Prizes in Physics. Nobel Prize in Physics. Dossier. Literature Prizes
British physicist David James Thouless was born in 1934 in Bearsden, Scotland (UK).
In 1955 he received a bachelor's degree from the University of Cambridge (UK). In 1958 he received his PhD degree from Cornell University (USA).
After defending his doctoral dissertation, he worked at the universities of Berkeley and Birmingham.
From 1965 to 1978 he was professor of mathematical physics at the University of Birmingham, where he collaborated with physicist Michael Kosterlitz.
Thawless and Kosterlitz in the early 1970s overturned existing theories that suggested that the phenomena of superconductivity and superfluidity could not be observed in thin layers. They demonstrated that superconductivity can occur at low temperatures and explained the phase transitions that cause superconductivity to disappear at higher temperatures.
Since 1980, Towless has been a professor of physics at the University of Washington in Seattle (USA). He is currently Professor Emeritus at Washington State University.
Dr. Thouless is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American National Academy of Sciences.
Recipient of the Maxwell Medal and the Paul Dirac Medal, awarded by the British Institute of Physics; Holweck Medal from the French Physical Society and the Institute of Physics. Winner of the Fritz London Award, which is awarded to scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the field of low temperature physics; the Lars Onsager Prize from the American Physical Society and the Wolf Prize.
October 4, 2016 David Thouless was for the discovery of topological transitions and topological phases of matter.
Kosterlitz Michael
British physicist John Michael Kosterlitz was born in 1942 in Aberdeen, Scotland (UK).
In 1965 he received a bachelor's degree, in 1966 a master's degree from the University of Cambridge (UK), and in 1969 a doctorate in high energy physics from the University of Oxford (UK).
Michael Kosterlitz was awarded the Maxwell Medal of the British Institute of Physics (1981), and is a laureate of the Lars Onsager Prize of the American Physical Society (2000).
Haldane Duncan
British physicist Duncan Haldane was born on September 14, 1951 in London (UK).
In 1973 he received a bachelor's degree and in 1978 a doctorate in physics from the University of Cambridge (UK).
From 1977-1981 he worked at the International Laue-Langevin Institute in Grenoble, France.
In 1981-1985 - Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Southern California, USA.
In 1985-1987 he worked at the French-American research center Bell Laboratories.
From 1987 to 1990, he was a professor in the Eugene Higgins Department of Physics at the University of California at San Diego, USA.
Since 1990, he has been a professor in the Eugene Higgins Department of Physics at Princeton University, USA.
He was involved in the development of a new geometric description of the fractional quantum Hall effect. Haldane's research areas included the effect of quantum entanglement, topological insulators.
Since 1986 - member of the American Physical Society.
Since 1992 - member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston).
Since 1996 - Member of the Royal Society of London.
Since 2001 - member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In 1993, Duncan received the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize from the American Physical Society. In 2012, he was awarded the Dirac Medal by the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics.
In 2016, Duncan Haldane (together with David Towless and Michael Kosterlitz) was awarded in physics for the discovery of topological transitions and topological phases of matter. As noted in a press release from the Nobel Committee, the current laureates have “opened the door to an unknown world” in which matter may be in an unusual state. We are talking, first of all, about superconductors and thin magnetic films.
Names of Nobel Prize laureates in physics. According to Alfred Nobel's will, the prize is awarded to "whoever makes the most important discovery or invention" in this field.
The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared material about the procedure for awarding this prize and its laureates.
Awarding the Prize and Nominating Candidates
The prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, located in Stockholm. Its working body is the Nobel Committee on Physics, consisting of five to six members who are elected by the Academy for three years.
Scientists from different countries have the right to nominate candidates for the prize, including members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Nobel Prize laureates in physics who have received special invitations from the committee. Candidates can be proposed from September until January 31 of the following year. Then the Nobel Committee, with the help of scientific experts, selects the most worthy candidates, and in early October the Academy selects the laureate by a majority vote.
