Mozart from science. Lev Davidovich Landau
“Everyone has enough strength to live life with dignity. And all the talk about what a difficult time - only a clever way to justify their laziness, inaction and despondency. "
L.D. Landau
L.D. Landau
Lev Landau was born on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the oil capital of the Russian Empire, Baku. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the first oil well was drilled in the nearby Bibi-Heybat village, and several years later, the new plant began to drive kerosene on an industrial scale. The big capital sensitive to the smell of money rushed to Baku in a torrent. David Lvovich Landau, the son of a learned Rabbi from Prague, had a very direct relationship to the oil boom - he worked as an engineer in a large Baku-based company. Thanks to a successful career, David Lvovich was a very wealthy man. In 1905, at the age of thirty-nine, he married a twenty-nine-year-old Lyubov Veniaminovna Garkavi - a girl of an unusual and difficult fate. She was born in a large poor family. Having saved up a certain amount of money by tutoring, Lyubov Veniaminovna spent it to pay for a training course at the University of Zurich. A year later, she continued her education in St. Petersburg at the Women's Medical Institute, after graduating from which she took up gynecology and obstetrics in Baku oil fields. The independent and independent nature of Lyubov Veniaminovna encouraged her to be active even after the wedding, despite the fact that all the material problems were in the past. She worked as a sanitary doctor, an intern at a military hospital, and a teacher.
In 1906, the first child was born in the Landau family - the son Sonya, and 22 in January 1908 the second - the son Leo. Parents attached the most serious importance to the education and upbringing of children - a French governess sat with them, drawing, gymnastics and music teachers were invited to the house. German and French languages Leo and Sonia mastered to perfection in early childhood. The problems began when David and Lyubov Landau decided to instil in their children a love of music. Sonechka, after 10 years of learning the piano, at the end of her education she categorically refused to continue to approach the instrument. The future academician, who had not tolerated violence against himself since childhood, immediately resolutely refused to indulge his parents' whims. But Lev learned to read and write at the age of four. In addition, the boy passionately loved arithmetic, which forced his parents to reconsider the views on his future.
In the gymnasium, Lev greatly grieved the teacher of literature with a clumsy hand, but in exact sciences he threw teachers into awe with his knowledge. He learned to differentiate and integrate very early, but in the gymnasium these skills were not useful to him. These sections of mathematics went far beyond the framework of classical school education, and in addition the school was soon closed, and all students were dismissed for indefinite holidays. Soon, practical parents identified their son in a commercial school, later renamed the Baku Economic College. Exams for admission were not difficult, and Landau was immediately accepted on the penultimate course. Fortunately for science, at the end of the technical school, the young man was still young to work as an accountant. He made a decision to continue his education - now in Baku University.
Having brilliantly passed the entrance exams in 1922, Lev Davidovich was enrolled in two departments of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics - a natural one (which focused on chemistry) and a mathematical one. Fourteen-year-old Landau turned out to be the youngest student at the university, but it wasn’t an age that stood out among other students. Leo, who was still quite a boy, allowed himself to argue with eminent teachers. Mathematics in an educational institution was read by a certain Lukin - a former professor of the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, whose ferocity firmly entered local folklore. Students behind the eyes called him "the general." Once, at a lecture, Landau ventured into a furious squabble with him. From the side it looked as if the teenager was in a cage with a tiger. However, the end turned out to be unexpected - the discouraged “general”, acknowledging his mistake, congratulated Lev Davidovich with the right decision. Since then, the professor, meeting Landau in the corridors of the university, always shook his hand. And soon the parents of the young genius received advice from university leaders to transfer their son to Leningrad, which at that time was the capital of Soviet science. Landau received a letter of recommendation from the dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, which said: “... I consider it a duty to note the extraordinary talents of this young student, with tremendous ease and with great depth at the same time passing discipline of two departments. ... I firmly believe that subsequently Leningrad University will be justly proud of having prepared an outstanding scientific figure for the country. ”
So in 1924, Lev Davidovich was in the northern capital of Russia, where he took up the science with renewed vigor. Work for eighteen hours a day is not the best way affected his health. Chronic insomnia caused Landau to turn to the doctor who categorically forbade the young man to work at night. The doctor's advice went to the future academician for the future — from that point in time and throughout his entire life, the scientist never worked again at night. And he always said about himself with a smile: “I do not have a constitution, but a reading exercise.”
