Biography
Peter Kapitsa is a Soviet scientist, researcher and experimenter. His authorship belongs to work on quantum physics and low temperature techniques, electronics and plasma physics. He developed a pulsed method for the production of supreme magnetic fields. Peter Leonidovich invented and recreated equipment for cooling helium and invented a method for avoiding air through turbo-detector and low pressure. Contribution to the science brought by scientists is difficult to overestimate.Childhood and youth
The future physicist was born in Kronstadt on July 8, 1894. His father worked as a military engineer and was engaged in the construction of urban fortifications. Mother studied folklore and children's literature. Peter went to school at 11 years old, became a gymnasium. Latin was for the student too complex subject. The program was difficult, so after a year from the gymnasium I had to go.
Getting the formation of Kapitsa went to the Kronstadt School. The cases have done themselves, and the young man graduated from learning with honors, released in 1912. At first, he wanted to become a student of the Physical and Mathematics Faculty of State University in St. Petersburg, but the contest of the Applicant did not pass.
Then he drew attention to the Polytechnic Institute, where she easily entered the faculty of electromechanics. From the first months, a talented student attracted the interest of Professor Abram Ioffe. The teacher decided to attract Kapitsa to work in his own laboratory.
The mentor contributed to the development of Protege and helped go to Scotland in the summer of 1914. There, a young man found the First World War, because of which it turned out to return to his homeland.
Kapitsa was in Russia in November 1914. A year later, he volunteered and was appointed a driver of sanitary transport. In 1916, Peter demobilized, and the student returned to Petersburg, where he immediately plunged into work on experiments and seminars. By this time, the first article of the researcher belongs.
Scientific activity
Work with a degree in Ioffe suggested Kapitsa even before the protection of the diploma. The novice specialist was invited to the X-ray and radiological institute. So the pedagogical activity of physics began. Professor contributed to the departure of Kapitsa abroad to obtain new knowledge. But it was not easy.
Out of the border, it turned out only with the assistance of Maxim Gorky in 1921. Kapitsa was sent to the UK. He became an employee of the Cavendish laboratory and entered the disposal of Ernest Reznenford. After a couple of months, Peter Leonidovich was already an employee of Cambridge.
Here he won credibility and respect. He began the study of super-high magnetic fields and put the first experiments in this area. Among the first works, Kapitsa turned out to be a joint study with Nikolai Semenov, dedicated to the study of the magnetic moment of an atom located in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The study resulted in the experience of Stern-Gerlacha.
In 1922, he defended his doctoral dissertation, and in 1925 he became deputy director of a laboratory on magnetic research. After 4 years, the researchers appointed a member of the London Royal Society. His Council sponsored the creation of a special laboratory for a scientist. The discovery took place in 1933.
The main direction of work at this time for the Kapitsa was the study of the transformation of nuclei and radioactive decay. It develops equipment for organizing strong magnetic fields and achieves unprecedented results, breaking the record of previous experiments several times. His merits and achievements admitted Landau himself.
To continue research, the capital was required to return to their homeland, as the relevant conditions are needed to study low temperatures physics. The Soviet government, which regularly proposed by the scientist permanent residence, was ready to adopt physics. But he exhibited a condition: leaving abroad at his own request and at any time.
In 1934, Peter Leonidovich and his wife visited his homeland, but when leaving he learned that his British visa was revoked. Later, the spouse of physics was allowed to leave for children with the condition of compulsory return. The persuasion of English colleagues did not act on the Soviet government. The capital had to stay in the USSR.
In 1935, the physicist headed the Institute of Physical Problems at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Academician loved the science so much that disappointment did not allow him to abandon the matter of life. He requested the equipment on which he worked in the UK. The Rutherford who was acceptable with what was happening was forced to sell the USSR technique.
Kapitsa continued to study strong magnetic fields in conjunction with colleagues from Cambridge. Experiments lasted several years. Proceedings paid off: Peter Leonidovich modernized the installation turbine, and air liquefaction has become more efficient.
Helium was automatically cooled in the detaarder. Similar equipment is used in modern production in all countries of the world. But the main discovery that became an important event in the biography of physics and in science was the phenomenon of superfluidity of helium. The lack of viscosity of the substance at a temperature below 2 degrees Celsius became an unexpected conclusion. So the physics of quantum liquids appeared.
By this time, Kapitsa was the author of several books and the famous scientist. The government took into account this when the project of the atomic bomb was launched and planned to attract Peter Leonidovich to cooperation. But he refused and was removed from work. The punishment has become a home imprisonment for many 8 years.
The capital was forbidden to keep in touch with colleagues, but this did not prevent him from creating a new laboratory on his own dacha. There were tests that were at the heart of high-capacity electronics research. Kapitsa studied thermonuclear energy. Experiments in the walls of a professional laboratory have become available to him only in 1955, after the death of Stalin and the restoration of the regalia of academician.
In those years, the first experiments were associated with research of high-temperature plasma. The findings of the scientist served as the basis for creating a thermonuclear reactor. The physicist studied the properties of ball lightning and fluid hydrodynamics. But the greatest interest was microwave generators and plasma.
In 1965, for achievements in Science, Kapitsa received Niels Bora's medal at the solemn ceremony in Denmark. After 4 years, he had a chance to visit the United States, and in 1978 he learned that he became a Nobel laureate. Niels Bor offered the candidacy of Peter Leonidovich and earlier: in 1948,1956 and 1960. However, disputes within the discourt's priority committee did not give the opportunity to receive a well-deserved award.
The reason for its presentation served as long-temperatures. An interesting fact: the scientist received a prize for the topic that was not over 30 years old, and his research of thermonuclear reaction at that time was more exciting. Therefore, reading a lecture, the winner of the award allowed to change the theme.
The name of Peter Kapitsa was awarded the "pendulum of Kapitsa." This is a mechanical phenomenon showing stability outside equilibrium conditions. The effect of Dirak's Caps demonstrates the dispersion of electrons in the electromagnetic wave space.
Personal life
For the first time, Peter Kapitsa married his youth, in 1916. The father of the chief of the Hope of the Chernotalwithite was a member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party and the State Duma deputy. In 1917, his wife gave birth to a scientist Son Jerome, and in the 1920s - daughter hope. It seemed that the physicist's personal life was happy if not a tragic event: the spouse and children died suddenly. The cause of death was Spanish. The loss of Kapitsa was worried and was able to overcome the grief only thanks to the help of the mother.In 1926, Alexey Krylov, friend and colleague, acquainted Kapitsa with his daughter Anna Krylov. The wedding took place a year later. In the new family of physics, Sergei and Andrei sons were born. Both became scientists. The second marriage of Kapitsa became happy. Together with his wife, they lived 57 years. Anna helped working on manuscripts, and after the death of a scientist created a museum in his house.
Peter Leonidovich loved to spend his free time for playing chess. It is curious that, working in England, he won the Cambridgeshire Championship for this desktop game. The scientist did not hurt the work with his hands: He loved to make the objects of furniture and homemade utensils, was fond of the repair of hours. Peter Kapitsa adhered to the style that came to taste in England. He loved tobacco, wore tween costumes and lived in a cottage built in English style.
Peter Kapitsa consisted in difficult relations with the Soviet government, but had a constant opinion about what was happening in the political field and was honest in statements. Defending the views and honor of the prisoners of scientists, in 1934-1983 he regularly wrote letters to the government. Thanks to them, some science figures are released.
Death
The scientist did not live a few months to the 90th anniversary. He died on April 8, 1984. The grave is located on the Novodevichy cemetery.
Peter Kapitsa was attracted to the Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR leading scientists, participated in the creation of a scientific center near Novosibirsk and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Installations invented in industry are used in industry, and studies associated with the extraction of liquid air have seriously advanced the steel production in the USSR.
Kapitsa was against the construction of a pulp and paper factory near Lake Baikal. The scientist consisted in the Committee of the Paguic Movement for peace and disarmament, advocated the unification of the scientists of the USSR and the United States.
For merit in the scientific field about the capital filmed documentaries. In 2017, the films came to the screens about the physics "Experience of Freedom Freedom". His photo today is placed in textbooks.
Bibliography
- 1966 - "Physical tasks"
- 1968 - "Do you understand physics?"
- 1981 - "Experiment. Theory. Practice"
- 1989 - "Letters about science"
Awards and Prize
- 1941,1943 - Stalin's Prize
- 1943 - Faraday Medal
- 1944 - Franklin's medal
- 1945,1974 - Hero of Socialist Labor
- 1959 - Gold Medal. Lomonosov Academy of Sciences of the USSR
- 1965 - Niels Bora Medal
- 1966 - Rutherford's Medal
- 1968 - Medal named after challing-onnesis
- 1978 - Nobel Prize in Physics