Academician D.V. Volkov
by
Alexander Zheltukhin
Academician Dmitry Vasilyevich Volkov made a great contribution to the development of quantum field theory and elementary particles physics.
In his work of 1972г. [1] dedicated to the generalization spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry conception on fermion fields, D.V. Volkov made one of the deepest discoveries in theoretical physics of the XXth century, which got the name of supersymmetry (Supersymmetry was also independently discovered by Y.A. Golfand and Y.P. Lihtman [2] in search of the mechanisms describing Р-parity and then in 1974 it was rediscovered in the West by J. Wess and B. Zumino).
Supersymmetry is the symmetry of principally new type and admits physical theories invariant under the change of boson fields, describing elementary particle with the integer spin on fermion fields referred to spin-1/2 particles. Supersymmetry generalizes the well-known Poincare group which defines global flat space-time symmetries and properties of physical fields on relativistic invariant theories.
In 1973 D.V. Volkov generalized the concept of supersymmetry on curved space-time and discovered the supergravity theory, which naturally appeared as the result of local supertransformations [4]. In this theory graviton (boson with spin 2) is combined in the invariant way into a single gravitino family – a new elementary particle with spin 3/2, which is predicted by supergravity theory. Supergravity and supersymmetry expand the General Relativity and introduce new revolutionary conceptions about space-time structure (In 1976 the supergravity theory received a new impulse in the works of Western theoretic physics [5], [6]). This structure, if it is realized in nature, admits the presence of additional quant measurements, described in classical limit by unusual anticommutative "numbers", which are the elements of Grassmann algebra. Supersymmetry transforms standard space-time coordinates, described by common numbers, into new coordinates, described by Grassmann numbers, and demands the invariance of natural laws relatively such transformations.
In quantum picture Grassmann numbers translate into Clifford numbers the examples of which are the well-known Dirac and Pauli matrices and Hamiltonian quaternions. The works by D.V. Volkov on the development of geometrical methods of Elie Cartan and their application for the theories with degenerated vacuum description played an important role in the investigation of supersymmetry and supergravity [7]. The history of supergravity investigation was described by D.V. Volkov in his invited report at the International Conference of authors of XXth century original ideas and investigations in elementary particles physics [8].
Since the 80th the theories of supersymmetry and supergravity, connected with string theory into superstring theory and then into more general M-theory, began to play a leading role in high energy physics investigations (see, e.g. [9]). This accounts for the fact that supersymmetry has no other theoretical alternative in the attempts to describe several important questions of elementary particles physics, which remain unsolved in the framework of the Standard Model. By the present time the number of scientific works in supersymmetry is more that 30 thousands.
During the time after publication of the work about Goldstone neutrino [1], the problem of neutrino nature, which excited Dmitry Vasilyevich, became one of the central problems of modern physics. R. Devis, M. Koshiba and P. Jackony were awarded the Noble Prize in physics for the cycle of experiments in physics of neutrino and neutrino astronomy, this Prize showed the acknowledgement of essential importance of neutrino problem for the development of physics in general by the world association. That is why now the experiments on the problem of neutrino gain a wide international character, the data of the recent prominent neutrino experiment of KAMLAND, made by international collaboration on neutrino detector not far from the Japanese city Kamioka, testify to this. During this unique experiment the first direct experimental proof of neutrino oscillations phenomenon was received, i.e. physical translations between various neutrino types – in KAMLAND electronic antineutrino, received from 26 Japanese reactors of atomic power stations, into muon antineutrino.
The idea
of neutrino oscillation possibility was first expressed in the 60th
by the Academician Bruno Pontecorvo from the Joint
Institute of Nuclear Research (The city of
Another challenge to modern theory of elementary particles is the problem of black holes, which solution supposes uncontradictory joint of quantum mechanics and General Relativity. Recent results of theoretical research show that the solution of this problem is connected with the application of supersymmetry ideas, relativistic strings and branes, which have formulated a fruitful conceptual basis for construction of future connection Unified Theory. The word «brane» comes from the word «membrane», serving as a name of 2-dimentional extended object, generalizing the concept of 1-dimentional relative string. So, the word "p-brane» means the extended object, having the number of space dimensions equal р.
That is why without any exaggeration we can say, that the ideas of Dmitry Vasilyevich Volkov played a fundamental role in formulation of theoretical notions, which have become leading in high energy physics development at the end of the past and the beginning of the present centuries. The description of prominent contribution of D.V. Volkov into the development of other theoretical physics directions can be found in [10].
LITERATURE
1.
D.V.Volkov, V.P.Akulov,
O vozmozhnom universalnom
vzaimodeistvii I neitrino, Pisma v
ZHETF, t. 16 (1972) s. 621; D.V. Volkov and
V.P. Akulov, Is the neutrino a Goldstone particle? Phys. Lett., v. B46 (1973)
p. 109; Goldstounovskiye polya so spinom polovina, ТМF, t. 18
(1974)
s. 39;
2.
Y.A. Golfand, Y.P. Lihtman. Raschireniye algebry generatorov gruppy Puankarae I nfrucheniye Р-invariantnosty, Pisma v ZHETF, t. 13 (1971)
s. 323;
3.
J. Wess and В. Zumino, Supergauge transformations
in four dimensions, Nucl.
Phys., v. B70 (1974) p. 39;
4.
D.V. Volkov, V.A. Soroka, Effect Higgsa dlya goldstounovskih poley so spinom polovina.
Pisma v ZHETF, t. 18 (1973) s. 529; Calibrovochniye polya
dlya gruppy simmetrii so spinarnymi parametrami, ТМF, t. 20
(1974) с. 291; D.V. Volkov, V.P. Akulov,
V.A. Soroka, O calibrovochnih
polyach v superprostranstve s razlichnimy
gruppany golonomii. Pisma v ZHETF, t. 22 (1975) s. 396;
5.
S. Deser and В. Zumino, Consistent supergravity, Phys. Lett., v. B62 (1976)
p. 335;
6.
D.Z. Freedman, P. van Neuwenhuizen and
7. D.V. Volkov, Fenomenologicheskiye lagranzhiany, EChAYa, t. 4 (1973) s. 3;
8.
D.V. Volkov, Supergravity before and after
1976, Proceeding of the
International
Conference on the History of Original Ideas and Basic
Discoveries in Particle Physics, NATO
series, v. B352 (Plenum, N.Y., 1996);
preprint CERN-TH-7226-94, 7pp.;
9.
Reports in Proceedings of the Symposium "30
Years of Supersymmetry",
10. S.I. Volkova, А.А. Zheltuchin «Dmitry Vasilyevich Volkov», NNTs KhFTI, Kharkov 2000, ISBN 966-7706-03-2.
Translated into English by Tatiana Kudryashova