Lev Davidovich Landau (russian: Лев Дави́дович Ланда́у; 22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
-
Azerbaijani physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
of Jewish descent who made fundamental contributions to many areas of
theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...
.
His accomplishments include the independent co-discovery of the
density matrix
In quantum mechanics, a density matrix (or density operator) is a matrix that describes the quantum state of a physical system. It allows for the calculation of the probabilities of the outcomes of any measurement performed upon this system, using ...
method
in
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
(alongside
John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
), the quantum mechanical theory of
diamagnetism
Diamagnetic materials are repelled by a magnetic field; an applied magnetic field creates an induced magnetic field in them in the opposite direction, causing a repulsive force. In contrast, paramagnetic and ferromagnetic materials are attracte ...
, the theory of
superfluidity
Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
, the theory of
second-order phase transition
In chemistry, thermodynamics, and other related fields, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states o ...
s, the
Ginzburg–Landau theory
In physics, Ginzburg–Landau theory, often called Landau–Ginzburg theory, named after Vitaly Ginzburg and Lev Landau, is a mathematical physical theory used to describe superconductivity. In its initial form, it was postulated as a phenomenol ...
of
superconductivity, the theory of
Fermi liquid
Fermi liquid theory (also known as Landau's Fermi-liquid theory) is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. The interactions among the particles of the many-body ...
s, the explanation of
Landau damping In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer,Landau, L. "On the vibration of the electronic plasma". ''JETP'' 16 (1946), 574. English translation in ''J. Phys. (USSR)'' 10 (1946), 25. Reproduced in Collected papers of L.D. Landau, edited a ...
in
, the
Landau pole
In physics, the Landau pole (or the Moscow zero, or the Landau ghost) is the momentum (or energy) scale at which the coupling constant (interaction strength) of a quantum field theory becomes infinite. Such a possibility was pointed out by the phy ...
in
quantum electrodynamics
In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and spec ...
, the two-component theory of
neutrino
A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...
s, and Landau's equations for ''S'' matrix singularities. He received the 1962
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
for his development of a mathematical theory of
superfluidity
Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
that accounts for the properties of
liquid
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...
helium II
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. It ...
at a temperature below ().
Life
Early years
![Rundyna5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Rundyna5.jpg)
Landau was born on 22 January 1908 to
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish parents
in
Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
, the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, in what is now
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
. Landau's father, David Lvovich Landau, was an engineer with the local oil industry, and his mother, Lyubov Veniaminovna Garkavi-Landau, was a doctor. Both came to Baku from Mogilev and both graduated the Mogilev gymnasium. He learned
differential calculus
In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus that studies the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus—the study of the area beneath a curve. ...
at age 12 and
integral calculus
In mathematics, an integral assigns numbers to Function (mathematics), functions in a way that describes Displacement (geometry), displacement, area, volume, and other concepts that arise by combining infinitesimal data. The process of finding ...
at age 13. Landau graduated in 1920 at age 13 from
gymnasium. His parents considered him too young to attend university, so for a year he attended the Baku Economical Technical School. In 1922, at age 14, he
matriculated
Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination.
Australia
In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...
at the
Baku State University
Baku State University (BSU) ( az, Bakı Dövlət Universiteti (BDU)) is a public university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Established in 1919 by the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the university started with faculties of history and ...
, studying in two departments simultaneously: the Departments of Physics and Mathematics, and the Department of Chemistry. Subsequently, he ceased studying chemistry, but remained interested in the field throughout his life.
Leningrad and Europe
In 1924, he moved to the main centre of Soviet physics at the time: the Physics Department of
Leningrad State University, where he dedicated himself to the study of theoretical physics, graduating in 1927. Landau subsequently enrolled for post-graduate studies at the
Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute where he eventually received a doctorate in Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1934. Landau got his first chance to travel abroad during the period 1929–1931, on a Soviet government—
People's Commissariat for Education The People's Commissariat for Education (or Narkompros; russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения, Наркомпрос, directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the Soviet agency charge ...
