Nikolay Prokof'ev
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Nikolay Prokof'ev
| image =
| image_size = 200px
| caption =
| birth_place = Moscow, Russia
| ethnicity =
| fields = Physics, Condensed Matter Theory
| work_institutions = University of Massachusetts Amherst
| alma_mater = Moscow Engineering Physics Institute
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors = Yuri Kagan
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| prizes = Fellow of the American Physical Society
| footnotes =
}}
Nikolay Victorovich Prokof'ev is a Russian-American physicist known for his works on supersolidity and strongly correlated systems and pioneering numerical approaches.
Biography
He received his MSc in physics in 1982 from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Moscow, Russia. In 1987, he received his PhD in theoretical physics from Kurchatov Institute (Moscow), under the supervision of Yuri Kagan, where he worked from 1984 to 1999. In 1999, he became a professor at the physics department of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.{{Cite web|url=https://www.physics.umass.edu/people/nikolai-prokofev|title=Nikolai Prokof'ev {{!}} Physics Department {{!}} UMass Amherst|website=Physics Department at UMass Amherst|access-date=2018-09-30}}
= Research =
He is recognised for his research on strongly correlated states in electronic and bosonic systems, critical phenomena, and quantum Monte Carlo methods.{{Cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=f4_hn9oAAAAJ&hl=en|title=Nikolay Prokofiev - Google Scholar Citations|website=scholar.google.com|access-date=2018-09-28}}
His and his coauthors have made key contributions to the theory of supersolids includes the theory of superfluidity of crystalline defects, such as the appearance of superfluidity on grain boundaries and in dislocation cores {{Cite journal|last1=Prokof’ev|first1=Nikolay|last2=Svistunov|first2=Boris|date=2005-04-20|title=Supersolid State of Matter|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=94|issue=15|pages=155302|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.155302|pmid=15904155|arxiv=cond-mat/0409472|bibcode=2005PhRvL..94o5302P |s2cid=45498667 }} (reviewed in {{Cite web|url=https://www.crcpress.com/Superfluid-States-of-Matter/Svistunov-Babaev-Prokofev/p/book/9781439802755|title=Superfluid States of Matter|date=2015-04-15|website=CRC Press|access-date=2018-10-04}}) and superglass state.{{Cite journal|last1=Boninsegni|first1=Massimo|last2=Prokof’ev|first2=Nikolay|last3=Svistunov|first3=Boris|date=2006-03-16|title=Superglass Phase of $^{4}\mathrm{He}$|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=96|issue=10|pages=105301|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.105301|pmid=16605751|arxiv=cond-mat/0512103|s2cid=118886810 }} He co-invented, with Boris Svistunov and Igor Tupitsyn of the widely used Worm Monte-Carlo algorithm. With Boris Svistunov he invented the Diagrammatic Monte-Carlo method {{Cite web|url=https://wiki.phys.ethz.ch/quantumsimulations/_media/svistunov1_1.pdf|title=slides}} which is stochastic summation of Feynman diagrammatic series which is free from the Numerical sign problem.{{Cite journal|last1=Rossi|first1=R.|last2=Prokof'ev|first2=N.|last3=Svistunov|first3=B.|last4=Van Houcke|first4=K.|last5=Werner|first5=F.|date=2017-04-01|title=Polynomial complexity despite the fermionic sign|journal=EPL (Europhysics Letters)|volume=118|issue=1|pages=10004|doi=10.1209/0295-5075/118/10004|issn=0295-5075|arxiv=1703.10141|bibcode=2017EL....11810004R|s2cid=17929942 }}
He is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, for "pioneering contributions to theories of dissipative quantum dynamics and for innovative Monte Carlo approaches to quantum and classical studies of critical phenomena."{{Cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=P|title=APS Fellow Archive|website=www.aps.org|access-date=2018-09-28}}
He coauthored the book on modern theory of superfluidity.{{Citation|date=2015-04-15|pages=523–544|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9781439802755|doi=10.1201/b18346-21|title = Superfluid States of Matter|chapter = Superfluid States in Nature and the Laboratory}}
References
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Category:20th-century American physicists
Category:Scientists from Moscow
Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society
Category:University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty