Nobel Prize-winning Soviet physicist behind the hydrogen bomb: Who is Lev Landau?

The effects of his work are seen in all Soviet physics and even Soviet mathematics.

However, as a result of the strange period in which he lived, he is also remembered as a difficult person to understand. “Landau Attention! It bites” is an indication that he is aware of this situation.

The center of Soviet theoretical physics was mostly centered around Landau's place. He continued his research initially in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and later in Moscow. During this period, he trained many students and conducted much research with them.

Lev Davidovich Landau (22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics. His accomplishments include the independent co-discovery of the density matrix method in quantum mechanics (alongside John von Neumann), the quantum mechanical theory of diamagnetism, the theory of superfluidity, the theory of second-order phase transitions, invention of order parameter technique, the Ginzburg–Landau theory of superconductivity, the theory of Fermi liquids, the explanation of Landau damping in plasma physics, the Landau pole in quantum electrodynamics, the two-component theory of neutrinos, and Landau's equations for S matrix singularities.

Western physics literature was available to these physicists, but no direct Western input. As a result, Soviet-era scientists were able to look at problems independently, which often led them to new conclusions. Therefore, today, although we do not know much about his name, it is considered that there is no field of physics in which Lev Landau did not make one or more seminal contributions.

Landau had a system that he used to classify theoretical physicists into four categories. The best category was a triangle. He characterized such physicists as able to come up with great new ideas and at the same time master all the techniques needed to develop that idea. The next category was diamond, which he used for people who created new ideas but did not have the stamina and technical skills to fully develop those ideas.

Then came the square. Although these individuals could not come up with great ideas, they were able to develop an idea that was already in circulation. The worst of Landau's categories was the inverted triangle. These people did not have an original idea, nor did they have the ability to develop the ideas of others.

In this system he used to rank physicists, there were Heisenberg, Dirac, and a few others, as well as a special upper class reserved for Newton and Einstein, among the physicists, referred to as triangles. He would include himself in this category when he came up with the theory of superfluidity, which ultimately won the Nobel Prize.

Who Was Lev Landau?

Lev Landau was the son of David Lvovich Landau, an engineer who worked in the oil fields near Baku. His mother was the pharmacologist Lyubov Harkavy-Landau. He came from a Central Asian Jewish family from which many scientists came out. He finished school as early as 1921 and from 1922 studied at the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry of Baku University.

In 1924 he transferred to the physics department of Leningrad University. His first publication was published in 1926 and he graduated from the Department of Physics at the age of 19. Landau continued his education in Zurich, Copenhagen, and Cambridge with a state scholarship in the 1930s. In this process, he took part in the research of famous physicists such as Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli. Especially his work with Bohr increased Landau's interest in theoretical physics.

Returning to the Soviet Union in 1932, Landau became the head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Institute of Physics and Technology of Kharkiv University. In 1933, he became a professor of physics. In 1937, he accepted an invitation and became head of the theoretical physics department of the Institute of Physics in Moscow.

However, in April 1938, Landau, along with his friends Moisei Korez and Yuri Rumer, was to be arrested as a result of a leaflet they wanted to distribute on May 1. As a result, he would have to spend a full year in the notorious Lyubyanka prison. This prison sentence would be a devastating experience for him.

Even spending a year in prison in 1938 did not dampen his enthusiasm for further achievements in physics. Between 1941 and 1947, Lev Landau wrote many articles. He worked in many branches of theoretical physics, including atomic collisions, astrophysics, low-temperature physics, atomic and nuclear physics, thermodynamics, quantum electrodynamics, kinetic theory of gases, quantum field theory, and plasma physics. He theoretically explained the superfluidity of liquid helium. His theoretical work was proven by many experimental applications over the next decade.

During the war, he worked on the physics of combustion and explosion theories. Landau did some work on the Soviet atomic bomb in the second half of the 1940s. He did the mathematical calculations on the project and published several papers that were the result of this work.

He made significant contributions to the Soviet Union's atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb research work. It wasn't a job he wanted to do, but he felt compelled to do it, especially after he had been arrested and imprisoned a few years ago.

He received the Stalin Prize and the Hero of Socialist Labor Award for his contribution to the development of the first thermonuclear bomb. In 1946 he was accepted as a full member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962 for his "pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium". But he could not celebrate his success

Lev Landau lived the last years of his life struggling with problems

On January 7, 1962, Landau was involved in a car accident on the way from Moscow to Dubna. The road was slippery and his car crashed into an oncoming truck. Although the others in his car survived the accident with only minor cuts and bruises, Landau suffered serious internal injuries and fractures. He remained unconscious for six weeks in a hospital in Moscow.