Vadim L'vovich Berezinskii (July 15, 1935, in Kiev – June 23, 1980, in Moscow) was a Soviet physicist.
He was born in Kiev and graduated from Moscow State University in 1959. He then worked in Moscow and the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is notable for having identified the role played by topological defects in the low-temperature phase of two-dimensional systems with a continuous symmetry.V. L. Berezinskii, Destruction of long-range order in one-dimensional and two-dimensional systems having a continuous symmetry group I, Classical systems. Sov. Phys. JETP, 32, 493 (1971)V. L. Berezinskii, Destruction of long-range order in one-dimensional and two-dimensional systems possessing a continuous symmetry group II, Quantum systems, Sov. Phys. JETP 34, 610 (1972). His work led to the discovery of the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition, for which John M. Kosterlitz and David J. Thouless were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2016. He also developed a technique for treating electrons in one-dimensional disordered systems and provided first consistent proof of one-dimensional localization,V. L. Berezinskii, Kinetics of a quantum particle in a one-dimensional random potential, Sov. Phys. JETP 38, 620 (1974) and predicted negative-gap superconductivity.V. L. Berezinskii, New model of the anisotropic phase of superfluid He³, JETP Lett. 20, 287 (1974)
See also Mermin–Wagner–Berezinskii theorem
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