75 years of the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems

How young we were...

From the memories of the Laboratory veterans

"Look back, unfamiliar passerby, your incorruptible gaze is familiar to me..." Both the words and the mood of this song-memory resonated in an amazing way with the feelings of the Laboratory veterans that gathered at a round table in May 1999 to recall the atmosphere of the first days of the launch of the world's largest accelerator, the first experiments on it, the first trials and errors, the first scientific results...

V.P.Dmitrievsky: My work began back in Moscow, at the Kurchatov Institute, in 1948. We were finding out whether the autophasing principle was valid or not. Accordingly, at the Kurchatov Institute there was a small cyclotron, about 20 cm, on its basis a phasotron was constructed. This was Meshcheryakov's group that I joined as a student. And here, in Dubna, I appeared in the same 1948, the first building had already been built, the magnet was being mounted, a lot had already been done. I remember M.G.Meshcheryakov well. At the same time, a 184-inch phasotron started operating in America. These articles had already been published. But M.G. believed: Berkeley is Berkeley and we should learn ourselves. After all, if something is published, for example, in an article, it does not mean that it can be repeated.

B.I.Zamolodchikov, V.P.Dmitrievsky and V.P.Dzhelepov during a discussion of issues related to the construction
of a cyclotron with a spiral variation of the magnetic field

Yu.N.Denisov: I came here in October 1950, for pre-graduation practice. The accelerator was already operating and its reconstruction from 5 to 6 meters was already being prepared. It was a very interesting start. I got into the sector of M.F.Shulga, a very intelligent Leningrad scientist. On the very first day, he set me a task - measuring a magnetic field using nuclear magnetic resonance. I defended my diploma thesis on it and afterwards, my candidate's and doctoral theses. These are the profound approaches that were embedded in his understanding of the development of science. Therefore, my first memories are meetings with such people, stars of science. And the entire climate in the city, that time, it was not a city, but a small village, was permeated with high intellect and probably, it ultimately influenced the entire atmosphere in the staff for many years. First at GTL and later, at DLNP. This is how the attitude to science and human relationships in our laboratory were developed. This climate was special from the very beginning and is such to this day.

A.A.Tyapkin: I came here on a business trip - from the Kurchatov Institute, Laboratory No.2. The first time was in 1949, before my diploma, when M.S.Kozodaev invited me. If construction of the accelerator was an all-Union world-wide construction project (there was no such accelerator with such energy anywhere in the world, it was constructed and launched in a short time), then high-energy physics was a new thing for everyone. We were like kittens, all of us. And our leaders, too. But there was an atmosphere: freedom of action. And the fact that such experimenters as B.S.Neganov came to this field could be only possible in this atmosphere.

Reconstruction of a synchrocyclotron into a high-current phasotron (facility "F"). 1981

B.S.Neganov: In the very first month, after a year of operation of the accelerator, Meshcheryakov hid us in a chamber, there it was necessary to lay out a lead pi-meson channel, to set up emulsions. Well and then we began to master scintillation counters at the Institute - individual work, the first products. That was how scintillation technology began, we learned to measure the cross-section very successfully. Lev Markovich Soroko actively participated in it. We made Faraday measurements with him; it was necessary to take into account a lot of amendments. But what we calibrated then, no one has improved in half a century. The accuracy, I think, is no better today.

The most interesting phenomenon that I had to participate in observing and studying was the discovery of the 3/2 resonance in the investigation of pion production in proton-proton interaction reactions. Before the reconstruction, we only had a hint of this phenomenon, but after the reconstruction, when we obtained 660 events, it was already clearly obvious. And then - the reverse reaction, Lapidus's proposal was implemented. It was bright research, they suggested formalizing it as a discovery, but later, we started it...

For some reason, I also had a passion for mesons. I wanted to have a good polarized beam. O.V.Savchenko was still my student and we carried out the first research with mesons together. Well, the next step included polarized targets. The accelerator was considered the height of perfection, but the instrumentation was lagging behind. In short, my interests have always been mainly in the technical field.

L.M.Soroko: I first came to Dubna on 22 June, 1949 and became a member of the staff - since 15 March, 1949, from the time when all of Meshcheryakov's business was separated from Laboratory No.2 into an independent organization, later, called the Hydrotechnical Laboratory. Of course, the physics that was developed here in Dubna had a previous history and in this regard, I believe, M.G.Meshcheryakov played the main role. And I heard about the "object" on the Volga when I was here on practical training as a graduate student in 1947. During my pre-graduation practical training, I met with Meshcheryakov and he put the issue this way: there is the accelerator business and there is physics. I began to study physics. These were serious investigations that Meshcheryakov's group carried out at the Nemenov accelerator. Meshcheryakov's distinctive feature was that he did not make young employees go through the stage of washing test tubes. If you had ideas, you were ready to work, he would give you the most difficult work but he would also ask questions accordingly. This particularity served as the basis for the fact that we, physicists that graduated from MEPhI, received basic training to carry out investigations on the accelerator. The second component is discipline, vigilance, responsibility and high organization of all employees. We, students were instructed in Laboratory No.2 by S.T.Denisov. He worked in the first department under Kurchatov. He observed the same strict discipline when he worked in Dubna. This was one of the factors that order and responsibility in the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems were higher than in any other…

Yu.K.Akimov: I prepared my thesis in Leningrad, where the supervisor was a man with three stars, a colonel of the Committee of State Security. They kept me there. They said, once you got here, that's it. They gave me an apartment. But we had two departments - mathematics and electronics. And I wrote a letter: send me anywhere, but in electronics. And they sent me here. When I tried to find out something about Meshcheryakov's facility, no one said anything. It was March 1953 and someone told me: "You know, they are going to make a meson bomb there." I didn't know where I came, there was a fence - the first and main impression. Who worked here then? There were Boris Stepanovich Neganov and Yury Mikhailovich Kazarinov...

