The development of mathematics in our country, and throughout the world, is inextricably linked with the name of Sergei Lvovich Sobolev. He made a fundamental contribution to this science and laid the foundation for the development of new directions. Sergei Lvovich is rightfully considered one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. We will tell about his life and scientific activity in the article.
Biography
Sergey Lvovich Sobolev was born in St. Petersburg on 1908-23-09. His father, Lev Aleksandrovich, worked as a lawyer and took part in the revolutionary movement. Mother, Natalya Georgievna, in her youth was also a revolutionary and a member of the RSDLP. Later she received a medical education and worked at the Leningrad Medical Institute as an assistant professor. Sergei Lvovich lost his father early, he was raised by his mother. She instilled in her son such qualities as integrity, honesty and determination.
From childhood, the future mathematician was distinguished by curiosity. He read a lot, was fond of various sciences, wrote poetry and played the piano. In 1924 he graduatedschool and wanted to enter the medical school, but at that time they were accepted to the university only from the age of seventeen, and he was sixteen. Therefore, the young man went to study at the State Art Studio, piano class. A year later, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Leningrad State University and at the same time continued to study at the art studio. While studying at the university, he listened to lectures by such professors as Vladimir Ivanovich Smirnov, Nikolai Maksimovich Gunther, Grigory Mikhailovich Fikhtengolts. They had a great influence on the development of Sobolev as a scientist.
The university program no longer satisfied the inquisitive student, and he studied special literature. Undergraduate practice took place in the settlement office of the Leningrad plant "Elektrosila". There, Sergei Lvovich solved his first important problem - he explained why a new frequency of natural vibrations appears for shafts with insufficient cross-sectional symmetry.
Beginning of scientific activity
In 1929, Sobolev graduated from high school and got a job at the Seismological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, headed by Vladimir Ivanovich Smirnov. He worked in the theoretical department, where he was able to conduct several deep scientific studies. Together with Smirnov, he developed a method of functionally invariant solutions and then applied it to the solution of dynamic problems in the theory of elasticity. This technique formed the basis of the theory of elastic wave propagation. In addition, Sergey Lvovich solved the famous Lamb problem and built a rigorous theory of Rayleigh surface waves.
In 1932Sobolev began working at the Steklov Mathematical Institute (MIAN), in the department of differential equations. A year later, he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences for outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics.
Moscow period
In 1934, together with the Mathematical Institute, Sergei Lvovich Sobolev moved to Moscow and was appointed head of the department. During this period, the scientist was engaged in functional analysis and the study of the theory of partial differential equations. The methods and ideas proposed in these works subsequently became part of the golden fund of world science and were further developed in the works of many domestic and foreign mathematicians.
In the same year, at the All-Union Congress in Leningrad, Sobolev presented a number of reports on the theory of partial differential equations, in which for the first time he outlined in detail the foundations of the concept of "generalized functions". In subsequent years, the mathematician developed in this direction. On the basis of the generalized derivative, he studied and introduced new functional spaces, which in the literature are called "Sobolev spaces". The methods and ideas of the scientist were developed in computational mathematics, equations of mathematical physics and differential equations.
In 1939, at the age of thirty, Sergei Lvovich became a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For many years he remained the youngest Soviet academician.
War and post-war years
At the beginning of the Second World War, Sobolev was appointed director of the Steklov Mathematical Institute. universitywas evacuated to Kazan, and despite the difficult conditions, the scientist was able to organize applied research there. In 1943, the MIAN was returned to Moscow, and Sergei Lvovich went to work at the Kurchatov Institute, where he engaged in research in the field of atomic energy and the atomic bomb. Soon the mathematician received the positions of the first deputy director and chairman of the Academic Council.
In 1945-1948. in an atmosphere of deep secrecy, Sobolev, together with other scientists, created the country's atomic shield. He was faced with applied mathematical problems that required great effort: it was necessary to calculate, predict and optimize the most complex processes that had never been studied before. Due to the enormous work and extraordinary mathematical intuition, Sergei Lvovich managed to cope with the work within the given time frame. According to the recollections of the scientist's wife, at that time he often went on long business trips and was not at home for months.