At Leningrad University, Lev Davidovich first heard about quantum mechanics. Many years later, he will say: “The works of Schrödinger and Heisenberg led me into raptures. Never before have I felt with such clarity the power of human genius. ” The new physical theory was in those years in its infancy, and, as a result, there was no one to teach Landau quantum mechanics. The young man himself had to master the most complicated mathematical apparatus and the basic ideas of the new physics. As a result, he developed a characteristic style of scientific work for the rest of his life - he always preferred fresh magazines to books, saying that "thick folios do not carry anything new, they are a graveyard where the thoughts of the past are buried."
In 1927, Lev Davidovich graduated from the university and entered the postgraduate school of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology (Leningrad Physical and Technical Institute), joining a group of theorists led by Jacob Frenkel. And in October, 1929 Landau, who was considered the best postgraduate student at the Physics and Technology Institute, went on his first trip abroad on the voucher of the People's Commissariat of Education. The trip was for the talented young man an extraordinary success - in Berlin at that time lived and worked a brilliant scientist, one of the founders of modern physics Albert Einstein. In Germany, Switzerland and Denmark, Max Born, Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg and other outstanding scientists, authors of quantum mechanics, worked. With Einstein, Landau met at the University of Berlin. They had a long conversation, during which Lev Davidovich, without losing time, tried to prove to the interlocutor the justice of one of the main tenets of quantum mechanics - the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The arguments and youthful enthusiasm of a twenty-year-old physicist did not convince Einstein, who was tempered in disputes with Bohr and who had all his life believed that "God does not play dice." Shortly after this conversation, Lev Davidovich, at the invitation of Max Born, visited the University of Göttingen. And in Leipzig, he met with another no less brilliant physicist, Heisenberg.
At the beginning of 1930, a Soviet scientist appeared in Copenhagen on Blegdamsvey street at number 15. This building was known throughout the world for the fact that the famous Niels Bohr lived there. As soon as he crossed the threshold of his apartment, Landau was terribly embarrassed and at the same time delighted with the greeting words of the Danish scientist: “It's great that you came to us! We will learn a lot from you! " And although it later turned out that the famous physicist out of the kindness of his soul greeted most of his guests in this way, in this case, this phrase probably sounded more appropriate than usual. The most talented, energetic and witty Landau surprisingly quickly and easily got along with the venerable scientist - the national hero of his country, but he did not lose his human simplicity and unfeigned "scientific" curiosity. The Austrian scientist Otto Frisch, who was present at one of their conversations, wrote: “This scene is forever imprinted in my memory. Landau and Bohr grappled with each other. The Russian was sitting on a bench and gesticulating frantically. Bending over him, the Dane waved his hands and shouted something. None of them even thought that there was something strange in such a scientific discussion. " Another curious sketch belongs to the Belgian physicist Leon Rosenfeld, who said: “I arrived at the institute in February 1931, and the first person I met was Georgy Gamow. I asked him about the newsand he showed me his pencil drawing. It showed Landau, tied to a chair, with his mouth tied, and Bohr, standing nearby and saying: "Wait, wait, give me at least a word to say!" Many years later, Niels Bohr admits that he always considered Lev Davidovich his best student. And the wife of the great Dane wrote in her memoirs: “Niels fell in love with Landau from the first day. He was terribly unbearable, interrupted, ridiculed, looked like a disheveled boy. But how talented he was and how truthful! "
The next stop on Landau's journey through Europe was the United Kingdom, where Paul Dirac and Ernest Rutherford worked. In those years, at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, Pyotr Kapitsa also worked with his wit and outstanding abilities as an experimental physicist who managed to win Rutherford's disposition. Thus, for the year spent in Europe, Lev Davidovich spoke with almost all the “first-class” physicists. The works of the Soviet scientist, published during this time, received high marks and clearly showed that, despite his age, he was already one of the leading theorists in the world.
