Report on the scientific activities of Pavel Cherenkov. Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov: biography

28 July 1904 - 06 January 1990

Soviet physicist, two-time Stalin Prize laureate, Nobel Prize laureate in physics

Biography

Pavel Alekseevich's parents, Alexey Egorovich and Maria Cherenkov, were peasants.

In 1928, Cherenkov graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Voronezh University (VSU). After graduating from the university, Cherenkov was sent to teach at a school in the city of Kozlov, present-day Michurinsk. Two years later, Maria Alekseevna Putintseva, the daughter of Alexei Mikhailovich Putintsev, a Voronezh literary local historian, professor at Voronezh State University, founder of the house-museum I. S. Nikitin, who also graduated from Voronezh State University, the department of Russian language and literature of the pedagogical department, received assignment to the same city. In 1930, Cherenkov married Maria Putintseva. In 1932, their son Alexey was born, and in 1936, their daughter Elena. In November 1930, Alexei Mikhailovich Putintsev, a local historian, was arrested in Voronezh in connection with the case. At the very end of the same year, Pavel Alekseevich’s father, Alexey Egorovich Cherenkov, was “dispossessed” in Novaya Chigla. In 1931, Alexei Yegorovich was tried and sent into exile. He was accused of belonging to the Socialist Revolutionary Party and of participating in the “kulak” meeting of 1930. In 1937, the scientist’s father was arrested again, in 1938 he was convicted and executed for counter-revolutionary agitation.

In 1930, Cherenkov entered graduate school at the Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Leningrad. In 1935 he defended his candidate's dissertation, and in 1940 - his doctorate. Since 1932 he worked under the leadership of S.I. Vavilov. Since 1935 - employee of the Physical Institute named after. P. N. Lebedeva in Moscow (FIAN), since 1948 - professor at the Moscow Energy Institute, since 1951 - professor at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.

Member of the CPSU since 1946. Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1964). Full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1970).

Cherenkov spent the last 28 years of his life in a metropolitan apartment in the area of ​​Leninsky Prospekt, where various institutes of the Academy of Sciences are located, including the Lebedev Physical Institute.

Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov died on January 6, 1990 from obstructive jaundice. He rests at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Prizes and awards

• Stalin Prize (1946, 1951)
• USSR State Prize (1977)
• Nobel Prize in Physics (1958)
• Hero of Socialist Labor (1984)

Memory

• In 1994, a Russian postage stamp was issued in honor of Cherenkov.

Scientific activity

Cherenkov's main works are devoted to physical optics, nuclear physics, and high-energy particle physics. In 1934, he discovered a specific blue glow of transparent liquids when irradiated with fast charged particles. Showed the difference between this type of radiation and fluorescence. In 1936, he established its main property - the directionality of radiation, the formation of a light cone, the axis of which coincides with the trajectory of the particle. The theory of Cherenkov radiation was developed in 1937 by I. E. Tamm and I. M. Frank.

The Vavilov-Cherenkov effect underlies the operation of detectors of fast charged particles (Cherenkov counters). Cherenkov participated in the creation of synchrotrons, in particular the 250 MeV synchrotron (Stalin Prize, 1952). In 1958, together with Tamm and Frank, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect.” Manne Sigbahn of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted in his speech that “the discovery of the phenomenon now known as the Cherenkov effect provides an interesting example of how a relatively simple physical observation, if done correctly, can lead to important discoveries and pave new paths for further research.” . He carried out a series of works on the fission of helium and other light nuclei with high-energy ?-quanta (USSR State Prize, 1977).

The first Soviet Nobel Prize laureate in physics, an outstanding Soviet scientist, whose main works are devoted to physical optics, nuclear physics and high-energy particle physics, two-time laureate of the Stalin and State Prizes, Hero of Socialist Labor, academician P. A. Cherenkov was born on 28 (15th century) . Art.) July 1904 in the village of Novaya Chigla, Bobrovsky district (now Talovsky district) of the Voronezh province in a family of wealthy middle peasants.

