theoretical physicist, laureate Nobel Prize 1962. 1908–1968

Born into a Jewish family of oil engineer David Lvovich Landau and his wife Lyubov Veniaminovna in Baku on January 22, 1908. From 1916 he studied at the Baku Jewish Gymnasium, where his mother was a natural science teacher.

At the age of fourteen he entered Baku University, where he studied simultaneously at two faculties: physics and mathematics and chemistry. For special successes he was transferred to Leningrad University. After graduating in 1927 from the Physics Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Leningrad University, Landau became a graduate student, and later an employee of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology, in 1926–1927 he published the first works on theoretical physics.

In 1927 he was sent to Denmark to Bor, to England and Switzerland. There he worked with leading theoretical physicists, and since then Niels Bohr considered his only teacher.

In 1932 he headed the theoretical department of the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology in Kharkov. In 1934 he received a doctorate in physical and mathematical sciences before defending his dissertation. In 1937–1938, during the Great Terror, the first director of the institute, I.V. Obreimov, the second director A.I. Leipunsky and many employees of the institute were arrested. Foreign specialists A. Weisberg and F. Houtermans are arrested; in August-September 1937, physicists L.V. Rozenkevich (co-author Landau), L.V. Shubnikov, V.S. Gorsky. By that time, in February 1937, Landau accepted an invitation from Pyotr Kapitsa to take the position of head of the theoretical department of the newly built Institute for Physical Problems (IPP) and moved to Moscow.

In April 1938, Landau in Moscow edited M.A. Korets a leaflet calling for the overthrow of the Stalinist regime, in which Stalin is called a fascist dictator. The text of the leaflet was handed over to the anti-Stalinist group of IFLI students for distribution by mail before the May Day holidays. This intention was revealed by the USSR state security organs, and Landau, Korets and Rumer were arrested on the morning of April 28 for anti-Soviet agitation. On May 3, 1938, Landau was excluded from the list of employees of the IFP. Landau spent a year in prison and was released thanks to a letter in defense of Niels Bohr and the intervention of Kapitsa, who took Landau "on bail". After his release, until his death in 1968, Landau was an employee of the IFP. In 1955, Landau signed the Letter of Three Hundred against Lysenkoism.

Academician Landau is considered a legendary figure in the history of Russian and world science. Quantum mechanics, physics solid body, magnetism, low temperature physics, cosmic ray physics, hydrodynamics, quantum field theory, nuclear physics and physics elementary particles, plasma physics - this is not a complete list of areas in which different time attracted Landau's attention. It was said about him that in "the huge building of physics of the 20th century there were no locked doors for him."

In 1926 he published his first work on the intensity of the spectra of diatomic molecules. In 1927, he first introduced the concept of the density matrix. In 1930, he created the theory of electronic diamagnetism of metals (Landau diamagnetism), where he calculated discrete levels of electrons in a magnetic field (Landau levels) and predicted periodic changes in susceptibility depending on the field in strong fields (De Haas - van Alphen effect). In 1933, he first proposed the theory of antiferromagnetism. In 1935, together with Lifshitz, he developed the theory of the domain structure of ferromagnets and ferromagnetic resonance. In 1936, Landau's work on the kinetic equation for electron plasma was published. In 1937 he built a general theory of phase transitions of the second kind. In the same year he published the theory of the intermediate state of superconductors and the statistical theory of nuclei.

In 1938, together with Yu.B. Rumer developed the cascade theory of electron showers in cosmic rays. In 1941 he created the theory of superfluidity of liquid helium. In 1945 he proposed the theory shock waves at a great distance from the source, and in 1946 the theory of electron plasma oscillations and, in particular, determined their damping (Landau damping). In 1950, together with V.L. Ginzburg built a semi-phenomenological theory of superconductivity. In 1953 he published the theory of multiple particle production in collisions of high-energy particles. In 1954–1955, together with A.A. Abrikosov, I.M. Khalatnikov and I.Ya. Pomeranchuk conducted research on the foundations of quantum electrodynamics, which led to the proof of its internal inconsistency in the consistent implementation of the concept point charges. In 1956 he introduced the concept of combined parity. He built the theory of the two-component neutrino (1957), and in 1956–1958, the theory of the Fermi liquid. In 1940-1965 he published together with E.M. Lifshitz fundamental course of theoretical physics.

In 1962, L.D. Landau won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his pioneering work in the theory of condensed matter, especially liquid helium." Awarded 1 November 1962. The Nobel Prize medal, diploma and check were presented to Landau on December 10 (for the first time in the history of the Nobel Prizes, the awarding took place in a hospital).

Landau was a laureate of the Max Planck medal (1960), the Fritz London Prize (1960), the Lenin Prize (1962) and three Stalin Prizes(1946, 1949, 1953), Hero Socialist Labor(1954). He was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1962.

He was a foreign member of the Royal Society of London (1960), the US National Academy of Sciences (1960), the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences (1951), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (1956), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1960), the French Physical Society and London Physical Society.

Landau created a numerous school of theoretical physicists. Among his students are E.M. Lifshitz, A.A. Abrikosov, L.P. Gorkov, I.E. Dzyaloshinskiy, I.M. Lifshits, I.Ya. Pomeranchuk, I.M. Khalatnikov, A.F. Andreev, A.I. Akhiezer, V.B. Berestetsky, S.S. Gershtein, B.L. Ioffe, Yu.M. Kagan, V.G. Levich, L.A. Maksimov, A.B. Migdal, L.P. Pitaevsky, L.M. Pyatigorsky, R.Z. Sagdeev and others.

Landau's students were predominantly considered physicists who were able to pass Lev Davidovich (and later his students) 9 theoretical exams, the so-called Landau's theoretical minimum. Mathematics was taken first, and then exams in physics. So in total: two exams in mathematics, mechanics, field theory, quantum mechanics, statistical physics, continuum mechanics, continuum electrodynamics, quantum electrodynamics. Landau demanded from his students knowledge of the foundations of all branches of theoretical physics.

After the war, it was best to use Landau and Lifshitz's theoretical physics course to prepare for exams, but the first students took exams on Landau's lectures or on handwritten notes. Together with E.M. Lifshitz was the initiator of the fundamental classical course in theoretical physics, which has gone through multiple editions and has been published in 20 languages.

The Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences is named after Landau.

Fascinated by science, Landau made a vow to himself never "smoke, drink and never get married." But he met a graduate Faculty of Chemistry Concordia (Cora) Drobantsev, who divorced her first husband. She swore that she would not be jealous of other women, and from 1934 they lived together in an actual marriage. Landau believed that lies and jealousy destroy marriage most of all, and therefore they entered into a “non-aggression pact in married life,” which gave relative freedom to both spouses in novels on the side. The official marriage was concluded between them on July 5, 1946, a few days before the birth of their son Igor.

Landau's formula for happiness: love, work and communication with people.

