Zeldovich: Reminiscences

R.A. Sunyaev0415287901, 9780415287906, 9780203500163

Ya. B. Zeldovich was undoubtedly one of the greatest physicists and cosmologists of the 20th century. This volume presents reminiscences about this exemplary academician, providing biographical and historical insights from colleagues who knew him best. Zeldovich’s achievements are outlined, including those in relativistic astrophysics and cosmology; the theory of combustion; and the Soviet atomic and hydrogen bomb project. This monograph contains incisive commentary on Soviet science and the impact that Zeldovich had on future generations, not only in the former Soviet Union but throughout the international physics community. Zeldovich: Reminiscences is a useful reference text for students of astrophysics and the history of science.

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Table of contents :
Book Cover……Page 1
Half-Title……Page 2
Title……Page 4
Copyright……Page 5
Contents……Page 6
Introduction……Page 10
Preface to the Russian Edition……Page 14
Acknowledgments……Page 16
A Short Biography……Page 18
List of Contributors……Page 22
Part I Early Days at the Institute of Chemical Physics……Page 27
How Zeldovich was ‘discovered’……Page 28
A Passport to Science……Page 31
‘Talent welled up in him’……Page 33
I Can See Him in Front of Me, As If Still Alive……Page 41
‘Don’t forget to write about me’……Page 53
Part II The Move to Moscow: Chemical Physics……Page 56
Forty-five Years……Page 57
Fragments of Wall Newspaper Articles Dedicated to the Memory of Ya.B.Zeldovich……Page 73
L.D.Landau’s Reference for the Elections of Corresponding Members to the USSR Academy of Sciences……Page 86
From I.V.Kurchatov’s Reference to the USSR Academy of Sciences……Page 87
Enchanted with the World……Page 88
Letter from Ya.B.Zeldovich to M.M.Agrest……Page 96
Letter From M.M.Agrest to the Editors of the Journal Khimiya I Zhizn (Chemistry and Life)……Page 98
Letter to S.B.Pikelner and N.S.Kardashev from V.L.Ginzburg and Ya.B.Zeldovich……Page 99
Letter to the Editorial Board of the Journal Prikladnaya Matematika i Mekhanika (Applied Mathematics and Mechanics), Editor-in-Chief, L.A.Galin……Page 101
Letter from Ya.B.Zeldovich to M.V.Keldysh……Page 103
Part III The Atomic Project……Page 105
Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich: Not One of His Many Projections……Page 106
The Happiest Years of My Life……Page 112
It Was Like Magic……Page 120
From the Eulogy of A.D.Sakharov32……Page 124
The Beginning of the Physics of Extreme States……Page 126
A Knight of Science……Page 132
A Born Leader……Page 148
A Man of Universal Interests……Page 152
Thus He Remains Forever in My Memory……Page 156
‘For Me, They Were Happy Years’67……Page 158
Part IV Elementary Particles and Nuclear Physics……Page 167
On the Path Towards Universal Weak Interaction……Page 168
Blessed with Childhood……Page 192
‘May I Present the Physicists of the Twenty-first Century…’……Page 196
Ten Years of Contact……Page 200
A Flair for Theory……Page 205
Part V Mechanics and Mathematics……Page 207
Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, As I Knew Him98……Page 208
Three Encounters115……Page 219
YaB and Mathematics……Page 223
My Reminiscences about Ya.B.Zeldovich125……Page 230
The ‘Humanizing’ of Mathematics……Page 235
Part VI Astrophysics and Cosmology……Page 247
As I Remember Him………Page 248
The Beginning of Work in Astrophysics……Page 251
Fifteen Years and More……Page 256
When We Were Young……Page 260
Approximating the Truth, or the Zeldovich ansatz……Page 271
Zeldovich’s Magnetism……Page 276
Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich: Some Personal Remmiscences154……Page 279
The Teacher……Page 288
How One Book on Cosmology Was Born……Page 290
He Founded a School of Relativistic Astrophysics……Page 292
On First-name Terms with Physics……Page 298
‘Bonjour tristesse’ Reminiscences from Meetings with an Outstanding Scientist……Page 301
Ya.B.Zeldovich and Large-scale Structure: The Impact in the United States……Page 306
Zeldovich and Modern Cosmology159……Page 308
Encounters with Zeldovich160……Page 321
A Man of Unlimited Energy……Page 326
Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich (March 8, 1914-December 2, 1987 Elected For. Mem. R.S. 1979)161,162……Page 327
At the Source of Graviphysics166……Page 337
An Outsider’s View of a Great Scientist Human Being167……Page 343
The Eye of the Universe168……Page 345
Zeldovich Predicts that Black Holes Radiate170……Page 350
Part VII From the Popular Science Legacy……Page 358
In Memory of a Friend172……Page 359
Autobiographical Afterword174……Page 365
The Social and Human Importance of Fundamental Science178……Page 376