—travelling fellowship supplemented by a
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
fellowship. By that time he was fluent in German and French and could communicate in English. He later improved his English and learned Danish.
[ Bessarab, Maya (1971]
Страницы жизни Ландау
'' Московский рабочий''. Moscow
After brief stays in
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, he went to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
on 8 April 1930 to work at the
Niels Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics. He stayed there until 3 May of the same year. After the visit, Landau always considered himself a pupil of
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
and Landau's approach to physics was greatly influenced by Bohr. After his stay in Copenhagen, he visited
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
(mid-1930), where he worked with
Paul Dirac
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most significant physicists of the 20th century. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the Univer ...
,
Copenhagen (September to November 1930), and
Zurich (December 1930 to January 1931), where he worked with
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics fo ...
.
[ Mehra, Jagdish (2001) ''The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics'', Boxed Set of 2 Volumes, World Scientific, p. 952. .] From Zurich Landau went back to Copenhagen for the third time and stayed there from 25 February until 19 March 1931 before returning to Leningrad the same year.
National Scientific Center Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, Kharkiv
Between 1932 and 1937, Landau headed the Department of Theoretical Physics at the National Scientific Center
Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology
The National Science Center Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) ( uk, Національний науковий центр «Харківський фізико-технічний інститут»), formerly the Ukrainian Physics ...
, and he lectured at the
University of Kharkiv
The Kharkiv University or Karazin University ( uk, Каразінський університет), or officially V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University ( uk, Харківський національний університет імені ...
and the
Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute
The National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute" (NTU "KhPI") ( uk, Національний технічний університет "Харківський політехнічний інститут"), in the city of Kha ...
. Apart from his theoretical accomplishments, Landau was the principal founder of a great tradition of theoretical physics in
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.[Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...]
, sometimes referred to as the "Landau school". In Kharkiv, he and his friend and former student,
Evgeny Lifshitz
Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz (russian: Евге́ний Миха́йлович Ли́фшиц; February 21, 1915, Kharkiv, Russian Empire – October 29, 1985, Moscow, Russian SFSR) was a leading Soviet physicist and brother of the physicist ...
, began writing the ''
Course of Theoretical Physics
The ''Course of Theoretical Physics'' is a ten-volume series of books covering theoretical physics that was initiated by Lev Landau and written in collaboration with his student Evgeny Lifshitz starting in the late 1930s.
It is said that Land ...
'', ten volumes that together span the whole of the subject and are still widely used as
graduate-level physics texts. During the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
, Landau was investigated within the
UPTI Affair
UPTI Affair ( uk, Справа УФТІ, Sprava UFTI; russian: Дело УФТИ, Delo UFTI) was a criminal case against a number of scholars of the Ukrainian Physics and Technology Institute in Kharkov, Soviet Ukraine, by the GUGB during 1938, a ...
in Kharkiv, but he managed to leave for
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
to take up a new post.
[
Landau developed a famous comprehensive exam called the "Theoretical Minimum" which students were expected to pass before admission to the school. The exam covered all aspects of theoretical physics, and between 1934 and 1961 only 43 candidates passed, but those who did later became quite notable theoretical physicists.
In 1932, Landau computed the Chandrashekhar limit; however, he did not apply it to white dwarf stars.
]
Institute for Physical Problems, Moscow
From 1937 until 1962, Landau was the head of the Theoretical Division at the Institute for Physical Problems
P. L. Kapitza Institute for Physical ProblemsNamed after Pyotr Kapitsa. (russian: Институт физических проблем имени П. Л. Капицы РАН) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The institute was founded in 1934. T ...
