Lev Davidovich Landau
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Lev Davidovich Landau (; 22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a 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 ...
who made fundamental contributions to many areas of
theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...
. He was considered as one of the last scientists who were universally well-versed and made seminal contributions to all branches of physics. He is credited with laying the foundations of twentieth century
condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid State of matter, phases, that arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms and elec ...
, and is also considered arguably the greatest Soviet theoretical physicist. His accomplishments include the independent co-discovery of the
density matrix In quantum mechanics, a density matrix (or density operator) is a matrix used in calculating the probabilities of the outcomes of measurements performed on physical systems. It is a generalization of the state vectors or wavefunctions: while th ...
method in
quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
(alongside
John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...
), the quantum mechanical theory of
diamagnetism Diamagnetism is the property of materials that are repelled by a magnetic field; an applied magnetic field creates an induced magnetic field in them in the opposite direction, causing a repulsive force. In contrast, paramagnetic and ferromagnet ...
, the theory of
superfluidity Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
, the theory of
second-order phase transition In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic Sta ...
s, invention of
order parameter In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic s ...
technique, the
Ginzburg–Landau theory In physics, Ginzburg–Landau theory, often called Landau–Ginzburg theory, named after Vitaly Ginzburg and Lev Landau, is a mathematical physical theory used to describe superconductivity. In its initial form, it was postulated as a phenomen ...
of
superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...
, the theory of
Fermi liquid Fermi liquid theory (also known as Landau's Fermi-liquid theory) is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of the conduction electrons in most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. The theory describes the ...
s, the explanation of
Landau damping In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer,Landau, L. "On the vibration of the electronic plasma". ''JETP'' 16 (1946), 574. English translation in ''J. Phys. (USSR)'' 10 (1946), 25. Reproduced in Collected papers of L.D. Landau, edited ...
in
plasma physics Plasma () is a state of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including th ...
, the
Landau pole In physics, the Landau pole (or the Moscow zero, or the Landau ghost) is the momentum (or energy) scale at which the coupling constant (interaction strength) of a quantum field theory becomes infinite. Such a possibility was pointed out by the ph ...
in
quantum electrodynamics In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the Theory of relativity, relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quant ...
, the two-component theory of
neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...
s, and Landau's equations for ''S''-matrix singularities. He received the 1962
Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
for his development of a mathematical theory of
superfluidity Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
that accounts for the properties of
liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...
helium II Superfluid helium-4 (helium II or He-II) is the superfluid form of helium-4, the most common isotope of the element helium. The substance, which resembles other liquids such as helium I (conventional, non-superfluid liquid helium), flows without ...
at a temperature below ().


Life


Early years

Landau was born on 22 January 1908 to
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
parents in
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
, the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
, in what is now
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
. Landau's father, David Lvovich Landau, was an engineer with the local oil industry, and his mother, Lyubov Veniaminovna Garkavi-Landau, was a doctor. Both came to Baku from
Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...
and both graduated the Mogilev gymnasium. He learned
differential calculus In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus that studies the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus—the study of the area beneath a curve. ...
at age 12 and
integral calculus In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Int ...
at age 13. Landau graduated in 1920 at age 13 from gymnasium. His parents considered him too young to attend university, so for a year he attended the Baku Economical Technical School. In 1922, at age 14, he
matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used now ...
at the
Baku State University Baku State University (BSU) (BDU; ) is a public university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Established on 1 September 1919 by the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the university started with faculties of history and philology, physics ...
, studying in two departments simultaneously: the Departments of Physics and Mathematics, and the Department of Chemistry. Subsequently, he ceased studying chemistry, but remained interested in the field throughout his life.


