Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges
The article is devoted to 100-yeares anniversary of prominent scientist of the 20th century George Gamov. On level with the well-known milestones of Gamov’s input to the nuclear physics here are presented fragments from memory books, letters of Sinelnikov’s wife Edna to her sister and old photos c...
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irk-123456789-805112015-04-19T03:02:39Z Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges Ranyuk, Yu. Josephson, P. The article is devoted to 100-yeares anniversary of prominent scientist of the 20th century George Gamov. On level with the well-known milestones of Gamov’s input to the nuclear physics here are presented fragments from memory books, letters of Sinelnikov’s wife Edna to her sister and old photos concerning young Gamov and his Kharkiv friends Peter Kapitza, Ivan Obreimov, Ciril Sinelnikov. Статтю присвячено 100-річному ювілею блискучого вченого 20-го століття Георгія Гамова. Поряд з відомими віхами гамівського вкладу в ядерну фізику представлено фрагменти з книг спогадів, листи дружини Синельникова Эдни до сестри та старі фотографії, що торкаються молодого Гамова та его харківських друзів Петра Капиці, Івана Обреімова, Кирила Синельникова. Статья посвящена 100-летнему юбилею блестящего ученого 20-го столетия Георгия Гамова. Наряду с известными вехами гамовского вклада в ядерную физику представлены фрагменты из книг воспоминаний, письма жены Синельникова Эдны к сестре и старые фотографии, касающиеся молодого Георгия Гамова и его харьковских друзей Петра Капицы, Ивана Обреимова, Кирилла Синельникова. 2004 Article Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges / Yu. Ranyuk, P. Josephson // Вопросы атомной науки и техники. — 2004. — № 5. — С. 5-8. — Бібліогр.: 5 назв. — англ. 1562-6016 PACS: 01.65. http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/80511 en Вопросы атомной науки и техники Національний науковий центр «Харківський фізико-технічний інститут» НАН України |
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The article is devoted to 100-yeares anniversary of prominent scientist of the 20th century George Gamov. On
level with the well-known milestones of Gamov’s input to the nuclear physics here are presented fragments from
memory books, letters of Sinelnikov’s wife Edna to her sister and old photos concerning young Gamov and his
Kharkiv friends Peter Kapitza, Ivan Obreimov, Ciril Sinelnikov. |
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Ranyuk, Yu. Josephson, P. |
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Ranyuk, Yu. Josephson, P. Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges Вопросы атомной науки и техники |
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Ranyuk, Yu. Josephson, P. |
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Ranyuk, Yu. |
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Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges |
| title_short |
Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges |
| title_full |
Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges |
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Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges |
| title_sort |
yang gamov and his kharkiv friends and colleges |
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Національний науковий центр «Харківський фізико-технічний інститут» НАН України |
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Yang Gamov and his Kharkiv friends and colleges / Yu. Ranyuk, P. Josephson // Вопросы атомной науки и техники. — 2004. — № 5. — С. 5-8. — Бібліогр.: 5 назв. — англ. |
| series |
Вопросы атомной науки и техники |
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AT ranyukyu yanggamovandhiskharkivfriendsandcolleges AT josephsonp yanggamovandhiskharkivfriendsandcolleges |
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2025-07-06T04:31:23Z |
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YANG GAMOV AND HIS KHARKIV FRIENDS AND COLLEGES
Yu. Ranyuk1, P. Josephson2
1National Scientific Center “Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology”, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2Technology and Society Colby College Waterville, ME 04901 USA
The article is devoted to 100-yeares anniversary of prominent scientist of the 20th century George Gamov. On
level with the well-known milestones of Gamov’s input to the nuclear physics here are presented fragments from
memory books, letters of Sinelnikov’s wife Edna to her sister and old photos concerning young Gamov and his
Kharkiv friends Peter Kapitza, Ivan Obreimov, Ciril Sinelnikov.
PACS: 01.65.
The year 2002 marked 70 years since the spring and
autumn of 1932 when a nuclear disintegration
experiment was performed applying man made
accelerating of protons in Cambridge and Kharkiv
respectively.