Returning to the Soviet Union in 1931, Landau found himself in the midst of a lively discussion of some discovery that promised our country incredible profits. The author of this invention, associated, by the way, with the properties of electrical insulators, was the head of the Leningrad Physical-Engineering Institute, an excellent Soviet scientist Abram Ioffe. Unfortunately, even great people are not insured against errors, and the new discovery of Ioffe just belonged to the category of errors. Very quickly, Lev Davidovich found the mistake of the master, and the enthusiasm of the discoverers turned into disappointment. In addition, the case was complicated by the fact that the young theorist was too keen on the language and did not think at all about the need to regret his colleagues' pride. The completely excusable stubbornness of Abram Fedorovich, with whom the head of the Physics and Technology Department defended his errors, led to a final break. It all ended with the fact that the famous academician publicly declared that in the last work of his graduate student there was not a drop of common sense. But Landau was not the kind of person to keep silent in response. His indulgent remark: "Theoretical physics is a complex science, and not everyone can understand it," was firmly established in the annals stories. Of course, after this incident, it became much more difficult for Lev Davidovich to work at the Leningrad Physical and Technical Institute. Much time later, he will say that he felt there "somehow uncomfortable."
Shortly before the described events, at the suggestion of the same Abram Ioffe, in the city of Kharkov - the then capital of Ukraine - the UFTI (Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology) was organized. In August, 1932 Landau was invited by the director of the Kharkov Physics and Technology Institute, Professor Ivan Obreimov, to take the place of the head of the theoretical department. At the same time, he took the chair of theoretical physics at the Kharkov Institute of Mechanics and Engineering. Impressed by the scientific and educational institutions seen in Europe, a twenty-four-year-old physicist set himself the task of practically creating from scratch in the Soviet Union a school of theoretical physics of the highest class. Looking ahead, we note that thanks to the efforts of Lev Davidovich, such a school in our country eventually appeared. It was formed by Landau's students, who passed his famous "theoretical minimum", which includes nine exams - seven in theoretical physics and two in mathematics. This truly unique test could have been tried no more than three times, and in twenty-five years, only forty-three people had overcome the “theoretical minimum”. The first of these was the eminent Soviet scientist Alexander Kompaneets. Evgeny Lifshits, Isaac Pomeranchuk, Alexander Akhiezer, who later became famous theoretical physicists, passed the test.
Curious is the private life of Landau. He was interested in everything that happened in the world. Every morning Lev Davidovich began with the study of newspapers. The scientist knew the story very well, he remembered by heart a lot of poems, in particular, Lermontov, Nekrasov and Zhukovsky. Loved the movie. Unfortunately, in the Kharkov period of life, Lev Davidovich was rarely photographed. On the other hand, there are quite picturesque memories left by one of his students about a scientist: “I met Landau at 1935 when I came to Kharkov for my diploma practice. Already at the first meeting, he struck me with his uncommonness: thin, tall, with curly black hair, with lively black eyes and long hands, who were actively gesticulating during the conversation, somewhat extravagantly (in my opinion) dressed. He wore an elegant blue jacket with metal buttons. Sandals with bare feet and kolomyankovye trousers were not very harmonious with them. Then he did not wear a tie, preferring to open the collar. "
Once, Professor Landau appeared at the university at the graduation party and categorically demanded that he be presented to the “most pretty girl”. He was introduced to the graduate of the chemical department Concordia (Kora) Drabantseva. If in the dreams of a scientist an image of a written beauty was painted, then the girl was very similar to her - with large gray-blue eyes, blond, with a slightly upturned nose. After the evening, Landau spent a new acquaintance to the house, and along the way he told her about foreign countries. When he learned that Cora was going to work as a technologist at a confectionery factory in the chocolate shop, he asked: “Let me call you Chocolate Girl. You know, I adore chocolate. ” When asked whether the girl had delicious chocolate in Europe, Landau replied: “I went on a business trip with state money. I could not spend it on chocolate. But I ate it in England, becoming a Rockefeller Foundation scholar. ” Their frivolous acquaintance with great difficulty over the course of several years acquired the quality of a serious relationship, since Lev Davidovich believed that “marriage is a cooperative that kills all love,” while adding that a good thing will not be called marriage. The registrar of the recognized leader of Soviet theoretical thought was brought only nine days before the birth of a child.
