Soviet Physicist Research Articles

THE URAL PART OF THE BIOGRAPHY OF IGOR VASILYEVICH KURCHATOV, AN OUTSTANDING NUCLEAR SCIENTIST

The name of the outstanding Soviet physicist, Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov, is known not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. Knowledge about him is mainly related to his scientific leadership of the domestic nuclear project. He is one of the nine thrice Heroes of Socialist Labor of the Soviet Union. However, few people know that his main practical results of scientific developments were translated into real industrial production on the Ural land. In addition, his childhood years are connected with the Southern Urals, as well as the years of scientific leadership of the firstborn of the nuclear industry in the Urals - plant No. 817, now the Mayak Production Association. The presented scientific article is prepared for the 120th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding Soviet nuclear scientist, who was the head of the implementation of the uranium problem in the Soviet Union. He was one of the first in the world to identify the possibility of releasing energy of colossal power as a result of fission of the atomic nucleus and implemented them in the creation of the first domestic nuclear weapons, and then participated in the development of technologies for the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. I.V.Kurchatov scientific work in the Urals is reflected fragmentally in the published literature. This statement requires more detailed research, systematization and coverage in a scientific publication.

Kurt Gottfried

Kurt Gottfried

Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh: Soviet Physicist between Center and Periphery

The name of Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh (1903–1970) is closely related to the history of radio physics research in Tomsk, one of the leading Soviet research and education centers. He was one of the foremost Soviet authorities in radio physics in the 1930s – 1950s. His making as a scientist occurred in the context of formation of Soviet science organization system. One of the last representatives of the prerevolutionary P. N. Lebedev’s scientific school of physics, Kessenikh witnessed in full measure the times of Stalinism. In this connection, we analyze the scientist’s professional strategy in the situation of the ideologized Party-state system and the nature of center – periphery relations within the Soviet physics community in the period under study, as exemplified by a scientific biography of Kessenikh who had been a professor at both Tomsk and Moscow Universities. The article also describes his key role in Tomsk’s radio engineering rising to the level of radio physics as a standalone, autonomous sphere of scientific research, from which a number of promising research fields have stemmed. It is emphasized that Kessenikh’s professional ambitions had a significant impact on the organizational and structural configuration of local research and education space. The trajectory of his moving within the center – periphery coordinate frame in Soviet physics, shown in the article, demonstrates the patterns in the history of science construction in the USSR as well as the traces of ideocratic metanarrative.

The History of Science in the Context of the State Ideology

Mandelstam’s criticism of the Rayleigh theory of the blue color of the sky (1907) and his polemic with M. Planck (1907–1908) did not become notable events in the history of physics. However, the method of their coverage in the Soviet and in the post-Soviet physics literature is remarkable. Most of Soviet physicists and historians of physics supported Mandelstam's point of view in his criticism of both Raleigh and Planck. The situation changed only at the beginning of the 21st century: in the Russian literature the publications appeared emphasizing that in the Raleigh–Mandelstam and Planck–Mandelstam controversies Mandelstam was not right, Raleigh and Planck were closer to the truth. Which presumptions of this trend can be noted? This was patriotism of the scientific school peculiar to Mandelstam’s graduate students and the former graduate students, the patriotism connected with solidarity which helped Mandelstam’s community to survive in the Soviet totalitarian regime and in the totalitarian organization of science. This was also progressionism which was popular among academics and among men in the street. The phenomenon of common knowledge, mutual knowledge among the members of a scientific community should be taken under consideration. Common knowledge is connected with the non-thematized anonymous inclusion of the ideological terminology into scientific discourse.

The life and fate of Bruno Pontecorvo. Reflection on the books of Boris Bulyubash and Mikhail Sapozhnikov

The article presents a description of the content and possible significance for the history of science of the books by Boris Bulyubash and Mikhail Sapozhnikov about the outstanding Italian and Soviet physicist Bruno Pontecorvo. The “spy version” and “political version” of the transition of the scientist to the USSR are presented in detail, as well as the possible reasons for the transition associated with the socio-political situation of the 50s of the 20th century are described. The necessity to take into account the internal vector of beliefs, views and worldview of a scientist when explaining his actions is emphasized. Facts are given demonstrating that the “ideal” dominated in the worldview of Bruno Pontecorvo, which makes it possible toexplain many events in his life. It is noted that both books summarize a significant amount of information about Bruno, as well as the high quality of the description of many physical experiments in which Pontecorvo took part, the accessibility for understanding the essence when presenting complex issues of elementary particle physics and high energy physics.

