Matvei Petrovich Bronstein And Soviet Theoretical Physics In The Thirties

Author : Gennady E. Gorelik,Victor Ya. Frenkel
Publisher : Birkhäuser
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 9783034884884

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Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties by Gennady E. Gorelik,Victor Ya. Frenkel Pdf

The true history of physics can only be read in the life stories of those who made its progress possible. Matvei Bronstein was one of those for whom the vast territory of theoretical physics was as familiar as his own home: he worked in cosmology, nuclear physics, gravitation, semiconductors, atmospheric physics, quantum electrodynamics, astro physics and the relativistic quantum theory. Everyone who knew him was struck by his wide knowledge, far beyond the limits of his trade. This partly explains why his life was closely intertwined with the social, historical and scientific context of his time. One might doubt that during his short life Bronstein could have made truly weighty contributions to science and have become, in a sense, a symbol ofhis time. Unlike mathematicians and poets, physicists reach the peak oftheir careers after the age of thirty. His thirty years of life, however, proved enough to secure him a place in theGreaterSovietEncyclopedia. In 1967, in describing the first generation of physicists educated after the 1917 revolution, Igor Tamm referred to Bronstein as "an exceptionally brilliant and promising" theoretician [268].

Author : Gennady Gorelik,Victor Ya. Frenkel
Publisher : Birkhäuser
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2024-06-26
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 3034884893

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Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties by Gennady Gorelik,Victor Ya. Frenkel Pdf

The true history of physics can only be read in the life stories of those who made its progress possible. Matvei Bronstein was one of those for whom the vast territory of theoretical physics was as familiar as his own home: he worked in cosmology, nuclear physics, gravitation, semiconductors, atmospheric physics, quantum electrodynamics, astro physics and the relativistic quantum theory. Everyone who knew him was struck by his wide knowledge, far beyond the limits of his trade. This partly explains why his life was closely intertwined with the social, historical and scientific context of his time. One might doubt that during his short life Bronstein could have made truly weighty contributions to science and have become, in a sense, a symbol ofhis time. Unlike mathematicians and poets, physicists reach the peak oftheir careers after the age of thirty. His thirty years of life, however, proved enough to secure him a place in theGreaterSovietEncyclopedia. In 1967, in describing the first generation of physicists educated after the 1917 revolution, Igor Tamm referred to Bronstein as "an exceptionally brilliant and promising" theoretician [268].

Author : Геннадий Ефимович Горелик,Виктор Яковлевич Френкель
Publisher : Birkhauser
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : Science
ISBN : 0817627529

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Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties by Геннадий Ефимович Горелик,Виктор Яковлевич Френкель Pdf

The short life and tragic death of Matvei Petrovich Bronstein (1906-1938) may be seen as a symbol of the man's time and his country. One of the most remarkable features of Soviet history was the impressive advance of its physical sciences against the brutal and violent background of totalitarianism. Soviet advances in nuclear and space technology form an important part of world history. These achievements had their roots in the 30s, when Bronstein's generation entered science. Among his friends were the famous physicists Lev Landau and George Gamow. Bronstein worked in the vast field of theoretical physics, ranging from nuclear physics to astrophysics and from relativistic quantum theory to cosmology. His pioneering work on quantizing gravitation goes beyond the history of physics, because today the quantum theory of gravitation occupies a special place in fundamental physics. Bronstein was also a master of scientific explanation thanks to his profound knowledge, enthusiasm as a teacher and a gift for literature. This enabled him to write popular science for children, the widest and most responsive group of readers. He became a writer with the help of his wife Lidiya Chukovskaya, known now as an outstanding writer and fighter for human rights. Bronstein's life was closely intertwined with the social, historical and scientific context of one of the most tragic and intriguing periods of Russian history.

Author : Sean Winkler
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2022-11-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781538147597

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Boris Hessen and Philosophy by Sean Winkler Pdf

In 1931, Soviet philosopher, Boris Hessen presented a paper at the Second International Congress of the History of Science and Technology in London, England. It was a watershed moment, marking the founding of the ‘externalist’ approach to the history and philosophy of science. Five years after this talk, however, Hessen was executed in what became Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge of the 1930s. Nearly a century after his death, we still know all too little about this pioneering figure and his expansive oeuvre. In this book, Sean Winkler provides a reading of Hessen’s philosophy and its unique approach to understanding the relationship between socioeconomic development, technological progress and natural scientific theory. To further encourage the study of Hessen, the book also includes first-time translations of his contributions to the Soviet Encyclopedia. Through a systematic analysis, Winkler reflects upon Hessen’s contribution to the history and philosophy of science of the past and his possible significance in the world today.