In 1911 Ernest Rutherford discovered the atomic
nuclei and in 1919 firstly disintegrated it with the aid of
natural Radium alpha-particles. Research of atomic
nuclei with the aid of natural alpha particles had
significant drawbacks - low radiation intensity, lack of a
possibility to regulate particles energy and others. Niels
Bohr wrote: “although the research produced much
important data, it became much more readily apparent
that insufficient natural alpha particles existed for
substantive nuclear research and man made accelerated
ions was desirable.” This was all the more reason for an
alternative new methodology as the experimentalist
presently now better understood. An insurmountable
obstacle surfaced with this approach − the imperative
necessity of the availability of a source of high electrical
tension of several million volts, inasmuch in that time
particle acceleration was only achieved with the aid of
an electrical field.
This is how it was to that time, until Odessite
George Gamow, who as a 24 year old aspirant of
Leningrad University did apply the principles of the
new wave mechanics to alpha decay phenomena and to
calculation of the probable of nuclei penetration by
charged particles. According to his calculations the
necessary energy levels already revealed themselves as
not so large and therefore completely accessible for the
experiment. This occurred during 1928 in Gettingen,
Germany. The young scientist rapidly informed N. Bohr
with his sensational result. Bohr immediately referred
him to Rutherford with the aim of present to him results.
Here is how T. Allibone one of Rutherford’s pupils
describes the events of that time [1]: “Right at the time
in the winter of 1928-29, Russian scientist Gamow
arrived in Cambridge, and lectured on a new concept in
quantum mechanics-the existence of an energy barrier
around the nuclei. I remember when after the lecture we
together with Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton descended
down the stairs of the laboratory and approached Sir
John Douglas Cockcroft, who was working in the room.
Cockcroft was just setting forth into formulae Gamow’s
calculations that were able to be obtained at that time
for ionic currents-that is 1 mkA protons, accelerated
with energy of 0.5 MeV so as to explain the probable
penetration of protons through energy barriers of boron
nuclei.
George Gamow. 1932
Even after factoring in possible losses these
calculations stood out as completely acceptable, and
within some time he provided Rutherford with an
explanatory notation with the proposal of reaching an
energy current of 0.5 MeV for proton acceleration,
similar to mine, but that existed in a constant current (I
worked with the variable current). Walton ceased his
attempts at electron acceleration and joined Cockcroft’s
approach. As is known, in three years they attained
success”.
Here is how Gamow himself remembers [2]:
PROBLEMS OF ATOMIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. 2004, № 5.
Series: Nuclear Physics Investigations (44), p. 5-8. 5
“Just plainly-Rutherford stated ith amazement I had
guessed it will lead you to fill uwp reams of paper with
damned formulas”.
“In no case” I replied.
Rutherford invited John D. Cockcroft and Ernest
T.S. Walton, with whom he previously discussed the
experiment’s possibilities.
“Build me an accelerator of one million electron
volts; then without any problems we will smash the
lithium atom“,-Rutherford stated. And they built the
accelerator. Later, when I was staying in Leningrad and
was notified of their success, I sent Cockcroft the
following telegram: “Good impact, Johnny; nice protons
for golf”.
Now we switch to Kharkiv.
On 16 May 1928 the Government of Ukraine
accepted a decision concerning the organizing of the
Ukrainian Physics-Technological Institute (UPTI) and
already in May of 1929 the new institute resonantly
announced throughout the entire world by the
conducting of the first all union conference on
theoretical physics in Kharkiv [3]. Gamow’s
presentation at the conference was the only one that
touched of nuclear physics. He presented his already
famous work about alpha decay, owing to which he
received worldwide recognition.
During the moment of the formation of the UPTI in
the Soviet Union, there was no institute, and not even a
laboratory, that was entirely dedicated to nuclear
physics research. This research was not planned for the
UPTI, which was formed as a purely cryogenic
laboratory. And by the end of the summer of 1931 here
at the institute preparations began for the atomic nuclei
disintegration experiment applying artificially
accelerated protons. The point here is that similar
preparations were already underway in Cambridge.
Soviet arrival in Cambridge (1929). From left:
George Gamov, Peter Kapitza, Ivan Obreimov, Ciril
Sinelnikov
One of the participant’s in the future experiments,
Cirill Sinelnikov who arrived in Kharkiv on 2 June
1930, previously spent two years at the Cavendish
Laboratory.