Separately, it is necessary to talk about the classification methodology of scientists, which was developed by Lev Davidovich and allowing to evaluate their capabilities, as well as their contribution to science. Academician Vitaly Ginzburg, who is a student of Lev Davidovich, described the “Dow scale” in his article: “Many years ago, his passion for clarity and systematization resulted in a comic classification of physicists in a logarithmic scale. In accordance with it, the physicist, for example, made the second class ten times smaller (the key word did, it was only about achievements) the physicist of the first class. On this scale, the half class had Albert Einstein, and Schrödinger, Bor, Heisenberg, Fermi, Dirac had first class. He attributed himself to the two-and-a-half class, and only, having exchanged the fifth dozen, pleased with his regular work (I remember the conversation, but forgot what achievement he was talking about), said that he had reached the second class. ”
Another Landau classification related to his relationship with the "weaker sex." The scientist divided the process of courtship into twenty-four stages, and believed that up to the eleventh the slightest hitch was disastrous. Women, of course, were also divided into classes. To the first, Landau attributed the unattainable ideal. Then came the beautiful girls, then - just pretty and pretty. The fourth class included the owners of something pleasant to the eye, and by the fifth, all the rest. To establish the fifth grade, according to Landau, it was necessary to have a chair. If you put a chair next to a fifth-grade woman, then it’s better to look not at her, but at the chair. In relation to the fair sex, the scientist also divided men into two groups: “fragrant” (which are interested in the inner content) and “beautiful”. In turn, the "beautiful" broke up into subspecies - "skaters," "Mordists," "foot," and "wrist." He attributed himself to “pure beauty”, believing that a woman should be all beautiful.
The pedagogical methods of Lev Davidovich were very different from the traditional ones, which eventually forced the university rector to take a series of actions to “educate” the teacher. Inviting Landau to his office, he expressed doubt that physics students need to know who the author of "Eugene Onegin" is and what sins are related to "mortal". This kind of questions students often heard from a young professor on exams. Of course, the correct answers did not affect performance, but the rector’s perplexity must be recognized as legitimate. In conclusion, he told Landau that "pedagogical science does not allow anything like that." “I have never heard more stupidity in my life,” Lev Davidovich answered innocently and was immediately dismissed. And although the rector could not expel the professor without the permission of the People's Commissar of Education, the victim did not waste time and energy to restore justice and left for the capital of Russia. Three weeks after leaving, Landau told Kharkiv students and colleagues that he would work for Kapitsa at the Institute for Physical Problems, writing in conclusion: "... And you have already reached the third and a half levels and can work independently."
Life at the Kapitsa Institute in those years was in full swing. The best specialists that Petr Leonidovich was looking for throughout the country worked at this place. Lev Davidovich headed his theoretical department. In 1937-1938, the helium superfluidity was discovered through experimental studies of Kapitsa. Cooling helium to temperatures close to absolute zero, physicists observed its flow through ultrathin gaps. Attempts to explain the phenomenon of superfluidity did not succeed until Landau took up the matter. The theory of superfluidity, for which he later received the Nobel Prize, was formed with a one-year break. In April, 1938 Lev Davidovich was arrested on trumped-up charges. At the Lubyanka, according to the physicist, “they tried to sew the authorship of some kind of stupid leaflet, and this with my disgust at any writings”. Kapitsa was also indignant to the depths of his soul. In the prewar years, he enjoyed considerable influence in the government and used it to help his best theorist. On the day of the arrest of the scientist, Kapitsa sent a letter to Joseph Vissarionovich, in which he said: “Comrade Stalin, today they arrested the researcher L. D. Landau. Despite his age, he is the largest theoretical physicist in our country ... There is no doubt that his loss as a scientist for the Soviet and world sciences will not pass unnoticed and will be felt very strongly. In view of the exceptional talent of Landau, I ask you to treat his case carefully. I also think it is necessary to take into account his character, which, to put it simply, is nasty. He is a bully and a bully, loves to look for mistakes in others, and when he finds them, he begins to disrespectfully tease. With this, he made many enemies for himself ... However, with all the flaws, I do not believe that Landau is capable of something dishonest. ”
By the way, the relations of two scientists, Kapitsa and Landau, have never been either friendly or close, but the “centaur,” as the institute's employees called their director, did everything possible to make the eminent theorist return to work. Not counting only on his own authority, he drew the attention of Niels Bohr to the fate of the physicist. The Danish scientist immediately responded, and also wrote a letter to Stalin, in which, among other things, he said: “... I heard rumors about the arrest of Professor Landau. I am convinced that this is a regrettable misunderstanding, because I can’t imagine that Professor Landau, who won the recognition of the scientific world for his significant contribution to atomic physics and devoted himself entirely to research work, could make something justifying the arrest ... " In April, the efforts of Petr Leonidovich 1939 were crowned with success - “on bail of Kapitsa” Landau was released from prison.