.[
On 27 April 1938, Landau was arrested for a leaflet which compared Stalinism to ]German Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
and Italian Fascism. He was held in the NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
's Lubyanka prison
The Lubyanka ( rus, Лубянка, p=lʊˈbʲankə) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB, and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Ne ...
until his release, on 29 April 1939, after Pyotr Kapitsa
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa or Peter Kapitza ( Russian: Пётр Леонидович Капица, Romanian: Petre Capița ( – 8 April 1984) was a leading Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate, best known for his work in low-temperature physics ...
, an experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...
low-temperature physicist and the founder and head of the institute, wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
in which he personally vouched for Landau's behaviour and threatened to quit the institute if Landau was not released. After his release, Landau discovered how to explain Kapitsa's superfluidity using sound waves, or phonon
In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, Elasticity (physics), elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter physics, condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. A type of quasiparticle, a phon ...
s, and a new excitation called a roton
In theoretical physics, a roton is an elementary excitation, or quasiparticle, seen in superfluid helium-4 and Bose–Einstein condensates with long-range dipolar interactions or spin-orbit coupling. The dispersion relation of elementary excita ...
.[
Landau led a team of mathematicians supporting Soviet atomic and hydrogen bomb development. He calculated the dynamics of the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb, including predicting the yield. For this work Landau received the ]Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to:
* The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...
in 1949 and 1953, and was awarded the title " Hero of Socialist Labour" in 1954.[
Landau's students included ]Lev Pitaevskii
Lev Petrovich Pitaevskii (russian: Лев Петро́вич Пита́евский ; 18 January 1933 – 23 August 2022) was a Russian theoretical physicist, who made contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, low-temper ...
, Alexei Abrikosov, Aleksandr Akhiezer Aleksandr Ilyich Akhiezer ( ua, Олекса́ндр Іллі́ч Ахіє́зер, russian: Алекса́ндр Ильи́ч Ахие́зер; October 18, 1911 – May 4, 2000) was a Soviet and Ukrainian theoretical physicist, known for contri ...
, Igor Dzyaloshinskii
Igor Ekhielevich Dzyaloshinskii, (Игорь Ехиельевич Дзялошинский, surname sometimes transliterated as Dzyaloshinsky, Dzyaloshinski, Dzyaloshinskiĭ, or Dzyaloshinkiy, 1 February 1931, Moscow – 14 July 2021) was a Russia ...
, Evgeny Lifshitz
Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz (russian: Евге́ний Миха́йлович Ли́фшиц; February 21, 1915, Kharkiv, Russian Empire – October 29, 1985, Moscow, Russian SFSR) was a leading Soviet physicist and brother of the physicist ...
, Lev Gor'kov Lev Petrovich Gor'kov (russian: Лев Петро́вич Горько́в; 14 June 1929 – 28 December 2016) was a Russian-American research physicist internationally known for his pioneering work in the field of superconductivity. He was particul ...
, Isaak Khalatnikov
Isaak Markovych Khalatnykov ( uk, Ісаа́к Ма́ркович Хала́тников; 17 October 1919 – 9 January 2021) was a leading Soviet theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to many areas of theoretical physics, ...
, Roald Sagdeev
Roald Zinnurovich Sagdeev (russian: Роальд Зиннурович Сагдеев, tt-Cyrl, Роальд Зиннур улы Сәгъдиев; born 26 December 1932) is a Russian expert in plasma physics and a former director of the Space Res ...
and Isaak Pomeranchuk
Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk (russian: Исаа́к Я́ковлевич Померанчу́к (Polish spelling: Isaak Jakowliewicz Pomieranczuk); 20 May 1913, Warsaw, Russian Empire – 14 December 1966, Moscow, USSR) was a Soviet physicist ...
.
Scientific achievements
Landau's accomplishments include the independent co-discovery of the density matrix method
Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematically ...
in quantum mechanics (alongside John von Neumann), the quantum mechanical theory of diamagnetism
Diamagnetic materials are repelled by a magnetic field; an applied magnetic field creates an induced magnetic field in them in the opposite direction, causing a repulsive force. In contrast, paramagnetic and ferromagnetic materials are attracte ...
