"Physics was his passion"

With great sadness, I write about the sudden death (March 20) Mikhail Voloshin, one of the glorified theorists of the Golden Age of High Energy Physics (FVE), a student of the Landau school. He was born on May 14, 1953 in Bucharest-at that time his father, an engineer, was a non-wiper, was in Romania on a business trip.

Misha was a child prospect. In 1970, at the age of 17, he participated in the IV International Physical Olympics and received a gold medal. Then there was Fizteh. At the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEF)-at that time the main Soviet center for FVE-he appeared somewhere in the fourth year and, a modest smiling boy, was immediately accepted into the theoretical department. His first student work (proposed to him by L. B. Okun and I. Yu. Kobzarev) was the so -called "collapse of a false vacuum."

During the week, Misha developed the theory of this phenomenon. And what a beautiful theory! The article was published in 1974. Its results are still actively used in a wide variety of tasks from the theory of field: from the stability of our Universe to the rupture of the strings. The theory of the collapse of the false vacuum, created in the ITEF in 1973, is now stated in all good textbooks. I well remember this time and intensive discussions that followed her. Mikhail Voloshin many times later turned to the ideas of this work and developed them in different aspects.

After the opening of J/ψ in November 1974, a revolution occurred in the FVE, which is called the “November Revolution”. Mikhail Voloshin quickly became one of the leading researchers of quantum chromodynamics and, in particular, the theory of heavy quarks. He was an unconditional banner in this area from the very beginning to his last days.

Misha equally willingly discussed physics with theorists and experimenters around the world. He had extremely high standards and principles - from weak unreasonable works, he waved off with both hands. Misha never spared the speakers at seminars who performed with assumptions or arguments taken “from the ceiling”. His comments were polite, but they killed on the spot.

Physics was his passion. Misha never betrayed the base for the Landau school that theoretical physics is based on an experiment. Misha looked like Richard Feynman with his universalism. It seems that today Mikhail Voloshin was one of the last universalists - his knowledge and interests were so wide. His contributions to the physics of neutrino and astrophysics are widely known in the community of physicists. He knew all the physics, not only quantum: from classical thermodynamics to black holes. He could make an assessment of any physical effect on his fingers. Misha felt the laws of physics with all his heart. He could disassemble and fix the computer, scan archaic slides, advise which camera should be bought for a particular goal. For 47 years, which have expired from the day of our first meeting, he was eager (after he quit smoking), but his smile remained the same. He was always good -natured for students who loved and appreciated his lectures.

Our views on physics and life problems did not always coincide, we also had disagreements. Since the 1990s, when we both turned out to be the Institute of Theoretical Physics. William Fine at the University of Minnesota (USA), his and my point of view gradually came closer, and soon we began to completely understand each other.

Misha did not spread about illness. He was always secretive. At the end of November 2019, in a conversation with Andrei Gorsky, he said: "To reach the end of the semester, and then finally give up to the doctors." After the end of the autumn semester, he appeared at the institute, but not every day. It did not look important, but his behavior did not change. Only after his death did we learn that Misha was diagnosed with lymphoma, he passed chemotherapy, and after one of the sessions the heart could not stand it.

The death of Misha Voloshin is a blow not only to the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Minnesota, but, first of all, throughout world physics. It is impossible to replace it.

Mikhail Shifman

Mikhail Voloshin awards:

Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1983);
Sakurai Award of the American Physical Society (2001);
Humboldt Award (Germany, 2004).