The road to the heights of science began for the future physicist at a parochial school, which Pavel Cherenkov graduated from in 1917.

His further education was interrupted by the turbulent events of the revolution and civil war. As a 13-year-old teenager, he gets a job at a local rural consumer association (general store) as a laborer. A smart, competent, quick-witted guy was noticed. In 1919, he was transferred to work as a clerk in the same organization.

Village of Novaya Chigla

In 1920, at the base transferred from Bobrov to Novaya Chigla, the gymnasium opened a second-level school, in which Pavel Cherenkov continued his studies, combining it with the work of an accountant at the Novochigolsk dumping point. In 1924, having received a school certificate, he entered the physics and technology department of the pedagogical faculty of Voronezh University and four years later, in 1928, he graduated with honors.

Main building of VSU (1930s)

The young specialist was sent as a physics teacher to a secondary school in the city of Kozlov (now Michurinsk). After 2 years, Maria Alekseevna Putintseva, daughter of Alexei Mikhailovich Putintsev, Voronezh literary local historian, professor at Voronezh State University, founder of the I. S. Nikitin house-museum, was assigned to the same city. Maria was also a graduate of VSU, having graduated from the department of Russian language and literature of the pedagogical department. The young people began a romantic relationship, which led them to a wedding that took place in 1930.

Exhibition in memory of A.M. Putintseva

However, family life at first was not destined to be cloudless and happy. At the end of 1930, Maria’s father was arrested in Voronezh in connection with the case of local historians, and Pavel Cherenkov’s father, Alexey Egorovich, was dispossessed in Novaya Chile at the same time. In 1931, the father of the future academician was convicted and sent into exile. The charges included possible membership in the Socialist Revolutionary Party and participation in a “kulak” meeting in 1930. The investigation showed that the accusations were erroneous, but in 1937 the father of the future scientist was again arrested, convicted and executed allegedly for counter-revolutionary agitation.


In this sense, P. A. Cherenkov was not only a hero of his era, but its martyr and victim. As many other equally worthy people did, he did not publicly renounce his family. But until the end of his days he carried in his soul the pain of loss about his father, whom for a long time he could not even tell his children.

Vavilov S.I. with employees of the State Optical Institute

In 1930, P. A. Cherenkov entered graduate school at the Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. This is where his scientific activity began, when in 1932 a young graduate student, at the suggestion of his supervisor S.I. Vavilov, undertook to study the luminescence of solutions of uranyl salts under the influence of radium Ў-rays. In the process of these studies, he discovered a new, surprisingly beautiful physical phenomenon: under the influence of radioactive rays, a faint glow appeared in optically transparent liquids, sharply different from ordinary luminescence. In surprisingly simple according to modern concepts, but labor-intensive experiments in which the method of photometry based on the visual threshold was used - developed by Vavilov and Brumberg - P. A. Cherenkov discovered and studied all the basic properties of the radiation he discovered. During these experiments, the scientist’s character traits clearly emerged - passion, extraordinary perseverance, the ability to find the simplest ways to solve emerging problems, attention to the “details” of the experiment.

Physical Institute named after. P.N. Lebedeva (FIAN)

Meanwhile, in 1935, having defended his Ph.D. thesis, P. A. Cherenkov became a research fellow at the Physics Institute. P.N. Lebedev in Moscow (FIAN), where he later worked. In 1936, a young scientist made a discovery that played an important role in the development of experiments in particle physics: having discovered the emission of light by “fast electrons” (that is, electrons having speeds exceeding the speed of light in a medium), he established the main property of what he discovered blue glow - its direction, the formation of a light cone, the axis of which coincides with the trajectory of the particle. This was a key factor for his colleagues, Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm, to create a theory that provided a complete explanation for the blue glow, now known as Cherenkov radiation (Vavilov–Cherenkov radiation in the Soviet Union). For this work in 1940, P. A. Cherenkov was awarded the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

