauge Theories,
488 pp, World Scientific,
Singapore, 1994.


 
ITEP Lectures on Particle Physics and Field Theory, Vols. 1 and 2, 870 pp, World Scientific, Singapore, 1999.

Link to foreword
 
 

The Many Faces of the Superworld:
Yuri Golfand Memorial Volume, 677 pp,
World Scientific, Singapore, 1999.

Link to foreword


 

At the Frontier of Particle Physics: Handbook of QCD/Boris Ioffe Festschrift, (in 3 Volumes),
2151 pp, World Scientific, Singapore, 2000.
Volume 4 published in 2002, 400pp.
Link to foreword
 
 
 

The Supersymmetric World:
The Beginnings of the Theory,
(with G. Kane), 273 pp,
World Scientific, Singapore, 2000.

Link to foreword


 

SUSY 30, International Symposium Celebrating 30 Years of Supersymmetry, NORTH-HOLLAND, Amsterdam, 2001, 450 pp.
(with K. Olive and S. Rudaz)

Link to foreword
 
 
  Continuous Advances in QCD 2002 - Arkadyfest (World Scientific 2002), with K. Olive and M. Voloshin.

Link to Brochure - Fun reading


 

From Fields to Strings: Circumnavigating Theoretical Physics, Ian Kogan Memorial Collection, (with A. Vainshtein and J. Wheater), 2388pp, World Scientific, Singapore, 2005.

Link to foreword
 
 

You Failed Your Math Test, Comrade Einstein: Adventures and Misadventures of Young Mathematicians, 232 pp, World Scientific, Singapore, 2005.

Link to foreword

      
PUBLICATIONS: PAPERS

  The full publication list for 1971-2005 includes 260+ papers published or accepted for publication. The list of publications beginning in late 2002 is given below.
 
 
 

HIGHLY EXCITED HADRONS IN QCD AND BEYOND, hep-ph/0507246.

SPONTANEOUS Z2 SYMMETRY BREAKING IN THE ORBIFOLD DAUGHTER OF N=1 SUPER-YANG--MILLS THEORY, FRACTIONAL DOMAIN WALLS AND VACUUM STRUCTURE (with A. Armoni and A. Gorsky), hep-th/0505022, PRD, submitted.

STUDYING BOOJUMS IN N=2 THEORY WITH WALLS AND VORTICES (with R. Auzzi and A. Yung), hep-th/0504148, Phys. Rev. D72, 025002 (2005)

NON-ABELIAN FLUX TUBES IN SQCD: SUPERSIZING WORLD-SHEET SUPERSYMMETRY (with A. Yung), hep-th/0501211, PRD, submitted.

COMMENTS ON DIQUARKS, STRONG BINDING AND A LARGE HIDDEN QCD SCALE (with A. Vainshtein), hep-ph/0501200, Phys. Rev. D71, 074010 (2005).

REFINING THE PROOF OF PLANAR EQUIVALENCE (with A. Armoni and G. Veneziano), hep-th/0412203, Phys. Rev. D71, 045015 (2005).

NON-ABELIAN MEISSNER EFFECT IN YANG--MILLS THEORIES AT WEAK COUPLING, (with A. Gorsky and A. Yung), hep-th/0412082, Phys. Rev. D71, 045010 (2005).

SPECTRAL DEGENERACY IN SUPERSYMMETRIC GLUODYNAMICS AND ONE-FLAVOR QCD RELATED TO N=1/2 SUSY, (with A. Gorsky), hep-th/0410099, Phys. Rev. D71, 025009 (2005).

ENHANCED WORLDVOLUME SUPERSYMMETRY AND INTERSECTING DOMAIN WALLS IN N=1 SQCD, (with A. Ritz, and A. Vainshtein), Phys. Rev. D70, 095003 (2004); hep-th/0405175.

NON-ABELIAN FLUX TUBES IN SQCD: SUPERSIZING WORLD-SHEET SUPERSYMMETRY, (with A. YUNG), PRD, submitted; hep-th/0501211.