The Long-Term Global Health Burden from Nuclear Weapon Test Explosions in the Atmosphere: Revisiting Andrei Sakharov’s 1958 Estimates

In 1958, the Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov published an estimate of the long-term health impacts from carbon-14 produced by nuclear test explosions in the atmosphere. At the time, Sakharov was an important contributor to the Soviet Union's development of multi-megaton thermonuclear weapons. This was Sakharov's first public expression of concern about the weapons work in which he was involved. Subsequently, he became a campaigner for human rights in the Soviet Union and for international cooperation and received the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the importance of his efforts. This article provides some context for his estimate and compares it with estimates based on dose estimates by the UN Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation and dose-effect estimates by the US National Academies.

Editorial

Editorial

The newspaper "Soviet Physicist" as a source on the History of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy

The article is devoted to the large—circulation newspaper "Soviet Physicist" (now — "Kurchatov") of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy (now - SIC "Kurchatov Institute"). Having your own newspaper in a secret scientific institution is a special phenomenon. For a long time, it was printed with a note about the prohibition of removal from the territory. The newspaper was distributed only to employees. Based on archival materials of the SIC "Kurchatov Institute" and the Central State Administration of Moscow, the history of the newspaper is traced from its inception in 1967 to its renaming in 1992. The multi-circulation newspaper was created on the initiative of the Institute's staff. The general management of it was carried out by the party committee and the local committee of the institute. The pages of the "Soviet Physicist" reflect the life of the "Kurchatov" community in all its diversity. The article introduces a new historical source into scientific circulation and examines its informational potential for research on the history of the Soviet atomic project in general, as well as the main aspects of the life of the Institute's staff community in particular. The newspaper's materials are valuable for the study of social, cultural, political and scientific events and phenomena in the history of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute – the leading Soviet scientific center for nuclear physics.

International trajectories of Soviet physicists: Diplomacy as a compromise with their authorities

Après la seconde guerre mondiale, la science connut un processus d’institutionnalisation internationale et devint dans le contexte de la guerre froide un élément essentiel de la diplomatie culturelle des États. En se penchant sur la trajectoire individuelle de plusieurs physiciens, cet article questionne l’insertion de l’URSS à cette dynamique et la place réelle de ses savants dans la mise en place d’une diplomatie scientifique soviétique. L’auteur y discute tout d’abord du caractère privilégié du voyage à l’étranger et met en évidence différents éléments de continuité dans la forte symbiose entre science et politique qui résultait de la période stalinienne. Enfin, il détaille comment l’appropriation par les scientifiques des enjeux diplomatiques associés à leur nouvelle fonction de représentation a permis l’établissement avec les autorités soviétiques d’un compromis pour la poursuite dans un contexte international d’objectifs de développement professionnel.

Chronicle: The last accomplishment of B. I. Verkin

The paper describes the decisive role by B. I. Verkin, the founder of the Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering (ILTPE) and the journal Low Temperature Physics, in the return from the near 50-year oblivion the name of L. V. Shubnikov, an outstanding Soviet physicist arrested and executed in 1937. We begin with a brief survey of Shubnikov’s works, several of them are of the Nobel prize level. Then we briefly describe the foundation by B. I. Verkin of the Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering. Finally, we outline the history of writing the book about Shubnikov and the outstanding efforts by B. I. Verkin in the realization of this last, according to him, achievement of his life.

The thermodynamics of black holes: from Penrose process to Hawking radiation

In 1969, Roger Penrose proposed a mechanism to extract rotational energy from a Kerr black hole. With this, he inspired two lines of investigation in the years after. On the one side, the Penrose process, as it became known, allowed a comparison between black-hole mechanics and thermodynamics. On the other, it opened a path to a quantum description of those objects. This paper provides a novel take on the events that led to the rise of the thermodynamic theory of black holes, taking as a starting point the Penrose process. It studies the evolution of the research conducted independently by Western and Soviet physicists on the topic, culminating in Stephen Hawking’s groundbreaking discovery that black holes should radiate.