On January 7, 1962, on the way from Moscow to Dubna, Landau got into a car accident. As a result of serious injuries, he was in a coma for 59 days. Physicists from all over the world took part in saving Landau's life. A round-the-clock duty was organized in the hospital. The missing medicines were delivered by aircraft from Europe and the United States. As a result of these measures, Landau's life was saved, despite very serious injuries. After the accident, Landau practically stopped working scientific activity.

The topics in . Get ready to meet a new table tomorrow, come up with topics. And today we listen to a friend luciferushka and his theme: "The biography and scientific achievements of the physicist Landau are interesting, and how true are the myths around this unique person?)))"

Let's find out more about this extraordinary figure in the history of Russian science.

In December 1929, the secretary of the director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen made a short entry in the registration book for foreign guests: "Doctor Landau from Leningrad." The doctor at that time was not yet 22 years old, but who would be surprised at this in the famous institute, just like boyish thinness, categorical judgments? Copenhagen was then known as the capital of the world quantum physics. And if we continue the metaphor, the great Niels Bohr himself was its permanent mayor. Lev Landau came to him.

It became a common joke that the quantum revolution in the natural sciences of the twentieth century took place in kindergartens in England, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Switzerland ... Einstein was 26 years old when, along with the theory of relativity, he developed a quantum theory of light, Niels Bohr - 28, when he built model of the atom, Werner Heisenberg - 24 at the time of his creation of a version of quantum mechanics ... Therefore, no one was struck by the young age of a doctor from Leningrad. Meanwhile, Landau was already known as the author of a good dozen independent work on quantum problems. He wrote the first of them at the age of 18 - when he studied at the Leningrad University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.

This stage in the development of the science of the microworld was called the "age of storm and stress." At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was a struggle against classical ideas in natural science. Lev Landau was one of those who was simply created for scientific storms and onslaught.

Lev Davidovich Landau was born on January 22, 1908 in Baku in the family of an oil engineer. His mathematical abilities manifested themselves very early: at the age of 12 he learned to differentiate, at 13 - to integrate, and in 1922 he entered the university, where he studied simultaneously at two faculties - physics and mathematics and chemistry. Then Landau transferred to Leningrad University; after graduating from it, in 1927 he entered the graduate school of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. In October 1929, by decision of the People's Commissariat for Education, Landau was sent for an internship abroad. He visited Germany, Denmark, England.

During a six-month internship, the young physicist spent a total of 110 days with Niels Bohr. How these days passed was captured in a caricature drawing by another Russian scientist - 26-year-old Georgy Gamov, then already famous for his theory of alpha decay of nuclei. Landau is depicted tied to a chair with a gag in his mouth, and Niels Bohr stands over him with a pointing finger and instructively says: “Wait, wait, Landau, let me at least say a word!”. “Such a discussion goes on all the time,” Gamow explained his caricature, adding that in fact it was the most venerable Niels Bohr who did not say a word to anyone.

And yet the true truth was the reckless intransigence of the young and the long-suffering of the teacher. Bora's wife Margaret said: “Niels appreciated and fell in love with Landau from the first day. And I understood his temper... You know, he was unbearable, he wouldn't let Nils talk, he made fun of his elders, he looked like a disheveled boy... It's said about such people: an unbearable child... But how talented he was and how truthful! I also fell in love with him and knew how much he loves Nils ... "

Landau liked to repeat jokingly that he was born several years late. In the 1920s new physics developed so rapidly, as if indeed those born a little earlier than him managed to conquer all the “eight-thousanders in the mountain range of the quantum Himalayas”. He laughingly said to his friend Yuri Rumer, who also trained in Europe: “Like everyone beautiful girls already sorted out, so all the good tasks have already been solved.

By that time, two equivalent versions of quantum mechanics - Heisenberg and Schrödinger - had been basically completed, three key principles were discovered and formulated new science: principles of complementarity, prohibition and uncertainty relation. However, all subsequent creative life Lev Landau demonstrated how much of the unknown was left to him by the micro- and macrocosm.
The Landau school was born in the mid-1930s; its founder was by no means always older than his students. That is why in this school with very strict discipline, all the students were on "you" among themselves, and many - with the teacher. Among them is his closest associate, the future academician Yevgeny Mikhailovich Lifshits. He became Landau's co-author on the famous "Course of Theoretical Physics".

For scientists all over the world, volume after volume, this course turned into a kind of holy scripture, as the most talented Vladimir Naumovich Gribov once seriously put it. The unique advantage of the course was its encyclopedic nature. Independently studying successively published volumes, both young and venerable theoreticians began to feel themselves experts in the modern physical picture of the micro- and macroworld. “After Enrico Fermi, I am the last universalist in physics,” Landau said more than once, and this was recognized by everyone.

Landau's school was probably the most democratic community in Russian science in the 1930s and 1960s, which anyone could join - from a doctor of science to a schoolboy, from a professor to a laboratory assistant. The only thing that was required of the applicant was to successfully pass the so-called Landau theoretical minimum to the teacher himself (or his trusted collaborator). But everyone knew that this “only one” was a severe test of abilities, will, diligence and devotion to science. The theoretical minimum consisted of nine exams - two in mathematics and seven in physics. It covered everything you need to know before starting to work independently in theoretical physics; passed the theoretical minimum no more than three times. Landau did not allow anyone the fourth attempt. Here he was strict and implacable. He could tell a torn applicant: “Physics will not work out of you. We must call a spade a spade. It would be worse if I misled you."
Yevgeny Lifshits said that starting from 1934, Landau himself introduced a list of names of those who passed the test. And by January 1962, this “grandmaster” list included only 43 names, but 10 of them belonged to academicians and 26 to doctors of science.

Theorminimum - theorkurs - theorseminar ... All over the world three hypostases were known pedagogical activity Landau, thanks to whom he became a teacher for many capital letter, despite the uncompromisingness, harshness, directness and other "anti-pedagogical" features of his difficult character.

The Landau school was notable for its severity even in outward manifestations. It was impossible to be late for the beginning of the theoretical seminar at 11 o'clock in the morning, no matter what super-important events prevented the speaker appointed for this Thursday from reaching the institute on Vorobyovy Gory in time. If someone at 10 hours 59 minutes said: “Dow, it’s time to start!”, Landau answered: “No, Migdal has another minute so as not to be late ...”. And the impetuous Arkady Beinusovich Migdal (1911-1991) really ran through the open door. This last minute was called "Migdal". “And you will never be king! - Lev Davidovich inspired a promising doctor of sciences, who was at odds with the clock. Accuracy is the courtesy of kings, and you are not polite. Migdal never became king, but became an academic. At the seminars, Landau mercilessly denied empty theorizing, calling it pathology. And instantly lit up, hearing a fruitful idea.

In 1958, physicists, solemnly celebrating Landau's 50th birthday, could not arrange an exhibition of his experimental setups or devices created by him at the Institute for Physical Problems. On the other hand, academicians and students, who came up with and pre-ordered marble tablets - Landau's Ten Commandments - from the workshops of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, were ordered in advance. In imitation of the ten biblical commandments, the ten main ones were engraved on two marble tablets. physical formulas Landau, about whom his student, academician Yuri Moiseevich Kagan (born in 1928), said: "It was the most common of the most important things that Dau discovered."