COMMENTS ON DIQUARKS, STRONG BINDING AND A LARGE HIDDEN QCD SCALE, (with A. Vainshtein), PRD, submitted.

REFINING THE PROOF OF PLANAR EQUIVALENCE, (with A. Armoni and G. Veneziano), PRD, submitted; hep-th/0412203.

NONABELIAN MEISSNER EFFECT IN YANG-MILLS THEORIES AT WEAK COUPLING, (with A. Gorsky and A. Yung), PRD, submitted; hep-th/0412082.

SPECTRAL DEGENERACY IN SUPERSYMMETRIC GLUODYNAMICS AND ONE-FLAVOR QCD RELATED TO N=1/2 SUSY, (with A. Gorsky), PRD, submitted; hep-th/0410099.

ENHANCED WORLDVOLUME SUPERSYMMETRY AND INTERSECTING DOMAIN WALLS IN N=1 SQCD, (with A. Ritz, and A. Vainshtein), Phys. Rev. D70, 095003 (2004); hep-th/0405175.

AN EXACT RELATION FOR ${\cal N}=1$ ORIENTIFOLD FIELD THEORIES WITH ARBITRARY SUPERPOTENTIAL, (with A. Armoni and G. Veneziano), Nucl. Phys. B702, 37 (2004); hep-th/0404247.

NONABELIAN STRING JUNCTIONS AS CONFINED MONOPOLES, (with A. Yung), Phys. Rev. D70, 045004, 2004; hep-th/0403149.

FROM SUPER-YANG-MILLS THEORY TO QCD: PLANAR EQUIVALENCE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS, (with A. Armoni and G. Veneziano), published in the Ian Kogan Memorial Collection "From Fields to Strings: Circumnavigating Theoretical Physics," Ed. M. Shifman, A. Vainshtein and J. Wheater (World Scientific, 2004), Vol. 1, p. 353; hep-th/0403071.

SOFTLY MASSIVE GRAVITY, (with G. Gabadadze), Phys. Rev. D69, 124032, 2004; hep-th/0312289.

LOCALIZATION OF NONABELIAN GAUGE FIELDS ON DOMAIN WALLS AT WEAK COUPLING (D-BRANE PROTOTYPES II), (with A. Yung), Phys. Rev. D70, 025013, 2004; hep-th/0312257.

EFFECTIVE LAGRANGIANS FOR ORIENTIFOLD THEORIES, (with F. Sannino), Phys. Rev. 69 (2004); hep-th/0309252.

QCD QUARK CONDENSATE FROM SUSY AND THE ORIENTIFOLD LARGE-$N$ EXPANSION, (with A. Armoni and G. Veneziano), Phys. Lett. B579, 384-390, 2004; hep-th/0309013.

SUSY RELICS IN ONE FLAVOR QCD FROM A NEW $1/N$ EXPANSION, (with A. Armoni and G. Veneziano), Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 191601, 2003, hep-th/0307097.

REMARKS ON STABLE AND QUASISTABLE K STRINGS AT LARGE $N$, (with A. Armoni), Nucl. Phys. B671, 67, 2003; hep-th/0307020.

ON $k$-STRING TENSIONS AND DOMAIN WALLS IN ${\cal N}=1$ GLUODYNAMICS, (with A. Armoni), Nucl. Phys. B664 (2003) 233-246, hep-th/0304127.

${\cal N}=2$ SIGMA MODEL WITH TWISTED MASS AND SUPERPOTENTIAL: CENTRAL CHARGES AND SOLITONS, (with A. Losev), Phys. Rev. D68 (2003) 045006, hep-th/0304003.

THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT AND DOMAIN WALLS IN ORIENTIFOLD FIELD THEORIES AND ${\cal N} = 1$ GLUODYNAMICS, (with A. Armoni), Nucl. Phys. B670, 148 (2003), hep-th/0303109.



