Their names - in the history of the Institute

We dreamed of super tasks

On 12 March, a FLNP seminar in memory of D.A.Korneev was held. Reports were delivered by the senior researchers of the Laboratory A.M.Balagurov - "D.A.Korneev at FLNP JINR" and V.L.Aksenov - "D.A.Korneev - the founder of neutron reflectometry at FLNP".

"This seminar continues the series of scientific seminars dedicated to the activities of the founders of neutron physics research in our laboratory," FLNP Director Egor Lychagin opened the event. "On 8 March, Dmitry Anatolievich would have turned 80 years old. Two years ago, V.L.Aksenov held a FLNP seminar on the development of reflectometry of polarized neutrons at FLNP, a part of his speech was dedicated to the scientific activities of D.A.Korneev."

D.A.Korneev. Photo by Yury Tumanov

"Dmitry Anatolievich, as a person and a scientist in our laboratory, is certainly a landmark figure," Anatoly Balagurov began his report. "His life was not long but very bright and instructive in many ways. He came to FLNP when a new topic was being developed in the Laboratory - the investigation of condensed matter using neutron scattering. It was decided to establish a new department that was headed by Yu.M.Ostanevich and D.A.Korneev joined these investigations." Key points in the biography of Dmitry Anatolievich were the city of Gorky, where his post-war childhood passed; Moscow, where he studied at Moscow State University; Dubna, where he completed his studies at the branch of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University and in 1970, he started working at FLNP. At the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University, he studied at the Department of Elementary Particle Physics that was headed by B.M.Pontecorvo and did his thesis "A technique of overheating a liquid and keeping it in an overheated state in a bubble chamber" at DLNP under the supervision of A.F.Pisarev. The work turned out to be so interesting that after the defense it was framed as an invention. He began his career at FLNP as an intern in the group of V.M.Nazarov but soon, on the initiative of F.L.Shapiro, he was sent to PNPI (Gatchina), where G.M.Drabkin and his staff started constructing mirror polarizing neutron guides. This staff managed to understand what physicists had done wrong in France and Germany, where they had already tried to construct such neutron guides but the results had been unsatisfactory. Their errors were understood, corrected and the success was complete - in a very wide range of wavelengths, it was possible to obtain a degree of polarization of the beam close to 100 percent. The role of D.A.Korneev in meeting this problem was not ordinary, in particular, he managed to come up with and to implement a device adapted to the geometry of the neutron guide (spin-flipper) for inverting the neutron spin. "This is a difficult device," the speaker emphasized, "spin-flippers are all personalized: Drabkin, Mesea, Korneev." In 1978, development of the SPN-1 polarized neutron spectrometer started, an international group was gradually formed, headed by Dmitry Anatolievich. Passion for invention had accompanied him all his life, in total, D.A.Korneev obtained four copyright certificates. "He possessed the talent of an engineer, easily found a common language with the designers of FLNP and the staff members of the workshops," A.M.Balagurov said. From 1988 to 1998, D.A.Korneev organized and headed a methodological seminar in the Laboratory, selected speakers for it and the seminar was popular. In the early 1990s, under him, the REFLEX reflectometer was developed. And he also had unrealized ideas: original project of an inverted small-angle scattering spectrometer and the DEPOL project jointly with PNPI. Probably, a unique case was the writing of an article on reflectometry by D.A.Korneev for the Physical Encyclopedia, since the author of the article did not even have a Ph.D.

The speaker cited significant articles by D.A.Korneev, very diverse in topic, purely methodological and scientific, including those published in such a prestigious journal as Physics Letters B. In total, 67 publications by him and his co-authors had been published, three of them posthumously. Anatoly Mikhailovich cited 11 scientific and methodological topics which Dmitry Anatolievich had worked on. According to him, each of them would be sufficient for the preparation of a Ph.D. thesis and all together - for a doctoral thesis. But there was no time for a thesis. "His reputation was determined not by the Hirsch index, not by rank but by scientific authority that quickly increased to a high level and was as such until the end of his life," A.M.Balagurov highlighted.

