Their names are in the history of the Institute

Life dedicated to science

A memorial seminar commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the renowned theoretical physicist and founder of the scientific school Vadim Georgievich SOLOVIEV was held on 14 October in the conference hall of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics.

At the opening of the seminar, Director of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics Dmitry Kazakov emphasized the particular significance of V.G.Soloviev in the development of the laboratory. "Speaking of Vadim Georgievich," he said, "we cannot fail to highlight his enormous role in the development of the Department of Nuclear Theory. His students currently work there." Kazakov highlighted that the century-long history of the atomic nucleus is insufficient to explain all its phenomena. The nucleus has proven to be a complex object. Where is the boundary of nuclear stability, how long do these nuclei live and is there a so-called "island of stability"? These are questions that V.G.Soloviev's students, among others, will have to answer. It will be the best way to remember the scientist. "Vadim Georgievich was a man of principle, very strict in his approach, demanding of himself, his students and everyone around him. And in this sense, he was probably a role model for many," Director of the Faculty of Technological Sciences emphasized.

A historical and scientific report "V.G.Soloviev: life and science" was presented by a leading researcher at the Leningrad Theoretical Faculty Andrey Vdovin. He explained that Vadim Georgievich's parents were doctors, representatives of the old world, whose lives were dramatically changed by Soviet rule. V.G.Soloviev was born in Kazan in 1925 but spent a significant part of his life in Volsk. He studied music and may well have become a musician. He attended school until January 1943 and at the end of his education, he took his 10th-grade exams as an external student. He was subject to conscription and did not want to go to the front without a certificate. It was the right decision because just a month after demobilization in October 1945, he was able to enroll in Leningrad University, after which he was sent to Dubna.

Vadim Georgievich arrived in the city in March 1951 and began working as a senior laboratory assistant in the theoretical sector of the Hydrotechnical Laboratory, headed by I.Ya.Pomeranchuk. In an interview, Vadim Georgievich recalled that they worked long hours, with great interest and passion; leaving work before 10 p.m. was considered impolite. They traveled to Moscow for L.D.Landau's seminars and A.B.Migdal, Ya.A.Smorodinsky, B.T.Geilikman and other renowned scientists came to Dubna.

In 1953, M.G.Meshcheryakov introduced V.G.Soloviev to N.N.Bogolyubov, then Head of the Physics Department at Moscow State University.

Seminars, joint projects and a thesis defense under Nikolay Nikolaevich's supervision followed. In March 1956, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research was established and in June, on the initiative of D.I.Blokhintsev, the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics was founded. Vadim Georgievich became one of its first employees and stayed there so throughout his scientific career.

1958 can be called the year of superfluidity, as many papers dedicated to the investigation of this phenomenon appeared. From Vadim Georgievich's memoirs: "Nikolay Nikolaevich suggested me to find the conditions for the superfluidity of nuclear matter. I found them and went further - I applied N.N.Bogolyubov's theory of superconductivity to the investigation of the superfluidity of atomic nuclei." Thanks to the results of this research, V.G.Soloviev became one of the leading nuclear theorists and was an authoritative scientist in this field for many years.

A.I.Vdovin later recounted important events in his personal and scientific life: his marriage to Galina Mikhailovna (she attended the seminar); a business trip to Copenhagen, to the Niels Bohr Institute; teaching at the SINP MSU department; defending his doctoral thesis and the establishment of the Nuclear Theory Department at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics...

V.G.Soloviev made a remarkable contribution to the development of microscopic nuclear theory. His papers on the theory of vibrational excitations of deformed nuclei, giant resonances and other fields is widely known. He developed the quasiparticle-phonon prototype of the nucleus and founded the Dubna school of nuclear theory. Several generations of students at Moscow State University's Physics Department mastered advanced techniques of theoretical nuclear physics from his lectures that later became the basis for the books "Theory of complex nuclei", "Theory of the atomic nucleus: nuclear prototypes" and "Theory of the atomic nucleus: quasiparticles and phonons". With Vadim Georgievich's direct participation, the International Symposium on Nuclear Structure was held in Dubna in 1968, bringing together about 450 scientists from 30 countries.

Afterwards, the seminar featured reminiscences by a leading researcher at the Laboratory of Neutron Physics Walter Ilyich Furman that had been V.G.Soloviev's graduate student from 1959 to 1961. A leading researcher at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics Rostislav Jolos spoke about how V.G.Soloviev had influenced his scientific career and his attention to young scientists. A leading researcher at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics Valentin Nesterenko mentioned some of the traditions of the Nuclear Theory Department at BLTP that continue to this day. A senior researcher at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics Vladimir Kuzmin, whose PhD thesis supervisor had been Vadim Georgievich, spoke about their collaboration and showed one of his last photographs, taken in Italy. The seminar concluded with Corresponding Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, a member of the JINR Scientific Council and an Honorary Doctor of JINR Chavdar Penev Stoyanov. He worked in Dubna in the 1970s and defended his PhD thesis at JINR under the supervision of V.G.Soloviev. His talk, delivered via videoconference, was dedicated to the quasiparticle-phonon prototype of the nucleus.

Galina MYALKOVSKAYA,
photo by Yury TUMANOV