, the theory of superfluidity
Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
, the theory of second-order phase transition
In chemistry, thermodynamics, and other related fields, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states o ...
s, the Ginzburg–Landau theory
In physics, Ginzburg–Landau theory, often called Landau–Ginzburg theory, named after Vitaly Ginzburg and Lev Landau, is a mathematical physical theory used to describe superconductivity. In its initial form, it was postulated as a phenomenol ...
of superconductivity, the theory of Fermi liquid
Fermi liquid theory (also known as Landau's Fermi-liquid theory) is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. The interactions among the particles of the many-body ...
s, the explanation of Landau damping In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer,Landau, L. "On the vibration of the electronic plasma". ''JETP'' 16 (1946), 574. English translation in ''J. Phys. (USSR)'' 10 (1946), 25. Reproduced in Collected papers of L.D. Landau, edited a ...
in plasma physics, the Landau pole
In physics, the Landau pole (or the Moscow zero, or the Landau ghost) is the momentum (or energy) scale at which the coupling constant (interaction strength) of a quantum field theory becomes infinite. Such a possibility was pointed out by the phy ...
in quantum electrodynamics, the two-component theory of neutrinos, the explanation of flame instability (the Darrieus-Landau instability), and Landau's equations for S matrix singularities.
Landau received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity that accounts for the properties of liquid helium II at a temperature below 2.17 K (−270.98 °C)."
Personal life and views
In 1937, Landau married Kora T. Drobanzeva from Kharkiv.[ Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa, ''Experiment, Theory, Practice: Articles and Addresses'', Springer, 1980, , p. 329.] Their son Igor (1946–2011) became a theoretical physicist. Lev Landau believed in "free love
Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern ...
" rather than monogamy and encouraged his wife and his students to practise "free love". However, his wife was not enthusiastic.[
Landau was an atheist. In 1957, a lengthy report to the ]CPSU Central Committee
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, – TsK KPSS was the executive leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, acting between sessions of Congress. According to party statutes, the committee directe ...
by the KGB recorded Landau's views on the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
and what he termed "red fascism".
Last years
On 7 January 1962, Landau's car collided with an oncoming truck. He was severely injured and spent two months in a coma
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
. Although Landau recovered in many ways, his scientific creativity was destroyed, and he never returned fully to scientific work. His injuries prevented him from accepting the 1962 Nobel Prize for physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
in person.
Throughout his life Landau was known for his sharp humour, as illustrated by the following dialogue with a psychologist, Alexander Luria
Alexander Romanovich Luria (russian: Алекса́ндр Рома́нович Лу́рия, p=ˈlurʲɪjə; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He develope ...
, who tried to test for possible brain damage while Landau was recovering from the car crash:[Kora Drobantseva's memoirs](_blank)
Chapter 38, "The way we lived"; the episode with Alexander Luria
Alexander Romanovich Luria (russian: Алекса́ндр Рома́нович Лу́рия, p=ˈlurʲɪjə; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He develope ...
(in the original Russian text, referred to as ''Лурье'') testing Lev Landau on intellectual abilities
:Luria: "Please draw me a circle"
:Landau draws a cross
:Luria: "Hm, now draw me a cross"
:Landau draws a circle
:Luria: "Landau, why don't you do what I ask?"
:Landau: "If I did, you might come to think I've become mentally retarded".
In 1965 former students and co-workers of Landau founded the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics
The L. D. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics (russian: link=no, Институт теоретической физики имени Л. Д. Ландау (ИТФ)) of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a research institution, located in the s ...
, located in the town of Chernogolovka
Chernogolovka (russian: Черноголо́вка) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Center of the town is located some 43 km (27 miles) northeast of the Moscow city limit and 59 km (37 miles) from Red Square. Its population in 2018 ...
near Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, and led for the following three decades by Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov
Isaak Markovych Khalatnykov ( uk, Ісаа́к Ма́ркович Хала́тников; 17 October 1919 – 9 January 2021) was a leading Soviet theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to many areas of theoretical physics, ...
