Lev Landau
Lev Davidovich Landau (
Russian language: Ле́в "ави́дович Ланда́у) (
January 22,
1908 –
April 1,
1968) was a prominent
Soviet physicist, who made fundamental contributions to many areas of
theoretical physics. His accomplishments include the co-discovery of the
density matrix method in
quantum mechanics, the quantum mechanical theory of
diamagnetism, the theory of
superfluidity, the theory of
second order phase transitions, the
Ginzburg-Landau theory of
superconductivity, the explanation of
Landau damping in
plasma physics, the
Landau pole in
quantum electrodynamics, and the two-component theory of
neutrinos. He received the
1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on superfluidity.
Early years
Landau was born January 22, 1908 into a
Jewish family in
Baku,
Azerbaijan. Recognized very early as a
child prodigy in
mathematics, Landau was quoted as saying in later life that he scarcely remembered a time when he was not familiar with
calculus. At the age of 14 (delayed at his parents' request for a year during which he attended the Baku Economic College), he enrolled at Baku University in
1922, studying in two departments simultaneously: the Physico-mathematical and the Chemical. In
1924 he moved to the Physics Department of
Leningrad University, graduating with a doctorate in
1927.
 |
Landau in his youth |
The Landau school
Apart from his theoretical accomplishments, Landau was the principal founder of a great tradition of theoretical physics in the Soviet Union, sometimes referred to as the "Landau school". He was the head of the Theoretical Division at the
Institute for Physical Problems from
1937 until
1962 when, as a result of a road accident, he suffered injuries from which he was never fully to recover. His students include
Alexei Abrikosov,
Evgeny Lifshitz,
Lev Gorkov,
Isaak Khalatnikov, and
Boris Ioffe.
Landau developed a 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 only 43 candidates ever passed.
He also co-authored, with
Lifshitz, a beloved series of
graduate-level physics textbooks that are still widely used.
During the
Great Purge Landau was investigated within the
UPTI Affair in
Kharkov, but he hopefully left to
Moscow. Still, he was arrested on
April 27,
1938 and luckily released on
April 29,
1939 after the intervention of
Pyotr Kapitsa.
* vol. 1: "Mechanics". L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz
* vol. 2: "The Classical Theory of Fields". L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz
* vol. 3: "Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory". L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz
* vol. 4: "Quantum Electrodynamics". V. B. Berestetskii, E. M. Lifshitz and L. P. Pitaevskii
* vol. 5: "Statistical Physics Pt. 1". L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz
* vol. 6: "Fluid Mechanics". L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz
* vol. 7: "Theory of Elasticity". L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz
* vol. 8: "Electrodynamics of Continuous Media". L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz and L. P. Pitaevskii
* vol. 9: "Statistical Physics Pt. 2". E. M. Lifshitz, L. P. Pitaevskii
* vol. 10: "Physical Kinetics". E. M. Lifshitz, L. P. Pitaevskii
*Dorozynski, Alexander (1965).
The Man They Wouldn't Let Die. (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.)
*
Landau-Drobantseva, Kora (1999). Professor Landau: How We Lived (in Russian)LANDAU The physicist and the men. Recollections of LDLandau. Edited by IMKhalatnikov. Translated from the Russian by JBSykes. Pergamon Press, (1989).
*
Landau-Hopf theory of turbulence*
*
Lev Davidovich Landau*
Landau's Theoretical Minimum, Landau's Seminar, ITEP in the Beginning of the 1950's by
Boris L. Ioffe, Concluding talk at the workshop
QCD at the Threshold of the Fourth Decade/Ioeffest.
