Yakov Sinai

Yakov Grigorevich Sinai (Russian: Я́ков

Григо́рьевич Сина́й; born September 21, 1935) is a Yakov Sinai
Russian–American mathematician known for his work Яков Синай
on dynamical systems. He contributed to the modern
metric theory of dynamical systems and connected the
world of deterministic (dynamical) systems with the
world of probabilistic (stochastic) systems.[1] He has
also worked on mathematical physics and probability
theory.[2] His efforts have provided the groundwork for
advances in the physical sciences.[1]

Sinai has won several awards, including the Nemmers

Prize, the Wolf Prize in Mathematics and the Abel
Prize. He serves as the professor of mathematics at
Princeton University since 1993 and holds the position
of Senior Researcher at the Landau Institute for
Theoretical Physics in Moscow, Russia.
Sinai in 2007

Biography Born Yakov Grigorevich Sinai

September 21, 1935
Yakov Grigorevich Sinai was born into a Russian Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet
Jewish academic family on September 21, 1935, in Union
Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia).[3] His parents, Nationality Russian / American
Nadezda Kagan and Gregory Sinai, were both Alma mater Moscow State University
microbiologists. His grandfather, Veniamin Kagan,
Known for Measure-preserving dynamical
headed the Department of Differential Geometry at
systems, various works on
Moscow State University and was a major influence on
dynamical systems,
Sinai's life.[3] mathematical and statistical
physics, probability theory,
Sinai received his bachelor's and master's degrees from
mathematical fluid dynamics
Moscow State University.[2] In 1960, he earned his
Ph.D., also from Moscow State; his adviser was Spouse Elena B. Vul
Andrey Kolmogorov. Together with Kolmogorov, he Awards Boltzmann Medal (1986)
showed that even for "unpredictable" dynamic Dannie Heineman Prize (1990)
systems, the level of unpredictability of motion can be Dirac Prize (1992)
described mathematically. In their idea, which became Wolf Prize (1997)
known as Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy, a system with Nemmers Prize (2002)
zero entropy is entirely predictable, while a system Lagrange Prize (2008)
with non-zero entropy has an unpredictability factor Henri Poincaré Prize (2009)
directly related to the amount of entropy.[1] Foreign Member of the Royal
In 1963, Sinai introduced the idea of dynamical Society (2009)
billiards, also known as "Sinai Billiards". In this Leroy P. Steele Prize (2013)
idealized system, a particle bounces around inside a Abel Prize (2014)
square boundary without loss of energy. Inside the Marcel Grossmann Award (2015)
square is a circular wall, of which the particle also Scientific career
bounces off. He then proved that for most initial
Fields Mathematics
trajectories of the ball, this system is ergodic, that is,
Institutions Moscow State University,
after a long time, the amount of that time the ball will
Landau Institute for Theoretical
have spent in any given region on the surface of the
Physics, Princeton University
table is approximately proportional to the area of that
region. It was the first time anyone proved such a Doctoral Andrey Kolmogorov
dynamical system was ergodic.[1] advisor
Doctoral Leonid Bunimovich
Also in 1963, Sinai announced a proof of the ergodic students Nikolai Chernov
hypothesis for a gas consisting of n hard spheres Dmitry Dolgopyat
confined to a box. The complete proof, however, was Svetlana Jitomirskaya
never published, and in 1987 Sinai declared that the Anatole Katok
announcement was premature. The problem remains Konstantin Khanin
open to this day.[4] Grigory Margulis
Valeriy Oseledets
Other contributions in mathematics and mathematical Leonid Polterovich
physics include the rigorous foundations of Kenneth Marina Ratner
Wilson's renormalization group-method, which led to Corinna Ulcigrai
Wilson's Nobel Prize for Physics in 1982, Gibbs
measures in ergodic theory, hyperbolic Markov
partitions, proof of the existence of Hamiltonian dynamics for infinite particle systems by the idea of
"cluster dynamics", description of the discrete Schrödinger operators by the localization of
eigenfunctions, Markov partitions for billiards and Lorenz map (with Bunimovich and Chernov), a
rigorous treatment of subdiffusions in dynamics, verification of asymptotic Poisson distribution of energy
level gaps for a class of integrable dynamical systems, and his version of the Navier–Stokes equations
together with Khanin, Mattingly and Li.

From 1960 to 1971, Sinai was a researcher in the Laboratory of Probabilistic and Statistical Methods at
Moscow State University. In 1971 he accepted a position as senior researcher at the Landau Institute for
Theoretical Physics in Russia, while continuing to teach at Moscow State. He had to wait until 1981 to
become a professor at Moscow State, likely because he had supported the dissident poet, mathematician
and human rights activist Alexander Esenin-Volpin in 1968.[5]

Since 1993, Sinai has been a professor of mathematics at Princeton University, while maintaining his
position at the Landau Institute. For the 1997–98 academic year, he was the Thomas Jones Professor at
Princeton, and in 2005, the Moore Distinguished Scholar at the California Institute of Technology.[3]

