Physicists honored

Author of "Battle on the Road" in the city of physicists

A story of a creative trip

In February of this year, the JINR Museum of History of Science and Technology became the owner of an electronic copy of the notebooks of the famous Soviet writer Galina Nikolaeva, the author of the novel "Battle on the Road", whose heroes work at a tractor plant. In 1962, she came to Dubna to get matter for her new novel, this time, about physicists. In her notebooks, we see the institute's Dubna of 1962, seen through the eyes of a novelist.

The writer liked the quiet, pine-covered town near Moscow right away. The air was rural, people were in no hurry. The Institute part at that time ended where the school №9 is today that did not exist then and the Chernaya Rechka microdistrict consisted of three streets: Dachnaya, Internatsionalnaya and Lesnaya. And the Hotel "Dubna" had not yet been built, it would be ready for the opening of the International Conference on Accelerators that would be held a year later.

M.M.Lebedenko, Frantishek Legar, Galina Nikolaeva, Maxim Sagalovich, V.S.Evseev, Yu.M.Kazarinov, G.V.Efimov

The writer was introduced to the real life of modern physicists. Her schedule was tight. During the day, she visited laboratories where they studied elementary particle physics and in the evenings, Galina Nikolaeva received prototypes of future literary heroes at her home.

The first conversation is with Director of the Joint Institute D.I.Blokhintsev. Dmitry Ivanovich immediately rejects the comparison with the director of a plant. His authorities are much more modest. JINR is not just a knowledge factory, it includes five laboratories and each in extent (and in essence) is a full-fledged institute and each has its own director, with his own character and interests. They are adults, you can't make them stand in a corner. Try to advise Veksler on anything! Dmitry Ivanovich knew Vladimir Iosifovich from FIAN. And he knew him so well that when they came to him again with papers from him for signature, Dmitry Ivanovich, before signing, walked around the office, looked out the window and thoughtfully said: "If I don't sign this order, Volodya will be jumping out of his pants!"

And now, about science: "Physics is a short-distance race, sometimes, fractions of a second decide everything… The conditions of competition in experimental physics are very difficult. The shortcomings of our industry have an effect. We receive low-quality mechanisms that take 5-6 months to bring them to working condition… Our large facilities are at a world level and as for simpler ones, our industry either does not produce them, or produces them of low quality… We try to do everything with our own hands, we just don't smelt ore. I bought French photomultipliers in Geneva. I brought them across the border in a suitcase with underwear…"

Dmitry Ivanovich describes the state of mind of physicists as follows: the older generation lives in anticipation of a new scientific revolution, while the youth is content with the invention of techniques and methods that allow at least something to be calculated. Dispersionism prevails, great hopes are on "registry". It is as if the world has turned upside down: romantics-fathers, pragmatists-children...

Galina Nikolaeva is conquered: "An intellectual colossus." And he is also an artist, she notes with surprise, seeing the painting "Boy in front of the abyss" on the wall. And he is also a poet, A.A.Tyapkin, her guide to the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems and the institute's Dubna, adds with pleasure...

Dmitry Ivanovich invites the writer to a seminar. The young theorist Nikolay Chernikov reports. The topic is "Kinetic theory of relativistic gas". Judging by everything, this is a pre-defense of a doctoral thesis.

Galina Nikolaeva describes the interior: "A room for seminars - "scientific chatter". Armchairs, music stands, two large blackboards, windows, a black wall. Lots of young people." She notes with a woman's gaze: "They are dressed fashionably - pullovers and jackets with a slit. Most of them are wearing glasses. High foreheads…" And outside the windows - "a grey rainy day…"

The writer devotes the whole day to meeting with young theorists. They answer her willingly. They almost confess: "I can't do anything with my hands, all hope is on my head."

- The experimenter's thinking is less abstract. Theorists do it through mathematics, experimenters do it on their fingers…

- Theorists are different in some way. We were riding on a train, we met some girls. We introduced ourselves: I am a cook, he is an accountant… They say: stop chatting, you are theoretical physicists!

The name Kadyshevsky is underlined in the notebook. For Galina Nikolaeva, this man is a writer's success. A tall, charming young physicist, a rising star of Soviet theoretical physics. Almost a candidate of sciences. Two articles in the "Reports of the Academy of Sciences" - one has already been published, the other is also waiting for its turn in the "Reports". The first was presented by Academician I.E.Tamm, the second - by Academician N.N.Bogolyubov. Three years later, D.I.Blokhintsev will write about him in his diary: "Geniuses are like this..."

Kadyshevsky is speaking passionately, although slowly, as if he is thinking about every word. He is a romantic. He is not afraid to shake the strings of the world. He feels within himself the strength to take on the Theory of Everything...

Galina Nikolaeva is writing down. She is ready to take this man into a novel in his entirety, as he is, without literary adaptation.

"Theorists are like artists. The work is intoxicating. You feel your dedication to something higher. Self-deception? Maybe... Experimenters don't have that. They have a team. Depersonalization..."

A young physicist develops a theory based on a new idea of geometry in the small. The names of the classics of natural science are disturbed, Einstein is mentioned, space-time in the microworld is touched upon. Einstein changed our ideas about space-time in the Universe, Kadyshevsky develops a theory about space-time in the microworld. What is its essence? In short, back to Democritus! Einstein spoke about the curvature of space, Kadyshevsky - about its discreteness...

