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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abram Alikhanov | 3/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_Alikhanov | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T17:41:26.105097+00:00 | kb-cron |
On December 1, 1945, Laboratory no. 3 of the Soviet Academy of Sciences was established in Moscow with Alikhanov as its head. The laboratory was renamed to Heat-Engineering Laboratory (Теплотехническая лаборатория) in 1949 and received its modern name, the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP), in 1958. Alikhanov lead the institute for 23 years, until he retired in 1968. Lev Landau and his student Isaak Pomeranchuk headed the theory division of the institute in 1945–46 and 1946–66, respectively. At ITEP, Alikhanov led research on and advanced scintillation techniques, bubble chambers, and spark chambers.
==== Nuclear reactor ==== The laboratory/institute initially focused on what Alikhanov had already begun working on: construction of a nuclear reactor based on heavy water. With a small staff, Alikhanov led the design of the first reactor by 1947. It was built in 1948 and successfully put into operation on April 25, 1949. Alikhanov was personally heavily involved in the project. He solved all the "physical and technical problems that arose in construction of the reactor," and tackled the "dirtiest jobs without hesitation; thus the reactor was for the most part his creature." It was the first heavy-water research reactor in the USSR. A number of studies and discoveries were done based on it. It was shut down in 1987. The reactor was not invented for nuclear power generation, but instead for experiments that would advance the design and construction of other reactors. In 1959 Alikhanov led the design of 10 MW experimental research heavy-water reactors, which were built in China and Yugoslavia under his supervision. Alikhanov also led the project of design the first industrial heavy-water reactor in the Soviet Union. Named OK-180, it was commissioned in October 1951 in Chelyabinsk-65. Its heat exchangers froze shortly after it began operating. It was decommissioned in 1965 and subsequently disassembled. Until the end of his career, Alikhanov "remained a renowned head and a strong advocate" of heavy-water reactors, though graphite-moderated reactors were given the preference for their price.
==== Accelerators ==== By 1952, after the completion of the heavy-water reactor, the main direction of Alikhanov's institute became construction of a high-energy accelerator. A proton accelerator with a strong focusing of 7 GeV (gigaelectronvolt) was completed and commissioned at the institute in 1961. The accelerator made it possible to conduct research on elementary particle physics on a broader scale at ITEP. Alikhanov led several studies and investigations based on the new instrument, most notably research on "pion scattering on nucleons with large momentum transfer." The 7-GeV accelerator served as a prototype or an operating model for the 70-GeV accelerator in Serpukhov, which was advanced by Alikhanov. Alikhanov "became a motive force behind construction of the Serpukhov accelerator." Alikhanov and his team participated in its design. The Serpukhov accelerator was commissioned in 1967 and became the largest proton accelerator in the world at the time. Mikhail Shifman noted that Alikhanov was the "driving force behind the decision to build the first strong focusing accelerators" in the Soviet Union: at ITEP and at the Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Protvino, near Serpukhov. The Serpukhov accelerator, construction on which had begun in 1960, was transferred to the IHEP. Abov noted that the decision by the Ministry of Defense was an "irreparable blow" for Alikhanov, because it "deprived the institute of any prospects for further development." The Ministry had alleged that the construction of the accelerator was slow, however, according to Abov, the Ministry had made a decision to transfer it to the IHEP from the very beginning.
==== Parity violation ==== Between 1957 and 1960, following the Wu experiment, Alikhanov oversaw the research on parity violation in beta decay. Studies led by him confirmed Wu's findings and explored the structure of weak interaction. Alikhanov was the first Soviet physicist to investigate it. He measured the longitudinal polarization of electrons in β decay.
== Personal life and death == Alikhanov was known to his family and friends as "Abusha" (Абуша). A group of his colleagues and students wrote that he was "extremely straightforward and generous in his dealings with people, irrespective of whether the matter was a scientific or a merely personal problem," while David Holloway described him as "hot-tempered." Alikhanov was a close and lifelong friend of his colleague Lev Artsimovich. He frequented Artsimovich's apartment to tell stories about his friends the satirist Mikhail Zoshchenko, the poet Anna Akhmatova, and the composer Dmitri Shostakovich. The Armenian artist Martiros Sarian, a friend of his, painted a portrait of Alikhanov. It is owned by the Alikhanov family. Alikhanov married twice. He had two children with his first wife, Anna Grigorievna Prokofieva, whom he married in 1925. His son, Ruben, was a physicist, while his daughter, Seda, was a writer. His second wife, Slava Solomonovna Roshal (1916–2016) was a violinist. They had two children: Tigran (1943–2013), a pianist, and Yevgenia (b. 1949), a violinist. Tigran served as rector (president) of the Moscow Conservatory in 2005–09. Alikhanov suffered a stroke in 1964. He resigned from his post as director of the ITEP in 1968. Alikhanov died in Moscow on December 8, 1970, at the age of 66. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
== Relationship with the Communist Party ==