Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrei Sakharov, 1989

Andrei Sakharov ( Russian Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров ., Scientific transliteration Andrej Dmitrievic Sakharov *  21st May  1921 in Moscow ; † 14. December 1989 ) was a Soviet physicist , the "father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb ," dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner .

Life

Youth and Studies

Andrei Sakharov was the son of the physics teacher Dmitri Ivanovich Sakharov and Ekaterina Alekseevna, nee Sofiano, a Pontosgriechin , to the world. In 1938 he graduated from high school with honors, in the same year began to study physics at Lomonosov University in Moscow , volunteered for the Red Army in 1939 and completed his studies in Ashgabat , Turkmenistan , where he went in 1941 during World War II with parts of the University had been relocated. From 1942 to 1945 he was an engineer in a munitions factory in Ulyanovsk on the Volga and then studied further at the Lebedev Institute (FIAN) of the Soviet Academy of Sciences , where he received his doctorate in nuclear physics in 1947 - he was then working in the field of cosmic rays .

physicist

Nuclear weapons technology

From 1948 to 1968, Sakharov worked on the Soviet nuclear weapons program, first in Moscow under Kurchatov , and later in the secret development institute in Sarov under Juli Chariton , then known as "Arsamas-16" for camouflage , where he worked closely with Jakow Borissowitsch Seldowitsch . He was convinced, as he wrote in his memoirs, that a nuclear equilibrium could save the world from destruction, and felt himself to be a soldier in the scientific and technical war .

With the following ideas he played a key role in the development of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb , which was detonated on August 12, 1953:

The largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated, the Tsar bomb based on his ideas , was tested without the last fission stage in 1961 and had 50 to 60 megatons of explosive power . Sakharov became the youngest full member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1953, the same year in which he received the Russian doctorate (which in the West corresponds more to a habilitation ), he received the title Hero of Socialist Labor and the Stalin Prize .

Nuclear fusion

Sakharov came up with several basic ideas for realizing controlled nuclear fusion : in 1950 he and Igor Tamm developed the decisive concept of the thermonuclear reactor with magnetic confinement, the tokamak arrangement , which is still favored today . He also developed the muon catalysis of the nuclear fusion reaction, which he called cold fusion , and the use of pulsed laser radiation to heat fusion fuel ( inertial fusion ).

Impulse technique

In 1951, Sakharov provided basic ideas for the flux compression generator , a special type of pulse generator which can generate high magnetic flux densities by detonating an explosive and compressing a coil . He called the first flux compression generators MK (magnet cumulative) generators . The MK-1 produced flux densities of 2.5 kT (kilotesla) for a short time  . The following MK-2 was developed in 1953, this generator could generate high electrical impulse currents of 100  MA (mega amps). These generators Zakharov generated, an arrangement which he plasma gun called: A small aluminum ring was prepared by the induced eddy currents to a km per 100 / s accelerated plasma - torus evaporated. He even suggested building particle accelerators for proton collisions using generators powered by nuclear explosions .

Particle Physics and Cosmology

After 1965, Sakharov turned to particle physics and cosmology , which he, like Jakow Seldowitsch , with whom he worked closely in Arsamas, had only been able to do on the side.

His most important work in cosmology in 1967 was the explanation of the baryon asymmetry of the universe . For this he established three basic conditions, the Sakharov criteria , which still form the basis of corresponding theories today: non-equilibrium, CP violation and baryon number violation . These ideas initially went largely unnoticed until they experienced a renaissance in the late 1970s.

In a short essay from 1968 on induced gravity , he gave important impulses for thought on the subject of quantum gravity , whereby he viewed gravity as an (induced) effect produced by vacuum excitations from other fields . These theories were later pursued by Stephen Adler, for example .

He was also the first to investigate models with universes connected via the force of gravity (today in branch cosmologies in theories with extra dimensions), in his imagination the other universe was composed of antimatter and with reversed time direction, so that overall CPT symmetry was present.

In 1975 he established mass formulas for mesons and baryons .

dissident

After 1955, Sakharov began to rethink the atom bomb . That year the first deaths occurred in a bomb test. Sakharov also believed that any future attempt would cost over 10,000 victims, 10,000 victims per megaton over the course of generations. According to Sakharov's calculations, 50 megatons had already been tested, i.e. 500,000 dead. In 1958 he published the article The radioactive carbon of nuclear explosions and the threshold-independent biological effects in the journal Atomenergie . In 1961, at a meeting with Communist Party leader Nikita Khrushchev , Sakharov opposed the plan to test a 100-megaton hydrogen bomb in the atmosphere. In 1962 he took part in the scientific opposition to the Stalinist chief biologist Trofim Lysenko , who had refused to accept such new scientific discoveries as genetics . In 1966 he signed a letter warning against Stalin's rehabilitation .

