Draft:Volkov, Dmitry Vasilievich (physicist)
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Dmitry Vasilyevich Volkov | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 3, 1925 |
| Died | January 5, 1996 |
| Citizenship | Soviet Union → Ukraine |
| Alma mater | Kharkiv State University |
| Known for | Supersymmetry, supergravity |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics, particle physics, quantum field theory |
| Institutions | Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology |
Dmitry Vasilyevich Volkov (July 3, 1925, Leningrad — January 5, 1996, Kharkiv) was a Soviet and Ukrainian scientist, a theoretical physicist (specializing in elementary particle physics and quantum field theory), Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1968), Academician (1988; Corresponding Member since 1976) of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR; Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the Ukrainian SSR (1982).
In honor of Dmitry Volkov, the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine established the D. V. Volkov Prize
Biography
[edit]Dmitry Vasilyevich Volkov was born on July 3, 1925, in the city of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), into the family of a working-class locksmith — Vasily Nikolaevich Volkov — and a preschool teacher — Olga Ivanovna Kozakova. He was the second son in the family.
After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Dmitry’s older brother, Lev, was enrolled as a cadet in a military unit. He was seriously wounded and died of his injuries in December 1941. Dmitry’s father, who had joined the people's militia in 1941, went missing in action in February 1942.
In the early months of the war, sixteen-year-old Dmitry, having just completed the eighth grade, took part in defensive work, digging trenches. In August, he and his mother were evacuated — first to the Yaroslavl region, and later to the Kurgan region. There, the young man worked on a collective farm and later at a military factory.
In 1943, Dmitry himself was drafted into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army by the Kurgan Regional Military Commissariat. He saw combat as a signalman, radio operator, and artillery scout on the Karelian Front, and in 1945, on the 1st Far Eastern Front. From September 1943 to May 1944, he served in a mortar regiment, and from May to December 1944, in a reserve artillery regiment.
During the Soviet–Japanese War, Junior Sergeant D. V. Volkov, a member of the Komsomol (VLKSM), served as a reconnaissance scout in the command platoon of the 1st battalion of the 621st Red Banner Mortar Regiment. He suffered a concussion and was discharged after the end of the war with Japan due to health reasons. He returned to Leningrad.
Later, Dmitry recalled one episode from his military service:
After serving as a radio operator on the Karelian Front, I was sent to a reserve regiment. I was assigned there as a cadet to further improve my skills as a radio operator. But I never really liked the profession of a radio operator — mainly because it requires good hearing, and my hearing has always been poor. Besides, carrying the heavy radio equipment was something I disliked.
At the same time, there were artillery reconnaissance courses being held there. I started observing them and noticed that they did some mathematical calculations. So, I submitted a request to the regimental commander asking to be transferred from the radio operator group to the artillery reconnaissance group. The math involved was fairly simple, and I picked it up quickly.
When the final exams came around, I exceeded all the standard requirements and ranked first. People asked me how I managed to do everything, how I performed the calculations. Turns out, it was simple. I slightly modified the calculation method and organized everything so that nothing unnecessary was included. That helped save time. After that, I was even asked to explain my calculation process to the officers of the regiment, many of whom had already seen combat.[1]
In 1947, Dmitry Volkov completed preparatory courses organized for former front-line soldiers, passed external examinations covering the secondary school curriculum, and was admitted to the Faculty of Physics at Leningrad State University. He later reflected on his choice of academic path as follows:
The war instilled in us a profound sense of responsibility toward our homeland. We understood that the war was a collective tragedy, and that our shared goal was victory. We carried this same ideology into civilian life. When the time came to choose a profession, we asked ourselves — how can we best serve our country? [1]
During university vacations, Volkov worked with geological expeditions involved in the search for uranium deposits.
In 1951, by directive of the Ministry of Higher Education, Volkov — having completed his fourth year of studies — was among the top students selected for transfer to the newly established nuclear division of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Kharkiv State University. Among those who transferred with him were V. F. Aleksin, E. V. Inopin, L. I. Korovin, K. N. Stepanov, and Pyotr Fomin, all of whom would go on to become distinguished scientists and make significant contributions to both national and international science.