With an epigraph to his speech, Victor Aksenov took a quote from the diary of D.A.Korneev, "We do not want to receive nonsense tasks... We dream of super tasks so that if we can meet them, we can be proud of it all our lives." He marked the beginning of the path of D.A.Korneev the Branch of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University - "we have all graduated it" and the addresses - 10 Leningradskaya - the JINR hostel, 12 Leningradskaya - the Branch, 14 Leningradskaya - the hostel of Moscow State University, these all are known to many employees of the Institute. There was a strong international friendship, not limited beyond laboratories. "Dmitry Anatolievich was very sociable, artistic, it was easy to communicate with him," Victor Lasarevich recalled. "He had quite close relations with Yu.M.Ostanevich. Much of what had been done by D.A.Korneev, they discussed together." In the last years of his life, Dmitry Anatolievich returned to mirror neutron guides, which his scientific biography at FLNP began from and tried to restore this activity. In PNPI, he had been, as V.L.Aksenov said, his man, for the past ten years he had still been well remembered there. The first SPN-1 reflectometer was conceived back in the mid-1970s and IBR-2 was ready to launch in 1984. The first experiments on reflectometry at IBR-2 were carried out in 1988. At the same time, technologies for spraying thin films developed and Dmitry Anatolievich was immersed in this topic. Later, he and his colleagues developed the reflectometer of polarized neutrons REFLEX, the spectrometer SPN-2, the next generation of SPN - the REMUR reflectometer came into operation after the death of D.A.Korneev.

Victor Lasarevich told what had been done on the REMUR reflectometer, including in the task of resonance amplification of the polarized wave function. The complex developed on beamline 8 of the reactor (REFLEX, REMUR and the new GRAVES reflectometer) allows developing this area in future. The speaker dwelled on the future problems of reflectometry at the new NEPTUNE reactor. In the fundamental issues of neutron optics that should be investigated on these new devices, V.L.Aksenov highlighted two investigations by D.A.Korneev and V.K.Ignatovich that are of great importance. Dmitry Anatolievich was the first to focus on these issues and his role was leading and Vladimir Kazimirovich made a theoretical justification for these investigations.

D.A.Korneev was characterized by a constant desire to look for extremely complex problems of a fundamental nature. V.L.Aksenov concluded his speech with a quote from D.I.Blokhintsev, "Among scientists, there is a special category of people obsessed with a passion for science... It is on these fragile, few people that all the success of this or that institute depends. These people are usually impractical, sensitive and vulnerable, they need to be protected, they need to be guarded, they are white cranes."

Giving explanations to the young laboratory staff, V.L.Aksenov said that the issue of preparing a thesis arose more than once but Dmitry Anatolievich was not going to write. He was full of ideas, yet he did not have time to implement all of them. He was, without a doubt, a doctor of science of the highest level.

The widow of D.A.Korneev Nadezhda Kavalerova thanked the Laboratory for holding the memorial seminar. "Memory is the main thing," she said. "Thanks to Yu.A.Tumanov, there are many photographs of Dima. He loved to shoot "iron" and people with burning eyes, so he often photographed Dmitry Anatolievich." Nadezhda Sergeevna showed the diploma awarded by D.A.Korneev "For a great contribution to the training of young specialists at JINR" signed by D.I.Blokhintsev, spoke about his social work. And about the "covens" in Siberia on vacation, during which he tried to earn money for an apartment for the family. We learned that from the first to the tenth grade, Dima played in the school theater and also, hosted a children's programme on Gorky television.

There was a moment when, impressed by the film he had watched, he wanted to leave the physics department and to go to study as a director. He was in such a bifurcation all his life, sometimes participating in the design of laboratory skits.

He accompanied the first polarized curves obtained in 1994 at REFLEX with a dedication to his wife. Agree, not every physicist does it.

Olga TARANTINA