An unexpected question: why do physicists drink little? They take good care of their heads...

Galina Nikolaeva is delighted. After all, this is a revolution in science! But why did the colleagues of the young scientist greet his report at the seminar so reservedly? They listened politely, discussed it and afterwards, left. The writer turns to A.A.Tyapkin for a clue:

- Alexey Alexeevich, why is that?

- Major discoveries in science are rare, - Alexey Alexeevich answers softly.

- And in my novel, the young scientist's report on a new theory will be met with applause!

The writer is in the Laboratory of High Energy Physics. Director of the Laboratory Academician V.I.Veksler, having heard that Soviet writers want to meet him, absentmindedly replies: why don't these writers go to an address popular in Russia? But after another call he gives in: "Oh, these writers are so persistent. I'll have to host them." However, he sets a condition: no more than twenty minutes. And the conversation lasted for an hour - it was noted by the people that were waiting their turn in the reception area...

Veksler is delighted: "What a clever girl! She knows physics no worse than a researcher!" And Galina Nikolaeva is amazed by the size of the Tsar Accelerator and the flight of thought of its inventor: only some five years ago, he reached the 10 GeV bar and he is already working on 1000 GeV accelerators!

The writer's field of vision came across an issue of a wall newspaper in which young employees exchanged opinions on the article by Academician P.L.Kapitsa "Experiment, theory, practice":

- It seems to me that the issue of scientific increase of physicists should be dealt with by their supervisors. But here, apparently, the principle "a drowning man's salvation is the work of the drowning man himself" is in effect.

- And it seems to me that such a concept as a scientific supervisor does not exist at all in our laboratory. The scientific department is considered a flock that a shepherd drives from one scientific paper to another.

- In our laboratory, we live by the principle: one turner is better than two physicists. The scientific management looks at physicists as a workforce, the administrative management tries to "keep them on the timesheet", the trade union considers the scientific department a hindrance and the head of the department carries out a policy of "material restraint".

- Our directorate would not mind finding good experimenters on the side - thinking, independent, vigorous, but does nothing for their increase in our own laboratory.

- In our laboratory, they chase after "geniuses", gather them from institutes. And they are untalented…

- In our laboratory, people with abilities go to study and untalented people become laboratory assistants, fill the staff. They (at CERN) are more flexible with personnel…

- The work of an experimenter is black and thankless. An experimenter has no time to read literature, comprehend facts, study theory…

- There is only one conclusion. Science is made by people. And in order to carry out a good experiment, you need to make good experimenters.

The writer is in the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems. The first Dubna accelerator has long been in the deep rear of high energy physics, but it turns out that something can still be done in the rear.

Among the young physicists in the notebook is the experimenter Yury Prokoshkin. He and his colleagues succeeded to detect a previously unobserved decay of the positive pi meson into a neutral pi meson, positron and neutrino. The main difficulty for the experimenters was to see this extremely rare decay against the background of the main decay of the pi meson into a muon and neutrino that happens 50 million times more often. So, its detection is already a great experimental success in itself. And yet, the main result of the experiment is not this - it was that the occurrence of this decay, predicted by theorists, confirms the hypothesis of the occurrence of the so-called weak charge...

The writer is fascinated by the mystery of the neutrino. She learned about this particle from Bruno Pontecorvo's article in "Izvestia" and was enchanted by its author. Bruno Maksimovich did not avoid the conversation, but it was not easy to get him to talk about the given topic. He was ready to talk about literature, painting, music, theater - about anything, but not about science. This year, his hypothesis about two types of neutrino was confirmed by the Americans. Galina Nikolaeva is outraged: why didn't they do it here? Bruno Maksimovich shrugs his shoulders: it's a usual case...

But the writer was lucky with the muon. Long discovered, the muon still surprised physicists. The muon is a mystery to us, R.M.Sulyaev confirmed. Pi-mesons, as we know, are quanta of nuclear interaction, their role in the universe is known - they hold nucleons in nuclei. And what is the role of the muon, why does nature need it? The muon is no different from the electron in anything except mass. A completely useless particle... (and here, we note in parentheses, one could argue with Roman Matveevich now - it is enough to recall mu-catalysis that was studied at the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems for many years).

Galina Nikolaeva is talking to I.M.Vasilevsky. Igor Mikhailovich says: "We work with hydrogen. It's dangerous. When mixed with air, it explodes… We are like miners. When you return home at night after a session at the accelerator, you feel like you are in the centre of everything. All of Dubna works for us…" The writer heard something opposite at the city executive committee: the city lives its own life, the Institute - its own. The experimenter Vasilevsky, walking tiredly from work, is right in his own way, the chairman of the executive committee, all in concern for the city economy, is right in his own way...

The writer is in search of the main heroine, the Soviet Marie Curie, for the sake of whom she came here mainly.

"Marie Sklodowska? Yes, of course," Evgenia Nikolaevna, one of the 13 authors of the discovery of the antisigma-minus-hyperon agrees. "But it was half a century ago. Physics is different today. There is a division of labor. Some work with accelerators, others prepare equipment, the third process the results and the fourth, theoreticians, comprehend them. When it comes to laying out lead blocks for radiation protection, physical strength in the most ordinary sense of the word is required. The place of women is processing the results...

Alexander RASTORGUEV

To be continued