Leningrad and Europe

In 1924, he moved to the main centre of Soviet physics at the time: the Physics Department of
Leningrad State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...
, where he dedicated himself to the study of theoretical physics, graduating in 1927. Landau subsequently enrolled for post-graduate studies at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute where he eventually received a doctorate in Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1934. Landau got his first chance to travel abroad during the period 1929–1931, on a Soviet government—
People's Commissariat for Education The People's Commissariat for Education (or Narkompros; , directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the Soviet agency charged with the administration of public education and most other issues related to culture. In 1 ...
—travelling fellowship supplemented by a
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
fellowship. By that time he was fluent in German and French and could communicate in English. He later improved his English and learned Danish. Bessarab, Maya (1971
Страницы жизни Ландау
'' Московский рабочий''. Moscow
After brief stays in
Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
and
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, he went to
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
on 8 April 1930 to work at the Niels Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics. He stayed there until 3 May of the same year. After the visit, Landau always considered himself a pupil of
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
and Landau's approach to physics was greatly influenced by Bohr. After his stay in Copenhagen, he visited
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
(mid-1930), where he worked with
Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( ; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for bot ...
, Copenhagen (September to November 1930), and
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
(December 1930 to January 1931), where he worked with
Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli ( ; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the ...
. Mehra, Jagdish (2001) ''The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics'', Boxed Set of 2 Volumes, World Scientific, p. 952. . From Zürich Landau went back to Copenhagen for the third time and stayed there from 25 February until 19 March 1931 before returning to Leningrad the same year.


National Scientific Center Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, Kharkiv

Between 1932 and 1937, Landau headed the Department of Theoretical Physics at the National Scientific Center
Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology The National Science Center Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) (), formerly the Ukrainian Physics and Technology Institute (UPTI) is the oldest and largest physical science research centre in Ukraine. Today it is known as a scienc ...
, and he lectured at the University of Kharkiv and the
Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute The Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute ( KhPI, full official title National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute", , НТУ "ХПІ") is a public technical university in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Founded in 1885, it is the second-oldest ...
. Apart from his theoretical accomplishments, Landau was the principal founder of a great tradition of theoretical physics in
Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
, Ukraine, sometimes referred to as the "Landau school". In Kharkiv, he and his friend and former student,
Evgeny Lifshitz Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz (; ; 21 February 1915 – 29 October 1985) was a leading Soviet physicist and brother of the physicist Ilya Lifshitz. Work Born into a Ukrainian Jewish family in Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire (now K ...
, began writing the ''
Course of Theoretical Physics The ''Course of Theoretical Physics'' is a ten-volume series of books covering theoretical physics that was initiated by Lev Landau and written in collaboration with his student Evgeny Lifshitz starting in the late 1930s. It is said that Landau ...
'', ten volumes that together span the whole of the subject and are still widely used as graduate-level physics texts. During the
Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
, Landau was investigated within the UPTI Affair in Kharkiv, but he managed to leave for
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
to take up a new post. Landau developed a famous 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 between 1934 and 1961 only 43 candidates passed, but those who did later became quite notable theoretical physicists. In 1932, Landau computed the
Chandrasekhar limit The Chandrasekhar limit () is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The currently accepted value of the Chandrasekhar limit is about (). The limit was named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse pr ...
; however, he did not apply it to white dwarf stars.


Institute for Physical Problems, Moscow

From 1937 until 1962, Landau was the head of the Theoretical Division at the Institute for Physical Problems. On 27 April 1938, Landau was arrested for the possession of a leaflet which compared
Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...
to German Nazism and
Italian Fascism Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...
. He was held in the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
's Lubyanka prison until his release, on 29 April 1939, after
Pyotr Kapitsa Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa or Peter Kapitza (, ; – 8 April 1984) was a leading Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate, whose research focused on low-temperature physics. Biography Kapitsa was born in Kronstadt, Russian Empire, to the Bessar ...
(an
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
low-temperature physicist and the founder and head of the institute) and Bohr wrote letters to
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 ...
. Kapitsa personally vouched for Landau's behaviour and threatened to quit the institute if Landau was not released. After his release, Landau discovered how to explain Kapitsa's superfluidity using sound waves, or
phonon A phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. In the context of optically trapped objects, the quantized vibration mode can be defined a ...
s, and a new excitation called a roton. Landau led a team of mathematicians supporting Soviet atomic and hydrogen bomb development. He calculated the dynamics of the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb, including predicting the yield. For this work Landau received the Stalin Prize in 1949 and 1953, and was awarded the title "
Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...
" in 1954. Landau's students included
Lev Pitaevskii Lev Petrovich Pitaevskii ( ; 18 January 1933 – 23 August 2022) was a Russian theoretical physicist, who made contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, low-temperature physics, plasma physics, and condensed matter physi ...
, Alexei Abrikosov, Aleksandr Akhiezer, Igor Dzyaloshinskii,
Evgeny Lifshitz Evgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz (; ; 21 February 1915 – 29 October 1985) was a leading Soviet physicist and brother of the physicist Ilya Lifshitz. Work Born into a Ukrainian Jewish family in Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire (now K ...
,
Lev Gor'kov Lev Petrovich Gor'kov (; 14 June 1929 – 28 December 2016) was a Russian-American research physicist internationally known for his pioneering work in the field of superconductivity. He was particularly famous for developing microscopic foundations ...
,
Isaak Khalatnikov Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov (, ; 17 October 1919 – 9 January 2021) was a leading Soviet theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to many areas of theoretical physics, including general relativity, quantum field theory, as well ...
,
Roald Sagdeev Roald Zinnurovich Sagdeev (, ; born 26 December 1932) is a Russian expert in plasma physics and a former director of the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was also a science advisor to the Soviet President Mikhail Gorba ...
and
Isaak Pomeranchuk Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk (; 20 May 1913 – 14 December 1966) was a Soviet physicist of Polish origin in the former Soviet nuclear weapons program. His career in physics spent mostly studying the particle physics (including thermonuclear ...
.