Author : Sasaki Chikara,Sugiura Mitsuo,Joseph W. Dauben
Publisher : Birkhäuser
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2013-03-09
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 9783034875219

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The Intersection of History and Mathematics by Sasaki Chikara,Sugiura Mitsuo,Joseph W. Dauben Pdf

Author : Anja Skaar Jacobsen
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2012-01-16
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9789814452083

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Léon Rosenfeld by Anja Skaar Jacobsen Pdf

Léon Rosenfeld (1904–1974) was a remarkable, many-sided physicist of exceptional erudition. He was at the center of modern physics and was well-known as Niels Bohr's close collaborator and spokesman. Besides he reflected deeply on the history and philosophy of science and its social role from a leftist perspective. As both actor and acute spectator of modern physics and as a polyglot cosmopolitan whose life crossed those of many important people in both the East and West, as well as by virtue of his close collaboration and friendship with Bohr, Rosenfeld was an important figure in twentieth century physics. His biography illuminates the development, popularization, and reception of quantum physics and its interpretation in addition to the development of the political Left. The book draws extensively from previously untapped, unpublished sources in more than five languages.Contents: Physicist of the Second Quantum GenerationRosenfeld in CopenhagenPhysics, Philosophy, and Politics in the 1930sSurviving the War in UtrechtCold War and Political CommitmentBohr's Cold Warrior Readership: Students and professionals studying the history of science.

Author : Chris Talbot,Olga Pattison
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2021-05-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030700454

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Boris Hessen: Physics and Philosophy in the Soviet Union, 1927–1931 by Chris Talbot,Olga Pattison Pdf

This book presents key works of Boris Hessen, outstanding Soviet philosopher of science, available here in English for the first time. Quality translations are accompanied by an editors' introduction and annotations. Boris Hessen is known in history of science circles for his “Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s Principia” presented in London (1931), which inspired new approaches in the West. As a philosopher and a physicist, he was tasked with developing a Marxist approach to science in the 1920s. He studied the history of physics to clarify issues such as reductionism and causality as they applied to new developments. With the philosophers called the “Dialecticians”, his debates with the opposing “Mechanists” on the issue of emergence are still worth studying and largely ignored in the many recent works on this subject. Taken as a whole, the book is a goldmine of insights into both the foundations of physics and Soviet history.

Author : Shifman Misha
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 556 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2015-08-28
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789814619318

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Physics In A Mad World by Shifman Misha Pdf

This book tells captivating stories of misadventures of two renowned theoretical physicists in the Soviet Union. The first part is devoted to Friedrich (Fritz) Houtermans, an outstanding Dutch-Austrian-German physicist who was the first to suggest that the source of stars' energy is thermonuclear fusion, and also made a number of other important contributions to cosmochemistry and geochemistry. In 1935, Houtermans, a German communist, in an attempt to save his life from Hilter's Gestapo, fled to the Soviet Union. He took up an appointment at the Kharkov Physico-Technical Institute, working there for two years with the Russian physicist Valentin P Fomin. In the Great Purge of 1937, Houtermans was arrested in December by the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police, KGB's predecessor). He was tortured, and confessed to being a Trotskyist plotter and German spy, out of fear of threats against his wife Charlotte. However, Charlotte had already escaped from the Soviet Union to Denmark, after which she went to England and finally the USA. As a result of the Hilter-Stalin Pact of 1939, Houtermans was turned over to the Gestapo in May 1940 and imprisoned in Berlin.The second part consists of two essays that narrate the life story of Yuri Golfand, one of the codiscoverers of supersymmetry, a major discovery in theoretical physics in the 20th century. In 1973, just two years after the publication of his seminal paper, he was fired from the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow. Because of his Jewish origin he could find no job. Under such circumstances, he applied for an exit visa to Israel, but his application was denied. Yuri Golfand became a refusnik and joined the Human rights movement, along with two other prominent physicists, Andrei Sakharov and Yuri Orlov. To earn his living, he had to do manual work, repeatedly being intimidated by KGB. Only 18 years later, shortly before the demise of the Soviet Union, did he obtain permission to leave the country, emigrating to Israel in 1990.These personal life stories of two outstanding theorists are interwined with the tragedies of the 20th century and make for compelling reading.

Author : Kojevnikov Alexei B
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2004-08-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781911298274

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Stalin's Great Science: The Times And Adventures Of Soviet Physicists by Kojevnikov Alexei B Pdf

World-class science and technology developed in the Soviet Union during Stalin's dictatorial rule under conditions of political violence, lack of international contacts, and severe restrictions on the freedom of information. Stalin's Great Science: The Times and Adventures of Soviet Physicists is an invaluable book that investigates this paradoxical success by following the lives and work of Soviet scientists — including Nobel Prize-winning physicists Kapitza, Landau, and others — throughout the turmoil of wars, revolutions, and repression that characterized the first half of Russia's twentieth century.The book examines how scientists operated within the Soviet political order, communicated with Stalinist politicians, built a new system of research institutions, and conducted groundbreaking research under extraordinary circumstances. Some of their novel scientific ideas and theories reflected the influence of Soviet ideology and worldview and have since become accepted universally as fundamental concepts of contemporary science. In the process of making sense of the achievements of Soviet science, the book dismantles standard assumptions about the interaction between science, politics, and ideology, as well as many dominant stereotypes — mostly inherited from the Cold War — about Soviet history in general. Science and technology were not only granted unprecedented importance in Soviet society, but they also exerted a crucial formative influence on the Soviet political system itself. Unlike most previous studies, Stalin's Great Science recognizes the status of science as an essential element of the Soviet polity and explores the nature of a special relationship between experts (scientists and engineers) and communist politicians that enabled the initial rise of the Soviet state and its mature accomplishments, until the pact eroded in later years, undermining the communist regime from within.