.
In June 1965, Lev Landau and Yevsei Liberman published a letter in the ''New York Times'', stating that as Soviet Jews
The history of the Jews in the Soviet Union is inextricably linked to much earlier expansionist policies of the Russian Empire conquering and ruling the eastern half of the European continent already before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. "For ...
they opposed U.S. intervention on behalf of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.
Death
Landau died on 1 April 1968, aged 60, from complications of the injuries sustained in the car accident he was involved in six years earlier. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Fields of contribution
*DLVO theory
The DLVO theory (named after Boris Derjaguin and Lev Landau, Evert Verwey and Theodoor Overbeek) explains the aggregation of aqueous dispersions quantitatively and describes the force between charged surfaces interacting through a liquid medium ...
*Fermi liquid theory
Fermi liquid theory (also known as Landau's Fermi-liquid theory) is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. The interactions among the particles of the many-body ...
*Quasiparticle
In physics, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely related emergent phenomena arising when a microscopically complicated system such as a solid behaves as if it contained different weakly interacting particles in vacuum.
For exa ...
* Ivanenko–Landau–Kähler equation
*Landau damping In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer,Landau, L. "On the vibration of the electronic plasma". ''JETP'' 16 (1946), 574. English translation in ''J. Phys. (USSR)'' 10 (1946), 25. Reproduced in Collected papers of L.D. Landau, edited a ...
*Landau distribution
In probability theory, the Landau distribution is a probability distribution named after Lev Landau.
Because of the distribution's "fat" tail, the moments of the distribution, like mean or variance, are undefined. The distribution is a particular ...
*Landau gauge
In the physics of gauge theories, gauge fixing (also called choosing a gauge) denotes a mathematical procedure for coping with redundant degrees of freedom in field variables. By definition, a gauge theory represents each physically distinct co ...
* Landau kinetic equation
*Landau pole
In physics, the Landau pole (or the Moscow zero, or the Landau ghost) is the momentum (or energy) scale at which the coupling constant (interaction strength) of a quantum field theory becomes infinite. Such a possibility was pointed out by the phy ...
* Landau susceptibility
*Landau potential
The grand potential is a quantity used in statistical mechanics, especially for irreversible processes in open systems.
The grand potential is the characteristic state function for the grand canonical ensemble.
Definition
Grand potential is def ...
*Landau quantization In quantum mechanics, Landau quantization refers to the quantization of the cyclotron orbits of charged particles in a uniform magnetic field. As a result, the charged particles can only occupy orbits with discrete, equidistant energy values, call ...
*Landau theory
Landau theory in physics is a theory that Lev Landau introduced in an attempt to formulate a general theory of continuous (i.e., second-order) phase transitions. It can also be adapted to systems under externally-applied fields, and used as a qua ...
* Landau–Squire jet
* Landau–Levich problem
* Landau–Hopf theory of turbulence
*Ginzburg–Landau theory
In physics, Ginzburg–Landau theory, often called Landau–Ginzburg theory, named after Vitaly Ginzburg and Lev Landau, is a mathematical physical theory used to describe superconductivity. In its initial form, it was postulated as a phenomenol ...
* Darrieus–Landau instability
* Landau–Lifshitz aeroacoustic equation
*Landau–Raychaudhuri equation
In general relativity, the Raychaudhuri equation, or Landau–Raychaudhuri equation, is a fundamental result describing the motion of nearby bits of matter.
The equation is important as a fundamental lemma for the Penrose–Hawking singularity the ...
*Landau–Zener formula
The Landau–Zener formula is an analytic solution to the equations of motion governing the transition dynamics of a two-state quantum system, with a time-dependent Hamiltonian varying such that the energy separation of the two states is a linea ...
