Matvei Bronstein (1906-38)

MPB
1937

Matvei Bronstein,
theoretical physicist, pioneer of quantum gravity and cosmology, author of three books on science for children.

Born Dec 2, 1906, arrested Aug 6, 1937, and “disappeared”...

He was one of the some forty thousands who happened to be included in the so called “Stalin’s execution lists”. Stalin signed the execution list with Bronstein’s name on February 3, 1938. Two weeks later, there was a “trial” which lasted half an hour (according to the KGB file) and was followed by the execution that same day, Feb 18, 1938. It is absolutely clear that the Great Leader had no idea who Matvei Bronstein was.

Matvei Bronstein's chronology

Seminar on quantum gravity and cosmology dedicated to the centenary of Matvei Bronstein

( St.Petersburg, Russia, Nov 30 - Dec 2, 2006)

Matvei Bronstein's publications on quantum gravity and cosmology

Sovremennoe sostoyanie relativistskoi kosmologii [Modern state of relatovistic cosmology] // UFN, 1931, Vol. 11, pp. 124-184.
On the expanding universe // Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion. 1933. Bd. 3. S.73-82.
K voprosy o relativistskom obobchshenii printsipa neopredelennosti. Zur relativistischen Erweiterung des Unbestimmtheitsprinzipes[On the question about relativistic generalisation of indeterminancy principle] // DAN. 1934, Vol. 1, pp. 388-392.
Quantentheorie schwacher Gravitationsfelder // Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion. 1936. Bd. 9. S. 140-157.
Kvantovanie gravitatsionnykh voln [Quantizing of gravitational waves] // ZhETF, 1936, Vol. 6, pp. 195-236
Ueber den Spontanen Zerffall der Photonen // PZS, 1936, Vol. 10, pp. 686-688.
O vozmozhnosti spontannogo rachsheplenia fotonov [On possibility of spontaneous splitting of photons] // ZhETF, 1937, Vol. 7, pp. 335-358.

Matvei Bronstein's works

P hysicists on Matvei Bronstein

On the life and science of Matvei Bronstein

G.E.Gorelik, V.Ya.Frenkel. Matvei Petrovich Bronshtein. 1906-1938. Moscow: Nauka, 1990.

G. Gorelik. First Steps of Quantum Gravity and the Planck Values // Studies in the history of general relativity. [Einstein Studies. Vol.3] 1992.

G. Gorelik, V. Frenkel. Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties. Birkhaeuser, Basel-Boston, 1994; and Springer Basel AG, 2011 (e-book)

G. Gorelik. Matvei Bronstein and quantum gravity: 70th anniversary of the unsolved problem // Physics-Uspekhi 2005, vol 48, no 10, pp. 1039-1053 (pdf)

G. Gorelik. Why Is Quantum Gravity So Hard? // Scientific American