A.T.Filippov: The first time I came to Dubna with Tyapkin, Sinaev and others together with Kozodaev. He persuaded us to work here. We had a Wilson chamber here, there was no magnet, it was at the Kurchatov Institute. We put everything here to use the scattered magnetic field of the accelerator. The background was high, it was difficult to work. And in 1953, we were finally moved here. Of course, at first, we were unhappy that we were literally forced here against our will. But we were told: "If you don't move voluntarily, then you'll have only yourself to blame..."

A.T.Vasilenko: I came to the Laboratory in 1954, the accelerator was already in operation, I came from the Urals as a young specialist and literally from the first steps I encountered that peculiarity of the atmosphere that has already been mentioned - extraordinary goodwill, mutual support and the absence of pressure. Here comes a young specialist, still inexperienced that essentially has nothing but a diploma, to the design bureau and Nikolay Ivanovich Frolov blesses him... And the welcome is exceptional, as if I had come to my own family...

What was, is what was. Designers always worked for physicists, the relationships were exceptional and not only with scientists, but also with manufacturers and workshops. There was the word "it is necessary". No one rushed anyone. The possibilities were limited then, the equipment was simple, modest. But nevertheless, they did very subtle and complex things. It had never been asked that way - there is not enough of this and that, it probably won't work. It is necessary - then we will think, look for a solution. Designers, physicists thought. Workers thought. And they developed. An electronic prototype of an accelerator that theoretically could not be designed, was designed.

What was, is what was... Why? Because there was a general atmosphere of an important matter. They were looking for solutions and when you look for them, they come, even when it would seem impossible to do. This is what I would like to especially note. They started with the simplest things - a spinner-stand, others. And then more complex things. Ejecting the beam into a ferromagnetic channel. Then more, to the point that they began to design essentially industrial facilities: a 200-liter propane chamber and others were born completely from the idea to the implementation. And finally, accelerators.

Our staff lived an interesting, wonderful life. Today, I am a pensioner, retired, as they say, to the reserve. But I do not have the feeling that I have lived my life in vain. On the contrary, I believed that I was always at the forefront of something interesting, unusual. And there is complete satisfaction that life was lived right.

V.I.Smirnov: It's a holiday today - the accelerator has started working again after a long break. Unfortunately, there are some defects. And I was amazed that the old staff that came to work in the 1950s are still the same - for example, electrician Aleksandrov, despite the night time, weekends, sits for hours, making reserve units. People of the old school have preserved the enthusiasm, responsibility that were instilled in those old years. It makes me happy. All services, including power engineers, were a single whole. We did not take into account either time or our personal interests during the maintenance of this unique accelerator.

N.T.Grekhov: The example of the design bureau can demonstrate the kindness and tolerance that were inherent in the staff of our laboratory. It is no secret that the head of the design bureau N.I.Frolov was unable to perform his duties those times; his duties were completely performed by Alexey Tikhonovich Vasilenko that was not nominally the head of the design bureau. There were no excesses.

O.V.Savchenko: What was unusual at that time? Some kind of unlimited freedom of research. You could put forward ideas, report them, they were seriously discussed: they could be rejected, they could be accepted. And if they were accepted, they were provided with resources. I was lucky from the very first days. On the wave of the atomic project, oases like Dubna emerged, where there was maximum freedom of scientific research. This was necessary, otherwise nothing would have worked out. And there was good funding. There was confidence that we did something very important and necessary for the country, for science.

My first investigation was carried out in exactly this atmosphere. I succeeded to make a scintillator from threads for a luminescent chamber. At that time, there was a very important task - particle tracks, with high spatial and temporal resolution. At the same time, the chamber should be controllable: it should not count everything, but only what the physicist needs. I proposed and implemented my idea within a year. This is a two-liter chamber, assembled from 20 cm long scintillation threads. The chamber was designed, it started to operate, but due to the secrecy regime, this paper could not be published. It must be said that M.G.Meshcheryakov considered this design frivolous. But literally two months after the seminar which I reported on this chamber at, an article appeared in an American magazine about the development of exactly the same chamber in America. After that, the attitude changed, but the Americans had priority. This was a memorable investigation, although later, spark chambers, proportional ones were designed, it was pushed aside for many years, but currently, this idea is returned to again on a new basis. That is why I have very good memories of the first years of work. Then there were many other methodological developments - an isotropic discharge chamber, a whole cycle of physical measurements, but the first investigation is always unforgettable.

From the collection "The first accelerator in Dubna". 1999
Photo from the JINR archive of Pavel ZOLNIKOV, Nikolay GORELOV and Yury TUMANOV