Laureates
The first prize was received in 1901 by William Roentgen (Germany) for the discovery of radiation named after him. Among the most famous laureates are Joseph Thomson (Great Britain), recognized in 1906 for his research on the passage of electricity through gases; Albert Einstein (Germany), who received the prize in 1921 for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect; Niels Bohr (Denmark), awarded in 1922 for his atomic research; John Bardeen (USA), two-time winner of the prize (1956 for research into semiconductors and the discovery of the transistor effect and 1972 for the creation of the theory of superconductivity).
To date, there are 203 people on the list of recipients (including John Bardeen, who was awarded twice). Only two women were awarded this prize: in 1903, Marie Curie shared it with her husband Pierre Curie and Antoine Henri Becquerel (for studying the phenomenon of radioactivity), and in 1963, Maria Goppert-Mayer (USA) received the award together with Eugene Wigner (USA ) and Hans Jensen (Germany) for work in the field of the structure of the atomic nucleus.
Among the laureates are 12 Soviet and Russian physicists, as well as scientists who were born and educated in the USSR and who took second citizenship. In 1958, the prize was awarded to Pavel Cherenkov, Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for their discovery of the radiation of charged particles moving at superluminal speeds. Lev Landau became a laureate in 1962 for the theories of condensed matter and liquid helium. Since Landau was in the hospital after being seriously injured in a car accident, the prize was presented to him in Moscow by the Swedish Ambassador to the USSR.
Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov were awarded the prize in 1964 for the creation of a maser (quantum amplifier). Their work in this area was first published in 1954. In the same year, the American scientist Charles Townes, independently of them, came to similar results, and as a result, all three received the Nobel Prize.
In 1978, Pyotr Kapitsa was awarded for his discovery in low temperature physics (the scientist began working in this area in the 1930s). In 2000, Zhores Alferov became the laureate for developments in semiconductor technology (shared the award with German physicist Herbert Kremer). In 2003, Vitaly Ginzburg and Alexey Abrikosov, who took American citizenship in 1999, were awarded the prize for their fundamental work on the theory of superconductors and superfluids (the award was shared with the British-American physicist Anthony Leggett).
In 2010, the prize was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who conducted experiments with the two-dimensional material graphene. The technology for producing graphene was developed by them in 2004. Game was born in 1958 in Sochi, and in 1990 he left the USSR, subsequently receiving Dutch citizenship. Konstantin Novoselov was born in 1974 in Nizhny Tagil, in 1999 he left for the Netherlands, where he began working with Game, and was later granted British citizenship.
In 2016, the prize was awarded to British physicists working in the United States: David Thoules, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz "for their theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter."
Statistics
In 1901-2016, the prize in physics was awarded 110 times (in 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940-1942 it was not possible to find a worthy candidate). 32 times the prize was divided between two laureates and 31 times between three. The average age of the laureates is 55 years. Until now, the youngest winner of the physics prize is 25-year-old Englishman Lawrence Bragg (1915), and the oldest is 88-year-old American Raymond Davis (2002).
Nobel laureates in physics - abstract
INTRODUCTION 2
1. NOBEL LAUREATES 4
Alfred Nobel 4
Zhores Alferov 5
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz 16
Peter Kapitsa 18
Marie Curie 28
Lev Landau 32
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen 38
Albert Einstein 41
CONCLUSION 50
REFERENCES 51
In science there is no revelation, no permanent dogmas; everything in it, on the contrary, moves and improves.
A. I. Herzen
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, knowledge of the basics of physics is necessary for everyone in order to have a correct understanding of the world around us - from the properties of elementary particles to the evolution of the Universe. For those who have decided to connect their future profession with physics, studying this science will help them take the first steps towards mastering the profession. We can learn how even seemingly abstract physical research gave birth to new areas of technology, gave impetus to the development of industry and led to what is commonly called scientific and technological revolution.