Sakharov condemned the destruction of the reform communist 1968 Prague Spring and published in July 1968, the Memorandum thoughts on progress, peaceful coexistence and intellectual freedom in which it called for international disarmament and nuclear weapons - control began. As a result, he was discharged from the Soviet nuclear program.

Human rights activist

soviet postage stamp (1991)

In 1970 he founded a committee to enforce human rights and, in an open letter to the government, demanded that the Soviet Union be democratized . On April 4, 1971, the scientist protested against a practice of those in power to admit opponents of the regime to psychiatric clinics . On October 30, 1974, Sakharov informed foreign journalists at a press conference about the hunger strike by political prisoners in several camps. Since 1991, according to the decree of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR No. 1431 of October 18, 1991, the " Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression " has been celebrated on this day. The government responded with increasing repression. Sakharov took care of political prisoners and campaigned for the right of self-determination of Crimean Tatars , Meshetes , Armenians , Kurds and Georgians . In 1974 he went on hunger strike for his goals .

On December 10, 1975 Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee recognized his achievements in supporting those who think differently and in his pursuit of an open society based on the rule of law. The Soviet government forbade him to travel to Oslo for the award ceremony . His wife Jelena Georgijewna Bonner accepted the award . In the eyes of the KGB , Sakharov thus became an "enemy of the state". After protests against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan , Sakharov was arrested on January 22, 1980 and exiled to Gorky , where he had to live under the supervision of the KGB. There he worked on the draft of a new Soviet constitution . Jelena Bonner remained his only contact with the outside world until she, too, was banished to Gorky in 1984.

In December 1986 the banishment of Sakharov and Bonner was lifted. Party leader Mikhail Gorbachev asked him by phone to return to Moscow and continue his political activities.

Politician

In 1988 he was appointed head of the Soviet Academy of Sciences . In 1989, Sakharov was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies as a non- party, where he joined the interregional working group of radical reformers and tried to reform the Soviet constitution. In 1989 Sakharov became the founding chairman of the Russian Memorial Society , which deals with the history of the Gulag camps.

Family and death

Sakharov's grave in the Wostryakovo cemetery

Sakharov was married to Klawdija Alexejewna Wichirewa for the first time and had three children with her: Tatiana, Lyubow and Dmitri. She died in 1969. Since 1972, Sakharov was married to Jelena Georgievna Bonner for the second time .

Sakharov died of a heart attack in Moscow on December 14, 1989, after his health had deteriorated since his exile in Gorky . He was buried in the Wostryakovo cemetery.

Monuments, museums and awards

East Side Gallery in Berlin: Sakharov's picture by Dmitri Wrubel

In 1969 Sakharov was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , 1973 to the National Academy of Sciences , 1978 to the American Philosophical Society . and in 1988 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters . In 1974 he was honored with the French Prix ​​mondial Cino Del Duca . Since 1980 the "Norwegian Helsinki Committee" has awarded the Andrei Sakharov Freedom Prize , not to be confused with the more well-known Sakharov Prize , which the European Parliament has awarded annually since 1988 to people and organizations that defend human rights and freedom of thought deserved.

Armenia named a square in the capital Yerevan after Sakharov and erected a monument there. There is also an Andrei-Sacharow-Platz in Nuremberg . There is Andrej-Sacharow-Strasse in Schwerin (previously: Makarenko-Strasse). In Nizhny Novgorod , the apartment in a prefabricated housing estate in the south of the city, where Sakharov lived during his exile, can now be viewed as a museum. The Sakharov Museum in Moscow manages his estate and organizes exhibitions on the situation of human and civil rights in Russia.

The Sakharov International State Ecological University is located in Minsk . The asteroid (1979) Sakharov , the Andrei Sakharov Bridge in Arnhem , the Netherlands and the Sakharov Gardens in Jerusalem were also named after Sakharov .

In 1983 Andrei Sakharov received the Leo Szilard Lectureship Award and in 1984 the Tomalla Prize .

The Andrei Sakharov Prize , the Sakharov Prize , the Sakharov Gold Medal and the Sakharov Freedom Prize are named in his honor.

literature

  • Richard Lourie : Sakharov. A biography . Luchterhand, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-630-88008-8 .
  • Andrei D. Sakharov. Life and work of a physicist in a retrospective of his colleagues and friends in the Moscow Academy of Sciences , Spectrum Academy Verlag, Heidelberg 1991, ISBN 3-86025-011-6 . (Translation of the special issue on Sakharov of the Priroda magazine, August 1990)
  • Andrei Sakharov. A portrait made of documents, memories and photos . Kiepenheuer, Leipzig / Weimar 1991, ISBN 3-378-00447-9 .
  • Gennady Gorelik, Antonina Bouis: The world of Andrei Sakharov. A Russian physicists path to freedom. , Oxford University Press 2005
  • Arkadi Migdal encounter with Andrei Sakharov , Physikalische Blätter, Volume 47, 1991, pp. 1053-1056, online
  • Gennady Gorelik: Andrei Sakharov. A life dedicated to science and freedom . Birkhäuser (Springer), 2013. ISBN 978-3-0348-0473-8 , ISBN 978-3-0348-0474-5 . (eBook)
  • Jelena Bonner . United in solitude: d. Mrs. d. Soviet physicist a. Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov tells for the first time d. whole truth about d. Years of their mutual exile in Gorky . Stuttgart, Munich: Dt. Book Association, 1986.
  • André Martin. Andrei Sakharov: Nobel Peace Prize 1975 - A documentary biography . Aschaffenburg: Pattloch, 1976, ISBN 978-3557911272

