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Yakov Abramovich Smorodinsky |
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Yakov Abramovich Smorodinsky (30.12.17
–16.10.92) and Leningrad State University
I.V. Komarov* St.-Petersburg State University, Physics Department Ya.A. Smorodinsky studied at Leningrad University
from 1934 to 1939.
When he entered the University the Physics Department was for a long time the first and the only Physics Department at universities of the country. Smorodinsky’s first scientific leader was Matvey Petrovich Bronshtein (1906-1938). In 1935 M.P. Bronshtein published the paper “On scattering of neutrons by protons” in the journal “Doklady Academii Nauk” (1935, v. 8, p.75). It was a variation of the theme of the classical paper by Bethe—Peierls. M.P. Bronshtein worked in many fields of theoretical physics; in 1935 he defended his thesis for a Doctor of Science degree on quantization of the gravitational field. Under the guidance of M.P. Bronshtein Ya.A. Smorodinsky began working on problems of low-energy nuclear physics. In October 1936 arrests began at the Department which continued for two years. The Department was deprived of the Dean, and of 11 Chairs of the Department 7 lost their Heads. In the spring of 1937 lectures were not given, because some of the lectors were arrested and the new ones were not ready to lecture. At that time Ya.A. Smorodinsky was a 3-4 year student. In August 1937 M.P. Bronshtein was arrested too. Even his wife, Lidiya Korneevna Chukovskaya, did not know what he was accused of. In December 1938 V.A. Fock wrote a letter advocating M.P. Bronshtein but he did not know that M.P. Bronshtein was shot in February 1938. Heads of all three theoretical chairs were arrested, only V.A. Fock was released after P.L.Kapitsa advocation. There was an attempt to establish one Chair of the remaining two and M.P. Bronshtein was supposed to be its Head. After his arrest this position was occupied by L.E. Gurevich. Soon all three theoretical Chairs were merged in the “joint Chair of theoretical physics”. The word “joint” was then lost and up to 1962 the Department had only one Chair of theoretical physics. Ya.A. Smorodinsky completed his graduation thesis under the supervision of L.E. Gurevich. The report of the Department reads: “On 1.04.1939 a 5-year student Y.A. Smorodinsky gave a talk “Modern Status of the Theory of Nuclear Systems” (adviser L.E. Gurevich).” As we see, as a student Ya. A. Smorodinsky was a witness and an unintentional participant of the drama of the country and the Physics Department of Leningrad State University. Then Ya.A. Smorodinsky entered the post-graduate courses to L.D. Landau (the latter was released in the summer of 1939) where Smorodinsky continued developing the problem stated by M.P. Bronshtein. In 1944, a famous paper on scattering protons by protons by Landau and Smorodinsky was published (Landau L. D., Smorodinsky Ya.A. Scattering of Protons by Protons // Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 1944. V. 14. P. 269.). *I should note that in the paper by Nyiri J., Smorodinsky Ya.A. "Eigenfunctions in the Problem of Three Bodies" // Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 1971. V. 12. P. 109, it was underscored that quantum analog of Kowalevsky's top is unknown. In many respects my own scientific nterests have been defined by this fact. |