And four years after the anniversary, Landau's life hung by a thread...

There was bad weather. The strongest ice. The girl ran across the road. A car that braked sharply skidded sharply. The impact of an oncoming truck came from the side. And all his strength was tested by the passenger sitting at the door. An ambulance took Landau to the hospital. The famous Czech neurosurgeon Zdeněk Kunz, who urgently flew to Moscow, delivered a verdict: "The patient's life is incompatible with the injuries received."

And he survived!

This miracle was created together with the doctors of physics. The luminaries of medicine, such as the Canadian neurosurgeon Penfield, and the luminaries of physics, among them Niels Bohr himself, joined forces to save Landau. At their request, medicines were flown to Moscow from America, England, Belgium, Canada, France, and Czechoslovakia. The pilots of international airlines have joined the relay race for the transfer of urgently needed drugs to Russia.

Academicians Nikolai Nikolayevich Semyonov and Vladimir Aleksandrovich Engelhardt already on that very ill-fated Sunday, January 7, synthesized a substance against cerebral edema. And although they were ahead of them - a ready-made medicine was delivered from England, for which the departure of the flight to Russia was delayed for an hour - but what an active breakthrough was the two 70-year-old colleagues of the victim!

On that spring day, when everyone had the feeling of having won the fight against death, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa said: “... this is a noble film that should be called“ If the guys of the whole world! .. ”- and immediately corrected himself, clarifying: - It would be better "Scientific guys of the whole world!". And he proposed to give such a name to the first newspaper essay about the miracle of the resurrection of Landau.
Niels Bohr immediately decided to psychologically support Landau. A letter signed by 77-year-old Bohr left Copenhagen with the proposal “... The Nobel Prize in Physics for 1962 should be awarded to Lev Davidovich Landau for the truly decisive influence that his original ideas and outstanding work had on atomic physics our time".
The prize, contrary to tradition, was presented by the Swedes to Landau not in Stockholm, but in Moscow, at the hospital of the Academy of Sciences. And he could neither prepare nor read the obligatory Nobel lecture for the laureate. To Landau's greatest regret, the initiator of the award, Niels Bohr, was not present at the award ceremony - he passed away in the late autumn of 1962, without having time to make sure that his last good will towards the great student was realized.

And Lev Davidovich Landau lived for another six years and celebrated his 60th birthday among his students. This was his last anniversary date: Landau died in 1968.

Landau died a few days after the operation to eliminate intestinal obstruction. Diagnosis - thrombosis of mesenteric vessels. Death occurred as a result of blockage of the artery by a detached thrombus. Landau's wife, in her memoirs, expressed doubts about the competence of some of the doctors who treated Landau, especially doctors from special clinics for the treatment of the USSR leadership.

In the history of science, he will remain one of the legendary figures of the 20th century, a century that deserved the tragic honor of being called atomic. According to Landau's direct testimony, he did not feel a shadow of enthusiasm, participating in the undeniably heroic epic of the creation of the Soviet nuclear power industry. He was driven only by civic duty and incorruptible scientific honesty. In the early 1950s, he said: “... every effort must be made so as not to enter the thick of atomic affairs ... smart person is self-removal from the tasks that the state sets for itself, especially the Soviet state, which is built on oppression.

Scientific legacy of Landau

Landau's scientific heritage is so great and varied that it is even hard to imagine how one person could manage to do this in just some 40 years. He developed the theory of diamagnetism of free electrons - Landau's diamagnetism (1930), together with Evgeny Lifshitz created the theory of the domain structure of ferromagnets and obtained the equation of motion magnetic moment- the Landau-Lifshitz equation (1935), introduced the concept of antiferromagnetism as a special phase of a magnet (1936), derived the kinetic equation for plasma in the case of Coulomb interaction and established the form of the collision integral for charged particles (1936), created the theory of second-order phase transitions (1935- 1937), first obtained the relation between the level density in the nucleus and the excitation energy (1937), which makes it possible to consider Landau (along with Hans Bethe and Victor Weiskopf) one of the creators of the statistical theory of the nucleus (1937), created the theory of superfluidity of helium II, thus setting the beginning of the creation of the physics of quantum liquids (1940-1941), together with Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg built the phenomenological theory of superconductivity (1950), developed the theory of the Fermi liquid (1956), simultaneously with Abdus Salam, Tzundao Li and Zhenning Yang and independently proposed the conservation law combined parity and advanced the theory of the two-component neutrino (1957). For pioneering research in the theory of condensed matter, in particular the theory of liquid helium, Landau was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962.

Landau's great merit is the creation of a national school of theoretical physicists, which included such scientists as, for example, I. Ya. Pomeranchuk, I. M. Lifshits, E. M. Lifshits, A. A. Abrikosov, A. B. Migdal , L. P. Pitaevsky, I. M. Khalatnikov. The scientific seminar led by Landau, which has already become a legend, entered the history of theoretical physics.

Landau is the creator of the classical course in theoretical physics (together with Evgeny Lifshitz). "Mechanics", "Field Theory", "Quantum Mechanics", "Statistical Physics", "Mechanics of Continuous Media", "Electrodynamics of Continuous Media", and all together - the multi-volume "Course of Theoretical Physics", which has been translated into many languages ​​and to this day day continues to enjoy the well-deserved love of physics students.

Knights of the Spherical Puff

One of the most outstanding Soviet physicists, Nobel Laureate In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Academician Lev Davidovich Landau (1908-1968) led a group of theorists who carried out fantastically complex calculations of nuclear and thermonuclear chain reactions in the hydrogen bomb being designed. It is known that the main theorist in the project of the Soviet atomic bomb was Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, later Igor Evgenievich Tamm, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg were connected to the hydrogen bomb project (here I name only those scientists whose participation was decisive, without detracting from the huge contribution of dozens of other outstanding scientists and designers).

Much less is known about the participation of Landau and his group, which included Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz, Naum Natanovich Meiman, and other collaborators. Meanwhile, recently in the leading American popular science magazine Scientific American (1997, # 2), in an article by Gennady Gorelik, it was stated that the Landau group managed to do something that turned out to be beyond the strength of the Americans. Our scientists gave a complete calculation of the basic model of a hydrogen bomb, the so-called spherical puff, in which layers with nuclear and thermonuclear explosives alternated - the explosion of the first shell created a temperature of millions of degrees, necessary to ignite the second. The Americans were unable to calculate such a model and postponed the calculations until the advent of powerful computers. Ours is all calculated manually. And calculated correctly. In 1953, the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb was detonated. Its main creators, including Landau, became Heroes of Socialist Labor. Many others were awarded Stalin Prizes (including Landau's student and closest friend Yevgeny Lifshitz).