General Ledger
During the years of work at the Kurchatov Institute, Sobolev was able to prepare for publication the main scientific work of his life - a book called "Some Applications of Functional Analysis in Mathematical Physics". In this work, Sergei L'vovich systematically expounded the theory of function spaces, which played an exceptional role in shaping the views of modern mathematicians. The book has become a desktop for representatives of various scientific fields, has been translated into various languages. Reprinted three times in our country and twice in America.
Concepts of generalized solution andgeneralized derivative became the basis of a new direction of research, which became known as the "theory of Sobolev spaces".
Work at Moscow State University
In 1952, the Soviet mathematician Aleksei Andreevich Lyapunov offered Sergei Lvovich a job at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University as a professor in the Department of Computational Mathematics, formed three years earlier. Sobolev agreed and soon became the head of the department. He held this position from 1952 to 1958, and during this time, together with Lyapunov, he actively proved the important purpose of cybernetics.
In 1955, the academician initiated the creation of a computer center at the department. Professor Ivan Semyonovich Berezin was appointed its director. In a short period of time, the center became one of the most powerful in the country: in the early years of its existence, its computing power exceeded ten percent of the computing power of all computers then available in the Soviet Union.
Siberian period
In 1956, Sergei Lvovich Sobolev and several other academicians proposed the creation of scientific centers in the east of the country. A year later, a decision was made to form the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences as part of a number of research institutes, including the Novosibirsk Institute of Mathematics. Sobolev was appointed director of this institute. In 1958, he left the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University and went to Novosibirsk. To the question of what made him leave for Siberia, which was essentiallywhile the scientific virgin, Sergey Lvovich answered: “The desire to start something new and live several lives.”
At the Institute of Mathematics, the scientist tried to present all the most important modern scientific directions. Research was carried out here in logistics, algebra, geometry, computational mathematics, theoretical cybernetics, functional analysis and differential equations. In the shortest possible time, the research institute became a major scientific center known throughout the world. Today, the Institute of Mathematics of the SB RAS bears the name of Sobolev and is the largest research institute in Russia in the field of mathematics in terms of the number of employees.
In Novosibirsk, Sergei Lvovich began to study cubator formulas and created his own theory, proposing a radically new approach to numerical quadrature using methods of generalized functions.
Awards and titles
In 1984, the academician returned to the capital and continued to work at the Steklov Institute. He was an excellent teacher and brought up a galaxy of followers. The brilliant public and scientific activity of the mathematician not only determined his great prestige in our country, but also received international recognition. Sobolev was an honorary member of the American Mathematical Society and many world universities, was a foreign member of the Academies of Sciences in France, Berlin, Rome.
The merits of the scientist are marked by many state awards. Sergei Lvovich Sobolev was awarded seven Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the October Revolution, the Badge of Honor. He had the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. wasthe owner of the Stalin Prizes and the State Prize of the USSR. In 1977, the Academy of Sciences of Czechoslovakia awarded the academician the Gold Medal "For Services to Humanity and Science." In 1988, he was awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal for outstanding scientific achievements.
Private life
Sobolev had a friendly and large family: his wife, Ariadna Dmitrievna, doctor of medical sciences, and seven children, five of whom became candidates of science. According to the eldest daughter of the mathematician Svetlana, his father often read Pushkin, Akhmatov, Mayakovsky, Blok, Pasternak to his children. He never put pressure on his daughters and sons, always helped his wife, led a modest working life. The whole Sobolev family went on hikes in the Caucasus and Crimea, during which Sergei Lvovich told the children a lot about natural and scientific phenomena. Svetlana recalled that when she was in the fifth grade, her father told her the theory of relativity, and the girl understood everything in his story.
Memory
Sergey Lvovich Sobolev died in Moscow on 1989-03-01 at the age of eighty. Resting at the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital.
In honor of the academician, a memorial plaque was installed on the building of the Institute of Mathematics in Novosibirsk. One of the auditoriums of Novosibirsk State University is also named after him.
The Sobolev Prize and Scholarship have been established for NSU students and young scientists of the SB RAS. International congresses are held in Novosibirsk and Moscow in memory of mathematics.
In 2008, an international conference was held in the capital of Siberia, dedicated to the centenary ofbirth of Sergei Lvovich. About six hundred applications were submitted for participation in it, and in fact four hundred mathematicians from all over the world attended the event.