P. A. Cherenkov and colleagues

During the Great Patriotic War, P. A. Cherenkov was involved in the development of a defense device based on the use of certain methods of nuclear physics.
In subsequent years, the scientific interests of P.A. Cherenkov were associated with cosmic ray research. The result of these studies was the discovery of multiply charged ions in the secondary component of cosmic radiation.
Beginning in 1946, P.A. Cherenkov participated in the development and construction of the first electron accelerators in the laboratory headed by V.I. Wexler. For participation in the work on creating an electron synchrotron with an energy of 250 MeV, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Cherenkov, together with a team of authors, was awarded the Stalin Prize of the second degree (later renamed the State Prize).

P. A. Cherenkov in the laboratory

Subsequently, he led the work related to the improvement of the main components of the synchrotron, as a result of which, in terms of its parameters, the accelerator took a leading place in the world among installations of this class. Thanks to this, a then modern experimental base was created in the Soviet Union for conducting research on the physics of electronic interactions in the field of medium energies.

1958 Nobel Prize Laureates

Meanwhile, Cherenkov’s discovery quickly attracted the attention of specialists from different countries, and when the rapid development of its practical applications began, primarily thanks to Cherenkov counters of elementary particles, his name became perhaps the most frequently mentioned in works on experimental physics.
The scientific isolation of the USSR prevented the earlier nomination of P. A. Cherenkov for the Nobel Prize. Although it is now known that there was at least one such attempt. In 1952, Leon Rosenfeld, a famous theoretical physicist and then a professor at the University of Manchester, proposed Cherenkov's candidacy. At the same time, he noted the difficulties with presenting the texts of works describing the Cherenkov effect, and could only attach a list of them.

P. A. Cherenkov receives the Nobel Prize

However, over time the situation changed. Our country and its science have opened up more to the world. In 1958, P.A. Cherenkov, I.E. Tamm and I.M. Frank became the first physicists in our country to win the Nobel Prize, which was awarded to them with the wording “for the discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect.”

1. Nobel laureates

The Joliot-Curie spouses have great merit in the study of the structure of the atom, especially the atomic nucleus. They made one of the greatest discoveries of the twentieth century - artificial radioactivity. Irene Curie, the daughter of the great scientists Marie and Pierre Curie, was born on September 12, 1897 in Paris. At first the girl studied...

2. Academician D.S. Likhachev wrote: “Alexander Isaevich is a real Russian writer, martyr and hero. This has always been typical of Russian writers - not only for Avvakum, but for all subsequent Russian writers, to one degree or another. His heroism and at the same time...

3. N.I. Ryzhkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in the late eighties, a man from Gorbachev’s perestroika team, writes: “Gorbachev is a great Personality in our great History. In the History of power in our state. In a tiny segment of democracy in the vast History of absolutism. I say this without fear...

4. In his philosophical work “Being and Nothingness,” Sartre writes: “Man carries the entire weight of the world on his shoulders: he is responsible for the world and for himself as a certain way of being... Therefore, there is no chance in life. Not a single social event that has arisen suddenly…

5. “Kipling discovered the romance of heroism and asceticism in the very thick of modernity,” write N. Dyakonova and A. Dolinin. “Having proclaimed an old but firmly forgotten heroic ideal at a time of collapse of ideals and distrust of the heroic capabilities of man, Kipling became one of the founders of the short-lived, ...

6. Born was one of those who stood at the origins of quantum mechanics. Here are the words of the founder of cybernetics N. Wiener: “The main role in the creation and initial development of quantum mechanics in Göttingen was played by Max Born and Heisenberg. Max Born was much older than Heisenberg, but although ...

7. Henryk Adam Alexander Pius Sienkiewicz was born on May 5, 1846 on the Wola Okrzejska estate in Podlasie, near Łuków. The Sienkiewicz family belonged to an ancient but impoverished patriarchal Lithuanian noble family, connected by blood ties with Polish magnates. Among the members of an ancient noble family...

