Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich
(, ; 8 March 1914 – 2 December 1987), also known as YaB,
was a leading
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
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 cau ...
of
Belarusian origin, who is known for his prolific contributions in physical
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...
, physics of
thermonuclear reactions, combustion, and
hydrodynamical phenomena.
From 1943, Zeldovich, a self-taught physicist, started his career by playing a crucial role in the development of the former
Soviet program of nuclear weapons. In 1963, he returned to academia to embark on pioneering contributions on the fundamental understanding of the
thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed b ...
of
black hole
A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
s and expanding the scope of physical cosmology.
Biography
Early life and education
Yakov Zeldovich was born into a
Belarusian Jewish family in his grandfather's house in
Minsk
Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...
.
However, in mid-1914, the Zeldovich family moved to
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
. They resided there until August 1941, when the family was evacuated together with the faculty of the
Institute of Chemical Physics to
Kazan
Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...
to avoid the
Axis Invasion of the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.
They remained in Kazan until the summer of 1943, when Zeldovich moved to Moscow.
His father, Boris Naumovich Zeldovich, was a lawyer; his mother, Anna Petrovna Zeldovich (née Kiveliovich), a translator from French to Russian, was a member of the
Writer's Union.
Despite being born into a devoted and religious Jewish family, Zeldovich was an "absolute
atheist".
Zeldovich was an
autodidact. He was regarded as having a remarkably versatile intellect, and during his life he explored and made major contributions to a wide range of scientific endeavors.
From a given opportunity in May 1931, he secured an appointment as a laboratory assistant at the
Institute of Chemical Physics of the
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, and remained associated with the institute for the remainder of his life.
As a laboratory assistant, he received preliminary instructions on the topics involved in the
physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...
and built up his reputation among his seniors at the Institute of Chemical Physics.
From 1932 to 1934, Zeldovich attended the undergraduate courses on physics and mathematics at the Leningrad State University (now
Saint Petersburg State University), and later attended the technical lectures on introductory physics at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (now
Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University).
In 1936, he was successful in his candidacy for the
Candidate of Science degree (a Soviet equivalent of PhD), having successfully defended his dissertation on the topic of the "
adsorption and
catalysis
Catalysis () is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quick ...
on heterogeneous surfaces".
The centrality of his thesis focused towards the research on the ''Freundlich (or classical) adsorption isotherm'', and Zeldovich discovered the theoretical foundation of this empirical observation.
In 1939, Zeldovich prepared his dissertation based on the mathematical theory of the physical interpretation of
nitrogen oxidation, and successfully received the
Doctor of Sciences in
mathematical physics
Mathematical physics is the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the de ...
when it was reviewed by
Alexander Frumkin.
Zeldovich discovered its mechanism, known in
physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...
as the
thermal mechanism or
Zeldovich mechanism.
Soviet program of nuclear weapons
Zeldovich is regarded as a secret principal of the
Soviet nuclear weapons project; his travels abroad were highly restricted, to Eastern Europe, under close Soviet security.
Soon after the discovery of
nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactiv ...
(by German chemist
Otto Hahn in 1939) Russian physicists had begun investigating the scope of nuclear-fission physics, and undertook seminars on that topic;
Igor Kurchatov and
Yulii Khariton
Yulii Borisovich Khariton (; 27 February 1904 – 18 December 1996) was a Russian people, Russian physicist who was a leading scientist in the former Soviet atomic bomb project, Soviet program of nuclear weapons.
Since the initiation of the So ...
were engaged in 1940.
In May 1941, Zeldovich worked with Khariton in constructing a theory, on the kinetics of nuclear reactions in the presence of the
critical conditions.
The work of Khariton and Zeldovich was extended into theories of ignition,
combustion
Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...
and
detonation; these accounted for features which had not previously been correctly predicted, observed, nor explained.
The modern theory of detonation accordingly is called the
Zeldovich-von Neumann-Dohring, or ZND, theory, and its development involved tedious
fast neutron calculations; this work had been delayed, due to the
German invasion of the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, which obstructed progress on findings that in June 1941 would be de-classified.
In 1942, Zeldovich was relocated to
Kazan
Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...