Naturally, all participants in the projects for the manufacture of atomic and hydrogen bombs were under the tight control of the special services. Especially leading scientists. It couldn't be otherwise. Now it’s even somehow inconvenient to remind widely known history about how the Americans literally blew their atomic bomb. This refers to the German émigré, physicist Klaus Fuchs, who worked for Soviet intelligence and handed over to our drawings of the bomb, which dramatically accelerated the work on its manufacture. It is much less known that the Soviet spy Margarita Konenkova (wife of the famous sculptor) worked for our intelligence ... in bed with Albert Einstein, being the lover of a brilliant physicist for a number of years. Since Einstein did not actually participate in the American atomic project, she could not report anything of real value. But, again, it is impossible not to admit that the Soviet state security, in principle, acted quite correctly, surrounding potential sources of important information with their secret agents.
Documentary "Landau's Ten Commandments"

Cherenkov effect

In 1958, the Nobel Prize was awarded to three Soviet scientists - Cherenkov P.A., Frank I.M. and Tamm I.E. "for his discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect." Sometimes in the literature this effect is called the "Cherenkov-Vavilov effect" ("Polytechnic Dictionary", Moscow, 1980).

It consists in the following: it is “radiation of light (other than luminescent), arising from the movement of charged particles in a substance, when their speed exceeds the phase velocity of light in this medium. It is used in counters of charged particles (Cherenkov counters)." In this case, a legitimate question arises: is it not strange that one author and two interpreters of this discovery receive a prize for the discovery of the effect? The answer to this question is contained in the book by Kora Landau-Drobantseva "Academician Landau".

“So I.E. Tamm, through Landau’s “fault”, received the Nobel Prize at the expense of Cherenkov: Dau received a request from the Nobel Committee regarding the “Cherenkov Effect” ...

A little reference - Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1970, member of the Bureau of the Department of Nuclear Physics, back in 1934 showed that when a fast charged particle moves in a completely pure liquid or solid dielectric, a special glow arises, fundamentally different from both the fluorescent glow, and from bremsstrahlung of the X-ray continuous spectrum type. In the 1970s P.A. Cherenkov worked at the Physical Institute. P.I.Lebedev Academy of Sciences of the USSR (FIAN).

“Dau explained to me this way: “It is unfair to give such a noble prize, which should be awarded to the outstanding minds of the planet, to one cudgel Cherenkov, who has not done anything serious in science. He worked in the laboratory of Frank-Kamenetsky in Leningrad. His boss is a legitimate co-author. Their Institute was advised by Muscovite I.E. Tamm. It just needs to be added to the two legitimate candidates (highlighted by me - V.B.).

We add that, according to the testimony of students who listened to Landau's lectures at that time, when asked to him: who is the number one physicist, he answered: "Tamm is the second."

“You see, Korusha, Igor Evgenievich Tamm is a very good person. Everyone loves him, he does a lot of useful things for technology, but, to my great regret, all his works in science exist until I read them. If I were not there, his mistakes would not have been discovered. He always agrees with me, but gets very upset. I brought him too much grief in our short life. He is simply wonderful man. Co-authorship in the Nobel Prize will simply make him happy.”

In introducing the Nobel laureates, Manne Sigban, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, recalled that although Cherenkov "established the general properties of the newly discovered radiation, there was no mathematical description of this phenomenon." The work of Tamm and Frank, he went on to say, provided "an explanation that, in addition to simplicity and clarity, also satisfied rigorous mathematical requirements."

But as early as 1905, Sommerfeld, in fact, even before Cherenkov's discovery of this phenomenon, gave his theoretical prediction. He wrote about the appearance of radiation when an electron moves in a vacuum with superluminal speed. But due to the established opinion that the speed of light in a vacuum cannot be exceeded by any material particle, this work of Sommerfeld was recognized as erroneous, although the situation when an electron moves faster speed light in the medium, as shown by Chereshkov, is quite possible.

Igor Evgenievich Tamm, apparently, was not satisfied with receiving the Nobel Prize for the Cherenkov effect: “as Igor Evgenievich himself admitted, it would be much more pleasant for him to receive an award for another scientific result - the exchange theory of nuclear forces” (“One Hundred Great Scientists”). Apparently, the courage for such a recognition took its origins from his father, who “during the Jewish pogrom in Elizavetgrad ... alone went to the crowd of Black Hundreds with a cane and dispersed it” (“One Hundred Great Scientists”).

“Subsequently, during Tamm’s lifetime, at one of the general meetings of the Academy of Sciences, one academician publicly accused him of unfairly appropriating someone else’s piece of the Nobel Prize.” (Landau-Drobantsev bark).

The passages quoted above suggest a number of reflections:

If Landau and Cherenkov were to be swapped in this situation, saying about the "club of Landau", this would be perceived as a manifestation of extreme anti-Semitism, here one can speak of Landau as an extreme Russophobe.

Academician Landau behaves like a scientific representative of God on earth, deciding who to reward for personal devotion to himself, who to punish.

Answering his wife’s question: “Would you agree to accept part of this prize, like Tamm?”, the academician said: “... firstly, all my real works have no co-authors, and secondly, many of my works have long deserved the Nobel Prize, thirdly, if I publish my works with co-authors, then this co-authorship is more necessary for my co-authors ... ”.

Saying such words, the academician, as they now say, was somewhat cunning, which will be seen from what follows.

And another interesting episode described by Landau's wife: “Dau, why did you expel Vovka Levich from your students? Have you quarreled with him forever? - Yes, I "anathematized" him. You see, I arranged him for Frumkin, whom I considered an honest scientist, in the past he had good work. Vovka did a decent job on his own, I know. And in the press this work appeared with the signatures of Frumkin and Levich, and Frumkin promoted Levich to a member of the correspondent. There has been some bargaining. I also stopped saying hello to Frumkin…”.

If we try to combine the episode with the forced co-authorship of the Cherenkov Effect with the last episode of Frumkin-Levich, then the question arises whether Academician Landau was offended by Vovka because he received the title of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from the hands of Frumkin, and not from Landau "himself"? Moreover, as can be seen from the comparison and from the texts cited here, Landau could not be bothered by the problems of false co-authorship.

Landau said: "... When I die, then the Lenin Committee will definitely award the Lenin Prize posthumously ...".

“Dau was awarded the Lenin Prize when he was not yet dead, but lay dying. But not for scientific discoveries. He was given Zhenya as a companion and was awarded the Lenin Prize for a course of books on theoretical physics, although this work was not completed at that time, two volumes were missing ... ".

Here, however, not all is well either. So, if we recall that in the study of Marxism it was said about three sources of it, so in this case three sources of theoretical physics were widely used: the first - Whittaker "Analytical Dynamics", published in Russian in 1937, the second - "Course of Theoretical Physics " A. Sommerfeld, the third - "Atomic spectra and the structure of the atom" by the same author.

Landau and Vlasov

Surname Vlasov A.A. (1908-1975), Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, author of the dispersion equation on plasma theory, is difficult to find in the general educational literature, now a mention of this scientist has appeared in the new encyclopedia, somewhere in four or five lines.