In 2002, Sinai won the Nemmers Prize for his "revolutionizing" work on dynamical systems, statistical
mechanics, probability theory, and statistical physics.[2] In 2005, the Moscow Mathematical Journal
dedicated an issue to Sinai writing "Yakov Sinai is one of the greatest mathematicians of our time ... his
exceptional scientific enthusiasm inspire[d] several generations of scientists all over the world."[3]
In 2013, Sinai received the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement.[3] In 2014, the Norwegian
Academy of Science and Letters awarded him the Abel Prize, for his contributions to dynamical systems,
ergodic theory, and mathematical physics.[6] Presenting the award, Jordan Ellenberg said Sinai had solved
real world physical problems "with the soul of a mathematician".[1] He praised the tools developed by
Sinai which demonstrate how systems that look different may in fact have fundamental similarities. The
prize comes with 6 million Norwegian krone,[1] equivalent at the time to $US 1 million or £600,000. He
was also inducted into the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.[7]

Other awards won by Sinai include the Boltzmann Medal (1986), the Dannie Heineman Prize for
Mathematical Physics (1990), the Dirac Prize (1992), the Wolf Prize in Mathematics (1997), the
Lagrange Prize (2008) and the Henri Poincaré Prize (2009).[2][3] He is a member of the United States
National Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences.[2] He is an honorary member of the London Mathematical Society (1992) and, in 2012, he
became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[2][8] Sinai has been selected an honorary member
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1983), Brazilian Academy of Sciences (2000), the
Academia Europaea, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of London. He holds
honorary degrees from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, Warwick University, and Warsaw University.[3]

Sinai has authored more than 250 papers and books. Concepts in mathematics named after him include
Minlos–Sinai theory of phase separation, Sinai's random walk, Sinai–Ruelle–Bowen measures, and
Pirogov–Sinai theory, Bleher–Sinai renormalization theory. Sinai has overseen more than 50 PhD
candidates.[3] He has spoken at the International Congress of Mathematicians four times.[2] In 2000, he
was a plenary speaker at the First Latin American Congress in Mathematics.[3]

Sinai is married to mathematician and physicist Elena B. Vul. The couple have written several joint
papers.[3]

Selected works
Introduction to Ergodic Theory. Princeton 1976.[9]
Topics in Ergodic Theory. Princeton 1977, 1994.[10]
Probability Theory – an Introductory Course. Springer, 1992.[10]
Theory of probability and Random Processes (with Koralov). 2nd edition, Springer, 2007.[10]
Theory of Phase Transitions – Rigorous Results. Pergamon, Oxford 1982.[10]
Ergodic Theory (with Isaac Kornfeld and Sergei Fomin). Springer, Grundlehren der
mathematischen Wissenschaften 1982.[10]
"What is a Billiard?" (http://www.ams.org/notices/200404/what-is.pdf), Notices AMS 2004.[10]
"Mathematicians and physicists = Cats and Dogs?" (http://www.ams.org/bull/2006-43-04/S0
273-0979-06-01127-X/S0273-0979-06-01127-X.pdf) in Bulletin of the AMS. 2006, vol. 4.[10]
 "How mathematicians and physicists found each other in the theory of dynamical systems
and in statistical mechanics", in Mathematical Events of the Twentieth Century (editors:
Bolibruch, Osipov, & Sinai). Springer 2006, p. 399.[10]

References
1. Ball, Philip (March 26, 2014). "Chaos-theory pioneer nabs Abel Prize" (http://www.nature.co
m/news/chaos-theory-pioneer-nabs-abel-prize-1.14935). Nature. Retrieved March 29, 2014.
2. "2002 Frederic Esser Nemmers Mathematics Prize Recipient" (http://www.nemmers.northwe
stern.edu/prizes/2002sinai.html). Northwestern University. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
3. "Yakov G. Sinai" (https://abelprize.no/sites/default/files/2021-05/Abel%20prize%202014%20
Yakov%20G.%20Sina%20Biography_eng.pdf) (PDF). Abel Prize. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
4. Uffink, Jos (2006). Compendium of the foundations of classical statistical physics (http://phil
sci-archive.pitt.edu/2691/1/UffinkFinal.pdf) (PDF). p. 91.
5. "Sinai biography" (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Sinai.html). www-
history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
6. "2014: Yakov G. Sinai" (https://abelprize.no/abel-prize-laureates/2014). www.abelprize.no.
Retrieved August 2, 2022.
7. "Gruppe 1: Matematiske fag" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131110152102/http://www.dnv
a.no/c26849/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40116) (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science
and Letters. Archived from the original (http://www.dnva.no/c26849/artikkel/vis.html?tid=401
16) on November 10, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
8. "List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society" (http://www.ams.org/profession/fello
ws-list). Retrieved July 20, 2013.
9. Chacon, R. V. (1978). "Review: Introduction to ergodic theory, by Ya. G. Sinai" (http://www.a
ms.org/journals/bull/1978-84-04/S0002-9904-1978-14515-7/S0002-9904-1978-14515-7.pdf)
(PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 84 (4): 656–660. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1978-14515-7 (http
s://doi.org/10.1090%2Fs0002-9904-1978-14515-7).
10. "Yakov Bibliography" (https://web.math.princeton.edu/WebCV/SinaiBIB.pdf) (PDF).
Princeton University. Retrieved March 30, 2014.

External links
Sinai (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/User:Sinai) on scholarpedia
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Yakov Sinai" (https://mathshistory.st-andrews.a
c.uk/Biographies/Sinai.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St
Andrews
Yakov Sinai (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=10481) at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
List of publications (http://www.itp.ac.ru/en/persons/sinai-yakov-grigorevich/) on the website
of the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics

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