Prof. Igor Mikhailovich Dremin

What led you into science and your chosen area of research?

Interest in physics and advices of my uncle, S.I. Prokofiev, who worked at the Laboratory No.2 transformed later to LIPAN and Kurchatov Institute, first, and then the impact by I.Ya. Pomeranchuk — my first science advisor.

Can you describe the results in your paper and their importance for your field?

My main scientific interests are related to interactions of particles and nuclei at high energies. That can be easily traced, e.g., by the large series of my works published in Physics-Uspekhi which contains now (up to January 2015) 47 papers. By them, one can trace the evolution of my ideas from the priority proposal of the truly peripheral inelastic interactions of protons to work on quantum chromodynamics with applications to the electron-positron annihilation and to processes in the hadronic medium (the QCD equations in the medium), on collective effects and correlations in inelastic collisions, on nuclear interactions with formation of the quark-gluon plasma and Cherenkov gluon radiation, on interpretation of results of several cosmic ray experiments (e.g., those on long-flying cascades which led to the conclusion about abundant charm production at high energies), on elastic scattering of hadrons and extraction from there some knowledge about their inelastic interaction region, and also about the methods of analysis of experimental data (in particular, using the wavelets), as well as some applied researches in the nuclear reactors, aviation and medicine which led to several patents (surge, flatter). The participation in CMS collaboration at CERN helps to keep all the time in line with the latest achievements in the field.

What research projects are you working on at the moment?

Nowadays, I continue my work on deciphering the properties of the interaction region of high energy protons as the function of their energy. I have shown that the size and the shape of this region depend crucially on the ratio of the total cross section and of the slope of the diffraction cone of elastic scattering. The energy evolution of these experimentally measurable characteristics reveals the absolute darkness of the inelastic interaction region for central collisions at 7 TeV. Its implications for properties of inelastic collisions have been analysed in our paper with interpretation of the experimental data. Its further evolution at the newly available energy 13 TeV is of especially high interest because it can show up the completely new features of a changed interaction range. In parallel, the analysis and the theoretical interpretation of the CMS data about the region of creation of jets and effects due to Cherenkov gluons will be further pursued.

What do you think will be the next big breakthrough in your field?

The experimental data from LHC and their theoretical description.

What book are you reading right now?

E.L. Feinberg. Physicists. Epoch and personalities.

If you could have dinner with any 3 people, past or present, who would they be and why?

Igor Tamm — the founder of our Theory department who had strong impact on me, both human and scientific;
Sheldon Glashow — we shared the same office in Niels Bohr Institute for 2 months in 1963 and met only once since then at 1996 conference;
Jean Tran Thanh Van — the organizer of very many physics conferences (over 40 Morionds!) with whom we issued the book of reminiscences about A. D. Sakharov.

What has been the most exciting moment in your career so far?

The ideas about peripheral interactions of hadrons and my calculation of their cross sections at the time when central interactions described by Landau hydrodynamical theory prevailed (probably, because I was young then). Also, it is very exciting to get interpretation of some experimental facts with low statistics which is approved later by accelerator data (as it happened with my ideas about Cherenkov gluons and rather large cross sections for charm production at high energies).