The successes of nuclear physics, solid state theory, electrodynamics, statistical physics, and quantum mechanics determined the appearance of technology at the end of the twentieth century, such areas as laser technology, nuclear energy, and electronics. Is it possible to imagine in our time any areas of science and technology without electronic computers? Many of us, after graduating from school, will have the opportunity to work in one of these areas, and whoever we become - skilled workers, laboratory assistants, technicians, engineers, doctors, astronauts, biologists, archaeologists - knowledge of physics will help us better master our profession.
Physical phenomena are studied in two ways: theoretically and experimentally. In the first case (theoretical physics), new relationships are derived using mathematical apparatus and based on previously known laws of physics. The main tools here are paper and pencil. In the second case (experimental physics), new connections between phenomena are obtained using physical measurements. Here the instruments are much more diverse - numerous measuring instruments, accelerators, bubble chambers, etc.
Which of the many areas of physics should you prefer? They are all closely related. You cannot be a good experimentalist or theorist in the field of, say, high-energy physics without knowing low-temperature physics or solid-state physics. New methods and relationships that have appeared in one area often give impetus to the understanding of another, at first glance, distant branch of physics. Thus, theoretical methods developed in quantum field theory revolutionized the theory of phase transitions, and vice versa, for example, the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking, well known in classical physics, was rediscovered in the theory of elementary particles and even the approach to this theory. And of course, before you finally choose any direction, you need to study all areas of physics well enough. In addition, from time to time, for various reasons, you have to move from one area to another. This especially applies to theoretical physicists who are not involved in their work with bulky equipment.
Most theoretical physicists have to work in various fields of science: atomic physics, cosmic rays, metal theory, atomic nucleus, quantum field theory, astrophysics - all areas of physics are interesting.
Now the most fundamental problems are being solved in the theory of elementary particles and in quantum field theory. But in other areas of physics there are many interesting unsolved problems. And of course, there are a lot of them in applied physics.
Therefore, it is necessary not only to become more familiar with the various branches of physics, but, most importantly, to feel their interconnection.
It was not by chance that I chose the topic “Nobel laureates”, because in order to learn new areas of physics, in order to understand the essence of modern discoveries, it is necessary to thoroughly understand already established truths. It was very interesting for me in the process of my work on the abstract to learn something new not only about great discoveries, but also about the scientists themselves, about their lives, work paths, and fate. In fact, it is so interesting and exciting to find out how discoveries happened. And I was once again convinced that many discoveries occur completely by accident, within an hour even in the process of completely different work. But despite this, the discoveries do not become less interesting. It seems to me that I have completely achieved my goal - to discover for myself some secrets from the field of physics. And, I think, studying discoveries through the life path of great scientists, Nobel Prize winners, is the best option. After all, you always learn the material better when you know what goals the scientist set for himself, what he wanted and what he finally achieved.
1. NOBEL LAUREATES
Alfred Nobel
ALFRED NOBEL, a Swedish experimental chemist and businessman, inventor of dynamite and other explosives, who wished to establish a charitable foundation to award a prize in his name, which brought him posthumous fame, was distinguished by incredible inconsistency and paradoxical behavior. Contemporaries believed that he did not correspond to the image of a successful capitalist during the era of rapid industrial development in the second half of the 19th century. Nobel gravitated towards solitude and peace, and could not tolerate the hustle and bustle of the city, although he lived most of his life in urban conditions, and he also traveled quite often. Unlike many of the business world tycoons of his day, Nobel can be called more
“Spartan”, since he never smoked, did not drink alcohol, and avoided cards and other gambling.
At his villa in San Remo, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and surrounded by orange trees, Nobel built a small chemical laboratory, where he worked as soon as time permitted. Among other things, he experimented in the production of synthetic rubber and artificial silk. Nobel loved San Remo for its amazing climate, but also kept warm memories of the land of his ancestors. In 1894 he acquired an ironworks in Värmland, where he simultaneously built an estate and acquired a new laboratory. He spent the last two summer seasons of his life in Värmland. Summer of 1896 his brother Robert died. At the same time, Nobel began to suffer from heart pain.