Scientific achievements

Landau's accomplishments include the independent co-discovery of the
density matrix In quantum mechanics, a density matrix (or density operator) is a matrix used in calculating the probabilities of the outcomes of measurements performed on physical systems. It is a generalization of the state vectors or wavefunctions: while th ...
method in quantum mechanics (alongside
John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...
), the quantum mechanical theory of
diamagnetism Diamagnetism is the property of materials that are repelled by a magnetic field; an applied magnetic field creates an induced magnetic field in them in the opposite direction, causing a repulsive force. In contrast, paramagnetic and ferromagnet ...
, the theory of
superfluidity Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
, the theory of second-order phase transitions, the
Ginzburg–Landau theory In physics, Ginzburg–Landau theory, often called Landau–Ginzburg theory, named after Vitaly Ginzburg and Lev Landau, is a mathematical physical theory used to describe superconductivity. In its initial form, it was postulated as a phenomen ...
of superconductivity, the theory of Fermi liquids, the explanation of
Landau damping In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer,Landau, L. "On the vibration of the electronic plasma". ''JETP'' 16 (1946), 574. English translation in ''J. Phys. (USSR)'' 10 (1946), 25. Reproduced in Collected papers of L.D. Landau, edited ...
in plasma physics, the
Landau pole In physics, the Landau pole (or the Moscow zero, or the Landau ghost) is the momentum (or energy) scale at which the coupling constant (interaction strength) of a quantum field theory becomes infinite. Such a possibility was pointed out by the ph ...
in quantum electrodynamics, the two-component theory of neutrinos, the explanation of flame instability (the Darrieus-Landau instability), and Landau's equations for S matrix singularities. Landau received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity that accounts for the properties of liquid helium II at a temperature below 2.17 K (−270.98 °C)."


Personal life and views

In 1937, Landau married Kora T. Drobanzeva from Kharkiv. Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa, ''Experiment, Theory, Practice: Articles and Addresses'', Springer, 1980, , p. 329. Their son Igor (1946–2011) became a theoretical physicist. Lev Landau believed in "
free love Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the State (polity), state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues we ...
" rather than monogamy and encouraged his wife and his students to practise "free love". However, his wife was not enthusiastic. Landau is generally described as an atheist, although when Soviet filmmaker
Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (, ; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. Works by Andrei Tarkovsky, His films e ...
asked Landau whether he believed in the existence of God, Landau pondered the matter in silence for three minutes before responding, "I think so." In 1957, a lengthy report to the CPSU Central Committee by the KGB recorded Landau's views on the
1956 Hungarian Uprising The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...
,
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
and what he termed "red fascism".
Hendrik Casimir Hendrik Brugt Gerhard Casimir (15 July 1909 – 4 May 2000) was a Dutch physicist who made significant contributions to the field of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He is best known for his work on the Casimir effect, which descr ...
recalls him as a passionate communist, emboldened by his revolutionary ideology. Landau's drive in establishing Soviet science was in part due to his devotion to socialism. In 1935 he published a piece titled “Bourgeoisie and Contemporary Physics” in the Soviet newspaper ''
Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, r=Izvestiya, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, ''Izvestia'', which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of th ...
'' in which he criticized religious superstition and the dominance of capital, which he saw as bourgeois tendencies, citing “unprecedented opportunities for the development of physics in our country, provided by the Party and the government.”


