physics

Leonid Mandelstam

Leonid Mandelstam is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Leonid Mandelstam rather than just read about it. In short: Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam or Mandelshtam (Russian: Леонид Исаакович Мандельштам, IPA: [lʲɪɐˈnʲit ɨsɐˈakəvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam] ; 4 May 1879 – 27 November 1944) was a Soviet and Russian physicist. Life Leonid Mandelstam was born in Mogilev, in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus) into a Jewish family.

Key takeaways

Leonid Mandelstam belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reproduce the core statement of Leonid Mandelstam from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Life Leonid Mandelstam was born in Mogilev, in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus) into a Jewish family. He studied at the Novorossiya University in Odessa, but was expelled in 1899 due to political activities, and continued his studies at the University of Strasbourg. He remained in Strasbourg until 1914, and returned with the beginning of World War I. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1942. He died in Moscow, aged 65.

Scientific achievements The main emphasis of his work was broadly considered theory of oscillations, which included optics and quantum mechanics. He was a co-discoverer of inelastic combinational scattering of light used now in Raman spectroscopy (see below). This paradigm-altering discovery (together with Grigory Landsberg) had occurred at the Moscow State University just one week earlier than a parallel discovery of the same phenomena by C. V. Raman and K. S. Krishnan. In Russian literature it is called "combinational scattering of light" (from combination of frequencies of photons and molecular vibrations) but in English it is named after Raman.

Discovery of the combinational scattering of light In 1918, Mandelstam theoretically predicted the fine structure splitting in Rayleigh scattering due to light scattering on thermal acoustic waves. Beginning from 1926, Mandelstam and Landsberg initiated experimental studies on vibrational scattering of light in crystals at the Moscow State University. As a result of this research, Landsberg and Mandelstam discovered the effect of the combinational scattering of light on 21 February 1928. They presented this fundamental discovery for the first time at a colloquium on 27 April 1928. They published brief reports about this discovery (experimental results with some attempt at a theoretical explanation) in Russian and in German and then published a comprehensive paper in Zeitschrift für Physik. In the same year, two Indian scientists C. V. Raman and K. S. Krishnan also observed the inelastic scattering of light. Raman stated that "The line spectrum of the new radiation was first seen on 28 February 1928". Thus, combinational scattering of light was observed by Mandelstam and Landsberg a week earlier than by Raman and Krishnan. However, according to the Physics Nobel Committee, Mandelstam and Landsberg were unable to provide an independent, complete interpretation for the discovery, as they only later cited Raman's article. Also, their observations were limited to crystals, whereas Raman and Krishnan showed the effect in solids, liquids, and vapors, thus proving the universal nature of the effect. Raman's method was further applied with great success in different fields of molecular physics, for example in the composition analysis of liquids, gases, and solids, and provided significant insight on nuclear spins. Hence, the light-scattering phenomenon became known as Raman scattering or the Raman effect. Mandelstam's lectures in optics dated by 1944 can be considered as the formal beginning of the second stage of the DNG-metamaterials theory.

Scientific school and legacy Mandelstam founded one of the two major schools of theoretical physics in the Soviet Union (another being due to Lev Landau). In particular, he was mentor to Igor Tamm, a Nobel Prize in Physics laureate who in turn was a mentor to Vitaly Ginzburg who also received a Nobel Prize in Physics and Andrei Sakharov, the "father of Soviet hydrogen bomb" and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. A crater on the far side of the Moon is named after Mandelstam.

See also Brillouin scattering Quantum tunnelling Quantum speed limit

Selected publications L. I. Mandelstam, I. E. Tamm "The uncertainty relation between energy and time in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics", Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR (ser. fiz.) 9, 122–128 (1945). English translation: J. Phys. (USSR) 9, 249–254 (1945).

References

External links

Leonid Mandelstam at the Mathematics Genealogy Project Y.L. Alpert, Tribute to the Scientific School of L.I. Mandelshtam Sergei I. Vavilov, Obituary to academician L.I. Mandelstam, 1945

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Leonid Mandelstam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Leonid Mandelstam claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Leonid Mandelstam before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Leonid Mandelstam ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Leonid Mandelstam

In research: Leonid Mandelstam appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Leonid Mandelstam in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Leonid Mandelstam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1879 births, 1944 deaths, Academic staff of Moscow State University, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Leonid Mandelstam outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Leonid Mandelstam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Leonid Mandelstam means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Leonid Mandelstam in simple terms?

Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam or Mandelshtam (Russian: Леонид Исаакович Мандельштам, IPA: [lʲɪɐˈnʲit ɨsɐˈakəvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam] ; 4 May 1879 – 27 November 1944) was a Soviet and Russian physicist. Life Leonid Mandelstam was born in Mogilev, in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus) into a Jewish fami…

Why does Leonid Mandelstam matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Leonid Mandelstam?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Leonid Mandelstam.