At a consultation with specialists in Paris, he was warned about the development of angina pectoris associated with insufficient oxygen supply to the heart muscle. He was advised to go on vacation. Nobel moved again to San Remo. He tried to complete unfinished business and left a handwritten note of his dying wish. After midnight December 10
1896 he died from a cerebral hemorrhage. Apart from the Italian servants who did not understand him, no one close to him was with Nobel at the time of his death, and his last words remained unknown.
The origins of Nobel's will with the wording of the provisions on awarding awards for achievements in various fields of human activity leave many ambiguities. The document in its final form represents one of the editions of his previous wills. His dying gift for awarding prizes in the field of literature and the field of science and technology logically follows from the interests of Nobel himself, who came into contact with the indicated aspects of human activity: physics, physiology, chemistry, literature.
There is also reason to assume that the establishment of prizes for peacekeeping activities is connected with the desire of the inventor to recognize people who, like him, steadfastly resisted violence. In 1886, for example, he told an English acquaintance that he had “a more and more serious intention of seeing the peaceful shoots of the red rose in this splitting world.”
So, the invention of dynamite brought Nobel a huge fortune. On November 27, 1895, a year before his death, Nobel bequeathed his fortune of $31 million to encourage scientific research around the world and to support the most talented scientists. According to Nobel's will, the Swedish Academy of Sciences names the laureates every autumn after careful consideration of the candidates proposed by major scientists and national academies and a thorough check of their work. The awards are presented on December 10, the day of Nobel's death.
Zhores Alferov
I’m not even sure that in the 21st century it will be possible to master
“fusion” or, say, defeat cancer
Boris Strugatsky,
writer
ZHORES ALFEROV was born on March 15, 1930 in Vitebsk. In 1952 he graduated with honors from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute named after V.I.
Ulyanov (Lenin) with a degree in electric vacuum technology.
At the A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences he worked as an engineer, junior, senior researcher, head of a sector, head of a department. In 1961, he defended his thesis on the study of powerful germanium and silicon rectifiers. In 1970, he defended his thesis based on the results of research on heterojunctions in semiconductors for the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
In 1972 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1979 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1987 - Director of the Physico-Technical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Physics and Technology of Semiconductors".
Zh. Alferov is the author of fundamental works in the field of semiconductor physics, semiconductor devices, semiconductor and quantum electronics. With his active participation, the first domestic transistors and powerful germanium rectifiers were created. The founder of a new direction in the physics of semiconductors - semiconductor electronics - semiconductor heterostructures and devices based on them. On the scientist's account
50 inventions, three monographs, more than 350 scientific articles in domestic and international journals. He is a laureate of the Lenin (1972) and State
(1984) USSR prizes.
The Franklin Institute (USA) awarded Zh. Alferov the gold medal S.
Ballantyne, the European Physical Society awarded him the Hewlett Prize.
Packard." The physicist was also awarded the A.P. Karpinsky Prize, the H. Welker Gold Medal (Germany) and the International Prize of the Gallium Arsenide Symposium.
Since 1989, Alferov has been Chairman of the Presidium of Leningrad - St.
St. Petersburg Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1990 – Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (RAN). Zh. Alferov – Deputy of the Russian State Duma
Federation (fraction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation), member of the Committee on Education and Science.
Zh. Alferov shared the prize with two foreign colleagues - Herbert
Kremer of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Jack S. Kilby of Texas Instruments in Dallas. Scientists were awarded for the discovery and development of opto- and microelectronic elements, on the basis of which parts of modern electronic devices were subsequently developed. These elements were created on the basis of so-called semiconductor heterostructures - multilayer components of high-speed diodes and transistors.
One of Zh. Alferov’s “associates”, an American of German origin
G. Kremer, back in 1957, developed a heterostructure transistor.
Six years later, he and Zh. Alferov independently proposed the principles that formed the basis for the design of a heterostructure laser. In the same year, Zhores Ivanovich patented his famous optical injection quantum generator. Third Physicist Laureate – Jack
S. Kilby made a huge contribution to the creation of integrated circuits.
The fundamental work of these scientists made it fundamentally possible to create fiber-optic communications, including the Internet. Laser diodes based on heterostructure technology can be found in CD players and barcode readers.