8. As V.I. writes Grigoriev: “The works of Ernest Rutherford, who is often rightly called one of the titans of physics of our century, the work of several generations of his students had a huge impact not only on the science and technology of our century, but also on the lives of millions of people. He was...

9. Joseph Conrad called France "the prince of prose." And Dusan Breski wrote: “Despite all the vicissitudes of critical fashion, France will always stand next to (J. Bernard) Shaw as the great satirist of our era and with such writers as Rabelais, Moliere and Voltaire as one...

10. The famous chemist Richard Wilschätter considered Fischer “an unparalleled classic, a master of organic chemistry, both in the field of analysis and synthesis, and personally a most wonderful person.” In his honor, the German Chemical Society established the Emil Fischer Medal. A German scientist created...

PAVEL ALEXEEVICH CHERENKOV

"PAVEL ALEXEEVICH CHERENKOV"

Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov was born on July 28, 1904 in the village of Novaya Chigla, Voronezh region, into a peasant family. After graduating from high school, Pavel entered Voronezh State University, from which he graduated in 1928. After this, Cherenkov entered first the preparatory, and then in 1932 the main department of the Physics (then Physics and Mathematics) Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1930, Cherenkov married Maria Putintseva, the daughter of a professor of Russian literature. They had two children.

The beginning of Cherenkov’s scientific activity dates back to 1932, when he, under the leadership of S.I. Vavilova began studying the luminescence of solutions of uranyl salts under the influence of gamma rays.

At first, in full accordance with the Vavilov-Stokes law, Cherenkov’s huge gamma quanta of the radiation source were transformed into small quanta of visible light, that is, they luminesced.

“It’s interesting,” the scientist reasoned, “how will it change if the concentration is increased? And if, on the contrary, the solution is diluted with water? What is important, of course, is not the general picture, but the precisely expressed physical law.”

For the time being, no surprises: less dissolved salts - less luminescence.

“Finally, only traces of uranium remain in the solution. Now, of course, there can be no glow.

But what is this?! Cherenkov cannot believe his eyes. The homeopathic dose of Uranil remains, but the glow continues. True, it is very weak, but it continues. What's the matter?

Cherenkov pours out the liquid, thoroughly rinses the vessel and pours distilled water into it. What is it? Pure water glows in the same way as a weak solution. But until now everyone was sure that distilled water is incapable of luminescence.

Vavilov advises the graduate student to try using a vessel made of a different material instead of glass. Cherenkov takes a platinum crucible and pours the purest water into it. An ampoule containing one hundred and four milligrams of radium is placed under the bottom of the vessel. Gamma rays erupt from the tiny opening of the ampoule and, breaking through the platinum bottom and layer of liquid, enter the lens of the device aimed from above at the contents of the crucible.

Again adaptation to the darkness, again observation, and... again an incomprehensible glow.

“This is not luminescence,” says Sergei Ivanovich firmly. - This is something else. Some new optical phenomenon, still unknown to science.

It soon becomes clear to everyone that in Cherenkov’s experiments there are two glows. One of them is luminescence. It, however, is observed only in concentrated solutions. In distilled water under the influence of gamma irradiation, flickering is caused by another reason...

How will other liquids behave? Maybe it's not the water?

The graduate student fills the crucible one by one with various alcohols, toluene, and other substances. In total he tests sixteen pure liquids. And a faint glow is always observed. Amazing thing! It turns out to be very similar in intensity for all materials. Carbon tetrachloride glows the most, isobutane alcohol - the weakest, but the difference in their luminescence does not exceed 25 percent.

Cherenkov is trying to extinguish the glow with special substances, which are considered the strongest quenchers of ordinary luminescence.

"PAVEL ALEXEEVICH CHERENKOV"

He adds silver nitrate, potassium iodide, aniline to the liquid... There is no (quenching) effect: the glow continues. What to do?

On the advice of the supervisor, he heats the liquid. This always has a strong effect on luminescence: it weakens and even stops completely. But in this case, the brightness of the glow does not change at all. It turns out that there really is some special, hitherto unknown phenomenon here? Which one?"