Last years

On 7 January 1962, Landau's car collided with an oncoming truck. He was severely injured and spent two months in a
coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...
. Although Landau recovered in many ways, his scientific creativity was destroyed, and he never returned fully to scientific work. His injuries prevented him from accepting the 1962
Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
in person. Throughout his life Landau was known for his sharp humour, as illustrated by the following dialogue with a psychologist,
Alexander Luria Alexander Romanovich Luria (; , ; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychology, neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He developed an extensive and original battery of neuropsychological ...
, who tried to test for possible brain damage while Landau was recovering from the car crash:Kora Drobantseva's memoirs
Chapter 38, "The way we lived"; the episode with
Alexander Luria Alexander Romanovich Luria (; , ; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychology, neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He developed an extensive and original battery of neuropsychological ...
(in the original Russian text, referred to as ''Лурье'') testing Lev Landau on intellectual abilities
:Luria: "Please draw me a circle" :Landau draws a cross :Luria: "Hm, now draw me a cross" :Landau draws a circle :Luria: "Landau, why don't you do what I ask?" :Landau: "If I did, you might come to think I've become mentally retarded". In 1965 former students and co-workers of Landau founded the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, located in the town of Chernogolovka near
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, and led for the following three decades by
Isaak Khalatnikov Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov (, ; 17 October 1919 – 9 January 2021) was a leading Soviet theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to many areas of theoretical physics, including general relativity, quantum field theory, as well ...
. In June 1965, Lev Landau and Evsei Liberman published a letter in the ''New York Times'', stating that as
Soviet Jews The history of the Jews in the Soviet Union is inextricably linked to much earlier expansionist policies of the Russian Empire conquering and ruling the eastern half of the European continent already before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. "Fo ...
they opposed U.S. intervention on behalf of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. However, there are doubts that Landau authored this letter.


Death

Landau died on 1 April 1968, aged 60, from complications of the injuries sustained in the car accident six years earlier. He was buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...
.


Fields of contribution

* DLVO theory *
Fermi liquid theory Fermi liquid theory (also known as Landau's Fermi-liquid theory) is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of the conduction electrons in most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. The theory describes the ...
*
Quasiparticle In condensed matter physics, a quasiparticle is a concept used to describe a collective behavior of a group of particles that can be treated as if they were a single particle. Formally, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely relate ...
* Ivanenko–Landau–Kähler equation *
Landau damping In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer,Landau, L. "On the vibration of the electronic plasma". ''JETP'' 16 (1946), 574. English translation in ''J. Phys. (USSR)'' 10 (1946), 25. Reproduced in Collected papers of L.D. Landau, edited ...
*
Landau distribution Landau (), officially Landau in der Pfalz (, ), is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990), a lon ...
*
Landau gauge In the physics of gauge theories, gauge fixing (also called choosing a gauge) denotes a mathematical procedure for coping with redundant degrees of freedom in field variables. By definition, a gauge theory represents each physically distinct co ...
* Landau kinetic equation *
Landau pole In physics, the Landau pole (or the Moscow zero, or the Landau ghost) is the momentum (or energy) scale at which the coupling constant (interaction strength) of a quantum field theory becomes infinite. Such a possibility was pointed out by the ph ...
* Landau susceptibility * Landau potential *
Landau quantization In quantum mechanics, the energies of Cyclotron motion#Cyclotron resonance, cyclotron orbits of charged particles in a uniform magnetic field are quantized to discrete values, thus known as Landau levels. These levels are Degenerate energy level, d ...
*
Landau theory Landau theory (also known as Ginzburg–Landau theory, despite the confusing name) in physics is a theory that Lev Landau introduced in an attempt to formulate a general theory of continuous (i.e., second-order) phase transitions. It can also be ...
* Landau–Squire jet * Landau–Levich problem * Landau–Hopf theory of turbulence *
Ginzburg–Landau theory In physics, Ginzburg–Landau theory, often called Landau–Ginzburg theory, named after Vitaly Ginzburg and Lev Landau, is a mathematical physical theory used to describe superconductivity. In its initial form, it was postulated as a phenomen ...
*
Darrieus–Landau instability The Darrieus–Landau instability, or density fingering, refers to an instability of chemical fronts propagating into a denser medium, named after Georges Jean Marie Darrieus and Lev Landau. It is a key Combustion instability#Classification of comb ...
* Landau–Lifshitz aeroacoustic equation * Landau–Raychaudhuri equation *
Landau–Zener formula The Landau–Zener formula is an analytic solution to the equations of motion governing the transition dynamics of a two-state quantum system, with a time-dependent Hamiltonian varying such that the energy separation of the two states is a linea ...
* Landau–Lifshitz model * Landau–Lifshitz pseudotensor * Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation *
Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect In high-energy physics, the Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect, also known as the Landau–Pomeranchuk effect and the Pomeranchuk effect, or simply LPM effect, is a reduction of the bremsstrahlung and pair production cross sections at high ene ...
*
Landau–Yang theorem In quantum mechanics, the Landau–Yang theorem is a selection rule for particles that decay into two on-shell photons. The theorem states that a massive particle with spin 1 cannot decay into two photons. Assumptions A photon here is any part ...
* Landau principle * Stuart–Landau equation *
Superfluidity Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
*
Superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...


