Alexei Abrikosov shares Nobel Prize in physics

Argonne scientist Alexei Abrikosov was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in physics for developing the theory to explain how magnetic fields penetrate certain superconducting materials—materials that carry current without resistance. He shared the award with Anthony J. Leggett of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Vitaly L. Ginzburg of the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. The three researchers were recognized for their work explaining matter’s bizarre behavior at extremely low temperatures.

Abrikosov is the Distinguished Scientist in the Condensed Matter Theory Group in Argonne’s Materials Science Division. His research centers on the structure and behavior of solids and liquids, called condensed-matter physics, and he concentrates on superconductivity. He was the first to propose the concept of “type-II superconductors” in 1952 and constructed the theory of their magnetic properties, known as Abrikosov vortex lattices.

When his theory was considered controversial, Abrikosov said “I put it in a drawer, but I did not put it in a wastebasket, because I believed in it.”

“Alex’s insights and discoveries have launched 50 years of studies into the fundamental nature of superconductivity,” said Thomas F. Rosenbaum, the University of Chicago’s vice president for research and for Argonne National Laboratory.

Superconducting magnets are used today in magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, in healthcare and in particle accelerators, such as the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System. Researchers hope to harness superconductivity for uses such as efficient power lines that conduct current without resistance and high-speed trains that float above the track.

Abrikosov joined Argonne’s Materials Science Division in 1991. He is studying the origins of magnetoresistance, a property of some materials that change their resistance to electrical flow under a magnetic field.

Before joining Argonne, Abrikosov directed the Institute for High-Pressure Physics of the Academy of Sciences, Moscow. He was chair of theoretical physics at the Moscow Institute for Steel and Alloys from 1976 through 1991 and was head of the condensed matter theory division of Russia's Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics from 1965 through 1988.

For his superconductivity research, Abrikosov received the Soviet Union’s highest honor for scientific achievement, the Lenin Prize, in 1966, and Sony Corp.’s John Bardeen Award in 1991.

He is a member of the Royal Academy of London and the National Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society. Abrikosov received the International Fritz London Award in 1972 and the Soviet Union’s State Prize in 1982.

He received his Ph.D. in 1951 and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1955 from the Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow.

Abrikosov’s research career has included quantum electrodynamics—the theory of elemental particle interactions—and astrophysics, in which he studied the properties of hydrogen planets. He has also worked on the theory of semimetals and plasma physics, the behavior of materials under high pressures and the theory of quantum liquids.

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