TAMM Igor

July 8, 1895, Mr.. - April 12, 1971
Russian physicist Igor Tamm was born on the Pacific coast at Vladivostok in the family of Olga (nee Davydova) and Evgeni Tamm Tamm, Civil Engineer. In 1913, Mr.. He graduated high school in Elizavetgrad (now Kirovograd) in Ukraine, where the family moved in 1901. He went to study at the University of Edinburgh, . where he spent a year (since then he has kept the Scottish accent in English pronunciation), then he returned to Russia, . where he graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University and received a diploma in 1918,
. Even as an undergraduate, he hired the Medical Service participated in the First World War and was active in elizavetgradskoy town council.
In 1919, Mr.. T. began his career as a physics teacher and the first University in Simferopol, Crimea, and later in the Odessa Polytechnic Institute. After moving to Moscow in 1922, he spent three years he taught at the Communist University. Sverdlov. In 1923, Mr.. he joined the faculty of Theoretical Physics 2-nd Moscow University and served there from 1927 to 1929. professorship. In 1924, Mr.. he also began to lecture at Moscow State University, where from 1930 to 1937. was a professor and chair of theoretical physics. There he was in 1933. received his doctorate in physics and mathematics, but then became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. When the Academy in 1934. moved from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) to Moscow, T. became the head of sector for Theoretical Physics Academic Institute. P.N. Lebedeva, and this post he held until his death.
Electrodynamics of anisotropic solids (ie. such, . which have widely different physical properties and characteristics) and optical properties of crystals - these are the first research T., . which he conducted under the leadership of Leonid Mandelshtam, . Professor of the Odessa Polytechnic Institute in the early 20's., . outstanding Soviet scientist, . who made contributions to many branches of physics, . especially in optics and radio physics,
. T. close contact with M. until his death in 1944. Turning to quantum mechanics, T. explained the acoustic vibrations and the scattering of light in solid media. This work was first raised the idea of quanta of sound waves (later called 'phonons'), has been very fruitful in many other sections of solid state physics.
In the late 20-ies. important role in the new physics has played a relativistic quantum mechanics. English physicist P.A. M. Dirac developed the relativistic theory of electron. In this theory, . particularly, . predicted the existence of negative energy levels of an electron - the concept, . rejected by many physicists, . as a positron (a particle, . all identical to the electron, . but carrying a positive charge) has not yet been detected experimentally,
. However T. proved that the scattering of low energy photons of light by free electrons occurs through intermediate states of electrons located at the same time in the negative energy levels. As a result, he showed that the negative energy of the electron is an essential element of the electron theory proposed by Dirac.
T. made two significant discoveries in the quantum theory of metals, popular in the early 30-ies. With students with. Shubin, he was able to explain the photoelectric emission of electrons from the metal, ie. emissions caused by light irradiation. The second discovery - establishing, . that the electrons near the surface of the crystal can be in particular energy states, . later called Tamm surface levels, . that later played an important role in the study of surface effects and contact properties of metals and semiconductors.,
. At the same time he began to pursue theoretical research in the field of atomic nucleus
. After examining the experimental data, T. and C. Altshuler predicted that the neutron, despite his lack of charge, has a negative magnetic moment (physical quantity related, inter alia, with the charge and spin). Their hypothesis has now been affirmed, while regarded by many theoretical physicists as erroneous. In 1934, Mr.. T. tried to explain with the help of his so-called beta-theory of the nature of the forces that hold together the particles of the nucleus.
. According to this theory, the disintegration of nuclei caused by the emission of beta particles (high speed electrons) leads to a special kind of forces between any two nucleons (protons and neutrons)
. Using the work of Enrico Fermi beta decay, T. investigated how the nuclear force could arise in the exchange of electron-neutrino pairs between any two nucleons, if this effect occurs. He found that beta-force actually exist, but are too weak to perform the role of 'nuclear glue'. A year later, Japanese physicist Hideki Yukawa postulated the existence of particles called bosons, the exchange of whom (and not electrons and neutrinos, as suggested by TM) ensures the stability of the nucleus.