High-speed transistors are used in satellite communications and mobile phones.
The award amount is 9 million. Swedish kronor (about nine hundred thousand dollars). Jack S. Kilby received half of this amount, the other was shared by Jaurès
Alferov and Herbert Kremer.
What are the Nobel laureate's predictions for the future? He is convinced that
The 21st century will be the century of nuclear energy. Hydrocarbon energy sources are exhaustible, but nuclear energy knows no limits. Safe nuclear energy, as Alferov says, is possible.
Quantum physics, solid state physics - this, in his opinion, is the basis of progress. Scientists have learned to stack atoms one to one, literally build new materials for unique devices. Amazing quantum dot lasers have already appeared.
How is Alferov’s Nobel discovery useful and dangerous?
The research of our scientist and his fellow laureates from Germany and the USA is a major step towards the development of nanotechnology. It is to her, according to world authorities, that the 21st century will belong. Hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in nanotechnology every year, and dozens of companies are engaged in research.
Nanorobots - hypothetical mechanisms tens of nanometers in size
(these are millionths of a millimeter), the development of which began not so long ago.
A nanorobot is assembled not from the parts and components we are familiar with, but from individual molecules and atoms. Like conventional robots, nanorobots will be able to move, perform various operations, and will be controlled externally or by a built-in computer.
The main tasks of nanorobots are to assemble mechanisms and create new substances. Such devices are called assembler (assembler) or replicator.
The crowning achievement will be nanorobots that independently assemble copies of themselves, that is, capable of reproducing. The raw materials for reproduction will be the cheapest materials literally lying underfoot - fallen leaves or sea water, from which nanorobots will select the molecules they need, just as a fox looks for food in the forest.
The idea of this direction belongs to Nobel laureate Richard
Feynman and was expressed in 1959. Devices have already appeared that can operate with a single atom, for example, rearrange it to another place.
Separate elements of nanorobots have been created: a hinge-type mechanism based on several DNA chains, capable of bending and unbending in response to a chemical signal, samples of nanotransistors and electronic switches consisting of a few atoms.
Nanorobots introduced into the human body will be able to cleanse it of microbes or nascent cancer cells, and the circulatory system of cholesterol deposits. They will be able to correct the characteristics of tissues and cells.
Just as DNA molecules, during the growth and reproduction of organisms, assemble their copies from simple molecules, nanorobots will be able to create various objects and new types of matter - both “dead” and “living”. It is difficult to imagine all the possibilities that will open up for humanity if it learns to operate with atoms as with screws and nuts. Making eternal parts of mechanisms from carbon atoms arranged in a diamond lattice, creating molecules rarely found in nature, new engineered compounds, new drugs...
But what if a device designed to treat industrial waste malfunctions and begins to destroy useful substances in the biosphere? The most unpleasant thing will be that nanorobots are capable of self-reproduction. And then they will turn out to be a fundamentally new weapon of mass destruction. It is not difficult to imagine nanorobots programmed to manufacture already known weapons. Having mastered the secret of creating a robot or somehow obtained one, even a lone terrorist will be able to produce them in incredible quantities. Nanotechnology's unfortunate consequences include the creation of devices that are selectively destructive, for example targeting certain ethnic groups or geographic areas.
Some consider Alferov a dreamer. Well, he likes to dream, but his dreams are strictly scientific. Because Zhores Alferov is a real scientist. And a Nobel laureate.
Americans won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000
Alan Heeger (UC Santa Barbara) and Alan
McDiarmid (University of Pennsylvania), as well as Japanese scientist Hideki
Shirakawa (University of Tsukuba). They received the highest scientific honor for their discovery of electrical conductivity in plastics and the development of electrically conductive polymers, which are widely used in the production of photographic film, computer monitors, television screens, reflective windows and other high-tech products.
Of all the theoretical paths, Bohr's path was the most significant.
