Bruno Pontecorvo Maximovich

Maksimovich Bruno Pontecorvo (1913-1993) was born in Pisa in northern Italy. After graduating from the University of Rome in 1933 he began working there in the group famous physicist Enrico Fermi.
Pontecorvo participated in experiments on the bombardment of various substances recent discovery of the neutron, in the detection and further studies of slowing down neutrons and the capture of neutrons by atomic nuclei. These works marked the beginning of neutron physics.
In the years 1936-1940 Pontecorvo worked at the Radium Institute in France, in 1940 he moved to the United States, in 1943-1948 years he lived and worked in Canada. In 1948-1950 years he worked in secret Atomic Center at Harwell in England. And in 1950 he arrived in the USSR, where he began working in secret nuclear laboratory in Dubna (Moscow region).
After you create on the basis of this laboratory in 1956, the International Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, began working in it. In 1958, Mr.. He was elected a corresponding member, and in 1964. - Academician of the Academy of Sciences. In 1961 he also became a professor at Moscow University.
The first years of life in the USSR Pontekovo was very secretive man. Thus, during his vacation in Crimea, where he swam diving, it is always accompanied by a guard. But gradually the veil of secrecy subsided. Pontecorvo became involved in international scientific conferences, traveled to his native Italy.
. Living in the Soviet Union, Pontecorvo learned to speak in Russian, albeit with a strong Italian accent, who was with him until the end of life.
. After his departure from Rome Pontecorvo continued the physics of neutron
. In 1941, he proposed a new method of oil exploration with neutrons - neutron logging ".
After the discovery of pi-mesons, he studied their interaction with nucleons and nuclei, first studied the formation of pi-mesons in collisions of high-energy neutrons and protons and nuclei. Pontecorvo also held a series of experiments on the mesic atoms, ie atoms, which revolve around the nucleus, not only electrons, but also mu-meson.
Pontecorvo, a lot of physics involved in weak interactions, especially neutrino physics. In 1946, he proposed to use for the detection of neutrino nuclear reaction:
. 37Cl + n0 = 37Ar + e --
. With precisely this reaction were first registered neutrinos emitted by the Sun, which marked the emergence of neutrino astronomy
. In 1957, Pontecorvo's hypothesis of neutrino oscillations. This hypothesis has received experimental confirmation after the death of the scientist in the late 1990's,. Pontecorvo studied the role of neutrinos in the evolution of stars that contributed to the creation of neutrino astrophysics.
. Pontecorvo, as his teacher Fermi, one of those rare in XX century physicists, who were both theoreticians and experimentalists
. In one of the songs of Vladimir Vysotsky, there are some words about the elementary particles:
"It would be nice
To Pontecorvo
Pokrepche took them by the scruff. "