There is no doubt, that he carefully followed the
preparatory research steps of Cockcroft and Walton,
initiated by his friend Gamov, who within a year also
relocated to Cambridge. Together they traveled by
motorcycle all over England.
Ciril Sinelnikov and George Gamov 1929
Why was this particular direction of research at the
UPTI begun exactly in August 1931? Unfortunately the
institute’s pre-war archives were destroyed by fire
during the World war. That is why the only possibility
to learn about events of that time-is through taking
advantage of the correspondence letters that
Sinelnikov’s wife Edna Cooper wrote to her sister in
England in August 1931.
2nd August 1931
Darlingest,
We are having Dr. Allibone, from Cambridge, for
two days on the sixth. And Gamov wired to say he is
coming next week from Leningrad. No body knows
why. Then Cocroft and Webster come from Cambridge
later, so we shall be very gay until September.
11 August 1931
Darlingest,
Johnny Gamov has returned to Russia and Kharkov,
and, being almost a resident in our flat, he’s presented
me with this piece of handmade paper, which I
immediately educate, to you. He’s just the same, so
bored if we don’t do things. The first days were rather
jolly and we rushed about to kenos and theatres and for
ices, but our pockets don’t run to it for ever, and now I
don’t want to spend any more until Cockroft comes,
fortunately Johnny is already bored with Kharkov, and
is telegraphing wild messages to Dimus in Leningrad to
buy him tickets for a trip down the Volga. As he hopes
to go abroad again almost immediately, I don’t see how
he can afford it, but that’s his affair. He came home
simply desperately in love and planning a home for his
future bride, who has almost been persuaded come to
Russia, but he’s been here four or fife days and is
already definitely cooling off. It’s a great pity, because
she looks charming, a Swedish dancer, did I tell you all
this before, and Johnny might become a more
responsible person if married. As far as I can see he’s
3
come to Kharkov hoping to get all the advantages of the
Institute without working for him.
I’ve just been correcting the thesis he intends to
deliver in English at the Conference in Rome, ‘orribly
learned, didn’t understand a word, but if this doesn’t
sound like Marie Stopes I’am a Dutchman “… As the
fundamental proton level in radioactive nuclei is very
deep, a proton would have to be very highly excited
before it could be ejected…”
Left to wright: Cirill Sinelnikov, his Bride Edna
Cooper, George Gamov 1929-1930
12 August 1931
Daringest,
Our scientific friend, who must be nameless, has just
gone off to Leningrad to meet Dimus before going for a
trip on the Volga, but incidentally he has decided
Kharkov is too dull a place to live in, and in spite of
being given a flat, that was prepared for someone else,
and being considerably helped with his new foreign
passport, by our Institute, he just says he can’t stand it
and that he’s going to Leningrad. I do not know how
Kira and Ivan Vasilitch feel about it, but it seems to me
a pretty dirty trick, to come and get money and all he
can for nothing, and then show his hells.
20 August 1931
Dearest Old Thing,
I’m busy because Cockroft and Webster are dining
here to-morrow. Kira is happy they are here. Though
neither of us ever want to live in England, we did enjoy
Cambridge days and it is great to renew our Cambridge
friendships like this.
26 August 1931
Darling,
Our English visitors have been and are going away
to-day, Cockroft and Webster and two other physicist
and seven or eight other scientific people with two
wives, not two each! My room could hardly hold them
all. But after the first “Reception” they didn’t all come
at once, only three or four at a time. They have been
very kind. They took us to dinner at their hotel, and to
Dinamo for ices, in between rushing round “doing”
Kharkov. … I may say everybody is very impressed
with our Institute and says it’s wonderfully clean and
well organized, better then Cavendish. So you see it
can’t be so bad.
Your Bunny
Edna’s letters that relate to Gamov cannot be
accepted as purely false. Not because it was her
fabrication, but because, George was a big comedian,
practical joker, and skillful at playful shenanigans. Edna
Alfredivna’s letters may leave an impression that
Gamow came to Kharkiv only to cheer up the scholarly
“UPTI-nski” ladies that for him was indisputably
luckily successful. One speculates whether he really
only came there for the sake of this.
Geo Gamow with a model of DNA in Berkeley,
spring, 1954
Plaque erected in honor of Gamow at George
Washington University
PROBLEMS OF ATOMIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. 2004, № 5.