P. Kapitsa
NIELS BOR (1885-1962) - the greatest physicist of our time, the creator of the original quantum theory of the atom, a truly unique and irresistible personality. He not only sought to understand the laws of nature, expanding the limits of human knowledge, not only felt the ways of development of physics, but also tried by all means available to him to make science serve peace and progress. The personal qualities of this man - deep intelligence, the greatest modesty, honesty, justice, kindness, the gift of foresight, exceptional perseverance in the search for truth and its upholding - are no less attractive than his scientific and social activities.
These qualities made him Rutherford's best student and colleague, Einstein's respected and indispensable opponent, Churchill's opponent and the mortal enemy of German fascism. Thanks to these qualities, he became a teacher and mentor to a large number of outstanding physicists.
A vivid biography, a history of brilliant discoveries, a dramatic struggle against Nazism, a struggle for peace and the peaceful use of atomic energy - all this attracted and will continue to attract attention to the great scientist and most wonderful person.
N. Bohr was born on October 7, 1885. He was the second child in the family of Christian Bohr, a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen.
At the age of seven, Nils went to school. He studied easily, was an inquisitive, hardworking and thoughtful student, talented in the field of physics and mathematics. The only problem with his essays in his native language was that they were too short.
Since childhood, Bohr loved to design, assemble and disassemble something.
He was always interested in the workings of large tower clocks; he was ready to watch the work of their wheels and gears for a long time. At home, Nils fixed everything that needed repair. But before disassembling anything, I carefully studied the functions of all parts.
In 1903, Niels entered the University of Copenhagen, and a year later his brother Harald also entered there. The brothers soon developed a reputation as very capable students.
In 1905, the Danish Academy of Sciences announced a competition on the topic:
"Use of jet vibration to determine the surface tension of liquids." The work, expected to take a year and a half, was very complex and required good laboratory equipment. Nils took part in the competition. As a result of hard work, his first victory was won: he became the owner of a gold medal. In 1907, Bohr graduated from the university, and in
In 1909, his work “Determination of the surface tension of water by the method of jet oscillation” was published in the proceedings of the Royal Society of London.
During this period, N. Bor began to prepare for the master's exam.
He decided to devote his master's thesis to the physical properties of metals. Based on electronic theory, he analyzes the electrical and thermal conductivity of metals, their magnetic and thermoelectric properties. In the middle of the summer of 1909, the master's thesis, 50 pages of handwritten text, was ready. But Bohr is not very happy with it: he discovered weaknesses in the electronic theory. However, the defense was successful, and Bohr received a master's degree.
After a short rest, Bohr returned to work, deciding to write a doctoral dissertation on the analysis of the electronic theory of metals. In May 1911, he successfully defended it and in the same year he went on a year-long internship at
Cambridge to J. Thomson. Since Bohr had a number of unclear questions in electronic theory, he decided to translate his dissertation into English so that Thomson could read it. “I am very concerned about Thomson’s opinion of the work as a whole, as well as his attitude towards my criticism,” Bohr wrote.
The famous English physicist kindly received a young trainee from Denmark.
He suggested that Bohr work on positive rays, and he set about assembling an experimental setup. The installation was soon assembled, but things went no further. And Nils decides to leave this work and start preparing for the publication of his doctoral dissertation.
However, Thomson was in no hurry to read Bohr's dissertation. Not only because he didn’t like to read at all and was terribly busy. But also because, being a zealous supporter of classical physics, I felt in the young Bohr
"dissident". Bohr's doctoral dissertation remained unpublished.
It is difficult to say how all this would have ended for Bohr and what his future fate would have been if the young, but already laureate, had not been nearby
Nobel Prize to Professor Ernest Rutherford, whom Bohr first saw in October 1911 at the annual Cavendish dinner. “Although I was not able to meet Rutherford this time, I was deeply impressed by his charm and energy - qualities with which he was able to achieve almost incredible things wherever he worked,” Bohr recalled. He decides to work together with this amazing man, who has an almost supernatural ability to accurately penetrate into the essence of scientific problems. In November 1911, Bohr visited
Manchester, met with Rutherford and talked with him. Rutherford agreed to accept Bohr into his laboratory, but the issue had to be settled with Thomson. Thomson gave his consent without hesitation. He could not understand Bohr's physical views, but apparently did not want to disturb him.