, and tasked by the
People's Commissariat of Munitions to carry out work on conventional
gun powders to be supplied to the
Soviet Army, while Khariton was asked to design the new types of conventional weaponry.
In 1943,
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
decided to launch an
arms build-up of
nuclear weapons
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission, fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion, fusion reactions (thermonuclear weap ...
, under the charge of
Igor Kurchatov; the latter requested Stalin to relocate Zeldovich and Khariton to Moscow, in the nuclear weapons program.
Zeldovich joined
Igor Kurchatov's small team at this secretive laboratory in Moscow to launch the work on the nuclear combustion theory, and became a head of the theoretical department at the
Arzamas-16 in 1946.
With
Isaak Gurevich,
Isaak Pomeranchuk, and Khariton, Zeldovich prepared a scientific report on the feasibility of releasing energy through nuclear fusion triggered by an atomic explosion, and presented it to Igor Kurchatov.
Zeldovich had benefitted from physical and technical knowledge provided by German physicist
Klaus Fuchs and American physicist
Theodore Hall, who each had worked on the American
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
to develop nuclear weapons.
In 1949, Zeldovich led a team of physicists that conducted the first
nuclear test, the
RDS-1, based roughly on the
American design obtained through the
atomic spies in the United States, though he continued his fundamental work on explosive theory.
Zeldovich then began working on modernizing the successive
designs of the
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...
and initially conceived the idea of
hydrogen bomb
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lo ...
to
Andrei Sakharov and others.
In the course of his work on nuclear weapons, Zeldovich did ground-breaking work in radiation hydrodynamics, and the physics of matter at high pressure.
Between 1950 and 1953, Zeldovich performed calculations necessary for the feasibility of the
hydrogen bomb
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lo ...
that were verified by
Andrei Sakharov, although the two groups worked in parallel on the development of the thermonuclear fusion. However, it was Sakharov that radically changed the approach to thermonuclear fusion, aided by
Vitaly Ginzburg in 1952.
He remained associated with the nuclear testing program, while heading the experimental laboratories at
Arzamas
Arzamas (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Tyosha River (a tributary of the Oka River, Oka), east of Moscow. As of 2024, it has a population of 103,629.
History
Arzamas ...
-
16 until October 1963, when he left for academia.
Academia and cosmology
In 1952, Zeldovich began work in the field of
elementary particle
In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. The Standard Model presently recognizes seventeen distinct particles—twelve fermions and five bosons. As a c ...
s and their transformations. He predicted the
beta decay
In nuclear physics, beta decay (β-decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits a beta particle (fast energetic electron or positron), transforming into an isobar of that nuclide. For example, beta decay of a neutron ...
of a
pi meson. Together with
Semyon Gershtein he noticed the analogy between the
weak and
electromagnetic interactions, and in 1960, he predicted the
muon catalysis
Catalysis () is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quick ...
(more precisely, the muon-catalysed dt-fusion) phenomenon. In 1977, Zeldovich together with was awarded the
Kurchatov Medal, the highest award in nuclear physics of the Soviet Union. The citation was "for prediction of characteristics of ultracold
neutron
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...
s, their detection and investigation". He was elected academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences on 20 June 1958. He was a head of division at the
Institute of the Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1965 until January 1983.
In early 1960s, Zeldovich started working in
astrophysics and
physical cosmology
Physical cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the study of cosmological models. A cosmological model, or simply cosmology, provides a description of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and allows study of fu ...
. In 1964, he and independently
Edwin Salpeter were the first to suggest that
accretion discs around massive
black hole
A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
s are responsible for the huge amounts of energy radiated by
quasars
A quasar ( ) is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. The emission from an AGN is powered by accretion onto a supermassive black hole with a mass rangi ...
. From 1965, he was a professor at the Department of Physics of the
Moscow State University
Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
and a head of the division of
Relativistic Astrophysics at the
Sternberg Astronomical Institute. In 1966, he and
Igor Novikov were the first to propose searching for black hole candidates among binary systems in which one star is optically bright and X-ray dark and the other optically dark but X-ray bright (the black hole candidate).