Series: Nuclear Physics Investigations (44), p. 5-8. 7
Maybe we should not doubt that he met and spoke
with physicists, whom he knew well after Leningrad
and Synelnykov after Cambridge, and the topic of
discussion was concerning research relating to atomic
nuclei fission. Truthfully a question arises as to the
activities of the “Cambridgites who landed” en masse at
the institute in August 1931? And why would Gamow
presuppose his visit, so that from one side, to be
physically present in Kharkiv, and from the other, not
meet with anyone of them. We surmise that these very
visits by Gamow to Kharkiv were in the capacity of a
consultant to UPTI, in so far as Edna Alfredivna in her
letter for some reason writes frequently about money.
And there should be no doubt that owing to Gamow’s
initiative and assertiveness is what led to the beginning
of atomic nuclei fission research both in Cambridge and
in Kharkiv. Joffe stated this just in time [5]:“Gamow’s
theories opened the path to the penetration of the
nucleus”.
Truthfully, at the institute no one mentioned this.
There is nothing strange about this, as Gamow was “not
returning’. To recall and mention any contacts with
him-look!-even mentioning his name was dangerous.
And when the time finally came there was no one left to
mention him. Strangely there was not even a mention of
his role in any newspaper publication on the occasion of
the atomic nuclei fission in 1932, a year which was very
richly successful.
Jill the daughter of Synelnykov tells how her mother
always mentioned Gamow with great warmth. She
talked about Gamow’s and Synelnykov’s close
friendship and how they both traveled by motorcycle
across almost the entire English countryside. George
very much facilitated that Edna’s and Kira’s musical
evenings in Cambridge-that she played the violin, and
he accompanied her-in the end culminated in
matrimony.
In 1951 Cockcroft and Walton received the Nobel
Prize “for the transmutation of elements through man
made particle acceleration”. Our great compatriot
received no recognition in this award, although he, such
as no one else, genuinely earned the award.
In 2000 a monument was erected in honor of
Gamow on the grounds of George Washington
University in Washington, DC. Inscribed are his
fundamental scientific achievements.
We also hopefully expect a similar monument will
be erected in Kharkiv in 2004 on the occasion of the
100th anniversary of the birth of our distinguished
compatriot.
REFERENCES
1. T. Allibone. Rutherford, Royal Society Club and
Royal Institute. From the book Rutherford − scholar
and professor. From the publication of academician
Peter L. Kapitza. Science. Moscow. 1973.
2. George Gamow. My world line. An informal
autobiography. The Viking Press, New York 1970.
3. Theoretical physics conference Kharkiv in 1929 //
Ukrainian physics papers. 1930, № 2, p. 116.
4. I married a Russian. Letters from Kharkiv edited by
Lucie Street. London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd.,
1946.
5. Joffe A.F. Atomic nuclei today. Lessons, lecture
presented 19 February 1934 in the 1 MGU club.-M.;
L., 1934, p. 31.
МОЛОДОЙ ГАМОВ И ЕГО ХАРЬКОВСКИЕ ДРУЗЬЯ И КОЛЛЕГИ
Ю. Ранюк, П. Джозефсон
Статья посвящена 100-летнему юбилею блестящего ученого 20-го столетия Георгия Гамова. Наряду с
известными вехами гамовского вклада в ядерную физику представлены фрагменты из книг воспоминаний,
письма жены Синельникова Эдны к сестре и старые фотографии, касающиеся молодого Георгия Гамова и
его харьковских друзей Петра Капицы, Ивана Обреимова, Кирилла Синельникова.
МОЛОДИЙ ГАМОВ ТА ЙОГО ХАРКІВСЬКІ ДРУЗІ І КОЛЕГИ
Ю. Ранюк, П. Джозефсон
Статтю присвячено 100-річному ювілею блискучого вченого 20-го століття Георгія Гамова. Поряд з
відомими віхами гамівського вкладу в ядерну фізику представлено фрагменти з книг спогадів, листи
дружини Синельникова Эдни до сестри та старі фотографії, що торкаються молодого Гамова та его
харківських друзів Петра Капиці, Івана Обреімова, Кирила Синельникова.
3
REFERENCES
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