The Physicist Who Rewrote the Rules of Quantum Matter

Lev Landau ranged across theoretical physics with a breadth few scientists have matched. A prodigy from Baku, he studied with Niels Bohr, built an influential physics school in Kharkov and survived imprisonment during Stalin’s purges. His 1941 quantum theory of superfluid helium explained the strange behavior of helium II and ultimately brought him the 1962 Nobel Prize. Along the way he transformed magnetism, phase transitions, superconductivity, plasma physics and Fermi-liquid theory before a devastating car crash.

Landau's story combines extraordinary scientific range with one of the most dramatic lives in twentieth-century physics. His ideas explain phenomena from electrons in magnetic fields to superfluid helium, superconductors and quantum liquids, while his Theoretical Minimum created a legendary school of physicists. He also survived Stalinist imprisonment and, decades later, a catastrophic accident that mobilized scientists across borders. Understanding Landau means seeing how one physicist helped shape the language of.