Shifman is known for a number of basic contributions to
quantum chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions, and to understanding of supersymmetric gauge dynamics. The most important results due to M. Shifman are diverse and include (i) the discovery of the
penguin mechanism in the flavor-changing weak decays (1974); (ii) introduction of the
gluon condensate and development of the
SVZ sum rules relating properties of the low-lying hadronic states to the vacuum condensates (1979); (iii) introduction of the invisible (aka KSVZ)
axion (1980) (iv) first exact results in supersymmetric Yang–Mills theories (NSVZ beta function, gluino condensate,1983–1988); (v) heavy quark theory based on the
operator product expansion (1985–1995); (vi) critical domain walls (D-brane analogs) in super-Yang-Mills (1996); (vii) non-perturbative (exact)
planar equivalence between super-Yang–Mills and orientifold non-supersymmetric theories (2003); (viii) non-Abelian flux tubes and confined monopoles (2004 till present). His paper with
A. Vainshtein and
Zakharov on the
SVZ sum rules is among the all-time top cited papers in high-energy physics. ==Honors and awards==