Lev Davidovich Landau

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Lev Davidovich Landau

January 22, 2008 would have been the hundredth anniversary of the greatest theoretical physicist of the 20th century, Lev Davidovich Landau. We present to our readers an excerpt from M.I. Kaganov’s book “The Landau School: What I Think About It” (the book was published by the Trovant publishing house in 1998). The author of the book took a direct part in the life of this School.

Lev Davidovich was never attracted by the fashionable hobbies of the readership: Bigfoot, telepathy, flying saucers, etc. He considered most such hobbies to be intellectual superstition and sharply ridiculed them. I have repeatedly talked about Dau’s ironic attitude towards “mysterious” phenomena, and often listeners were offended by the “mysterious” phenomenon, expressed surprise, and sometimes even suspected Lev Davidovich of being narrow-minded. It’s not a matter of limitations, of course. Increased interest in mysterious, enigmatic problems is usually due to the fact that ordinary, everyday problems become boring, lose their freshness or something. What was striking about Landau was his unabating interest over the years in real (large and small) problems posed and solved by physics. He talked about science with hundreds of physicists. They told him a variety of works, differing in difficulty, in depth, in significance, works relating to a wide variety of objects - solids and elementary particles, stars and gases. The work was listened to by Dau, listened to and took a place in his fantastic memory if and only if it satisfied a simple principle: the work should explain something incomprehensible. Endlessly clarifying and endlessly posing new mysteries - this is how Dau saw and felt the world. A keen interest in solving real problems left no room for far-fetched problems, although, perhaps, very exciting ones. And one more thing: Landau always demanded a professional attitude towards science and did not like amateurs. He was irritated by the chatter and superficiality that usually accompanied attempts to solve “mysterious” problems. When talking about Landau, people often mention his brilliant intuition, the “gift of God.” There was, of course, a gift from God, but there was also daily, no, hourly titanic work, tiring, requiring dedication of all oneself. I met with Dau in the evenings, after a day of work, when fatigue, aggravated by the inability to switch off, was visible to the naked eye. He became lost in thought and dropped out of the conversation. However, he always pulled himself together and joined the conversation. At the same time, standard topics helped a lot - about happiness, about love, about what women’s hairstyles and women’s dresses should be like.

L.D. Landau at work (1959)

I don’t want it to be thought that talking about happiness and love was Landau’s way of distracting himself from work. This, in my opinion, is completely wrong. He was truly deeply, I would say painstakingly, interested in “eternal themes.” His statements were unconventional. Many were frightened by the “theoretical” clarity with which Dau tried (and often not without success) to solve complex problems of human relationships. He was deeply convinced that in most cases the complexity of relationships is far-fetched (he always strictly distinguished between the words “complicated” and “difficult”), and tried to get to the materialistic essence of the conflict, if there was one. By temperament, Dau was an educator, and not only in science, but also in life. He believed that people should be taught to live. And he taught… Landau lived a difficult, but essentially happy life. He was surrounded by devoted students, recognition and fame came to him during his lifetime. It seemed natural to him that a person should be happy. If you are unhappy, then, having understood this, having carefully analyzed what is preventing you from living and, most importantly, enjoying life, you are obliged (precisely obliged) to achieve your happiness, to fight for it.