In the article by M. Kovrov “Landau and others” (“Tomorrow” No. 17, 2000), the author writes: “In the reputable scientific journal Plasma Physics, an article was published by leading experts in this field A.F. Aleksandrov and A.A. Rukhadze "On the history of the foundational work on the kinetic theory of plasma". This story is like this.

In the 1930s, Landau derived the plasma kinetic equation, which was to be called the Landau equation in the future. At the same time, Vlasov pointed out its incorrectness: it was derived under the assumption of a gaseous approximation, that is, that the particles are in free flight most of the time and only occasionally collide, but “a system of charged particles is essentially not a gas, but a kind of system pulled together by distant forces »; the interaction of a particle with all plasma particles by means of the electromagnetic fields created by them is the main interaction, while the pair interactions considered by Landau should be taken into account only as small corrections.

I quote the mentioned article: "Vlasov first introduced ... the concept of the dispersion equation and found its solution", "obtained with the help of this equation, including primarily by Vlasov himself, the results formed the basis of the modern kinetic theory of plasma", Vlasov's merits "are recognized by the whole world scientific community, which approved in scientific literature the name of the kinetic equation with a self-consistent field as the Vlasov equation. Every year, hundreds and hundreds of papers on plasma theory are published in the world scientific press, and in every second, at least, the name of Vlasov is pronounced.

“Only narrow specialists with a good memory remember the existence of the erroneous Landau equation.

However, Alexandrov and Rukhadze write, even now “the appearance in 1949 (below in the text M. Kovrov notes that this article actually refers to 1946 - V.B.) is puzzling, a work that sharply criticized Vlasov, moreover, essentially unreasonable."

The bewilderment is caused by the fact that in this work (authors V.L. Ginzburg, L.D. Landau, M.A. Leontovich, V.A. Fok) nothing is said about the fundamental monograph by N.N. Bogolyubov in 1946, which by that time had received universal recognition and was often cited in the literature, where the Vlasov equation and its justification already appeared in the form in which it is known now.

“There are no excerpts from Ginzburg et al. in the article by Alexandrov and Rukhadze, but they are curious: “the application of the self-consistent field method” leads to conclusions that contradict the simple and indisputable consequences of classical statistics”, a little lower - “the application of the self-consistent field method leads (as we are now show) to results whose physical irregularity is already visible in itself”; “we leave aside here the mathematical errors of A.A. Vlasov, made by him in solving equations and leading him to the conclusion about the existence of a “dispersion equation” (the same one that today is the basis modern theory plasma). After all, if they brought these texts, it turns out that Landau and Ginzburg do not understand the simple and indisputable consequences of classical physics, not to mention mathematics.

M. Kovrov says that Alexandrov and Rukhadze.! “It was proposed to call the Vlasov equation the Vlasov-Landau equation. On the grounds that Vlasov himself believed that the pair interactions considered by Landau, albeit as small corrections, should be taken into account, completely forgetting about the persecution organized by Landau. “And only an accidental car accident changed the situation: after Landau’s death in 1968, the general public saw in the lists of laureates of the Lenin Prize in 1970 the unknown name of Vlasov ...”.

The author also quotes from Landau: “Consideration of the indicated works of Vlasov led us to the conviction of their complete inconsistency and the absence of any results in them! having scientific value ... no "dispersion equation exists."

M. Kovrov writes: “In 1946, two of the authors of the devastating work directed against Vlasov were elected academicians, the third received the Stalin Prize. Ginzburg's services will not be forgotten: later he will also become an academician and people's deputy of the USSR from the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Here again the question arises: if you were in the place of Vlasov, say, Abramovich, and in the place of Ginzburg, Landau, Leontovich, Fock, say, Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov, Alekseev, then how would such persecution be perceived by the “progressive public”? The answer is simple - as a manifestation of extreme anti-Semitism and "inciting ethnic hatred."

M. Kovrov concludes: "... In 1946, an attempt was made to completely seize key positions in science by Jews, which led to its degradation and the almost complete destruction of the scientific environment ...".

However, by the 60s and 70s, the situation improved somewhat and it turned out that literate people sat on the committee for awarding the Lenin Prizes: Landau received the prize not for scientific achievements, but for the creation of a series of textbooks, and Vlasov for achievements in science!

But, as M. Kovrov notes, "The Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences bears the name of Landau, not Vlasov." And that, as Jewish scientists like to say, is a medical fact!

With a close acquaintance with the attitude of Academician Landau to other people's work, an interesting detail turns out - he was very jealous and negative about other people's work. scientific achievements. So in 1957, for example, speaking at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, Landau stated that Dirac had lost his understanding of theoretical physics, and his critical and ironic attitude to the generally accepted theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus, developed by D.D. Ivanenko, was also widely known among theoretical physicists .

Note that Paul Dirac formulated the laws of quantum statistics, developed the relativistic theory of electron motion, on the basis of which the existence of the positron was predicted. He won the 1933 Nobel Prize for the discovery of new productive forms atomic theory.

LANDAU AND THE ATOMIC BOMB

Kora Landau describes her husband's participation in the creation of the atomic bomb as follows: “It was the time when ... Kurchatov headed these works. He possessed a powerful organizing talent. The first thing he did was to make a list of the physicists he needed. The first in this list was L.D. Landau. In those years, only Landau alone could make a theoretical calculation for an atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. And he did it with great responsibility and with a clear conscience. He said, "America alone must not be allowed to possess the weapons of the devil!" And yet Dow was Dow! He set a condition for Kurchatov, who was powerful in those days: “I will calculate the bomb, I will do everything, but I will come to your meetings in extremely necessary cases. All my materials on the calculation will be brought to you by Dr. Ya.B. Zel'dovich, and Zel'dovich will also sign my calculations. This is technology, and my calling is science.”

As a result, Landau received one star of the Hero of Socialist Labor, and Zeldovich and Sakharov received three each.

And further: " Military equipment A.D. Sakharov was engaged, and he got the first hydrogen bomb for the death of mankind! A paradox arose - the author of the hydrogen bomb was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace! How can humanity reconcile hydrogen bomb and peace?

Yes, A.D. Sakharov is very good, honest, kind, talented. All this is so! But why did the talented physicist trade science for politics? When he created the hydrogen bomb, no one interfered in his affairs! Already in the second half of the seventies, I spoke with a talented physicist, academician, student of Landau: "Tell me: if Sakharov is one of the most talented theoretical physicists, why did he never visit Landau?" They answered me: “Sakharov is a student of I.E. Tamm. He, like Tamm, was engaged in technical calculations ... And Sakharov and Landau have nothing to talk about, he is a physicist-technician, mainly worked for military equipment.