S.I. Vavilov — Reader of Soviet Literature

The article analyzes the diary records of the outstanding Soviet physicist, Academician and President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov (1891—1951), dedicated to his reader’s perception of contemporary Soviet literature. Widely-read S.I. Vavilov collected his private library of 37 thousand volumes; he regularly visited bookstores, mainly antiquarian and second-hand bookshops. Despite the prevailing interest to the old books, S.I. Vavilov knew Soviet literature, used its images in his popular science works (S.A. Yesenin) and diary characteristics (I. Ilf and E. Petrov). The few diary entries with the assessments of the works of Soviet writers (A.N. Tolstoy, A.E. Korneychuk, K.I. Chukovsky, A. Bely, A.K. Vinogradov, V.V. Veresaev, M.A. Bulgakov, etc.) most commonly demonstrate critical attitude to them. It was defined by both his classical aesthetic preferences, formed in his youth on the material of Russian literature of the 19th century, and by his unflattering attitude to the Soviet reality, which Academician did not show publicly, allowing just certain statements in his private diaries. The generally negative perception of Soviet literature indicates that, contrary to the claims of some researchers, S.I. Vavilov was not a Stalinist and was quite sceptical of the socialist reality.

The Process of the Aging of Articles on Acoustics. The View from Akusticheskii Zhurnal

By analyzing references, one can obtain interesting information about the kind of research that is being performed, what approaches exist, information about scientists working in a field of interest, the institutions where such research is being carried out, and journals that reflect this information. Citation issues are discussed in the Akusticheskii Zhurnal articles. An analysis of the cited literature showed that with the advent of the Internet, the depth of citation increased, as did the reduced half-life of articles. Attention is drawn to references to Akusticheskii Zhurnal (hereafter – Acoustics or AJ) itself. An analogy is drawn with the statement of academician V.L. Ginzburg that our scientists do not receive the Nobel Prize “primarily due to their colleagues: Soviet physicists,” who, as it turns out, do not really nominate their compatriots. The same can be attributed to the inadequate impact factor of Acoustics, which is decreased by the authors themselves. The issues of information support in the field of Russian-speaking acoustics are discussed.

Патриотическое воспитание учащейся молодежи на примере жизнедеятельности выдающихся российских ученых-физиков

The article presents the material showing how to organize Patriotic education of schoolchildren and university students on the example of actions and statements made by Russian and Soviet physicists. The facts testifying numerous Physicists’ deep love for Russia – their homeland – are brought about. Consideration of the topic begins with the activities of the first Russian academician M. V. Lomonosov, which is a vivid example of the scientist-patriot’s love for the Motherland. Similar facts from the life and scholarly endeavor of Russian electrical engineers V. V. Petrov, P. L. Schilling, electrical engineersinventors B. S. Jacobi, E. H. Lenz are given. The historical facts testifying the true service to the Motherland by a number of other physicists, including Zh. I. Alferov – a Nobel laureate, known throughout the scientific community for his work in the field of modern physics.

К 80-летию со дня рождения доктора физико-математических наук, главного научного сотрудника Института Общей Физики им. А.М. Прохорова РАН А.А. Самохина

The article is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the birth of the Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences A.A. Samokhin, Chief Researcher of the Theoretical Department of the Institute of Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the RAS, a regular contributor to Mathematica Montisnigri and a long-term active participant in the international scientific seminar "Mathematical Models and Modeling in Laser-Plasma Processes and Advanced Scientific Technologies" (LPpM3), one of the founders of which is Mathematica Montisnigri.

“Comedy of mistakes” and “drama of humans”: on the domestic contribution to the creation of The Standard Model of elemantary particle in physics

The article explores domestic contribution to the creation of The Standard Model (SM). SM is a quantum field gauge theory of electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions, which is the basis of the modern theory of elementary particles. The process of its development covers a twenty-year period – from 1954 (the concept of non-Abelian Yang-Mills gauge fields) to the early 1970s, when the construction of renormalizable quantum chromodynamics and electroweak theory was completed. The reasons for the difficult perception of the Yang-Mills gauge field concept in the USSR are analyzed, associated primarily with the problem of “zero-charge” in quantum electrodynamics, and then in field theories of strong and weak interactions. This result, obtained by the leaders of the outstanding Russian scientific schools of theoretical physics, L. D. Landau, I. Ya. Pomeranchuk and their students, led to the rejection of the majority of Soviet physicists from field theory and to their transition to the position of a non-field phenomenological program (based on the S-matrix theory) in the construction of the theory of elementary particles.

