Landau Lev Davidovich General data:
09.01.1908 - 01.04.1968
Place of birth: Baku City, Baku province, Russian Empire (now Baku City, Azerbaijan Republic)
Studied in: Baku State University, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (since 1991 Baku State University, Azerbaijan Republic) (1922-1924); Leningrad State University (since 1991 St. Petersburg State University) (1924-1928);
Key interests: theoretical astronomy, physics
Biography:
He was born on January 9 (according to the Julian calendar and 22 according to the Gregorian calendar) on January 1908 in the Baku Сity of the capital of the Baku province of the Russian Empire (now the Republic of Azerbaijan). Father, Davyd Lvovich Landau, was an oil engineer and one of the managers of The Black Sea and Caspian Sea Stock Company, and mother, Lyubov Veniaminivna (née Harkava) was a doctor.
Lev and his older sister Sofia received their primary education at home. The mother herself taught the children to read and write. The father, having a high mathematical education, taught his children mathematics from a small age, especially Lev, noticing great abilities in exact physical and mathematical sciences. Teachers of music, drawing, and rhythm came to their apartment, and a French governess lived in the house all the time. In 1916, the boy entered the Jewish gymnasium. In 1921, after passing the final exams with flying colors, he entered a commercial school (Baku Economic Technical College).
In 1922, Lev Landau successfully passed the exams at Baku University for two faculties at once - physics and mathematics and chemistry. A year later, he focused on mathematics and physics, and in 1924 he transferred to the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Leningrad State University, becoming a 3rd-year student, and graduated from the university in 1928.
In 1926-1927, he wrote a number of scientific works on quantum mechanics, which, at that time, had just begun to develop.
During 1927-1928, as a student, together with D.D. Ivanenko, he considered the Klein-Gordon equation, Fermi-Dirac statistics, and an alternative description of fermions in terms of antisymmetric tensors (Ivanenko-Landau-Köhler geometry).
In 1929 and twice in 1934, he worked in Denmark for the theoretical physicist Niels Bohr, and for some time he interned in the city of Zurich in Switzerland with the theoretical physicist V. Pauli.
In 1928, together with G. A. Gamov and D. D. Ivanenko, he considered the theory of world constants.
In the 1930s, he worked at the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology and Kharkiv University, where he founded the Kharkiv School of Theoretical Physics and began the creation of a world-famous multi-volume course on theoretical physics, which trained more than one generation of physicists and astronomers. He is one of the leading theoretical physicists of the 20th century.
During 1932–1937, he headed the theoretical department of the Ukrainian Physical and Technical Institute (now the National Scientific Center "Kharkiv Physical and Technical Institute"), and headed the Department of General Physics of the Kharkiv State University (now the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University).
In 1934, he was awarded the scientific degree of Doctor of Sciences based on a set of works.
Since 1937, he worked at the Institute of Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, managing the theoretical department.
in 1938 predicted the existence of neutron stars.
In April 1938, Landau in Moscow Сity edits a leaflet written by M. A. Korets calling for the "Anti-Fascist Workers' Party" to overthrow the Stalinist regime, in which Stalin is called a fascist dictator, equal to Hitler and Mussolini in "his mad hatred of this socialism". The text of the leaflet was given to the anti-Stalinist group of IFLA students for distribution by post before the May Day holidays. This intention was revealed by the state security authorities of the USSR. Landau, Korets and Y. B. Rumer were arrested in the morning of April 28 for anti-Soviet agitation. On May 3, 1938, Landau was removed from the list of employees of the IFP. Landau spent a year in prison and was released thanks to a letter in his defense from Niels Bohr and the intervention of Kapitza, who took Landau "on bail". On April 28, 1939, the Decree of the NKVD of the USSR was signed on the termination of the case against Landau and his transfer to bail. Landau was reinstated in the list of IFP employees. After his release and until his death, Landau remained an employee of the Institute for Physical Problems. Landau was rehabilitated only 22 years after his death.
In 1941, he created the theory of quantum fluid.
Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of the USSR against fascist Germany, which was part of World War II, he was in evacuation in Kazakhstan.
During the 1943-1947 academic years, he taught at the department of low-temperature physics at Moscow State University, and during 1947-1950 - at the department of general physics.
On April 30, 1943, the scientist was awarded the Badge of Honor.
On June 10, 1945, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
In 1946, the scientist was elected Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
In the early 1950s, he was part of a group of physicists working on the Atomic Bomb project.
In 1954, he received the title of "Hero of Socialist Labor".
Since 1956, he has been a foreign member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.
In 1960, the theoretical physicist became a Laureate of the Max Planck Medal (Germany), received the Fritz London Prize.
In 1962, the scientist became a laureate of the Lenin Prize.
In 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for studying condensed media and helium.
In January 1962, the impact of a truck on an ice-covered road cut short his life in science, leaving him six years of torment and meaningless existence. In addition to severe physical injuries, the consequences of the accident were also partial memory loss.
He was the laureate of three Stalin prizes in 1946, 1949 and 1953.
The scientist was a member of many foreign academies and societies: since 1960 he was a member of the Royal Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the US National Academy of Sciences, since 1951 he was a member of the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences, from 1956 of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, since 1964 he was a member of the Academy of Sciences "Leopoldina" in Germany, and he was also a member of the French Physical Society and, since 1959, of the London Physical Society.
He died on April 1, 1968 in Moscow City.
L. Landau's scientific interests include the origin of stellar energy, sound dispersion, superconductivity, magnetic properties of materials, and properties of liquid helium. He is one of the founders of the theory of superconductivity.
A small planet #2142 Landau and a crater on the Moon got his name.
Main publications:
1. Ландау Л.Д., Лившиц Е.М. теория поля.- М.: Наука, 1985
2. Гамов Г. А., Иваненко Д. Д., Ландау Л. Д. Мировые постоянные и предельный переход // Журнал русского физ.-хим. общества. Часть физическая. — 1928. — Т. 60. — С. 13—17
3. Iwanenko D., Landau L. Zur theorie des magnetischen electrons. I (нем.) // Zeitschrift für Physik. — 1928. — Bd. 48. — S. 340—348.
4. Iwanenko D., Landau L. Zur albeitung der Klein-Fockschen gleichung (нем.) // Zeitschrift für Physik. — 1927. — Bd. 40. — S. 161—162.
Sources:
1 На картах Солнечной системы/ Ю. В. Александров//UNIVERSITATES. Наука и просвещение. –2003. – № 3 (15)- С.235.
2 Софроний В. В. Лев Давидович Ландау //
UNIVERSITATES. Наука и просвещение. – 2008. –
№ 1. – С. 60–73.
3 Академик Лев Давидович Ландау. М.: Знание, 1978. 62 с.
4 Наблюдение и факт в астрономии / Колчинский И. Г. - Киев: Наукова думка, 1982.-104 с.- С.59.