What happened to Sakharov when he made this ill-fated bomb? His kind, subtle soul broke down, there was a psychological breakdown. A kind, honest person turned out to be an evil devilish toy. There is something to climb the wall. And his wife, the mother of his children, also died…”

Secret materials of the KGB

Today, many documents have been declassified. Soviet period. Here is what Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. N. Yakovlev writes:

The declassified KGB case against the famous scientist gives an idea of ​​the scale and methods of political investigation and pressure on a person in a very recent era - what was reported, what was imputed, what was imprisoned

sources
http://www.epwr.ru/quotauthor/txt_487.php,
http://ru.science.wikia.com/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%B2_%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%83
http://www.peoples.ru/science/physics/landau/history2.html
http://landafshits.narod.ru/Dau_KGB_57.htm

And I will remind you about a few more prominent figures: and also remember about The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

Landau Lev Davydovich (1908-1968), theoretical physicist, founder of the scientific school.

Born on January 22, 1908 in Baku in the family of the chief engineer of one of the oil fields Davyd Landau and doctor Lyubov Garkavi.

Already at the age of four and a half, the boy could read, write and count. In 1916 he entered the gymnasium, where he soon became the first student. At the age of 14, Landau entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Baku University. Here are extraordinary mathematical ability young student.

In 1924 Landau continued his education in Leningrad. His first scientific work was devoted to questions of quantum mechanics. Two years later, in the direction of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology, Landau went abroad. At the University of Berlin, he met A. Einstein. A little later, he visited one of the creators of quantum mechanics, V. Heisenberg. Then there was Zurich (Switzerland) and, finally, the Copenhagen Institute for Theoretical Physics, where N. Bohr was already waiting for him. Together with him, Landau worked at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge (England). Upon completion of the internship, he was appointed head of the theoretical department of the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology.

Soon Kharkov became the center of theoretical physics in the USSR. In 1937, the scientist began working at the Moscow Institute of Physical Problems with P. L. Kapitsa.

In 1941, together with the institute, he moved to Kazan. In 1943-1947 worked at the Department of Low Temperatures of Moscow State University, since 1947 - at the Department of Physics of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

From 1940 to 1950, Landau created the theory of electric plasma oscillations, the theory of plasma superconductivity.

In 1946 he became an academician. In 1954, L. D. Landau, A. A. Abrikosov and I. M. Khalatnikov published the fundamental work "Fundamentals of Quantum Electrodynamics".

His bright talent and enormous capacity for work put Landau in the forefront of outstanding physicists of the 20th century. The name of the scientist is associated with almost all branches of physics: nuclear physics, elementary particle physics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, kinetic theory of gases.

For the development of the theory of superfluidity and superconductivity in 1962, Landau was awarded the Nobel Prize. The physics textbooks used by students not only in our country, but throughout the world, are well known to several generations.

In January 1962, Landau got into a car accident. He was treated for a long time, yearned for work and friends, hatched creative plans.

The scientist died on April 1, 1968 in Moscow. His last words were: “I had a good life. I've always succeeded."

Laureate of the Max Planck Medal (1960), Lenin (1962) and three Stalin (State) Prizes (1946, 1949, 1953), Hero of Socialist Labor (1954).

Foreign member of the Royal Society of London (1960), the US National Academy of Sciences (1960), the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences (1951), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (1956), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1960), the French Physical Society and the London Physical Society.

Landau created a numerous school of theoretical physicists. Among his students are E. M. Lifshits, A. A. Abrikosov, L. P. Gorkov, I. E. Dzyaloshinskii, I. M. Lifshits, I. Ya. Pomeranchuk, I. M. Khalatnikov, A. F. Andreev, A. I. Akhiezer, V. B. Berestetsky, S. S. Gershtein, B. L. Ioffe, Yu. M. Kagan, V. G. Levich, L. A. Maksimov, A. B. Migdal , L. P. Pitaevsky, R. Z. Sagdeev, Ya. A. Smorodinsky, K. A. Ter-Martirosyan, Laszlo Tissa, etc.

The Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences is named after Landau.

Biography

Born in the family of oil engineer David Lvovich Landau and his wife Lyubov Veniaminovna in Baku on January 22, 1908. Since 1916, he studied at the Baku Jewish Gymnasium, where his mother, Lyubov Veniaminovna Landau (nee Garkavi), was a natural science teacher. ". At the age of fourteen he entered Baku University, where he studied simultaneously at two faculties: physics and mathematics and chemistry. For special successes he was transferred to Leningrad University. After graduating in 1927 from the Physics Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Leningrad University, Landau became a graduate student, and later an employee of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology, in 1926-1927 he published the first works on theoretical physics.

In 1929 he was on a scientific mission to continue his education in Germany, in Denmark with Niels Bohr, in England and Switzerland. There he worked with leading theoretical physicists, including Niels Bohr, whom he considered his only teacher ever since.

In 1932 he headed the theoretical department of the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology in Kharkov. Since 1937 at the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Academician Landau is considered a legendary figure in the history of Russian and world science. Quantum mechanics, solid state physics, magnetism, low temperature physics, cosmic ray physics, hydrodynamics, quantum field theory, atomic nucleus physics and elementary particle physics, plasma physics - this is not a complete list of areas that attracted Landau's attention at different times. It was said about him that in "the huge building of physics of the 20th century there were no locked doors for him."

From 1932 to 1937 he worked at the UFTI; after his dismissal from Kharkov University and the strike of physicists that followed, Landau in February 1937 accepted the invitation of Peter Kapitsa to take the position of head of the theoretical department of the newly built Institute for Physical Problems (IFP) and moved to Moscow. After Landau's departure, the authorities of the regional NKVD began to destroy the UPTI, foreign specialists A. Weisberg, F. Houtermans were arrested, in August-September 1937 the physicists L. V. Rozenkevich (Landau's co-author), L. V. Shubnikov, V. S. Gorsky (the so-called "UFTI case").

In April 1938, Landau in Moscow edits a leaflet written by M. A. Korets calling for the overthrow of the Stalinist regime, in which Stalin is called a fascist dictator. The text of the leaflet was handed over to the anti-Stalinist group of IFLI students for distribution by mail before the May Day holidays. This intention was revealed by the state security organs of the USSR, and Landau, Korets and Yu. B. Rumer were arrested on the morning of April 28 for anti-Soviet agitation. On May 3, 1938, Landau was excluded from the list of employees of the IFP. Landau spent a year in prison and was released thanks to a letter in defense of Niels Bohr and the intervention of Kapitsa, who took Landau "on bail". Kapitsa wrote: “I ask you to release the arrested professor of physics Lev Davidovich Landau from custody under my personal guarantee. I vouch for the NKVD that Landau will not conduct any counter-revolutionary activities in my institute, and I will take all measures in my power to ensure that he does not conduct any counter-revolutionary work outside the institute. In the event that I notice on the part of Landau any statements aimed at harming Soviet power, then I will immediately inform the NKVD about this. Two days later, Landau was reinstated on the IFP staff list. After his release and until his death, Landau remained a member of the Institute for Physical Problems.

In 1955, he signed the "Letter of Three Hundred" (contained an assessment of the state of biology in the USSR by the mid-1950s and criticism of Lysenko and "Lysenkoism").