In 1934, the first two reports about a new type of radiation appeared in the “Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences”: Cherenkov, detailing the results of experiments, and Vavilov, trying to explain them.

The mysterious glow could only be seen within a narrow cone, the axis of which coincided with the direction of gamma radiation. Taking this circumstance into account, the young scientist placed his device in a strong magnetic field. And then he became convinced that the field was deflecting the narrow cone of light to the side. But this is only possible for electrically charged particles, such as electrons. To finally verify this, Cherenkov used another type of radiation - beta rays, which are a stream of fast electrons. He irradiated them with the same liquids as before, and obtained the same light effect as with gamma irradiation.

Thus, it was found that the mysterious optical phenomenon occurs only where there is movement of fast electrons.

An explanation of the mechanism for converting the movement of electrons into the movement of photons of an unusual glow was given in 1937 by Soviet physicists Frank and Tamm. The electrons travel faster than light travels in a given medium, and as a result, an unusual phenomenon occurs: the electromagnetic waves generated by the electrons lag behind their parents and cause a glow.

Soon a catchphrase appeared: “The Greeks heard the voices of the stars, and in the Cherenkov glow the voices of electrons are heard. These are singing electrons.”

In 1935, Cherenkov graduated from graduate school and defended his Ph.D. thesis, after which he received the position of senior researcher at the Physical Institute. Lebedev Academy of Sciences of the USSR (FIAN).

He continued to explore the glow he had discovered. In 1936, he established a characteristic property of a new type of radiation - a peculiar spatial asymmetry (“Cherenkov cone”).

After the emergence of the quantitative theory of the phenomenon developed by Tamm and Frank, Cherenkov, in a series of subtle experiments, confirmed it in every detail. Cherenkov's fundamental work on the study of the radiation of charged particles moving at superluminal speeds, which he discovered, was a significant contribution to world science and is recognized as classic.

“In addition to fundamental scientific significance, Cherenkov radiation also has great practical value,” writes I.M. Dunskaya. “Its role in high-energy physics is extremely important. When a fast particle moves through a medium, a directed light flash occurs, which is recorded using a photomultiplier. Such counters are used both to detect fast charged particles and to determine their properties: direction of movement, charge magnitude, speed, etc. Cherenkov counters, due to the characteristic features of radiation, significantly expand the capabilities of experiments and allow performing experiments that are impossible using conventional luminescent counters .

In particular, Cherenkov radiation was used in experiments to detect the antiproton. It also makes it possible to observe the fastest cosmic ray particles."

For their work on the discovery and study of this phenomenon, Cherenkov, together with Vavilov, Tamm and Frank, was first awarded the State Prize in 1946, and in 1958 (after Vavilov’s death) Cherenkov, Tamm and Frank were awarded the title of Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics.

In the post-war years, Cherenkov spent some time researching cosmic rays, and also took a leading part in the development and construction of light particle accelerators. Thus, in January 1948, under his leadership, the first betatron in the USSR was launched. At the same time, Cherenkov took part in the design and construction of the 250 MeV synchrotron at the Lebedev Physical Institute, for which he received the State Prize in 1951. Soon after the launch of the synchrotron, the scientist took charge of all the work to improve it, which made it possible to develop work on the study of electromagnetic interactions in the field of high-energy photons. In the laboratory of photomeson processes headed by Cherenkov, it was possible to obtain a number of interesting results on the study of the processes of photodisintegration of helium, photoproduction of pi-mesons, photodisintegration of some light nuclei by the method of induced activity.

In the mid-fifties, Cherenkov, together with I.V. Chuvilo, experimentally studied the photofission of nuclei of heavy elements. Then, under the leadership of Pavel Alekseevich, a new method for accumulating and producing colliding electron-positron beams was successfully developed. In 1963-1965, detailed studies of this method were carried out, and at the beginning of 1966, its fundamental possibility was tested experimentally at the 280 MeV synchrotron of the Lebedev Physical Institute. Thus, for the first time in the practice of physical experiments, colliding beams of electrons and positrons were obtained.