Pedagogy

*''
Course of Theoretical Physics The ''Course of Theoretical Physics'' is a ten-volume series of books covering theoretical physics that was initiated by Lev Landau and written in collaboration with his student Evgeny Lifshitz starting in the late 1930s. It is said that Landau ...
''


Legacy

Two celestial objects are named in his honour: *the
minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
2142 Landau. *the
lunar crater Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The wo ...
Landau Landau (), officially Landau in der Pfalz (, ), is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990), a long ...
. The highest prize in theoretical physics awarded by the
Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...
is named in his honour: * Landau Gold Medal On 22 January 2019,
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
celebrated what would have been Landau's 111th birthday with a
Google Doodle Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...
. The Landau-Spitzer Award (American Physical Society), which recognizes outstanding contributions to plasma physics and European-United States collaboration, is named in-part in his honor.


Landau's ranking of physicists

Landau kept a list of names of
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 ...
s which he ranked on a logarithmic scale of productivity and
genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...
, such as
creativity Creativity is the ability to form novel and valuable Idea, ideas or works using one's imagination. Products of creativity may be intangible (e.g. an idea, scientific theory, Literature, literary work, musical composition, or joke), or a physica ...
and innate talent, ranging from 0 to 5. The highest ranking, 0, was assigned to
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...
.
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
was ranked 0.5. A rank of 1 was awarded to the founding fathers of
quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
,
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
,
Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. He pub ...
,
Satyendra Nath Bose Satyendra Nath Bose (; 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was an Indian theoretical physicist and mathematician. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statist ...
,
Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( ; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for bot ...
and
Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...
, and others, while members of rank of 5 were deemed "pathologists". Landau ranked himself as a 2.5 but later promoted to a 2. N. David Mermin, writing about Landau, referred to the scale, and ranked himself in the fourth division, in the article "My Life with Landau: Homage of a 4.5 to a 2". Landau had a lesser known scale to measure the genius of a scientist using diagrams instead. He had four classes of diagrams, with the first being a simple triangle, which included those who were the most original and brilliant, such as Dirac and Einstein. The diagrams were formed by two parallel lines, bottom representing tenacity, while the top measured genius and originality.


In popular culture

* The Russian television film ''My Husband — the Genius'' (translation of the Russian title ''Мой муж — гений'') released in 2008 tells the biography of Landau (played by
Daniil Spivakovsky Daniil Ivanovich Spivakovsky (; August 28, 1969, Moscow) is a Russian film and theater actor, Honored Artist of Russia (2007). Head of the workshop of Theatre faculty of the Moscow Institute of Television and Radio Broadcasting ''Ostankino''. ...
), mostly focusing on his private life. It was generally panned by critics. People who had personally met Landau, including famous Russian scientist
Vitaly Ginzburg Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg ForMemRS (; – 8 November 2009) was a Russian physicist who was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003, together with Alexei Abrikosov and Anthony Leggett for their "pioneering contributions to the theory ...
, said that the film was not only terrible, but also false in historical facts. * Another film about Landau, '' Dau'', is directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky with non-professional actor Teodor Currentzis (an orchestra conductor) as Landau. Dau was a common nickname of Lev Landau.Дао Ландау
. strf.ru (25 January 2008)
The film was part of the multidisciplinary art project '' DAU''.