In 1936 ... 1937. T. and Ilya Frank proposed a theory explaining the nature of radiation, which is found Pavel Cherenkov, watching the refractive medium-exposed gamma-radiation. Although described this Cherenkov radiation, and showed that the luminescence is not, he could not explain its origin. T. and Frank considered the case of an electron moving faster than light in the environment. While the vacuum is impossible, this phenomenon occurs and the refractive medium, since the phase velocity of light in the medium is equal to 3.108 meters per second, divided by the refractive index of the medium. In the case of water, the refractive index is equal to 1.333, the characteristic blue glow occurs when the velocity of the electrons exceeds 2,25 бЇ 108 meters per second (phase velocity of light in water).
. Following this model, both were able to explain the physics of Cherenkov radiation (known in the Soviet Union as Vavilov - Cherenkov radiation in recognition of work done by the head of Cherenkov radiation and T
. physicist SI. Vavilov). T., Cherenkov, and Frank also checked and other predictions of this theory, which found its experimental confirmation. Their work led eventually to the development of super-light optics, which found practical applications in such areas as plasma physics. For their discovery T., Frank, Cherenkov and Vavilov received in 1946. USSR State Prize.
T., Frank, and Cherenkov in 1958. was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect '. When presenting the winners Manne Siegbahn, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, recalled that, although the Cherenkov 'set the general properties of newly discovered radiation, the mathematical description of this phenomenon was absent'. Job T. and Frank, "he said then, gave 'an explanation ... which, in addition to simplicity and clarity, and still satisfy the stringent requirements of mathematical '. Paradoxically, the very T. never counted the work that won the award for his most important achievements.
After the completion of the Cerenkov radiation of T. returned to the study of nuclear forces and elementary particles. He proposed an approximate quantum-mechanical method for describing the interactions of elementary particles, whose velocities are close to the speed of light. Developed further Russian chemist P.D. Dankoff, known as the method of Tamm - Dankoff, it is widely used in theoretical studies of the interaction of the type of nucleon - nucleon and nucleon - meson. T. also developed cascade theory of cosmic rays. In 1950, Mr.. T. and Andrei Sakharov proposed a method for retaining a gas discharge with the help of powerful magnetic fields - a principle which still lies at the basis of Soviet physicists to achieve the desired controlled thermonuclear reaction (nuclear fusion). In the 50-and 60-ies. T. continued to develop new theories in the field of elementary particles and tried to overcome some fundamental difficulties of the existing theories.
During its long activity of T. managed to turn the physical laboratory of Moscow State University in an important research center and introduced quantum mechanics and relativity theory in the curriculum in physics throughout the Soviet Union. Additionally, a recognized theoretical physicist, took an active part in political life. He strongly opposed the Government's attempts to dictate its policy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and against bureaucratic control over academic research, which in effect as a rule, mismanagement of resources and human energy. Despite the frank criticisms and the fact that he was not a member of the CPSU, T. in 1958. was included in the Soviet delegation at the Geneva conference on the prohibition of nuclear weapons tests. He was an active member of the Pugwash movement of scientists.
Highly esteemed by his colleagues for the warmth and humanity, T. characterized by the newspaper 'Washington Post' after the interview, . of them American television in 1963, . not as' owning a word or a propagandist who knew how to stand up for themselves diplomat, . not as smug philistine, . but as a highly cultured scholar, . services which allow him to have a breadth of views and freedom of expression, . inaccessible to many of his compatriots',
. In this interview, T. described the mutual distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union as the main obstacle to a genuine reduction of arms and insisted on the 'drastic change of political thinking, . which should proceed from the, . that is unacceptable, no war '.,
. T
. married Natalia Chu in 1917. They have a son and daughter. He died in Moscow on April 12, 1971
In 1953, Mr.. T. was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. He was also a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Swedish Physical Society. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin and the Order of Red Banner of Labor and was a Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1929, Mr.. T. wrote the popular textbook "Fundamentals of the theory of electricity ', which repeatedly reprinted.