Physics in a Mad World: Houtermans / Golfand - Couverture rigide

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 9814619280 ISBN 13 : 9789814619288

Editeur : World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd, 2015

Synopsis

This book tells captivating stories of misadventures of two renowned theoretical physicists in the Soviet Union. The first part is devoted to Friedrich (Fritz) Houtermans, an outstanding Dutch Austrian German physicist who was the first to suggest that the source of stars' energy is thermonuclear fusion, and also made a number of other important contributions to cosmochemistry and geochemistry. In 1935, Houtermans, a German communist, in an attempt to save his life from Hilter's Gestapo, fled to the Soviet Union. He took up an appointment at the Kharkov Physico-Technical Institute, working there for two years with the Russian physicist Valentin P Fomin. In the Great Purge of 1937, Houtermans was arrested in December by the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police, KGB's predecessor). He was tortured, and confessed to being a Trotskyist plotter and German spy, out of fear of threats against his wife Charlotte. However, Charlotte had already escaped from the Soviet Union to Denmark, after which she went to England and finally the USA. As a result of the Hilter Stalin Pact of 1939, Houtermans was turned over to the Gestapo in May 1940 and imprisoned in Berlin.

The second part consists of two essays that narrate the life story of Yuri Golfand, one of the codiscoverers of supersymmetry, a major discovery in theoretical physics in the 20th century. In 1973, just two years after the publication of his seminal paper, he was fired from the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow. Because of his Jewish origin he could find no job. Under such circumstances, he applied for an exit visa to Israel, but his application was denied. Yuri Golfand became a refusnik and joined the Human rights movement, along with two other prominent physicists, Andrei Sakharov and Yuri Orlov. To earn his living, he had to do manual work, repeatedly being intimidated by KGB. Only 18 years later, shortly before the demise of the Soviet Union, did he obtain permission to leave the country, emigrating to Israel in 1990.

These personal life stories of two outstanding theorists are interwined with the tragedies of the 20th century and make for compelling reading.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

This book tells captivating stories of misadventures of two renowned theoretical physicists in the Soviet Union. The first part is devoted to Friedrich (Fritz) Houtermans, an outstanding Dutch Austrian German physicist who was the first to suggest that the source of stars' energy is thermonuclear fusion, and also made a number of other important contributions to cosmochemistry and geochemistry. In 1935, Houtermans, a German communist, in an attempt to save his life from Hilter's Gestapo, fled to the Soviet Union. He took up an appointment at the Kharkov Physico-Technical Institute, working there for two years with the Russian physicist Valentin P Fomin. In the Great Purge of 1937, Houtermans was arrested in December by the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police, KGB's predecessor). He was tortured, and confessed to being a Trotskyist plotter and German spy, out of fear of threats against his wife Charlotte. However, Charlotte had already escaped from the Soviet Union to Denmark, after which she went to England and finally the USA. As a result of the Hilter Stalin Pact of 1939, Houtermans was turned over to the Gestapo in May 1940 and imprisoned in Berlin.

The second part consists of two essays that narrate the life story of Yuri Golfand, one of the codiscoverers of supersymmetry, a major discovery in theoretical physics in the 20th century. In 1973, just two years after the publication of his seminal paper, he was fired from the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow. Because of his Jewish origin he could find no job. Under such circumstances, he applied for an exit visa to Israel, but his application was denied. Yuri Golfand became a refusnik and joined the Human rights movement, along with two other prominent physicists, Andrei Sakharov and Yuri Orlov. To earn his living, he had to do manual work, repeatedly being intimidated by KGB. Only 18 years later, shortly before the demise of the Soviet Union, did he obtain permission to leave the country, emigrating to Israel in 1990.

These personal life stories of two outstanding theorists are interwined with the tragedies of the 20th century and make for compelling reading.

Revue de presse

The eminent theoretical physicist Mihail Shifman has performed a tour de force: under the guise of writing about, the much underrated nuclear expert Fritz Houtermans, and Yuri Golfand, one of the originators of supersymmetry, also neglected in the West for many years, he has in fact created a veritable Russian novel of great sweep and detail that covers the terrible years 1933 - 1945 in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Personal interviews with survivors, and recollections by many others, add to the account's immediacy, yet the technical aspects do not get in the way of the narrative. --Professor Stanley Deser, Brandeis University, USA

Is a must read for those with an interest in the history of theoretical physics and cold war politics alike. Through personal anecdotes, historical documents and theoretical papers Shifman pieces together the extraordinary life stories of two of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century. The tales of Houtermans and Golfand, combined with an in-depth exploration of life in the Soviet Union during the bloodiest years of the cold war, make for a truly captivating read. --E & T Magazine

I have never seen anything quite like Physics in a Mad World. It consists of two long essays on the physicists Friedrich Houtermans and Yuri Golfand. Both of these are written by Russians who had access to police files. The book's editor, Mikhail Shifman, now a professor at the University of Minnesota and a distinguished theoretical physicist, was also born in Soviet Latvia. He supplies useful comments.

The long profile [on Houtermans] was written by Victor Frenkel, a noted biographer and historian of Soviet science who died in 1997. Shifman has filled in the gaps. If there were a movie of Houtermans's life, no one would believe it.

--The New York Review of Books

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2015
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 9814619280
• ISBN 13: 9789814619288
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 556
• Éditeur: Shifman M
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Allemagne