This was undoubtedly wise and far-sighted on the part of the famous
"classic".
In April 1912, N. Bohr arrived in Manchester, to Rutherford's laboratory.
He saw his main task in resolving the contradictions of Rutherford’s planetary model of the atom. He willingly shared his thoughts with his teacher, who advised him to more carefully carry out theoretical construction on such a foundation as he considered his atomic model. The time for departure was approaching, and Bohr worked with increasing enthusiasm. He realized that it would not be possible to resolve the contradictions of Rutherford's atomic model within the framework of purely classical physics. And he decided to apply the quantum concepts of Planck and Einstein to the planetary model of the atom. The first part of the work, together with a letter in which Bohr asked Rutherford how he managed to use classical mechanics and quantum radiation theory simultaneously, was sent to
Manchester on March 6, requesting its publication in the magazine. The essence of Bohr's theory was expressed in three postulates:
1. There are some stationary states of the atom, in which it does not emit or absorb energy. These stationary states correspond to well-defined (stationary) orbits.
2. The orbit is stationary if the angular momentum of the electron (L=m v r) is a multiple of b/2(= h. i.e. L=m v r = n h, where n=1. 2, 3, ...
- whole numbers.
3. When an atom transitions from one stationary state to another, one energy quantum hvnm==Wn-Wm is emitted or absorbed, where Wn, Wm is the energy of the atom in two stationary states, h is Planck’s constant, vnm is the radiation frequency. For Wп>Wт quantum emission occurs, at Wn
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics will be awarded to Americans Barry Barish, Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne “for their decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves,” according to the prize’s website.
Disturbances in space-time from the merger of a pair of black holes were first reported on September 14, 2015 by the LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational Observatory) collaboration about the discovery.
To date, four signals from black hole mergers have been detected, the latest discovery by LIGO in collaboration with the Virgo Observatory. The existence of gravitational waves is one of the predictions of general relativity. Their discovery not only confirms the latter, but is also considered one of the proofs of the existence of black holes.
In the mid-1970s, Weiss (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) analyzed possible sources of background noise that would distort the measurement results, and also proposed the design of a laser interferometer necessary for this. Weiss and Thorne (Caltech) are the primary architects of LIGO's creation; Barish (Caltech) was LIGO's principal investigator from 1994 to 2005, during the observatory's construction and initial operation.
According to tradition, the official award ceremony will take place in Stockholm (Sweden) on December 10, 2017, the day of death. The award will be presented to the laureates by the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf.
The 2017 cash award amounted to SEK 9 million ($1.12 million) for all physics prize winners. Weiss will receive half of the bonus, the other half will be divided equally between Barish and Thorne. The increase in the size of the award, which is usually around one million dollars (for example, 8 million Swedish kronor, or about $953 thousand, in 2016), came as a result of strengthening the financial strength of the fund.
Related materials
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded by the Royal Swedish Federation. It also selects laureates from candidates proposed by specialized committees.
The day before, on October 2, the 2017 Nobel Laureates in Medicine or Physiology were Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rozbash and Michael Young “for their discoveries of the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythm.”
In 2016, an award in physics, and "for the theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter."
The last Russian scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize was a theoretical physicist from the Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN), who was awarded it in 2003 for constructing a phenomenological theory of superconductivity. Together with him, the award was received by the Soviet-American scientist (six months ago) and the British-American physicist Anthony Leggett for the study of superfluid liquids.
In 2010, graduates of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and former employees of the Russian Academy of Sciences won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research into graphene, a two-dimensional modification of carbon. At the time of receiving the award, they were working at the University of Manchester (UK).
Our entire understanding of the processes occurring in the Universe, ideas about its structure, were formed on the basis of the study of electromagnetic radiation, in other words, photons of all possible energies reaching our devices from the depths of space. But photon observations have their limitations: electromagnetic waves of even the highest energies do not reach us from too distant areas of space.
