Vyacheslav I. Yukalov Wins the 2002 Nauka/Interperiodica International Academic Publishing Company Prize

The Editorial Board of the international journal Laser Physics is pleased to announce that the 2002 Nauka/Interperiodica International Academic Publishing Company Prize has been awarded to Vyacheslav I. Yukalov, Leading Scientist of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, for the series of papers on "Nonstandard Coherent Sources: Spin Masers and Atom Lasers", published in Laser Physics in 2000-2002.

V.I. Yukalov graduated from the Physics Faculty of the Moscow State University in 1970, with M.Sc. degree in Theoretical Physics. He received his Ph.D. degree in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics from the same University in 1974. He has also received the degree of Dr.Hab. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Poznan and the degree of  Dr.Sci. in Physics and Mathematics from the Higher Attestation Commission of Russia.

Starting his career as Graduate Assistant at the Moscow State University (1970-1973), he then worked as Assistant Professor, Senior Lecturer, and Associate Professor at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (1973-1984). Since 1984 he works at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research as Senior Scientist, Department Head, and where he currently holds a position of Leading Scientist.

He was Visiting Scientist at the University of Oxford (1980-1981), Institute of Solid State Physics in Sofia (1987), Dresden University of Technology (1988), University of Poznan (1989, 1990, 1991, 1998), University of Ljubljana (1990), University of Mainz (1991), and University of Sao Paulo (1996). And he was Visiting Professor of the Queen's University (1990, 1992-1996), University of Brasilia (1996-1997), University of Western Ontario (1998), University of Sao Paulo (1999, 2001-2002), Iowa State University (2000), University of Konstanz (2002, 2003), University of Augsburg (2003), and Free University of Berlin (2003).

V.I. Yukalov was a Member of Organizing and Program Committees for 25 international conferences. He was awarded the Research Fellowship of British Council (1980-1981), Senior Fellowship of University of Western Ontario (1998), and Senior Fellowship of German Academic Exchange Service (2003).. He received in 2001 the First Prize of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research for the Discovery and Theory of Nuclear Spin Superradiance. Currently, he is a member of the Bogolubov-Infeld International Program, Poland and Heisenberg-Landau International Program, Germany. He is a Member of the Editorial Boards of the international journals Laser Physics and Laser Physics Letters. He is a Member of American Physical Society, American Mathematical Society, European Physical Society, International Association of Mathematical Physics, and Oxford University Society.

He is the author of 280 papers in refereed journals and of many reviews. He published 4 books: Phase States and Transitions (1985), Lectures on Phase Transitions (1990), Statistical Green's Functions (1998), and Reduced Density Matrices (2000). He is the Editor of 4 books on Problems in Quantum Optics (1988), Interaction of Electromagnetic Field with Condensed Matter (1990), Transient Coherent Phenomena (1995), and Bose-Einstein Condensation of Trapped Atoms (2002). He wrote several review articles for Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics (1998), Encyclopedia of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (2002), and Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Sciences (2004).

V.I. Yukalov has received the 2002 Nauka/Interperiodica Prize for a series of 8 papers published in the journal Laser Physics in 2000-2002. These papers are devoted to the extremely important problem of the possibility of creating novel sources of coherent radiation, differing from the standard optic lasers. A specific feature of these works is that the author has managed to develop a new mathematical method for treating strongly nonequilibrium nonlinear processes and to apply this method for creating a theory of nonstandard sources of coherent radiation, such as spin masers and atom lasers.

The mathematical method he developed, called the Scale Separation Approach, is a combination of the method of local-field randomization with a generalization of the Krylov-Bogolubov averaging technique to partial and stochastic differential equations. This approach makes it possible to treat different strongly nonequilibrium nonlinear processes, in particular, it is very convenient for describing radiation phenomena. The creation of a general powerful method is of great importance by itself. But, additionally, V.I. Yukalov successfully applied this method for practical problems of coherent radiation and predicted several novel physical effects.

One of the major achievements in this series of papers is the development of a microscopic theory of nuclear spin superradiance. It is worth mentioning that V.I. Yukalov took part in the first experimental observation of pure spin superradiance, accomplished in Dubna and later confirmed by other experimental groups in St. Petersburg, Bonn, and Zurich. The theory developed by V.I. Yukalov is in good agreement with these experiments. In this theory, it has become possible for the first time to answer the question "what is a microscopic origin of pure spin superradiance". This question was posed by Bloembergen and Pound in 1954, and since then had no a decisive answer. Moreover, there existed a widespread delusion that the triggering mechanism for pure spin superradiance was the thermal Nyquist noise. V.I. Yukalov showed that this thermal noise was not able to trigger spin superradiance, but that the origin of the latter were local spin fluctuations, being a kind of local spin waves. The theory has allowed for a thorough description of all regimes of nuclear spin relaxation, accompanied by transient as well as pulsing superradiance. Several interesting applications were proposed, which could be employed for constructing spin masers and for processing information.

An important physical idea advanced in this series of papers is the possibility of resonance generation of coherent topological modes of trapped Bose atoms. This novel way of mode generation provides an wide opportunity for creating coherent modes with desired properties for atom lasers. The theory of such a resonant condensate showed the existence of several unusual effects, such as mode locking, critical dynamics, atomic squeezing, interference fringes, interference current, and massive entanglement. These predicted effects could find a variety of applications.

Another original suggestion by V.I. Yukalov is the feasibility of creating well collimated atomic beams from atom lasers by means of a new effect of Semiconfinement of Neutral Atoms, which could be realized by specially arranged magnetic fields and nonadiabatic initial polarization of trapped atoms. This effect can be of high importance for the practical usage of atom lasers.

Novel methods, theories, and predictions contained in the prize-winning series of publications not merely provide an explanation for some existing physical phenomena, but suggest several original ideas that could be very useful for creating nonstandard sources of coherent radiation. The Editorial Board of the journal Laser Physics heartily congratulates Vyacheslav Yukalov on winning the 2002 Nauka/Interperiodica Prize and wishes him much success in the following work.