Beyond Ideology: Epistemological Foundations of Vladimir Fock's approach to Quantum Theory.

Vladimir Fock was a Soviet theoretical physicist who, from the 1930s, worked to prove that modern physics was compatible with the Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism. In 1957, he went to Copenhagen, and a dispute over the interpretation of quantum mechanics began with Niels Bohr. Fock later claimed that he had found points of convergence with his Danish colleague, most of them concerning issues of wording and recognition of the reality of the world independently of our mind. It led to a specific narrative among historians of physics on Fock and his interpretation of quantum mechanics: The Soviet physicist is often described as a member of the Copenhagen school that contributed to the rapprochement of the Soviet philosophy of physics with the ideas of complementarity in stripping away the positivism in its formulation. Our contribution aims to show that this ideological dimension was only one aspect of reality. Returning to the foundations of Fock's epistemology of physics, we argue that he relied on the principles of antireductionism and scientific realism to develop an interpretation of the theory that sought to overcome Bohr's approach and that the differences between the two men cannot be reduced to mere questions of formulation.

Artificial sources of light used in photomedicine: history of discovery

Introduction. The history of the development of photomedicine over the past one and a half years is directly related to the history of the development of artificial light sources. And the medical direction of using these sources, as befits the light, has always been extremely bright. The purpose of this study was to familiarize doctors, scientists, engineers working in the field of photomedicine, with the creators of artificial sources of the light that is used for the rehabilitation, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the most common human diseases. Materials and methods. Sources of information were archival documents of scientific libraries, scientific journals, and conference proceedings. The search depth was almost 160 years. Results. As a result of this work, the names of three outstanding inventors of the first incandescent lamps born in the same 1847 and giving people artificial sun were mentioned again (Russian engineer Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin, Russian military engineer Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov and American electrical engineer Thomas Alva Edison) . The work of the first arc lamps was based on research by the Russian inventor V.V. Petrov and the English naturalist G.Devi. As a result of complex experiments, the Russian physicist S.I. Vavilov discovered in 1924 that the efficiency of luminescent substances is much higher than the efficiency of incandescent lamps. The Nobel laureates of 1964 for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of generators and amplifiers of a new type - masers and lasers, became the American physicist C. Townes and Soviet physicists N.G. Basov and A.M. Prokhorov. In 1960, the laser era began with the light arm of Theodor Harold Meiman, who created the first ruby-crystal laser operating at a wavelength of 694.3 nm. Then A. Javan, W. Bennet and D. Herriot created a gas (helium-neon) laser. In 1962, a semiconductor laser was created by a group of American (B.Lex, U. Dumke, M.Naten) and independently Soviet scientists (B.M. Vul and others). A carbon dioxide laser (molecular) was created in 1964 by K. Patel. A dye laser was created in 1966 by P. Sorokin and J. Lancard. The “father” of LEDs is considered by the whole world to Nick Holonyak, who in 1962 created the world’s first GaAsP luminescent diode emitting in the red spectrum. Findings. In the process of evolution of artificial light sources (from incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps to lasers and LEDs), phototherapy methods were also improved.

The Concept of Probability in Mathematics and Physics (on the 1920–30 Discussions in Soviet Scientific Literature)

In the Soviet scientific literature of 1920‒30 the concept of probability was holly debated. The frequency concept which was proposed by R. von Mises became popular among Soviet physicists belonging to the L.I. Mandelstam community. Landau and Lifshitz were also close to this concept in their famous course of theoretical physics. A.Khinchin, a mathematician who cooperated with Kolmogorov, opposed to the frequency conception. In this paper we try to demonstrate that the frequency position was connected with the anthropomorphous approach to physics, whereas Khinchin’s positions implied the criticism of anthropomorphism and put forward the ideal of objective knowledge.

Vadim Gorsky, a forgotten physics pioneer

The brilliant Soviet physicist was executed by Stalin’s secret police after resigning in protest over the dismissal of a prominent colleague.