Death

January 7, 1962, on the way from Moscow to Dubna on the Dmitrovsky highway, Landau got into a car accident. As a result of numerous fractures, hemorrhages and head injuries, he was in a coma for 59 days. Physicists from all over the world took part in saving Landau's life. A round-the-clock duty was organized in the hospital. The missing medicines were delivered by planes from Europe and the USA. As a result of these measures, Landau's life was saved, despite very serious injuries.

After the accident, Landau practically ceased to engage in scientific activities. However, according to his wife and son, Landau gradually returned to his normal state and in 1968 was close to resuming his studies in physics.

Landau died a few days after the operation to eliminate intestinal obstruction. Diagnosis - thrombosis of mesenteric vessels. Death occurred as a result of blockage of the artery by a detached thrombus. Landau's wife, in her memoirs, expressed doubts about the competence of some of the doctors who treated Landau, especially doctors from special clinics for the treatment of the USSR leadership.

Personal life and the theory of happiness

As a child, fascinated by science, Landau made a vow to himself never "to smoke, drink or marry." Also, he believed that marriage is a cooperative that has nothing to do with love. However, he met a graduate of the Faculty of Chemistry, Concordia (Kora) Drobantseva, who divorced her first husband. She swore that she would not be jealous of other women, and from 1934 they lived together in an actual marriage. Landau believed that lies and jealousy destroy marriage most of all, and therefore they entered into a “non-aggression pact in married life” (as planned by Dau), which gave relative freedom to both spouses in novels on the side. The official marriage was concluded between them on July 5, 1946, a few days before the birth of their son Igor. Igor Lvovich Landau graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, an experimental physicist in the field of low temperature physics (died on May 14, 2011, was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery).

Landau's only non-physical theory was the theory of happiness. He believed that every person should and even must be happy. For this he brought a simple formula, which contained three parameters: work, love and communication with people.

That's what Landau said

In addition to science, Landau is known as a joker. His contribution to scientific humor is quite large. Possessing a subtle, sharp mind and excellent eloquence, Landau encouraged humor in every possible way in his colleagues. He gave rise to the term Landau said so, and also became the hero of various humorous stories. Characteristically, jokes are not necessarily related to physics and mathematics.

Landau had her own classification of women. According to Landau, girls are divided into beautiful, pretty and interesting.

Brief chronology of life and work

• 1916-1920 - studying at the gymnasium
• 1920-1922 - studies at the Baku Economic College.
• 1922-1924 - study in Azerbaijan state university.
• 1924 - transfer to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Leningrad State University.
• 1926 - admission to the supernumerary graduate school of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. Participation in the V Congress of Russian Physicists in Moscow (December 15-20). Publication of the first scientific work Landau "On the theory of spectra of diatomic molecules".
• 1927 - graduated from the university (January 20) and entered the graduate school of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. In the work "The problem of braking by radiation" for the description of the state of systems for the first time he introduces a new concept into quantum mechanics - the density matrix.
• 1929 - year and a half scientific trip to continue education in Berlin, Göttingen, Leipzig, Copenhagen, Cambridge, Zurich. Publication of a work on diamagnetism, which put him on a par with the world's leading physicists.
• March 1931 - return home and work in Leningrad.
• August 1932 - transfer to Kharkov as head of the theoretical department of the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology (UFTI).
• 1932-1936 - appointment as head of the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Kharkov Mechanical Engineering Institute (now the National Technical University"Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute"). Reading a course of lectures at the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics.
• 1934 - L. D. Landau was awarded the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences without defending a dissertation. Conference on Theoretical Physics in Kharkov. Trip to Bohr's seminar in Copenhagen (May 1-22). Creation of a theoretical minimum - a special program for training young physicists.
• 1935 - reading a course in physics at Kharkov State University, head of the department of general physics of Kharkov State University. Assignment of the title of professor.
• 1936-1937 - creation of the theory of phase transitions of the second kind and the theory of the intermediate state of superconductors.
• 1937 - transfer to work at the Institute of Physical Problems in Moscow (February 8). Appointment as head of the theoretical department of the IFP.
• April 27, 1938 - arrest.
• April 29, 1939 - release from prison thanks to the intervention of P. L. Kapitsa.
• 1940-1941 - creation of the theory of superfluidity of liquid helium.
• 1941 - creation of the theory of quantum fluid.
• 1943 - awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.
• 1945 - awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
• November 30, 1946 - elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Awarding the Stalin Prize.
• 1946 - Creation of the theory of electron plasma oscillations ("Landau damping").
• 1948 - publication of the "Course of lectures on general physics".
• 1949 - Awarded the Stalin Prize, awarded the Order of Lenin.
• 1950 - construction of the theory of superconductivity (together with V. L. Ginzburg).
• 1951 - Elected a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences.
• 1953 - awarding the Stalin Prize.
• 1954 - Awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Publication (together with A. A. Abrikosov, I. M. Khalatnikov) fundamental labor"Fundamentals of Electrodynamics".
• 1955 - publication of "Lectures on the theory of the atomic nucleus" (together with Ya. A. Smorodinsky).
• 1956 - elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands.
• 1957 - Creation of the Fermi liquid theory.
• 1959 - L. D. Landau proposes the principle of combined parity.
• 1960 - elected a member of the British Physical Society, the Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Sciences and Arts. Fritz London Award. Rewarding with the Max Planck medal (Germany).
• 1962 - car accident on the way to Dubna (January 7). Lenin Prize for a cycle of books on theoretical physics (together with E. M. Lifshitz) (April). Nobel Prize in Physics "for pioneering work in the theory of condensed matter, especially liquid helium." Awarded 1 November 1962. The Nobel Prize medal, diploma and check were presented to Landau on December 10 (for the first time in the history of the Nobel Prizes, the awarding took place in a hospital). Awarded the Order of Lenin.
• April 1, 1968 - died a few days after the operation.

Landau School. theoretical minimum

Landau created a numerous outstanding school of theoretical physicists. Landau's students were predominantly considered physicists who were able to pass Lev Davidovich (and later his students) 9 theoretical exams, the so-called Landau's theoretical minimum. Mathematics was taken first, and then physics exams:

• two math exams
• Mechanics
• field theory
• quantum mechanics
• statistical physics
• continuum mechanics
• electrodynamics of continuous media
• quantum electrodynamics

Landau demanded from his students knowledge of the foundations of all branches of theoretical physics.

After the war, it was best to use Landau and Lifshitz's theoretical physics course to prepare for exams, but the first students took exams on Landau's lectures or on handwritten notes.