 
      
INVITED TALKS

   
 

2004/05

  • Planar equivalence: From supersymmetric gluodynamics to one-flavor QCD, Seminar at Penn State, September 22, 2004.
  • Understanding the hadronic world with supersymmetry, Colloquium at Penn State, September 23, 2004.
  • Field Theory and Mathematics Panel at the The Future of Physics Conference, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, October 9, 2004.
  • Discussion Session on Quark-Hadron Duality, Workshop on QCD String Theory, KITP, Santa Barbara, October 20, 2004.
  • Planar Equivalence: From supertsymmetric gluodynamics to one-flavor QCD, Seminar at UCLA, November 2, 2004
  • Planar Equivalence: From supertsymmetric gluodynamics to one-flavor QCD, Invited Talk at the Conference "QCD and String Theory", November 15-19, 2004, KITP, Santa Barbara
  • Supersizing Worldvolume Supersymmetry, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, December 19, 2004
  • QCD Strings as Inspiration and as a Challenge to String Theory, Israeli Physics Seminar, Neve Shalom December 22, 2004
  • Supersizing Worldvolume Supersymmetry, Tel-Aviv University, December 23, 2004
  • Understanding the hadronic world with supersymmetry, Colloquium at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, December 22, 2004
  • QCD Strings as Inspiration and as a Challenge to String Theory, DESY, Hamburg, January 13, 2005
  • QCD Strings as Inspiration and as a Challenge to String Theory, University of Wisconsin (Madison), April 21, 2005.
  • Supersymmetry and how it Helps Us Understand our World, Public Lecture, University of Wisconsin (Madison), April 22, 2005.

Summer 2005

  • k Strings from Various Perspectives: QCD, Lattices, String Theory and Toy Models, Understanding Confinement/ZakharovFest, Ringberg Castle, Tegernsee, May 16-21, Germany
  • Messages from SUSY and Strings to QCD practitioners, Gribov-75 memorial Workshop, Budapest, Hungary, May 22-24.
  • Non-Perturbative Yang-Mills from Supersymmetry and Strings, Invited Talk at Planck-05/MohapatraFest, ICTP, Trieste, May 23-28, 2005.
  • Non-Perturbative Yang-Mills from Supersymmetry and Strings, Invited Talk (June 2) at PASCOS-05, Gyeongju, Korea, May 30 - June 4.
  • Quark-Hadron Duality and High Excitations, Invited Talk at the First Workshop on Quark-Hadron Duality and Transition to pQCD, Frascati, Italy, June 6-8.
  • Future of High Energy Physics, Invited Talk at the "Polish Kindergarten," Zakopane, Poland, June 10.
  • Nonperturbative Yang-Mills from supersymmetry and strings, Or, in the Jungles of Strong Coupling, Lecture (June 10) at the Cracow School of Theoretical Physics, June 3-12, Zakopane, Poland.
  • k Strings from Various Perspectives: QCD, Lattices, String Theory and Toy Models, Lecture (June 11) at the Cracow School of Theoretical Physics, June 3-12, Zakopane, Poland.

 
     

 

 Link to another Dr. Shifman
     
     
LECTURES: FOR STUDENTS

  The Uses of Instantons, in S. Coleman, Chapter 7.  
  ABC of Instantons, with Novikov, Vainshtein and Zakharov, Chapter III in ITEP Lectures on Particle Physics and Field Theory.  
 

INTERESTING READING, YOU ARE WELCOME TO BROWSE

A fragment of A. Kolesnichenko's caricature "Sum Rules 1985,"
60-th Birthday of Arkady Vainshtein: "First Poster," "Second Poster," "Brochure -- Fun Reading"
"Grandmaster," Sasha Polyakov on A.B. Migdal (in Russian).
Plaut on Antisemitism
"On Antisemitism Today," An article by Oriana Fallaci in Panorama. (Russian version)
"A Glimpse of 2012," "On Human Rights Groups and Double Standards," M. Shifman's black humor (2002).
"A Modern Version of the Passover Story," by Daniel P. Waxman.
"Comrade Einstein, " edited by M. Shifman.
"Comrade Einstein" - unpublished epilogue
Vladimir Vysotsky on M. Shifman (in Russian)
Unpublished contribution to the Yuri Simonov Festschrift
Future of Physics/KITP-2004

 
Updated:1/26/07