Kapitsa was well aware that the rather modest post of head of the theoretical department did not correspond much to the capabilities and scope of Landau's talent. Not once did he offer his employee assistance in creating a separate institute of theoretical physics, where Lev Davidovich could take the place of director. However, Landau categorically rejected such proposals: “I am absolutely not suitable for administrative activities. Now in Fizproblem excellent conditions for work, and of goodwill I will not go anywhere from here. ” However, the “excellent” conditions did not last long - in June 1941 the war began, and the Kapitsa Institute was evacuated to Kazan. During these years, Lev Davidovich, like many other scientists, reoriented himself to the solution of defense tasks, in particular, he dealt with problems devoted to the detonation of explosives. At 1943, the State Defense Committee decided to resume work on uranium-related topics. Igor Kurchatov was appointed research supervisor, who appealed to the government with the rationale for the theoretical study of the mechanism of a nuclear explosion and a proposal to entrust this problem to “Professor Landau — a well-known theoretical physicist, a subtle expert on such issues.” As a result, Lev Davidovich headed the work of the accounting department, who worked in the framework of the “Atomic Project”.
At 1946 at the Institute for Physical Problems, major changes occurred. Peter Kapitsa fell into disgrace, the USSR Council of Ministers dismissed him from the post of director, completely reorienting the institute to solving problems related to the “Atomic Project”. Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Anatoly Alexandrov was appointed as the new head of the Institute. And in the same year, Landau, bypassing the title of corresponding member, was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences, also awarding him the Stalin Prize for the study of phase transformations. However, his main business in those years was the calculations of the processes occurring during a nuclear explosion. The merits of Lev Davidovich in the development of the atomic bomb are indisputable and were marked by two Stalin prizes (in 1949 and 1953) and the title Hero of Socialist Labor (1954). However, for the scientist himself, this work became a tragedy, since Lev Davidovich organically could not do what he was not interested in, he said about this: “Due to the brevity of life, we cannot afford the luxury of wasting time on tasks that do not lead to new results. " An example of Landau’s attitude towards a nuclear bomb is a typical episode. Once, while reading a lecture in the House of Writers, he touched on thermonuclear reactions, saying that they had no practical significance. Someone from the audience reminded the scientist about a thermonuclear bomb, to which Lev Davidovich immediately replied that it had never occurred to him to classify the bomb as a practical application of nuclear energy.
Shortly after the death of Joseph Stalin, Landau handed over all matters related to the “Atomic Project” to his pupil Isaac Khalatnikov, while he returned to the creation of the “Course of Theoretical Physics” - the work he wrote throughout his life. The “course” consisted of ten volumes, the very first of which was published in 1938, and the last two appeared in print after the death of the scientist. This work, written in a clear and lively language, is devoted to the most complex issues of modern physics. It has been translated into many languages and is, without exaggeration, a reference book for every physicist in the world.