Author : L. J. Reinders
Publisher : Springer
Page : 351 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2018-02-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783319720982

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The Life, Science and Times of Lev Vasilevich Shubnikov by L. J. Reinders Pdf

This book describes the life, times and science of the Soviet physicist Lev Vasilevich Shubnikov (1901-1937). From 1926 to 1930 Shubnikov worked in Leiden where he was the co-discoverer of the Shubnikov-De Haas effect. After his return to the Soviet Union he founded in Kharkov in Ukraine the first low-temperature laboratory in the Soviet Union, which in a very short time became the foremost physics institute in the country and among other things led to the discovery of type-II superconductivity. In August 1937 Shubnikov, together with many of his colleagues, was arrested and shot early in November 1937. This gripping story gives deep insights into the pioneering work of Soviet physicists before the Second World War, as well as providing much previously unpublished information about their brutal treatment at the hands of the Stalinist regime.

Author : Jonathan Bain
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2016-04-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780191044557

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CPT Invariance and the Spin-Statistics Connection by Jonathan Bain Pdf

This book seeks to answer the question "What explains CPT invariance and the spin-statistics connection?" These properties play foundational roles in relativistic quantum field theories (RQFTs), are supported by high-precision experiments, and figure into explanations of a wide range of phenomena, from antimatter, to the periodic table of the elements, to superconductors and superfluids. They can be derived in RQFTs by means of the famous CPT and Spin-Statistics theorems; but, the author argues, these theorems cannot be said to explain these properties, at least under standard philosophical accounts of scientific explanation. This is because there are multiple, in some cases incompatible, ways of deriving these theorems, and, secondly, because the theorems fail for the types of theories that underwrite the empirical evidence: non-relativistic quantum theories, and realistic interacting RQFTs. The goal of this book is to work towards an understanding of CPT invariance and the spin-statistics connection by first providing an analysis of the necessary and sufficient conditions for these properties, and second by advocating a particular account of explanation appropriate for this context.

Author : Paul Forman,Cathryn Carson,A. B. Kozhevnikov
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 560 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789814293112

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Weimar Culture and Quantum Mechanics by Paul Forman,Cathryn Carson,A. B. Kozhevnikov Pdf

This volume reprints Paul Forman's classic papers on the history of physics in post-World War I Germany and the invention of quantum mechanics. The Forman thesis has become famous as the first argument in favor of the cultural conditioning of scientific knowledge, in particular for its demonstration of the historical connection between the culture of Weimar Germany — known for its irrationality and antiscientism — and the emerging concept of quantum acausality. At the 2007 international conference in Vancouver, Canada, leading historians of physics discussed the implications of the Forman thesis in the historiography of modern science. Their papers collected in this volume represent a cutting-edge research on the history of quantum revolution.

Author : Dean Rickles
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2020-03-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780199602957

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Covered with Deep Mist by Dean Rickles Pdf

The problem of quantum gravity is often viewed as the most pressing unresolved problem of modern physics: our theories of spacetime and matter, described respectively by general relativity (Einstein's theory of gravitation and spacetime) and quantum mechanics (our best theory of matter and the other forces of nature) resist unification. Covered with Deep Mist provides the first book-length treatment of the history of quantum gravity, focusing on its origins and earliest stages of development until the mid-1950s. Readers will be guided through the impacts on the problem of quantum gravity resulting from changes in the two ingredient theories, quantum theory and general relativity, which were themselves still under construction in the years studied. We examine how several of the core approaches of today were formed in an era when the field was highly unfashionable. The book aims to be accessible to a broad range of readers and goes beyond a merely technical examination to include social and cultural factors involved in the changing fortunes of the field. Suitable for both newcomers and seasoned quantum gravity professionals, the book will shine new light on this century-old, unresolved problem.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2024-06-26
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9789814479356

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Sir Rudolf Peierls by Anonim Pdf

Author : Rudolf Ernst Peierls,Sabine Lee
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 889 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789812790989

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Sir Rudolf Peierls by Rudolf Ernst Peierls,Sabine Lee Pdf

Noncommutative differential geometry is a novel approach to geometry that is paving the way for exciting new directions in the development of mathematics and physics. The contributions in this volume are based on papers presented at a workshop dedicated to enhancing international cooperation between mathematicians and physicists in various aspects of frontier research on noncommutative differential geometry. The active contributors present both the latest results and comprehensive reviews of topics in the area. The book is accessible to researchers and graduate students interested in a variety of mathematical areas related to noncommutative geometry and its interface with modern theoretical physics.