Difference between revisions of "Pyotr Kapitsa" - New World Encyclopedia

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Semenov (on the right) and Kapitsa (on the left), portrait by Boris Kustodiev, 1921

Life

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (Russian Пётр Леонидович Капица) (July 9, 1894 – April 8, 1984) was a Russian physicist who discovered super-fluidity with contribution from John F. Allen and Don Misener in 1937.

Kapitsa was born in the city of Kronstadt, Russia, as a son of military engineer Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa, , and Olga Stebnitskaia, educator and folklore researcher. He graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute in 1918, after publishing his first works in "Russian Society of Phisics and Chemistry Journal."

At the suggestion of A.F. Ioffe in 1921 he travels to the England as cometee member for the purpose of restoration of scientific conntacts, acuiring equipment and literature. There he worked in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge with Ernest Rutherford for over 10 years. In 1923-1926 he was a Clerk Maxwell Student of Cambridge University, in 1924-1932 - Assistant Director of Magnetic Research at Cavendish Laboratory, became Messel Research Professor of the Royal Society in 1929, and was the first director of the Mond Laboratory from 1930 to 1934. During this period, he originated techniques for creating ultra-strong magnetic fields by injecting high currents into specially constructed air-core electromagnets for brief periods of time. In 1934 he developed a new and original apparatus for producing significant quantities of liquid helium, based on the adiabatic principle.

During his work in England he was requested numerous times by Soviet officials to return to USSr as aplace of residence. However, the desision was constantly postponed due to his particular request of freedom of travel to the West.

In 1934 he was on a professional visit to the Soviet Union with his wife when his international passport was revoked and he was not permitted to leave the country. Kapitsa was required to form the Institute for Physical Problems, with equipment purchased by the Soviet Government from the Mond Laboratory in Cambridge with the assistance of Rutherford, once it was clear that Kapitsa would not be permitted to return to England. Soon his wife and children joined him.

During the World War II Kapitsa was engaged in applied research on the production and use of oxygen. The oxygen was produced by using low pressure expansion turbines, which he invented earlier to produce liquid air. Also he organized the Department of Oxygen Industry affiliated with the USSR Council of Ministers.

In August 1946, Kapitsa was removed from his role as head of the Moscow Physico-Technical Institute that he created and exiled to his dacha near Moscow, due to his refusal to participate in the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb project. In a letter to Stalin, Kapitsa described the project's leader, Lavrenty Beria, as "like the conductor of an orchestra with the baton in hand but without a score". After Stalin's death he regained his position, and remained director of the institute until 1984. At his death in 1984 he was the only member of the presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences who was not a member of the Communist Party.

Kapitsa won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 for his work in low-temperature physics. He shared the prize with Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson (who won for unrelated work).

Kapitza resistance is a resistance to the flow of heat across the interface between liquid helium and a solid that produces a temperature discontinuity.

Family

August 6 1916 he married Nadezhda Chernosvitova. With her he had son and doughter. However, during the winter of 1920 he looses his father, wife and both children to the epidemy of flu.

In April 28 1927 he married to Anna Krylova, daughter of Academician snd shipdesigner A.N. Krylov. They have two sons, Sergei and Andrei. Sergei is the co-founder editor of the International Series of Monographs on Physics (Oxford, Clarendon Press) with R.H. Fowler.

External links

Credits

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@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 At the suggestion of A.F. Ioffe in 1921 he travels to the England as cometee member for the purpose of restoration of scientific conntacts, acuiring equipment and literature. There he worked in the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] in [[Cambridge]] with [[Ernest Rutherford]] for over 10 years. In 1923-1926 he was a Clerk Maxwell Student of Cambridge University, in 1924-1932 - Assistant Director of Magnetic Research at Cavendish Laboratory, became Messel Research Professor of the [[Royal Society]] in 1929, and was the first director of the Mond Laboratory from 1930 to 1934. During this period, he originated techniques for creating ultra-strong [[magnetic field]]s by injecting high [[electrical current|currents]] into specially constructed air-core [[electromagnet]]s for brief periods of time. In 1934 he developed a new and original apparatus for producing significant quantities of liquid helium, based on the [[adiabatic principle]].
-In 1934 he was on a professional visit to the [[Soviet Union]] when his passport was detained and he was not permitted to leave the country. Kapitsa was required to form the [[Institute for Physical Problems]], with equipment purchased by the Soviet Government from the Mond Laboratory in Cambridge with the assistance of Rutherford, once it was clear that Kapitsa would not be permitted to return to England. Kapitsa is also one of the founders of [[Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology]].
+During his work in England he was requested numerous times by Soviet officials to return to USSr as aplace of residence. However, the desision was constantly postponed due to his particular request of freedom of travel to the West.
+In 1934 he was on a professional visit to the [[Soviet Union]] with his wife when his international passport was revoked and he was not permitted to leave the country. Kapitsa was required to form the [[Institute for Physical Problems]], with equipment purchased by the Soviet Government from the Mond Laboratory in Cambridge with the assistance of Rutherford, once it was clear that Kapitsa would not be permitted to return to England. Soon his wife and children joined him.
 During the World War II Kapitsa was engaged in applied research on the production and use of oxygen. The oxygen was produced by using low pressure expansion turbines, which he invented earlier to produce liquid air. Also he organized the Department of Oxygen Industry affiliated with the USSR Council of Ministers.