Fonts

  • Memorandum: Thoughts on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom [trans. by E. Guttenberger]. - Frankfurt am Main: Possev, 1968.
  • Opinion . Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1974, ISBN 3-217-00625-9
  • My country and the world . Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1975, ISBN 3-217-00741-7
  • How I imagine the future . Diogenes, 1975, ISBN 978-3257142068
  • Fear and hope. New writings up to Gorky 1980 . Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-217-01047-7
  • Selected texts . Goldmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-442-08440-7
  • Andrei Sakharov, Alexander Babjonyschew, Lew Kopelew : For Sakharov. Texts from Russia on the occasion of his 60th birthday on May 21, 1981 . DTV, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-423-01764-3
  • Fear and hope. Fight for freedom and human rights . Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-11363-6
  • Andrej Sacharow, Cornelia Gerstenmaier (eds.): Save the peace. Articles, letters, calls 1978–1983 . Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-11394-6
  • My life . Piper, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-492-03259-1
  • Andrei Sakharov, George Bailey: The way to perestroika . Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-548-34791-6
  • Symmetry of the Universe , Part 1,2, Physikalische Blätter, Volume 25, 1969, pp. 202-209, 258-265 Part 1 , Part 2
  • Andrei Sakharov. A portrait. From documents, memories and photos . Gustav Kiepenheuer, 1995, ISBN 978-3378004474

Web links

Commons : Andrei Sakharov  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Нижегородский музей-квартира А.Д.Сахарова. Нижнегородский университетский центр интернет, accessed on November 6, 2018 (Russian).
  2. ↑ The candidate title corresponds to the doctorate in the west.
  3. ↑ The first nuclear test took place on August 29, 1949
  4. ↑ Sakharov: Violation of CP Invariance, C Asymmetry and Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe. JETP Letters, Vol. 5, 1967 . Explained in popular science by Sakharov in The Symmetry of Space , published in the Yearbook of Science 1968 and reprinted in Andrej D. Sakharov , Spektrum Verlag 1991.
  5. ↑ The rate of expansion of the universe at the time the baryons are formed must be greater than the decay rate of the heavy particles from which baryons and anti-baryons arise
  6. ↑ In particular, Steven Weinberg , Physical Review Letters, Vol. 42, 1979, p. 850.
  7. ↑ Sakharov: Vacuum quantum fluctuations in curved space and the theory of gravitation , Soviet Phys. Dokl., Vol. 12, 1968, p. 1040. See also Sakharov Scalar Tensor Theory of Gravitation , JETP Letters, Vol. 20, 1974
  8. ↑ with the possibility of forming singularities similar to white and black holes in wormholes and exchanging matter through them
  9. ↑ The CPT symmetry is a fundamental symmetry of quantum field theories. C stands for charge symmetry (when particles and antiparticles are interchanged), P for spatial reflection, T for time reversal.
  10. ↑ Sakharov, ID Novikow: A multisheet Cosmological model , Preprint, Institute for Applied Mathematics, Moscow, 1970, Sakharov Cosmological models of the universe with reversal of the times arrow , Sov.Phys.JETP, Vol. 52, 1980, p. 249 .
  11. ↑ Sakharov: Mass formula for Mesons and Baryons with allowance for Charm. JETP Letters, Vol. 21, 1975
  12. ↑ My life , p. 224 f.
  13. ↑ Note no. 5 of the translator "monuments to the victims of Soviet terror." . In: "linksnet", December 17, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  14. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Andrei Sakharov
  15. ↑ a b c d Andrei Sakharov - biography. Retrieved May 10, 2018 (Russian).
  16. ↑ Decree of the President of Lithuania of January 8, 2003 No. 2007
  17. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter S. (PDF; 1.4 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Member History: Andre D. Sakharov. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 21, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Honorary Members: Andrei Sakharov. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  20. ↑ List of award winners: en: Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award .
personal data
SURNAME Sakharov, Andrei Dmitrievich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Сахаров, Андрей Дмитриевич (Russian); Sácharov, Andréj Dmítrievič (scientific transliteration)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow , Soviet Russia
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1989
Place of death Moscow , Soviet Union