Zeldovich worked on the theory of the evolution of the hot universe, the properties of the
microwave background radiation, the
large-scale structure of the universe, and the theory of
black hole
A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
s. He predicted, with
Rashid Sunyaev, that the cosmic microwave background should undergo inverse
Compton scattering. This is called the
Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, and measurements by telescopes such as the
Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the
South Pole Telescope has established it as one of the key observational probes of cluster cosmology. Zeldovich contributed sharp insights into the nature of the large scale structure of the universe, in particular, through the use of Lagrangian perturbation theory (the Zeldovich approximation) and the application of the Burgers' equation approach via the adhesion approximation.
In 1974, in collaboration with A. G. Polnarev, suggested the existence of a
gravitational memory effect, for which a system of freely falling particles initially at relative rest are displaced after the passing of a burst of
gravitational radiation
Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1893 and then later by ...
.
Black hole thermodynamics
Zeldovich played a key role in developing the theory of
black hole evaporation due to
Hawking radiation. Zeldovich and
Charles W. Misner concomitantly predicted the possibility of particle generation by rotating
Kerr black holes in 1971, 1972. Previously, In 1965, Zeldovich had predicted that Kerr black holes would split the emission lines of photons as in a Zeeman effect. During
Stephen Hawking's visit to Moscow in 1973, Soviet scientists Zeldovich and
Alexei Starobinsky showed Hawking that, according to the quantum mechanical
uncertainty principle
The uncertainty principle, also known as Heisenberg's indeterminacy principle, is a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics. It states that there is a limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties, such as position a ...
,
rotating black holes should create and emit particles.
Family
With his wife, Varvara Pavlovna Konstantinova, Yakov Zeldovich had a son and two daughters who were also physicists: son –
Boris Zeldovich;
daughters – Olga Yakovlevna Zeldovich and Marina Yakovlevna Zeldovich.
Zeldovich also had a daughter, Annushka, with O.K. Shiryaeva.
He had one more daughter in 1945, Alexandra Varkovitskaya, with a linguist and folklorist
Ludmila Varkovitskaya.
Zeldovich had another son with Nina Nikolaevna Agapova in 1958, whose name was Leonid Yakovlevich Agapov; he died in 2016 at the age of 58.
Publications
Books
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Awards and honors
Igor Kurchatov called him a "genius" and
Andrei Sakharov named him "a man of universal scientific interests." After the first meeting in Moscow,
Stephen W. Hawking wrote to Zeldovich: "now I know that you are a real person and not a group of scientists like
Bourbaki." He was a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
(1975), the United States
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
(1979), and the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
(1979).
*
Dirac Medal of the ICTP (1985)
*
Bruce Medal
The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was ...
(1983)
*
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1984).
*
Kurchatov Medal (1977)
*Three times
Hero of Socialist Labor (1949, 1953, 1957)
*
Stalin Prize (1943, 1949, 1951, 1953)
*
Lenin Prize (1957)
*Three
Orders of Lenin (1949, 1962, 1974)
*Two
Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1945,1964)
*
Order of the October Revolution
The Order of the October Revolution (, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on 31 October 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferred upon individuals or groups for services furthering communis ...
(1962)
*An
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
11438 Zeldovich was named in his honor in 2001
References
Further reading
* Overbye, D. ''Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe''. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Annotated Bibliography for Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues– page at the
Moscow State University
Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
dedicated to Zeldovich
Theory of combustion of unmixed gases – Zeldovich 1949, translated 1974
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeldovich, Yakov Borisovich
1914 births
1987 deaths
Scientists from Minsk
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Foreign members of the Royal Society
Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Academic staff of Moscow State University
Nuclear weapons program of the Soviet Union people
Heroes of Socialist Labour
Recipients of the Stalin Prize
Recipients of the Lenin Prize
Recipients of the Bruce Medal
Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Belarusian atheists
Belarusian Jews
Soviet astronomers
Belarusian astronomers
Soviet cosmologists
Fluid dynamicists
Jewish atheists
Particle physicists
Soviet inventors
Belarusian inventors
Soviet Jewish physicists
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Soviet Jewish scientists