*Landau–Lifshitz model
In solid-state physics, the Landau–Lifshitz equation (LLE), named for Lev Landau and Evgeny Lifshitz, is a partial differential equation describing time evolution of magnetism in solids, depending on 1 time variable and 1, 2, or 3 space variable ...
* Landau–Lifshitz pseudotensor
*Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation In physics, the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation, named for Lev Landau, Evgeny Lifshitz, and T. L. Gilbert, is a name used for a differential equation describing the precessional motion of magnetization in a solid. It is a modification by Gi ...
*Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect
In high-energy physics, the Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect, also known as the Landau–Pomeranchuk effect and the Pomeranchuk effect, or simply LPM effect, is a reduction of the bremsstrahlung and pair production cross sections at high energi ...
*Landau–Yang theorem In quantum mechanics, the Landau–Yang theorem is a selection rule for particles that decay into two on-shell photons. The theorem states that a massive particle with spin 1 cannot decay into two photons.
Assumptions
A photon here is any partic ...
*Landau principle
''S''-matrix theory was a proposal for replacing local quantum field theory as the basic principle of elementary particle physics.
It avoided the notion of space and time by replacing it with abstract mathematical properties of the ''S''-matri ...
* Stuart–Landau equation
*Superfluidity
Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
* Superconductivity
Pedagogy
*''Course of Theoretical Physics
The ''Course of Theoretical Physics'' is a ten-volume series of books covering theoretical physics that was initiated by Lev Landau and written in collaboration with his student Evgeny Lifshitz starting in the late 1930s.
It is said that Land ...
''
Legacy
Two celestial objects are named in his honour:
*the minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
2142 Landau.
*the lunar crater
Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated.
History
The wor ...
Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...
.
The highest prize in theoretical physics awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
is named in his honour:
*Landau Gold Medal
The Landau Gold Medal (russian: Премия имени Л. Д. Ландау) is the highest award in theoretical physics awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences and its predecessor the Soviet Academy of Sciences. It was established in 1971 ...
On 22 January 2019, Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
celebrated what would have been Landau's 111th birthday with a Google doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
.
The Landau-Spitzer Award (American Physical Society), which recognizes outstanding contributions to plasma physics and European-United States collaboration, is named in-part in his honor.
Landau's ranking of physicists
Landau kept a list of names of physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
s which he ranked on a logarithmic scale of productivity ranging from 0 to 5. The highest ranking, 0, was assigned to Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
. Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
was ranked 0.5. A rank of 1 was awarded to the founding fathers of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
, Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
, Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series ...
, Satyendra Nath Bose
Satyendra Nath Bose (; 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was a Bengali mathematician and physicist specializing in theoretical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for ...
, Paul Dirac
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most significant physicists of the 20th century. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the Univer ...
and Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (, ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist with Irish citizenship who developed a number of fundamental results in quantum theo ...
, and others, while members of rank of 5 were deemed "pathologists". Landau ranked himself as a 2.5 but later promoted to a 2. David Mermin
Nathaniel David Mermin (; born 30 March 1935) is a solid-state physicist at Cornell University best known for the eponymous Mermin–Wagner theorem, his application of the term " boojum" to superfluidity, his textbook with Neil Ashcroft on solid ...
, writing about Landau, referred to the scale, and ranked himself in the fourth division, in the article "My Life with Landau: Homage of a 4.5 to a 2".[
]
In popular culture
* The Russian television film ''My Husband – the Genius'' (translation of the Russian title ''Мой муж – гений'') released in 2008 tells the biography of Landau (played by Daniil Spivakovsky
Daniil Ivanovich Spivakovsky (russian: Даниил Иванович Спиваковский; August 28, 1969, Moscow) is a Russian film and theater actor, Honored Artist of Russia (2007). Head of the workshop of Theatre faculty of the Moscow In ...
), mostly focusing on his private life. It was generally panned by critics. People who had personally met Landau, including famous Russian scientist Vitaly Ginzburg
Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, ForMemRS (russian: Вита́лий Ла́заревич Ги́нзбург, link=no; 4 October 1916 – 8 November 2009) was a Russian physicist who was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003, together with ...