There are other forms of radiation - neutrino streams and gravitational waves. They can tell you about things that instruments that record electromagnetic waves will never see. In order to “see” neutrinos and gravitational waves, fundamentally new instruments are needed. Three American physicists, Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barrish, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics this year for the creation of a gravitational wave detector and experimental proof of their existence.
From left to right: Rainer Weiss, Barry Barrish and Kip Thorne.
The existence of gravitational waves is provided for by the general theory of relativity and was predicted by Einstein back in 1915. They arise when very massive objects collide with each other and generate disturbances in space-time, diverging at the speed of light in all directions from the point of origin.
Even if the event that generated the wave is huge - for example, two black holes colliding - the effect that the wave has on space-time is extremely small, so it is difficult to register it, which requires very sensitive instruments. Einstein himself believed that a gravitational wave, passing through matter, affects it so little that it cannot be observed. Indeed, the actual effect that a wave has on matter is quite difficult to capture, but indirect effects can be registered. This is exactly what American astrophysicists Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse did in 1974, measuring the radiation of the double pulsar star PSR 1913+16 and proving that the deviation of its pulsation period from the calculated one is explained by the loss of energy carried away by a gravitational wave. For this they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993.
On September 14, 2015, LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, directly detected a gravitational wave for the first time. By the time the wave reached the Earth, it was very weak, but even this weak signal meant a revolution in physics. To make this possible, it took the work of thousands of scientists from twenty countries who built LIGO.
It took several months to verify the results of the fifteenth year, so they were made public only in February 2016. In addition to the main discovery - confirmation of the existence of gravitational waves - there were several more hidden in the results: the first evidence of the existence of black holes of average mass (20−60 solar) and the first evidence that they can merge.
It took the gravitational wave more than a billion years to reach Earth. Far, far away, beyond our galaxy, two black holes crashed into each other, 1.3 billion years passed - and LIGO told us about this event.
The energy of a gravitational wave is enormous, but the amplitude is incredibly small. Feeling it is like measuring the distance to a distant star with an accuracy of tenths of a millimeter. LIGO is capable of this. Weiss developed the concept: back in the 70s, he calculated what terrestrial phenomena could distort the results of observations and how to get rid of them. LIGO consists of two observatories, the distance between which is 3002 kilometers. A gravitational wave travels this distance in 7 milliseconds, so two interferometers refine each other’s readings as the wave passes.
The two LIGO observatories, in Livingston (Louisiana) and Hanford (Washington State), are located 3002 km apart.
Each observatory has two four-kilometer arms emanating from the same point at right angles to each other. Inside they have an almost perfect vacuum. At the beginning and end of each arm there is a complex system of mirrors. Passing through our planet, a gravitational wave slightly compresses the space where one arm is laid, and stretches the second (without a wave, the length of the arms is strictly the same). A laser beam is fired from the crosshairs of the shoulders, split in two and reflected on the mirrors; Having passed their distance, the rays meet at the crosshairs. If this happens simultaneously, then space-time is calm. And if one of the rays took longer to pass through the shoulder than the other, it means that the gravitational wave lengthened its path and shortened the path of the second ray.
Operation diagram of the LIGO observatory.
LIGO was developed by Weiss (and, of course, his colleagues), Kip Thorne - the world's leading expert in the theory of relativity - performed the theoretical calculations, Barry Barish joined the LIGO team in 1994 and turned a small - just 40 people - group of enthusiasts into a huge international collaboration LIGO/VIRGO, thanks to the well-coordinated work of its participants, a fundamental experiment was made possible, carried out twenty years later.
Work on gravitational wave detectors continues. The first recorded wave was followed by a second, third and fourth; the latter was “caught” not only by LIGO detectors, but also by the recently launched European VIRGO. The fourth gravitational wave, unlike the previous three, was born not in absolute darkness (as a result of the merger of black holes), but with complete illumination - during the explosion of a neutron star; Space and ground-based telescopes also detected an optical source of radiation in the area from which the gravitational wave came.
