Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg (born 4.10.1916) is a Soviet theoretical physicist and an academician (1966, corresponding member 1953). He was born in Moscow. He graduated from Moscow University (1938). From 1940 he has worked in the theoretical department of the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (head from 1971), in 1945—68 he was also professor at Gorky University, and from 1968 at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
His scientific work concerned quantum electrodynamics, the physics of elementary particles, the theory of radiation, optics (the scattering of light, and crystal optics taking spatial dispersion into account), the theory of condensed matter, plasma physics, radiophysics, radio astronomy and astrophysics. In 1940 he developed the quantum theory of the Vavilov — Cherenkov effect. Together with I. M. Frank he predicted (1946) transition radiation. He constructed the thermodynamic theory of ferroelectric phenomena (1945) and pointed out the connection between the ferroelectric transition and the existence of a “soft mode” of the optical vibrations of the lattice (1949).
Together with L. D. Landau he constructed a semi-phenomenological theory of superconductivity (the Ginzburg — Landau theory) (1950), and with L. P. Pitaevskii a semi-phenomenological theory of superfluidity (the Ginzburg — Pitaevskii theory) (1958). In the theory of second-order phase transitions he derived (1960) the criterion for the applicability of mean-field theory (the Ginzburg criterion). Since 1964 he has worked on the problem of high-temperature superconductivity.
In radio astronomy, which he took up from the time of its birth, he predicted (1946) the existence of strong radio emission from the outer regions of the solar corona and the bremsstrahlung mechanism of the radio emission of the quiet Sun, developed (1958) the theory of the sporadic radiation of the Sun, and proposed a method of studying the inhomogeneous structure of the plasma near the Sun from observations of the “scintillation” of compact radio sources caused by the diffraction of radio waves on inhomogeneities (1956—58), and a method of investigating outer space by observing the rotation of the polarisation and the depolarisation of the radiation of radio sources (1960). Ginzburg's idea of observing the diffraction of their radiation at the edge of the Moon was of great importance for the study of the structure of discrete radio sources. A large body of his work is in the field of cosmic-ray physics. He extended the theory of cosmic magnetobremsstrahlung radio emission and the theory of the origin of cosmic rays. He studied problems of quasars, pulsars, neutron stars, gravitational collapse and more.
He founded schools of research in cosmic physics and in solid-state physics in Moscow and in radiophysics in Gorky. Lenin Prize (1966). USSR State Prize (1953). The L. I. Mandelstam (1947) and M. V. Lomonosov (1962) prizes. A member of a number of academies of sciences and scientific societies.