The first of those who passed the Landau theoretical minimum were:

• Alexander Solomonovich Kompaneets (1933)
• Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz (1934)
• Alexander Ilyich Akhiezer (1935)
• Isaac Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk (1935)
• Leonid Moiseevich Pyatigorsky (passed the theoretical minimum fifth, but not listed in the list provided by Landau)
• Laszlo Tissa (1935)
• Veniamin Grigorievich Levich

Other students:

• Vladimir Borisovich Berestetsky
• Yakov Abramovich Smorodinsky
• Isaac Markovich Khalatnikov
• Alexey Alekseevich Abrikosov
• Arkady Beinusovich Migdal
• Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshits
• Karen Ter-Martirosyan
• Boris Lazarevich Ioffe
• Yuri Moiseevich Kagan

Lev Davidovich Landau was born on January 22, 1908 in Baku, his mother was a doctor, and his father was a petroleum engineer. Landau was a very gifted child with a penchant for exact sciences. Already at the age of 14, he entered Baku University, immediately into two faculties - chemistry and physics and mathematics. From chemistry, however, he soon abandoned.

Landau made his first important contribution to the development of physics at the age of 19, after graduating from the Physics Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Leningrad University.

He introduced the concept of density matrix as a method for a complete quantum mechanical description of systems that are part of a larger system. This concept has become fundamental in quantum statistics.

Landau spent the next few years on business trips to other countries, where he continued to study. He met Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and other physicists, both already famous and young, but outstanding.

In the 1930s, Landau headed the theoretical department of the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology in Kharkov, headed the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics of the Kharkov Mechanical Engineering Institute (now the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute). In the same period, he began to live with Concordia (Kora) Drobantseva, a graduate of the Faculty of Chemistry, with whom he was in an open relationship. The marriage between Landau and Drobantseva was registered only in 1946, before the birth of her son.

After Landau's death, Cora began work on a memoir dedicated to her life with her husband. After the book was published, it caused a scandal in the academic community - scientists were shocked and outraged by the details of the personal lives of the great minds of the USSR described in it. In particular, she described the numerous adventures of Landau himself.

“Korushka, horror! I screwed up the girl. Imagine a very pretty girl.

The style of the dress promised a lot and she pressed herself so culturally, reached into her bosom - and there was nothing. Not that little, but simply zero. Well, I ran away from her like a frog, without even saying goodbye. And now I'm pissed!"

She gave examples of his stories.

Despite his love for women, he did not consider it necessary to help them realize themselves in physics - for example, once he refused to take a student of his former student of physics to graduate school.

After his dismissal from Kharkov University in 1937, Landau, at the invitation of the physicist Peter, moved to Moscow, becoming head of the theoretical department of the Institute of Physical Problems.

In 1938, Landau was arrested for anti-Soviet views - he participated in writing a leaflet calling for the overthrow of the Stalinist regime.

In it, Stalin was called a fascist dictator, in "his rabid hatred of real socialism" equaled Hitler and Mussolini.

He was released from prison a year later thanks to a letter in his defense from Niels Bohr and a guarantee from Kapitsa. He wrote to Beria that "Landau will not conduct any counter-revolutionary activities at my institute, and I will take all measures in my power to ensure that he does not conduct any counter-revolutionary work outside the institute" and promised in the event of anti-Soviet statements from Landau report to the NKVD. Landau was rehabilitated only in 1990.

Landau's views, however, did not change.

“I am a free-thinking person, and they are miserable lackeys. First of all, I feel superior,

- he later declared in relation to other scientists.

“If it were not for the fifth point, that is, nationality, I would not be doing special work, but only physics, a science that I am now lagging behind. The special work that I am doing gives me some kind of strength in my hands ... I am reduced to the level of a “scientific slave”, and this determines everything, ”Landau lamented about the need to carry out government tasks.

From 1945 to 1953, Landau participated in the Soviet Atomic Project and was awarded three Stalin Prizes, the Order of Lenin and the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for this. From 1955 until the end of his life he taught at the department quantum theory and electrodynamics of the Faculty of Physics.

The idea of ​​the famous "Landau and Lifshitz Course in Theoretical Physics" came to Landau back in the 1920s, while studying at Leningrad University.

He worked on it together with the physicist Matvey Bronstein, who was shot in 1938. In 1935-1938, a manuscript devoted to mechanics, statistics, and electrodynamics was published, co-authored by Landau's graduate students Leonid Pyatigorsky and Evgeny Lifshits. “Landafshitz” was the Soviet name for the book and is still called by Russian physics students.

Lifshitz wrote about Landau: “He told how he was shocked by the incredible beauty general theory relativity... He also talked about the state of ecstasy, which led him to study the papers of Heisenberg and Schrödinger, which marked the birth of new quantum mechanics. He said that they gave him not only the enjoyment of true scientific beauty, but also a keen sense of the power of human genius, the greatest triumph of which is that a person is able to understand things that he can no longer imagine. And, of course, this is precisely the curvature of space-time and the uncertainty principle.

Also in 1935, the book “Problems in Theoretical Physics. Part I. Mechanics”, written in collaboration with Lifshitz and physicist Lev Rozenkevich. The subsequent parts of the problem book did not come out because of the execution of Rozenkevich.

Over the next nearly 30 years, seven out of ten volumes of the course were produced. After Landau was injured in a car accident, Lifshitz also collaborated with other physicists.

"It fell to his lot tragic fate- die twice

Lifshitz wrote about Landau in the afterword of the second volume of the course. “The first time it happened was six years ago, on January 7, 1962, when on the highway, on the road from Moscow to Dubna, a passenger car collided with an oncoming truck.”

The dump truck demolished the door of the Volga in which Landau was riding. After the impact, the unconscious physicist fell onto the road.

“Yes, Dow received a complex of multiple injuries, each of which could lead to lethal outcome: fracture of seven ribs that ruptured the lungs; multiple hemorrhages in soft tissues and, as it turned out much later, in the retroperitoneal space with sweating into the abdominal cavity; extensive fractures of the pelvic bones with separation of the wing of the pelvis, displacement of the pubic bones; retroperitoneal hematoma - Dow's concave abdomen turned into a huge black blister.

But the doctors in those days said that all these terrible injuries were just scratches compared to a head injury!

Cora wrote.

Not only doctors fought for the scientist's life. One of the foreign publishers of his works, having learned about the incident, flew to Moscow with the necessary medicines. The students got hold of an artificial respiration apparatus and oxygen cylinders. Landau was in a coma for almost two months, but still survived.

In the same year, Landau received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for pioneering research in the theory of condensed matter, especially liquid helium."

After the accident, Landau retired from physics. Over the following years, he relatively recovered his health, but he still had difficulty walking and suffered from stomach pains. In March 1968, Landau's condition worsened. The pains sharply increased, the stomach was swollen, on March 25 severe vomiting appeared. Landau was hospitalized with a diagnosis of intestinal obstruction.

He was operated on at night. The next day, Landau felt better than the doctors expected. But over the following days, his condition repeatedly worsened, then improved again.

Landau died on April 1, 1968 due to thrombosis of the mesenteric vessels. A few hours before his death, he said: “Nevertheless, I lived my life well. I have always succeeded!"

Thanks to Landau, an outstanding school of theoretical physicists was created, many of whom contributed to the development of physics hardly less than Landau himself. Several dozen physical theories bear his name.