“Work on the accumulation and production of colliding beams in accelerators is of paramount importance for high-energy physics,” notes I.M. Dunskaya. “The use of this method makes it possible to transfer existing accelerators to the accumulation mode and thereby, based on the existing experimental base, move on to studies of interactions in the field of high and ultra-high energies. This method was subsequently used to produce colliding beams at the largest electron accelerator in Cambridge (USA)."

In 1964, Pavel Alekseevich was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1970 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1977, for a series of works on the study of the fission of light nuclei by high-energy gamma rays using the Wilson chamber method operating in powerful beams of electron accelerators, Cherenkov was awarded the USSR State Prize.

In addition to his scientific activities, Cherenkov carried out extensive teaching work, first from 1948 as a professor at the Moscow Energy Institute, and from 1951 at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. He gave a start in life to a large number of researchers.

18+, 2015, website, “Seventh Ocean Team”. Team coordinator:

We provide free publication on the site.
Publications on the site are the property of their respective owners and authors.

The site is an information, entertainment and educational site for all ages and categories of Internet users. Here, both children and adults will spend time usefully, will be able to improve their level of education, read interesting biographies of great and famous people in different eras, watch photographs and videos from the private sphere and public life of popular and eminent personalities. Biographies of talented actors, politicians, scientists, discoverers. We will present you with creativity, artists and poets, music of brilliant composers and songs of famous performers. Writers, directors, astronauts, nuclear physicists, biologists, athletes - many worthy people who have left their mark on time, history and the development of mankind are collected together on our pages.
On the site you will learn little-known information from the lives of celebrities; latest news from cultural and scientific activities, family and personal life of stars; reliable facts about the biography of outstanding inhabitants of the planet. All information is conveniently systematized. The material is presented in a simple and understandable manner, easy to read and interestingly designed. We have tried to ensure that our visitors receive the necessary information here with pleasure and great interest.

When you want to find out details from the biography of famous people, you often start looking for information from many reference books and articles scattered throughout the Internet. Now, for your convenience, all the facts and the most complete information from the lives of interesting and public people are collected in one place.
the site will tell in detail about the biographies of famous people who left their mark on human history, both in ancient times and in our modern world. Here you can learn more about the life, creativity, habits, environment and family of your favorite idol. About the success story of bright and extraordinary people. About great scientists and politicians. Schoolchildren and students will find on our resource the necessary and relevant material from the biographies of great people for various reports, essays and coursework.
Learning the biographies of interesting people who have earned the recognition of mankind is often a very exciting activity, since the stories of their destinies are as captivating as other works of fiction. For some, such reading can serve as a strong impetus for their own achievements, give them confidence in themselves, and help them cope with a difficult situation. There are even statements that when studying the success stories of other people, in addition to motivation to action, leadership qualities are also manifested in a person, fortitude and perseverance in achieving goals are strengthened.
It is also interesting to read the biographies of rich people posted on our website, whose perseverance on the path to success is worthy of imitation and respect. Big names from past centuries and today will always arouse the curiosity of historians and ordinary people. And we have set ourselves the goal of satisfying this interest to the fullest. If you want to show off your erudition, are preparing a thematic material, or are simply interested in learning everything about a historical figure, go to the site.
Those who like to read biographies of people can adopt their life experiences, learn from someone else’s mistakes, compare themselves with poets, artists, scientists, draw important conclusions for themselves, and improve themselves using the experience of an extraordinary person.
By studying the biographies of successful people, the reader will learn how great discoveries and achievements were made that gave humanity a chance to reach a new stage in its development. What obstacles and difficulties many famous artists or scientists, famous doctors and researchers, businessmen and rulers had to overcome.
How exciting it is to plunge into the life story of a traveler or discoverer, imagine yourself as a commander or a poor artist, learn the love story of a great ruler and meet the family of an old idol.
The biographies of interesting people on our website are conveniently structured so that visitors can easily find information about any desired person in the database. Our team strived to ensure that you liked the simple, intuitive navigation, the easy, interesting style of writing articles, and the original design of the pages.