, said that the film was not only terrible but also false in historical facts.
* Another film about Landau, '' Dau'', is directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Ilya Andreyevich Khrzhanovsky (russian: Илья́ Андре́евич Хржановский; born 11 August 1975) is a Russian-born film director, screenwriter, film producer and member of the European Film Academy.
His father Andrei Khrzhano ...
with non-professional actor Teodor Currentzis
Teodor Currentzis ( el, Θεόδωρος Κουρεντζής ; born 24 February 1972) is a Greek-Russian conductor, musician and actor.
Biography
Currentzis was born in Athens, and at age 4 began to take piano lessons. At age 7, he began vio ...
(an orchestra conductor) as Landau. Dau was a common nickname of Lev Landau.[Дао Ландау]
. strf.ru (25 January 2008)
Works
Landau wrote his first paper '' On the derivation of Klein–Fock equation'', co-authored with Dmitri Ivanenko in 1926, when he was 18 years old. His last paper titled ''Fundamental problems'' appeared in 1960 in an edited version of tributes to Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics fo ...
. A complete list of Landau's works appeared in 1998 in the Russian journal ''Physics-Uspekhi''. Landau would allow himself to be listed as a co-author of a journal article on two conditions: 1) he brought up the idea of the work, partly or entirely, and 2) he performed at least some calculations presented in the article. Consequently, he removed his name from numerous publications of his students where his contribution was less significant.
''Course of Theoretical Physics''
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2nd ed. (1965)
at archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
*
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Other
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* in 4 volumes: volume 1 ''Physical bodies'' ; volume 2 ''Molecules'' ; volume 3 ''Electrons'' and volume 4 ''Photons and nuclei''; vols. 3 & 4 by Kitaigorodsky alone
See also
* List of Jewish Nobel laureates
Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 900 individuals, of whom at least 20% were Jews.
*
*
*
*
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*
The number of Jews receiving Nobel prizes has been the subject of some attention.*
*
*"Jews rank high among winners of Nobel, but why ...
* List of things named after Lev Landau
References
Further reading
;Books
* (After Landau's 1962 car accident, the physics community around him rallied to attempt to save his life. They managed to prolong his life until 1968.)
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;Articles
* Karl Hufbauer, "Landau's youthful sallies into stellar theory: Their origins, claims, and receptions", ''Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences'', 37 (2007), 337–354.
"As a student, Landau dared to correct Einstein in a lecture". Global Talent News.
*
Landau's Theoretical Minimum, Landau's Seminar, ITEP in the Beginning of the 1950s
by Boris L. Ioffe, Concluding talk at the workshop ''QCD at the Threshold of the Fourth Decade/Ioeffest''.
EJTP Landau Issue 2008.
* Ammar Sakaji and Ignazio Licata Ignazio Licata, born 1958, is an Italian theoretical physicist, professor and scientific director of the ''Institute for Scientific Methodology'', Italy.
Education and work
Licata has studied with David Bohm, Jean-Pierre Vigier, Abdus Salam and ...
(eds)
Lev Davidovich Landau and his Impact on Contemporary Theoretical Physics
Nova Science Publishers
Nova Science Publishers is an academic publisher of books, encyclopedias, handbooks, e-books and journals, based in Hauppauge, New York. It was founded in 1985. A prolific publisher of books, Nova has received criticism from librarians for not ...
, New York, 2009, .
* Gennady Gorelik
Gennady Gorelik (born 1948, Lviv) is a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University. A physicist by education and historian by occupation, he published ten books and many articles on popular science and ...
"The Top Secret Life of Lev Landau"
''Scientific American'', Aug. 1997, vol. 277(2), 53–57
JSTOR link
* Maya Bessarab
"Landau's Life Pages(in Russian)"
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Landau, Lev
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Nobel laureates in Physics
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Superfluidity