Volkov graduated with honors from Kharkiv University in 1952, after which he entered postgraduate studies, completing them in 1956. His academic advisor was the eminent physicist and member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Academician Aleksandr Akhiezer.
From 1956 until the end of his life, Volkov worked at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (now the National Science Center – NSC KIPT), where, over the course of nearly four decades, he progressed from junior research associate to full member of the Academy of Sciences.
In 1958, he successfully defended his candidate’s dissertation, entitled “Applications of the Mass Operator in Scalar Quantum Electrodynamics.”
In 1960, Volkov participated as a member of the Soviet delegation at an international congress on elementary particle physics held in the United States. During an exchange of scientific news at the airport, the head of the Soviet delegation, M. A. Markov, asked his American colleagues, “What’s new with you?” To which the renowned theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate Tsung-Dao Lee responded, “It is you who bring the news!” He then expressed his desire to meet the author of parastatistics, Dmitry Volkov.
Volkov became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1963.
In 1967, he was appointed head of a laboratory at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology.
In 1968, he was awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences for his doctoral dissertation, “Certain Problems in the Theory of Elementary Particles.”
In 1976, Volkov was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.
He was awarded the academic title of Professor in 1977, and in 1988 was elected a full member (academician) of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Dmitry Vasilyevich Volkov passed away on January 5, 1996, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Scientific Work
[edit]Dmitry Volkov’s research interests lay primarily in the fields of elementary particle physics and quantum field theory.
In 1959, he proposed a new framework for quantum fields — parastatistics (also known as Green–Volkov statistics) — which generalized the well-established Bose–Einstein and Fermi–Dirac statistics. Parastatistics would soon play a significant role in the development of the hypothesis regarding the quark structure of hadrons.
In 1962, while investigating the behavior of Regge poles in the relativistic regime — a key area of the emerging Regge pole theory — Volkov, together with Vladimir Gribov, discovered the phenomenon now known as the Regge pole conspiracy.
In 1965, Volkov introduced the novel concept of collinear subgroups of symmetry, thereby founding a new approach that enabled the effective study of particle scattering processes through the representation theory of higher symmetry groups.
In the mid-1960s, Volkov contributed to the development of a new research direction focused on current algebras and spontaneously broken symmetries. He carried out a series of studies on particle interactions within systems characterized by degenerate vacuum states.
In 1972, Volkov provided an affirmative answer to the question of whether Goldstone particles could be fermions. Independently of earlier work by Yuri Golfand and Evgeny Likhtman (1971), he introduced the concept of supersymmetry and developed the theoretical framework of supersymmetry. In 1973, he extended this work to construct the theory of supergravity.
Dmitry Volkov authored over 150 publications in the field of theoretical physics.
He supervised 15 candidates’ and doctoral dissertations.
Volkov served on the editorial boards of the journal Yadernaya Fizika (Nuclear Physics, Moscow) and the collected volume Problems of Nuclear Physics and Cosmic Rays (Kharkiv).
For more than thirty years, he also chaired the Library Council of the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology.
Scientific Publications
[edit]- Volkov, D.V. Supergravity before and after 1976. CERN, April 1994. cds.cern.ch
- Volkov, D.V., Soroka, V.A. Gauge Fields for Symmetries Including Supersymmetry. Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, 1973.
Further Reading
[edit]- In Memory of Dmitrij Vasil’evich Volkov. Tribute in Physics-Uspekhi, 1996. ufn.ru
- Volkova, S.I., Zheltukhin, A.A. Glimpses of Dmitry Volkov’s Life and Work. Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplements, 2001. sciencedirect.com
- To the 90th Anniversary of Dmitry Vasilievich Volkov’s Birthday. Commemorative article, arXiv, 2015. arXiv:1506.03003
External Links
[edit]- Oral history interview with Dmitrij Vasilievich Volkov (March 4, 1995) – American Institute of Physics
- D.V. Volkov biography – Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology
- Dmitrij Volkov – nLab article
- Dmitrij V. Volkov – Inspire HEP profile
- Dmitrij Vasilievich Volkov: Scientific Biography – University of Münster