Private bussiness

Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov (1904-1990) was born in the village of Novaya Chigla, Voronezh province, into a peasant family. After graduating from parochial school, at the height of the Civil War, he worked as a laborer and clerk. Then he completed his studies at a gymnasium school, transferred to the village from the district Bobrov. In 1924 he entered the physics and mathematics department of Voronezh University. The scholarship was small, the future scientist earned money by giving private lessons, unloading wagons, and during the holidays, when he came home, he worked as an accountant at a mill.

After graduating from the university in 1928, he was sent as a teacher to the Kozlov school (now Michurinsk). In 1930 he met his future wife Maria Putintseva. Their daughter, physicist Elena Cherenkova, wrote about this period: “Here [in Kozlov] ​​they met, here their future journey together began. Beautiful, smart, well-read, hardworking, cheerful, believing in the broad horizons opening up to the country and youth. In the summer, they traveled around Crimea on a tour package. After reading the advertisement in the newspaper, Pavel wrote an application for admission to graduate school at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences, passed an interview and was accepted.”

After enrolling in graduate school in the fall of 1930, the scientist began to live in Leningrad. Maria was able to come to him after the end of the trial of her father, a professor-philologist at Voronezh University, who in November 1930 was arrested in the “case of local historians” and sentenced to five years in the camps. In April 1931, the Cherenkovs registered their marriage. In 1932, the first-born Alexei was born into the family, and four years later, already in Moscow, a daughter, Elena, appeared. In graduate school, Cherenkov’s scientific advisor was the director of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Sergei Vavilov.

The young scientist was given a seemingly simple and unattractive topic on studying the luminescence of uranyl salts. The observation of this phenomenon was hampered by an additional background glow, which could not be eliminated. Cherenkov's first publication about a new type of radiation was published in 1934. In 1937, Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm, on the advice of Vavilov, who gave the radiation the primary justification, were able to describe its radiation on the basis of classical electrodynamics.

In the same year, Cherenkov published an article in which he proposed using this radiation to measure the velocities of fast electrons. This subsequently led to the creation of various detectors named after him. At first, Cherenkov’s article was not accepted in the journal Nature. It was published by The Physical Review.

In 1938, scientists D. W. Collins and V. D. Reiling were able to repeat Cherenkov’s experiment, and they were the first to use the term Cherenkov radiation.

In the fall of 1958, Cherenkov, together with Frank and Tamm, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

The scientist’s daughter recalled that the wife of the Soviet ambassador to Sweden “told my mother in detail about the clothing requirements. For men - tailcoats, for women - dresses of a certain length, always with a neckline, only natural jewelry, no fur, even the most expensive ones. Dresses should not be repeated at any reception. She told me about the manner of behavior depending on the title of the person in question.” Cherenkov’s wife was the only one of his relatives who was allowed to go with Soviet scientists to the award ceremony.

She told the children about what she saw: “The Nobel celebrations take place in the days before Christmas. The store windows looked especially festive. Now it is difficult for many to imagine how monotonous and wretched our windows were in 1958. Mom assessed the life she saw in Sweden like this: “Everything is like ours before the revolution.”

Since 1935, Cherenkov was an employee of the Physical Institute. P. N. Lebedeva (FIAN), since 1948 - professor at the Moscow Energy Institute, since 1951 - professor at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI). He created and for many years permanently headed the Department of High Energy Physics at the FIAN branch in Troitsk near Moscow.

Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1964, full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1970.

What is he famous for?

He discovered the “Vavilov-Cherenkov effect” - a glow caused in a transparent medium by charged particles that move at a speed exceeding the speed of light in this medium. This radiation is widely used to detect relativistic particles and determine their velocities.