Works

Landau wrote his first paper '' On the derivation of Klein–Fock equation'', co-authored with
Dmitri Ivanenko Dmitri Dmitrievich Ivanenko (, ; July 29, 1904 – December 30, 1994) was a Soviet theoretical physicist of Ukrainian origin who made great contributions to the physical science of the twentieth century, especially to nuclear physics, field theo ...
in 1926, when he was 18 years old. His last paper titled ''Fundamental problems'' appeared in 1960 in an edited version of tributes to
Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli ( ; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the ...
. A complete list of Landau's works appeared in 1998 in the Russian journal ''Physics-Uspekhi''. Landau would allow himself to be listed as a co-author of a journal article on two conditions: 1) he brought up the idea of the work, partly or entirely, and 2) he performed at least some calculations presented in the article. Consequently, he removed his name from numerous publications of his students where his contribution was less significant.


''Course of Theoretical Physics''

* * *
2nd ed. (1965)
at
archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...
* * * * * * * Landau and Lifshitz suggested in the third volume of the ''Course of Theoretical Physics'' that the then-standard periodic table had a mistake in it, and that
lutetium Lutetium is a chemical element; it has symbol Lu and atomic number 71. It is a silvery white metal, which resists corrosion in dry air, but not in moist air. Lutetium is the last element in the lanthanide series, and it is traditionally counted am ...
should be regarded as a d-block rather than an f-block element. Their suggestion was fully vindicated by later findings, Scerri, Eric R (2020). ''The Periodic Table, Its Story and Its Significance'', 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, New York, and in 1988 was endorsed by a report of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...
(IUPAC).


Other

* * * * * in 4 volumes: volume 1 ''Physical bodies'' ; volume 2 ''Molecules'' ; volume 3 ''Electrons'' and volume 4 ''Photons and nuclei''; vols. 3 & 4 by Kitaigorodsky alone


See also

*
List of Jewish Nobel laureates Of the 965 individual recipients of the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences between 1901 and 2023, at least 216 have been Jews or people with at least one Jewish parent, representing 22% of all recipients. Jews constitut ...
* List of things named after Lev Landau


References


Further reading

;Books * (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.) * * * * * * ;Articles * Karl Hufbauer, "Landau's youthful sallies into stellar theory: Their origins, claims, and receptions", ''Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences'', 37 (2007), 337–354.
"As a student, Landau dared to correct Einstein in a lecture". Global Talent News.
*


Landau's Theoretical Minimum, Landau's Seminar, ITEP in the Beginning of the 1950s
by Boris L. Ioffe, Concluding talk at the workshop ''QCD at the Threshold of the Fourth Decade/Ioeffest''.
EJTP Landau Issue 2008.
* Ammar Sakaji and Ignazio Licata (eds)
Lev Davidovich Landau and his Impact on Contemporary Theoretical Physics
Nova Science Publishers Nova Science Publishers is an academic publisher of books, encyclopedias, handbooks, e-books and journals, based in Hauppauge, New York. It was founded in 1985. Nova is included in Book Citation Index (part of Web of Science Core Collection) an ...
, New York, 2009, . * Gennady Gorelik
"The Top Secret Life of Lev Landau"
''Scientific American'', Aug. 1997, vol. 277(2), 53–57
JSTOR link
* Maya Bessarab
"Landau's Life Pages(in Russian)"


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Landau, Lev Lev Landau 1908 births 1968 deaths Soviet Nobel laureates Azerbaijani Jews Scientists from Baku Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Fluid dynamicists Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Royal Society Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Nobel laureates in Physics Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Lenin Prize Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Winners of the Max Planck Medal Jewish atheists Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Academic staff of Moscow State University Academic staff of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology People from Baku Governorate Saint Petersburg State University alumni Soviet atheists Soviet inventors Soviet Jewish physicists Theoretical physicists Academic staff of the National University of Kharkiv Superfluidity People involved with the periodic table Russian scientists Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology people