Background

Lev Landau was born on January 22, 1908, in Baku, Baku Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Baku, Azerbaijan). He was a son of David Lvovich Landau, a petroleum engineer and a physician, and Lyubov Veniaminovna Garkavi-Landau, a doctor. Lev also had a sister, Sofia, some years his senior, who became a chemical engineer.

Education

Lev was a child prodigy in mathematics, who learned to differentiate at the age of twelve and to integrate at the age of thirteen. Also, at the age of thirteen, he finished a gymnasium. Later, in 1920, Lev entered Baku Economical Technical School, where he remained for a year.

In 1922, Landau enrolled at Baku State University, where he studied in two departments simultaneously. Those were the Department of Physics and Mathematics and the Department of Chemistry. However, later in his life, Landau stopped learning Chemistry, but held a deep interest in the subject throughout the remainder of his life.

In 1924, Lev transferred to Leningrad State University (present-day Saint Petersburg State University), where he studied theoretical physics, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics degree in 1927. Between 1927 and 1929, he continued his postgraduate studies at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute (present-day Ioffe Institute), where he got his Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences degree.

In 1929, Landau left the Soviet Union to study for a year and a half at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen (present-day Niels Bohr Institute), as well as at scientific centers in Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and the Netherlands. During his stay at the institute in Copenhagen, he became closely associated with the Danish physicist Niels Bohr. Bohr invited Landau in 1933 and 1934 to attend several conferences on theoretical physics.

Career

Returning to Leningrad (present-day Saint-Petersburg) in 1931, Lev determined to begin teaching, as well as to continue his own work. First, he worked closely with Matvey Bronstein at Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute (present-day Ioffe Institute), before moving to Ukraine in 1932 to head the Department of Theoretical Physics at the National Scientific Center, Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology. Lev held a post of a head of the department until 1937.

There, at the National Science Center, Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, Landau was able to realize his wish to teach. During his time in Kharkov, Lev also taught at the University of Kharkiv (present-day National University of Kharkiv) and Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute. Moreover, Kharkov was where Landau devised his first "theoretical minimum" program in physics for members of the institute staff and began to work on his magnum opus, the "Course of Theoretical Physics", which remains, long after Landau’s death, the bible of theoretical physics. These volumes, covering the spectra of the field, testify, perhaps more than anything else Landau produced, to his genius. The course was co-written with one of Landau’s favorite pupils, Evgeny Lifshitz, for Landau could not bear to write.

The "theoretical minimum" was an examination, with nine component parts, covering all of theoretical physics, including the necessary maths. It was Landau’s conception of the minimum a theoretician should know before he would accept him as a pupil. For Landau, physics was an indivisible whole, and anyone, serious about studying under him, had to prove, that they, like him, were capable of moving with ease between the various branches of physics. It was a challenge, that few were up to: between 1933 and 1961, just forty-three people passed the examination, which was open to anyone, who cared to tackle it.

In 1935, Lev accepted a post of a chair of General Physics at the University of Kharkov (present-day National University of Kharkiv). At that time, in addition to his administrative and teaching duties, he took a close interest in the groundbreaking work on low-temperature physics, which was being carried out at the university — Landau's angle was the behavior of matter at low temperatures. He published four papers on the topic during this period (out of a total of seventeen on a wide range of subjects). Even with this heavy workload, Landau found time for leisure pursuits: tennis, reading, movies and fraternizing with his wide circle of friends.

In 1937, Lev moved to Moscow, where, during the period from 1937 till 1962, he held a post of a head of the theoretical division at the Institute for Physical Problems. There, Landau felt completely at home. He continued working on a range of theoretical problems, being interrupted only briefly during the Second World War, when the Institute was evacuated to Kazan. There, Landau devised theories and made calculations of the processes, governing the efficiency of armaments, and published three papers on the detonation of explosives. For this war-related work, he was made a Hero of Socialist Labour in 1945.

When the war ended, Landau began his work on superfluidity. He succeeded in explaining various properties of liquid helium-4 mathematically. For instance, he explained, why the element flows without friction below a temperature of 2 degrees Kelvin and has a thermal conductivity 800 times greater, than copper at room temperature. This work laid the groundwork for later research into superconductivity, that is, the complete disappearance of electrical resistance in certain metals at temperatures near absolute zero. He forecast, that sound would travel at two speeds in liquid helium; at that of a familiar pressure wave and at that of a temperature wave. During that time, Landau also continued to work for the government’s nuclear weapons program.

Landau was appointed a full professor of physics at Moscow State University in 1943. Later, in 1945, he investigated shock waves for the engineering company of the Soviet Army. The following year, he turned his attention to the oscillation of plasmas. He predicted, that the isotope helium-3 would show unique properties at a temperature near absolute zero on the Kelvin scale, including a wave propagation, called "zero sound", and sudden spinning.

Landau’s career was brought to a tragic and abrupt halt on January 7, 1962, when he was involved in a car crash. The base of his skull, ribs and pelvic bones were broken, and for six weeks the doctors struggled to save his life as he slipped in and out of a coma. He survived, but was so badly injured, that he could never work again.

Landau was still confined to his bed, when it was announced, that he had won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking research into theories of condensed matter, especially liquid helium. As he was not well enough to travel to Stockholm, his wife and son accepted the award on his behalf. He spent the remaining years of his life, battling his injuries until he died on April 1, 1968, after surgery to repair an intestinal blockage.

Achievements

• Lev Landau gained prominence as a theoretical physicist, who developed a mathematical theory, that explained the properties of superfluidity and superconductivity of helium at temperatures close to absolute zero. His other scientific achievements include the independent co-discovery of the density matrix method in quantum mechanics (alongside John von Neumann), the theory of second-order phase transitions, the Ginzburg–Landau theory of superconductivity, the theory of Fermi liquid, the explanation of Landau damping in plasma physics, the Landau pole in quantum electrodynamics, the two-component theory of neutrinos and Landau's equations for S matrix singularities.
  
  Also, Landau's groundbreaking work is "Course of Theoretical Physics", a ten-volume series of books, covering theoretical physics.
  
  Landau was a mentor of many prominent theoretical physicists, including Evgeny Lifshitz, Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Lev Gor'kov, Isaak Pomeranchuk and others.
  
  In 1945, Lev was made a Hero of Socialist Labour. In 1962, he received Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of a mathematical theory of superfluidity. During his lifetime, Lev received other awards, including Stalin Prize, USSR State Prize, Max Planck Medal, Fritz London Memorial Prize and others.
  
  Moreover, there are two celestial objects, named in his honour: the minor planet 2142 Landau and the lunar crater Landau.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Lectures on Nuclear Theory

    (This highly regarded volume, based on a series of lecture...)

    1958
  • Theory of Elasticity

    (A comprehensive textbook, covering not only the ordinary ...)

    1959
  • Mechanics

    (Devoted to the foundation of mechanics, namely classical ...)

    1960
  • Electrodynamics of Continuous Media

    (This work covers the theory of electromagnetic fields in ...)

    1960
  • General Physics: Mechanics and Molecular Physics

    (This work presents the basic physical theory of mechanics...)

    1967
  • Collected Papers of L. D. Landau

    (This work brings together the collected papers of L. D. L...)

    1965
  • What is the theory of relativity?

    (Illustrations are included.)

    1961
  • Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory

    (Third Edition.)

    1958
  • Quantum Mechanics: A Shorter Course of Theoretical Physics

    (Volume 2.)

    1972
  • Physics For Everyone

    (Volume 2.)

    1980

Politics

Landau revealed in "Komsomolskaya Pravda" ("Komsomol Truth") newspaper, dated July 8, 1964, to a stunned Soviet readership, that he had been caught up in the Stalinist mass purges and that he had been arrested in 1938 as a German spy, despite his Jewish background. Also, the cause, because of which he was arrested, was for comparing Stalinism to Nazism. After a year's detention, Landau emerged emaciated and sickly, his black hair turned gray.

Ironically, in subsequent years, Soviet newspapers portrayed him as an "enthusiastic public-spirited citizen", whose scientific services were highly appreciated by the Soviet government. If there was any crime, that Landau was guilty of, it was nonconformism. He appeared at state functions in a checkered sport shirt and at the Moscow Art Theater in sandals. He did not hesitate to lend support to modernistic trends in Soviet art. And he encouraged Soviet scientists to engage in discussions of the philosophical problems of science, thus preventing narrow party ideologues from dominating the scientific field.

Some people, who knew Lev, characterized him as a "salon" Communist, who accepted the ideals of communism, but there is no evidence, indicating, that he ever joined the Communist party.

Views

Landau believed in "free love", rather than monogamy, and encouraged his wife and his students to practise "free love". Landau stuck to the theory, that a union must not constrain both partners' sexual freedom.

He did not like the natural philosophy of dialectical materialism, especially when applied to physics, but he did uphold historical materialism — the Marxist political philosophy — as an example of scientific truth.

Quotations: "Everybody has a capacity for a happy life. All these talks about how difficult times we live in, that's just a clever way to justify fear and laziness."

"A method is more important than a discovery, since the right method will lead to new and even more important discoveries."

"Product of optimism and knowledge is a constant."

"Most important part of doing physics is the knowledge of approximation."

"Cosmologists are often in error, but never in doubt."

"Money is in the exponent. And exponent needs to be calculated precisely."

"We mathematicans are all a bit crazy."

"Why add prime numbers? Prime numbers are made to be multiplied, not added."

Membership

Lev was an honorary member of the British Institute of Physics and Physical Society of London.

• full member

  Academy of Sciences of the USSR , USSR

  1946

• foreign member

  Royal Society , United Kingdom

  1960

• 

  foreign member

  National Academy of Sciences , United States

  1960

• foreign member

  Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , Denmark

  1951

• 

  foreign member

  Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences , Netherlands

  1956

• 

  foreign member

  American Academy of Arts and Sciences , United States

  1960

• 

  foreign member

  Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , Germany

  1964

Personality

Those, who worked closely with Landau, appreciated his enthusiasm for science, devotion to creativity in physics, and dedication to high scientific principles. Also, Lev had a great sense of humor.

Connections

Lev married Kora T. Drobanzeva, a food engineer, in 1937. Their son, Igor, was born in 1946. Igor would later become a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical sciences.

Father:

David Lvovich Landau

Mother:

Lyubov Veniaminovna Garkavi-Landau

child:

Igor Landau

Wife:

Kora T. Drobanzeva

Sister:

Sofia Landau

Academic advisor:

Niels Bohr

pupil:

Evgeny Lifshitz

pupil:

Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov

pupil:

Lev Gor'kov

pupil:

Isaak Pomeranchuk

colleague:

Matvey Bronstein

References

• Landau, the Physicist and the Man: Recollections of L.D. Landau This volume contains letters, papers and recollections by friends and pupils, describing Landau's views of science, culture and life, and provides the reader with a vivid portrait of a remarkable man.
  1989
• Landau: A Great Physicist and Teacher This work represents a biography of Lev Landau.
  1980
• Lev Davidovich Landau and His Impact on Contemporary Theoretical Physics This book is dedicated to the memory of the Nobel laureate and the great theoretical physicist Lev Davidovich Landau (1908-1968) on the occasion of his centenary. This book brings together fifteen papers, contributed by authors from different countries: China, India, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Russia and the United States, covering several core aspects of modern development of Landau legacy and achievements, ranging from Landau's bibliography and life to recent rigorous research on theoretical physics.
  2009