Cherenkov - Hero of Socialist Labor (1984), laureate of two Stalin Prizes (1946, 1952) and the USSR State Prize (1977).

One of the few Russian scientists to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.

What you need to know

Pavel Cherenkov Cherenkov's family - both his parents and his wife's parents - were affected by Stalin's repressions. In 1932, his father-in-law, Professor Alexei Putintsev, was released from the camp. In subsequent years, he and his wife were forced to wander around the country in search of work and housing. He died in 1937. In the same year, his brother, priest Mikhail Putintsev, was arrested.

Direct speech:

About the “Cherenkov glow” (B.B. Govorkov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences): “I was lucky enough to work in Cherenkov’s laboratory all my life. Therefore, many details of the research that led to the discovery of the Cherenkov effect became known to me from the lips of Pavel Alekseevich himself. So, to my question how he managed to see the extremely weak new radiation for the first time, he replied that he first observed the new glow while conducting background experiments. Vavilov set before him, then a graduate student, the task of studying the luminescence of solutions of uranyl salts when irradiated with gamma rays from a radioactive radium source. While measuring the luminescence of the mentioned solutions, Cherenkov decided to see whether the walls of the glass cup and the pure solvent itself—sulfuric acid—affected the luminescence.

Pavel Alekseevich said that when he noticed the glow of a glass of pure solvent, he was very surprised. Then he headed to the warehouse of the Physical Institute. P. N. Lebedev (FIAN) and collected all the transparent liquids there. Returning to the laboratory, he repeated the experiments on observing the glow with other pure substances. All the liquids glowed! And all with approximately equal intensity (±15%). Attempts to extinguish the glow using the methods developed by Vavilov and his students (using extinguishing additives, heating liquids, etc.) were unsuccessful - all the liquids glowed and that’s it! At the next meeting with his supervisor, Pavel Alekseevich spoke in detail about the unexpected result of background measurements. As a result of the discussion, new plans and ideas emerged for conducting experiments proving the non-luminescent nature of radiation, in particular, elucidating the role of electrons in producing new radiation.”

About the scientist’s modesty (same author): “During one of the meetings of the above-mentioned conference (International Conference on Equipment in High Energy Physics, held in 1970 in Dubna), where his name was mentioned in every report: Cherenkov counters, Cherenkov spectrometers, Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation, etc., Pavel Alekseevich leaned towards me and quietly said in my ear: “Boris Borisovich, you know, it always seems to me that all this does not apply to me. That somewhere, once upon a time he lived another Cherenkov, that’s what everyone is talking about."

The scientist’s daughter Elena Cherenkova about her father’s activities after receiving the Nobel Prize: “In the subsequent years after 1958, his problems were scientific and scientific-organizational. He was distracted from work on creating particle accelerators by numerous trips: to scientific conferences, meetings of a scientific and organizational nature, on the affairs of the Peace Committee, and anniversary ones.

Particularly interesting for the pope were the anniversary celebrations dedicated to the 350th anniversary of the publication of Galileo’s works “Dialogues on the two most important systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican” and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nobel.”

5 facts about Pavel Cherenkov:

I conducted my first “scientific experiment” in childhood: I touched a frosty doorknob with my tongue.

In his mature years he was interested in art and sports. “My father’s infinitely inquisitive nature drew him to hiking, to reading all kinds of books, and in recent years to painting and music. He always preferred active recreation. In winter - skiing, in summer - tennis and walking. Tennis was his great hobby. He loved to participate in competitions, loved to string rackets,” recalled his daughter Elena Cherenkova.

He laid the foundation for Trinity tennis and built the first tennis court in this town near Moscow.

He loved to shoot with a camera and print his own pictures. According to his daughter, “he left a huge number of photographs (unfortunately, there are few images of himself in them).”

1958 became one of the most fruitful years in the international recognition of the USSR. Along with Cherenkov, Frank and Tamm, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics, Boris Pasternak was awarded the same award in literature. However, the Soviet leadership forced him to refuse the award.