“Considering conciseness of our life we cannot
afford luxury to go into the questions not promising
new results”
L.D.Landau
Lev Davidovich Landau, a Soviet physicist, an
academician of Academy of Sciences of USSR (elected in
1946), a laureate of Nobel, Leninist and three Stalinist
prizes, a Hero of Socialist Work, an academician of
Academies of Sciences in Denmark, Netherlands,
American Academy of Sciences and Arts (USA), French
Physical Society, London Physical Society and London
Royal Society, was born in Baku, on January 22, 1908.
Scientific life of Lev Davidovich Landau, an
undoubted and acknowledged leader of Soviet
theoretical physics, began very early and his scientific
achievements were so significant and practically
unattainable for the most of scientists.
The results achieved by L.D.Landau in Kharkov
became classic, many of them bear his name.
A number of results that can be literally referred
to L.D.Landau’s fundamental contribution to
theoretical physics for that period are: the theory of
second-order phase transitions (“Landau theory of
second-order phase transformations”), the kinetic
equation for systems of particles with Coulomb
interaction, the theory of an intermediate state for
superconductors, the dispersion theory for magnetic
permeability of ferromagnetics, where Landau and
Lifshitz deduced a known motion equation for
magnetization (“Landau-Lifshitz equation”), the
theory of sound dispersion and absorption, the theory
of monomolecular reactions, the theory of metals at
ultralow temperatures, the theory of light diffusion,
the statistical theory of atomic nuclei. Moreover,
interpreting L.V. Shubnikov experiments, L.D.
Landau expressed an idea of existing
antiferromagnetics, and predicted a possibility of
electron autolocalization in crystals. Therefore an
unprecedented degree of L.D. Landau’s scientific
activity in UPTI becomes understood. Respective
publications made his name world-known, and
Kharkov – one of the leading centers of theoretical
physics not only in USSR, but also in Europe. Many
of famous physicists, N. Bohr, P. Dirac, V.O. Fok,
Ya. I. Frenkel, I.E. Tamm, G.A. Gamov,
V. Weisskopf, F. Houtermans, G. Placzek, R. Peierls
and others arrived and worked in UPTI.
