Dmitri Ivanenko | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1904-07-29)29 July 1904 Poltava,Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) |
| Died | December 30, 1994(1994-12-30) (aged 90) |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Citizenship | USSR |
| Alma mater | Leningrad State University |
| Known for | Ivanenko–Landau–Kähler equation Nuclear shell model Proton–neutron model of the nucleus Quantum spacetime Quark star Synchrotron radiation |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics Nuclear physics Field theory Gravitation |
| Institutions | Moscow State University |
| Doctoral students | Arseny Sokolov Gennadi Sardanashvily |
Dmitri Dmitrievich Ivanenko (Ukrainian:Дмитро́ Дми́трович Іване́нко,Russian:Дми́трий Дми́триевич Иване́нко; July 29, 1904 – December 30, 1994) was aSoviettheoretical physicist ofUkrainian origin who made great contributions to the physical science of the twentieth century, especially tonuclear physics,field theory, andgravitation theory. He worked in the Poltava Gravimetric Observatory of the Institute of Geophysics ofNAS of Ukraine, was the head of the Theoretical DepartmentUkrainian Physico-Technical Institute inKharkiv, Head of the Department of Theoretical Physics of theKharkiv Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Professor ofUniversity of Kharkiv, Professor ofMoscow State University (since 1943).
Dmitri Ivanenko was born on July 29, 1904, inPoltava (present-dayUkraine), where he finished school, in 1920–1923 he studied at the Poltava Pedagogical Institute and began his creative path as a teacher of physics in middle school. Then D. D. Ivanenko studied atKharkiv University, from which in 1923 he was transferred toPetrograd University. In 1926, while still a student, he wrote his first scientific works: withGeorge Gamow on theKaluza–Klein five-dimensional theory and withLev Landau on the problems of relativisticquantum mechanics.
After graduating from the university, from 1927 to 1930 D. Ivanenko was a scholarship student and then a research scientist at the Physical Mathematical Institute ofAcademy of Sciences of the USSR. During these years he collaborated with Lev Landau,Vladimir Fock andViktor Ambartsumian, later becoming famous. This was when modern physics, the newquantum mechanics, andnuclear physics were established.
In 1928, Ivanenko and Landau developed the theory offermions as skew-symmetric tensors. This theory, known as the Ivanenko-Landau-Kahler theory, is not equivalent to Dirac's one in the presence of agravitation field, and only it describes fermions on a lattice.
In 1929, Ivanenko and Fock described the parallel displacement ofspinors in curved space-time (the famous Ivanenko–Fock coefficients). Nobel laureateAbdus Salam called it the firstgauge field theory.
In 1930, Ambartsumian and Ivanenko suggested the hypothesis of creation of massive particles (1930) which is a cornerstone of contemporaryquantum field theory.
From 1929 to 1931 D. Ivanenko worked at theUkrainian Physico-Technical Institute inKharkiv, being the first director of its theoretical division. Ivanenko was one of organizers of the first Soviet theoretical conference (1929) and the new journalPhysikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion.
After returning toLeningrad at thePhysical-Technical Institute, D. Ivanenko concentrated his interest tonuclear physics. In 1932 Ivanenko proposed the proton-neutron model of theatomic nucleus, in connection with which the name Ivanenko entered physics textbooks, including school textbooks. Later D. Ivanenko and E. Gapon proposed the idea of the shell distribution of protons and neutrons in the nucleus (nuclear shell model). In 1933 on the initiative of D. Ivanenko andI. Kurchatov the first Soviet nuclear conference was called.
In 1934 D. Ivanenko andI. Tamm laid the basis of the first non-phenomenological theory of paired electron-neutronnuclear forces. They made the significant assumption that interaction can be undergone by exchange of particles with a rest mass not equal to zero. Based on their model, Nobel laureateHideki Yukawa developed hismeson theory.
The realization of Ivanenko's far-reaching plans and hopes was interrupted, however. In 1935 he was arrested in connection with theKirov affair. Exile toTomsk followed. D. Ivanenko was a professor atTomsk University from 1936 to 1938. Until the beginning of World War II, he managed the theoretical-physics personnel atSverdlovsk University andKiev University. In 1940 he defended his doctoral dissertation. In this period, Ivanenko's scientific interest gradually shifted fromnuclear physics tocosmic ray theory. In particular, he proposed anon-linear generalization of Dirac's equation (1938). Based on this generalization,W. Heisenberg and D. Ivanenko developed the unified nonlinear field theory in the 1950s.
From 1943 and until the last days of his life, Professor Ivanenko was closely associated with the physics faculty ofM. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University.
In 1943, D. Ivanenko andI. Pomeranchuk predicted the phenomenon ofsynchrotron radiation given off by relativistic electrons in magnetic fields. This radiation was soon discovered by American experimenters. The discovery ofsynchrotron radiation opened a new and important chapter in modern physics as a result of its special properties and possible applications. Classical and quantum theory ofsynchrotron radiation was developed in research performed by students and followers of D. D. Ivanenko:A. A. Sokolov,I. M. Ternov et al. For their work in this area D. D. Ivanenko and A. A. Sokolov were awarded theStalin Prize in 1950. Two of D. D. Ivanenko's and A. A. Sokolov's monographsClassical Field Theory andQuantum Field Theory were published at the beginning of the 1950s.
The theme of Professor Ivanenko's postwar work was mesodynamics, theory ofhypernucleus, the unified non-linear spinor field theory,gravitation theory.
In the 1960s, D. Ivanenko did intensive scientific, scientific-methodological, and organizational work on the development and coordination of gravitation research in USSR. In 1961, on his initiative the first Soviet gravitation conference, which initiated a series of Soviet, and later also Russian, gravitation conferences was organized. At the beginning of the 1960s D. D. Ivanenko was the organizer of the gravitation section of Ministry of Higher Institutes of Learning of the USSR, which lasted until the 1980s. He was a member of the International Gravitation Committee since its founding in 1959.
Theoretical physics has been enormously influenced by the seminar on theoretical physics organized by D. D. Ivanenko in 1944 that has continued to meet for 50 years under his guidance at the Physics Department ofMoscow State University. The distinguishing characteristic of Ivanenko's seminar was the breadth of its grasp of the problems of theoretical physics and its discussion of the links between its various divisions, for example,gravitation theory andelementary particle physics. The most prominent physicists in the world participated in the seminar:Niels Bohr,Paul Dirac,Hideki Yukawa,Julian Schwinger,Abdus Salam,Aage Bohr,Ilya Prigogine,John Archibald Wheeler et al.
In the 1970–80s, D. Ivanenko was concentrated ongravitation theory. His scientific team mainly developed different generalizations of Einstein'sgeneral relativity, including scalar-tensor gravitation theory, the hypothesis ofquark stars, gravity withtorsion,gauge gravitation theory and others. In 1985, D. Ivanenko and his collaborators published two monographsGravitation andGauge Gravitation Theory.
The scientific style of D. Ivanenko was characterized by great interest in ideas of frontiers in science where these ideas were based on strong mathematical methods or experiment.
Ivanenko died on December 30, 1994, at the age of 90. His sister,Oksana Ivanenko, was a children's writer and translator.
His outstanding achievements include:
Dmitri Ivanenko published more than 300 scientific works including 6 monographs and 11 volumes edited.
