THEIR NAMES are in the history of the Institute

He is not forgotten

On 9 October, at a FLNP seminar, a book-album from the biographical series "Portrait against the background of an era" was presented. It was published to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the birth of one of the laboratory's founders, Fedor Lvovich Shapiro. At the seminar, A.I.Frank presented the overview "Ultracold neutrons: from discovery to the present day" and A.V.Strelkov's talk was entitled "F.L.Shapiro and the discovery of ultracold neutrons".

Welcoming the gathered staff and guests, Laboratory Director E.V.Lychagin recalled that F.L.Shapiro's anniversary was celebrated with a laboratory-wide seminar on 10 April. Young FLNP staff members, winners of the F.L.Shapiro scholarship presented their scientific papers and V.I.Furman introduced the young people to his scientific biography. "We were going to publish an album by this date but we didn't have time, so we postponed the presentation until autumn," E.V.Lychagin explained. "Since Fedor Lvovich's name is associated with ultracold neutrons (UCN), we decided to dedicate this seminar to UCN research in Dubna and around the world." He added that D.Chudoba, then FLNP Scientific Secretary, was the first to express the idea of publishing a book-album last November. M.A.Lukichev, Director of the RMP publishing house where the book was published, has been collaborating with JINR for many years; his team has created a series of albums about the Institute's significant figures. He was unable to attend the seminar but V.M.Hamburg, an employee of the publishing house, spoke about the work on the book.

"It was very easy for me to work; almost all the materials were provided immediately that is rare," Victoria Markovna shared. "I want to thank Walter Ilyich Furman and Alexander Vladimirovich Strelkov for their very active and fruitful collaboration. I'm very glad the album wasn't released in April. Active work on it began in January and releasing a high-quality edition by April was unrealistic."

The book turned out to be a worthy one, capturing the spirit of the times well and revealing the kind of person Fedor Lvovich was. We took most of the memoirs from the 2019 edition, contacted the Institute of Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences for his personal file and Fedor Lvovich's daughter provided archival photographs. Almost all of them were of poor quality, so I was responsible for the restoration and processing of the photographs. This was my first attempt at using artificial intelligence for this purpose and I think it turned out well. I'm pleased with our work and I hope you'll enjoy holding the album in your hands."

"It was challenging to compile the material while maintaining a logical presentation and maximizing the use of available materials," V.I.Furman said of the preparatory work. "I would like to acknowledge my colleagues from the publishing house, Mikhail Alexandrovich and Victoria Markovna. They approached the material creatively and meticulously. I thank my colleagues from the Institute of Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences who allowed me to copy his personal file that contains various documents and certificates that capture the spirit of the era in astonishing detail. F.L.Shapiro's personal file has been preserved in good condition at JINR. It even contains a document signed by N.N.Bogolyubov after Fedor Lvovich's death, granting a pension to his wife and children. There is a small book of memoirs and a very representative two-volume collection of Fedor Lvovich's scientific papers. This album is a natural complement to them, describing his life and scientific work."

About a third of the book's volume is dedicated to the early period of F.L.Shapiro's life, before moving to Dubna that is the focus of V.I.Furman's presentation. The Shapiro family moved to Moscow in 1928. They lived in a house with stove heating and no running water, like many families at the time. Fedor Lvovich began working early. When after marrying, the young couple were provided a six-meter room in a communal apartment, they were happy. In 1941, Fedor Lvovich, having a deferment from military service, more than once attempted to go to the front that he eventually did. He fought briefly because he was seriously wounded.

As Walter Ilyich highlighted, F.L.Shapiro always adhered to firm principles and was not a dissident but he refused to participate in anti-Israel actions. Because of it, he almost suffered, caught up in the wave of persecution of Jews in 1953. He and his wife were already preparing to move to the Far East - "we have the strength and the brains - we won't be lost" but then Stalin died and the campaign was called off.

"It is a great honor for me to speak at such a seminar," A.I.Frank began his report. "I am very pleased that there is now a complete, perfectly symmetrical set of books relating to the two founders of the laboratory. Ilya Mikhailovich and Fedor Lvovich should always be considered together: without one, the other would not exist." As Alexander Ilyich said, due to time constraints, in his repot he only outlined the development of this field of science, beginning with 1968 - F.L.Shapiro's report at a seminar at the Lebedev Physical Institute. The report, later published as an article in the journal "Advances in Physical Sciences", became food for thought and the impetus for the experiment that resulted in the discovery of ultracold neutrons. The authors of the discovery were F.L.Shapiro, V.I.Lushchikov, A.V.Strelkov and Yu.N.Pokotilovsky. Albert Steyerl was simultaneously carrying out this research in Europe. Research groups were founded at the Kurchatov Institute, the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Kazakh SSR, the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, the Lebedev Physical Institute and the Leningrad Nuclear Physics Institute. Ultracold neutron research grew into a significant field. In 1973, Fedor Lvovich, already seriously ill, prepared a remarkable report "Ultracold neutrons" that was read on his behalf at the conference by V.I.Lushikov. Later published as a JINR preprint, it became a reference for aspiring ultracold neutron researchers for many years. The second school on neutron physics in Alushta, held in 1974, was dedicated to the memory of F.L.Shapiro. V.I.Lushikov, I.M.Frank and A.Steyerl presented reports on ultracold neutrons.

