Alexander Belavin

Alexander "Sasha" Abramovich Belavin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Абрамо́вич Бела́вин, born 1942) is a Russian physicist, known for his contributions to string theory.

He is a professor at the Independent University of Moscow and is researcher at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Moscow Mathematical Journal.

He forestood the discovery of the BPST instanton (1975) which aided the understanding of the chiral anomaly and gave new directions within quantum field theory. With G. Avdeeva he showed evidence of new coupling regimes for gauge field theory (1973). He also developed the Belavin S-matrices, exactly solvable models in two-dimensional relativistic theories in (1981). He co-authored the BPZ paper (1984) with Alexander Polyakov and Alexander Zamolodchikov on 2D conformal field theories, which became important for string theory. With Vadim Knizhnik he made the Belavin–Knizhnik theorem on dual amplitudes in string theory (1986).

Alexander

Alexander (/ˈæləɡzˈændər/, /ˈæləɡzˈɑːndər/) is a common male first name, and less common surname derived from the Greek "Αλέξανδρος" (Aléxandros). The most famous is Alexander the Great, who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.

Origin

Etymologically, the name is derived from the Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros), meaning "Defender of the people" or "Defending men" and also, "Protector of men", a compound of the verb ἀλέξειν alexein, "to ward off, to avert, to defend" and the noun ἀνήρ anēr, "man" (GEN ἀνδρός andros). It is an example of the widespread motif of Greek (or Indo-European more generally) names expressing "battle-prowess", in this case the ability to withstand or push back an enemy battle line.

The earliest attested form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek feminine anthroponym 𐀀𐀩𐀏𐀭𐀅𐀨, a-re-ka-sa-da-ra (transcribed as Alexandra), written in the Linear B syllabic script.

The name was one of the titles ("epithets") given to the Greek goddess Hera and as such is usually taken to mean "one who comes to save warriors". In the Iliad, the character Paris is known also as Alexander. The name's popularity was spread throughout the Greek world by the military conquests of King Alexander III, commonly known as "Alexander the Great". Most later Alexanders in various countries were directly or indirectly named for him.