Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties

Abstract

Foreword Chapter 1 Childhood and Youth. Road to Science. First Scientific Works Chapter 2 In the Leningrad University (1926 -- 1932) 2.1. Entering the University 2.2. The Jazz-Band 2.3. The Abbot and his Astronomer Friends 2.4. First Works in Astrophysics, Geophysics and Popular Science 2.5. At the Shenroks on the Vasiliev Island Chapter 3 At the Leningrad Physics-Technological, institute 3.1. Theoretical Physics in St. Petersburg and Petrograd 3.2. The Physics-Technological Institute and Its Seminars 3.3. Quantising Free Electrons in a Magnetic Field 3.4. A New Crisis in the Theory of Quanta 3.5. Science and Society 3.6. Quantum Mechanics in the Early Thirties 3.7. Cosmology in the Early Thirties 3.8. The Ether and the Theory of Relativity 3.9. Styles and Generations 3.10. The Physics of Semiconductors and Nuclear Physics Chapter 4 Hard Times for the Laws of Conservation and for Theoreticians 4.1. Three Attempts to Topple Down the Law of Conservation of Energy 4.2. The Hypothesis of Nonconservation and the Arguments of its Supporters 4.3. Non-Physical Arguments as Applied to Physics 4.4. A Duel in Sorena 4.5. The Death of a Hypothesis Chapter 5 cGh'- Physics in Bronstein's Life 5.1. An Unsuitable Thesis 5.2. The Roots of Bronstein's Interest in cGh'-physics 5.3. The Quantum Theory of the Weak Gravitational Field 5.4. ... the Fundamental Differences Between Quantum Electrodynamics and the Quantum Theory of Gravitational Field. The Quantum Gravitational Limits 5.5. Physics and Cosmology Chapter 6 Creative Personality 6.1. Ideas about the World 6.2. Vocation of a Techaer 6.3. Science and Literature 6.4. Personality Afterword Bibliography Appendix. Two Articles by Matvei Bronstein Published in a Popular Science Magazine Chelovek i Priroda (Man and Nature) in 1929 Name Index.