A.I.Frank highlighted the pioneering work carried out in this field over the next fifteen years and since 1986, the era of two sources - the VVR-M at PNPI (Gatchina) and the PF-2 at ILL (Grenoble) has begun. Neutron lifetime measurements emerged as a separate and interesting field. V.Mampe's experiment made scientific history and contributed to the development of collaboration between FLNP and ILL. No less famous is the joint FLNP-PNPI experiment at the KOVSH facility to store ultracold neutrons in a material trap. Research into the problem of storing ultracold neutrons continued in collaboration with ILL, resulting in the discovery of the phenomenon of their "weak heating". A number of interesting experiments were implemented at European facilities and at the IBR-2 reactor. Today, the era of superthermal sources continues, with experiments still to be implemented.

In conclusion, Alexander Ilyich presented a map of UCN sources worldwide and summarized the achievements of the discovery of UCN and whether it was worth all the effort. The upper estimate for the neutron's electric dipole moment (EDM) was improved; the accuracy of the neutron decay constant was increased; gravitational levels and ultrasensitive resonance spectroscopy on the order of 10^-14 eV were discovered and the neutron acceleration effect was discovered. "This is a subjective list but I believe this map and list provide every reason to believe that the discovery of UCN more than 50 years ago was a world-class event. FLNP and JINR have every right to be proud of this achievement."

A.V.Strelkov, immediately warning that he would not be discussing science, began by recounting the history of the experiment proposed by F.L.Shapiro that culminated in the discovery of ultracold neutrons. The first mention of ultracold neutrons appeared in Fedor Lvovich's talk about a possible experiment to test the law of conservation of T-parity by detecting the neutron EDM, if he had one. Alexander Vladimirovich recalled the observations and proposals of E.Fermi: "What's surprising is that Fermi himself refused to believe that neutrons could be stored" and cited Ya.B.Zeldovich's estimates. In the experiment, F.L.Shapiro proposed using a "gas" jet consisting of very slow neutrons (moving at a speed of several meters per second). Their use was supposed to eliminate the systematic error inherent in the result obtained earlier by P.Miller. Despite the reactor's low power, only 6 kW, its major advantage was that UCN could be observed between pulses, when the background from faster neutrons was suppressed. "When Fedor Lvovich proposed the experiment, there were many skeptics. But the experimental design itself is elementary," Alexander Vladimirovich remarked, beginning to draw it on the board.

Alexander Strelkov and Egor Lychagin

"First, Fedor Lvovich toured all three reactors operating at the time. Everywhere they told him, "It's a good idea but we have our own plans; let's meet in a year," A.V.Strelkov continued. There were 20 days left before the reactor's summer shutdown for a year-long overhaul. And yet, they decided to carry out the experiment. And then began a story, astonishing in its drama and happy ending that is described in detail both in the new edition and in the previous collection of memoirs about F.L.Shapiro. It involved various situations. A drawing of the facility, completed overnight and slipped under the door of the lathe shop at the FLNP workshops with a note requesting that production begin in the morning. And an unauthorized "seizure" of the workshops on the weekend (so as not to waste two days), when A.V.Strelkov was machining a part of the facility on a lathe and F.L.Shapiro was guarding the entrance. Adding to the drama was the start of the vacation period, with few shift personnel left at the reactor. As the story unfolded, more than one technical difficulty arose, requiring quick and often unconventional solutions.

There were two days left before the reactor's shutdown, but the accumulated data was insufficient and the vacuum was deteriorating. The IBR operation could be extended by two weeks - everything was to be decided at a director's meeting. And again, there was a dramatic prelude and a happy ending. Fedor Lvovich passionately advocated for an extension, while everyone else talked about reconstruction. Ilya Mikhailovich voiced his concerns about the need for thorough preparation, to sort out the vacuum problem and to return to the experiment in a year: "There are no blitzkriegs in science," he said. F.L.Shapiro summoned A.V.Strelkov to a meeting and asked him to quickly estimate the composition of the gas producing in the neutron guide - hydrogen or air? A hole, or what? Fedor Lvovich gave him 40 minutes that was how long he could have held out, arguing for the need to continue the experiment. Alexander Vladimirovich, having called neighboring laboratories and received no answer (vacation time!), realized that using the neighboring mass spectrometer or gas chromatograph wouldn't work. He quickly came up with a solution and implemented it technically, cycling from the laboratory to the reactor building and back. He accomplished everything in 40 minutes and the meeting wasn't even over yet. He passed Fedor Lvovich a note with the words, "This is air!" The decision to postpone the reactor shutdown for two weeks was made. Only Chief Engineer S.K.Nikolaev objected, since almost the entire IBR staff was on vacation. Fedor Lvovich even recalled that his first profession was an electrician and he could, if necessary, replace the duty electrician at the reactor.

"We accumulated the statistics in six days; it didn't take two weeks," Alexander Vladimirovich concluded his speech. "After our results had become known, Yu.G.Abov (ITEP) and L.V.Groshev (IAE) offered us work on stationary reactors at their institutes. At the Institute of Atomic Energy, they offered us the most convenient channel №3. And we continued to travel to Moscow for another 10-15 years to work on the best channel…"

The book-album, that in my opinion, is a very warm, engaging and colorful portrait of both F.L.Shapiro and the era, concludes with these beautiful words: "Time flies and much is surely forgotten. Fedor Lvovich has been gone from us for over 50 years. But every spring, on 6 April, on his birthday and on 30 January, on his memorial day, his first wave of students come to visit him, to his final resting place at Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow... Thank you, Fedor Lvovich, for what you accomplished on this earth..."

Olga TARANTINA,
photo by Igor LAPENKO