5 May 1961 Niels Bohr arrived in Moscow at the invitation of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Lev Davidovich met his teacher at the airport, and all the days of Bohr’s stay in Russia almost did not part with him. In those days, at one of the countless seminars, someone asked the guest how he created his first-class school of physicists. The famous Dane replied: "I have never been afraid to show my students that I am their dumber." Yevgeny Lifshits, who translated the scientist’s speech, made a mistake and said: “I never hesitate to tell the students that they are fools.” Peter Kapitsa reacted with a smile at the uproar: “This reservation is not accidental. It expresses the main difference between the Bohr school and the Landau school to which Lifshits belongs. ”
7 January 1962 on the way to Dubna Lev Davidovich got into a terrible car accident. Its consequences were terrible, according to the first record in the history of the disease were recorded: "fracture of the vault and skull base, multiple brain contusions, contused-torn wound in the temporal region, a squeezed chest, fracture of seven ribs, fracture of the pelvis, lung damage." The famous neurosurgeon Sergey Fedorov, who arrived at the consultation, said: “It was quite obvious that the patient was dying. Hopeless, agonizing patient. " For four days that have passed since the catastrophe, Landau was dying three times. 22 January, the scientist began swelling of the brain. In the hospital where Lev Davidovich was lying, a “physical headquarters” of eighty-seven people was organized. Landau's students, friends and colleagues were in the hospital 24 hours a day, organized consultations with foreign medical bodies, and collected the money needed for treatment. Only six weeks after the tragedy, the doctors announced that the patient’s life was out of danger. December 18 1962 Lev Davidovich said: "I lost a year, but I learned during this time that people are much better than I thought."
1 November 1962 Landau, lying in the hospital of the Academy of Sciences, delivered a telegram stating that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for "pioneering work in the theory of condensed matter, primarily liquid helium." The next day, the ambassador of Sweden arrived at the hospital, having held the official ceremony of presenting the prestigious award. From this point on, the scientist came under close attention of the press. Not a day passed without correspondents trying to get into his room. Despite feeling unwell and warning doctors who tried to restrict access to the patient, the Nobel laureate was happy to receive everyone. A reporter from a Swedish newspaper who visited Lev Davidovich described the meeting in the following way: “Landau has turned gray, has a stick in his hands, and he moves in small steps. But once you talk to him, it becomes immediately clear that the disease has not changed him at all. There is no doubt that, if it were not for the pain, he would immediately start work ... ”.
By the way, the doctors who treated the brilliant physicist, more than once or twice had to deal with his peculiar character, which many found unbearable. One day, a famous psychiatrist and neuropathologist who treated with hypnosis came to Lev Davidovich. Landau, who called hypnosis "deception of workers", met the guest with caution. The doctor, warned, in turn, about the nature of the patient, took two more doctors to demonstrate his abilities. Shortly after the start of the session, the doctor’s assistants fell asleep. Landau himself felt uncomfortable, but he did not want to sleep. The doctor, anticipating a major failure, gathered all his will in his eyes, but the scientist only frowned and looked at his watch with impatience. After the psychiatrist left, Lev Davidovich told his wife: “Balagan. He brought a couple of geese with him, who slept here. ”
In total, the Landau hospital spent more than two years - only at the end of January 1964 was allowed to a scientist to leave the hospital room. But, despite his recovery, Lev Davidovich was no longer able to return to active work. And soon after the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary - in the morning of March 24, 1968 Landau suddenly became ill. The consultation gathered at the hospital of the Academy of Sciences called for the operation. The first three days after it, the physicist felt so good that doctors had hopes of recovery. However, on the fifth day, the patient had a fever, and the sixth began to pass the heart. On the morning of April 1, Lev Davidovich said: "I will not survive this day." He was dying in consciousness, his last words were: “I have lived a good life. I always managed everything. ” Lev Davidovich was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery 4 on April 1968.
The question, what achievement of Landau in science should be considered the most important, has no answer. The highly specialized approach to the theory did not touch the brilliant scientist. He felt equally free in non-intersecting fields, from quantum field theory to hydrodynamics. They said about Lev Davidovich: "In this frail, fragile body is placed an entire institute of theoretical physics." Evaluate the scope of its activities in science is not given to everyone. But you can trust the words of knowledgeable people who said: “Landau created a completely new image of a scientist, some kind of a separate philosophy of life. Physics has become a kind of romantic country, a fascinating adventure ... The perfect is clothed with an extremely beautiful, magnificent form, and acquaintance with his works gives physicists tremendous aesthetic pleasure. ”
According to the materials of the books of M. Ya. Bessarab "Landau's pages of life" and "Thus spoke Landau".
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