K.P. Gurov - personalia

Abstract

On March 6, 2018 we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Cyril (in Russian - Kirill) Petrovich Gurov, the prominent Soviet physicist - specialist in the field of physical kinetics and diffusion in materials. His students and students of his students now form the basis of the research potential of the Department of Physics at the Cherkasy National University, they also work at the departments of automation and computer-integrated technologies, applied mathematics, intellectual decision-making systems. It is therefore quite natural to mark the centenary of professor Gurov in the series "Physics and Mathematics" edited at Cherkasy University.

Cyril Gurov (1918-1994) was born in a family of a Russian officer who was later repressed in 1937. At age 13 Cyrill fell seriously ill, after this he became completely deaf. Despite this, he successfully graduated from the school and in 1936 entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. Cyrill graduated from Moscow State University with honors on June 23, 1941. (All this despite the fact that his father was repressed.) On June 23 of that tragic year the distribution of graduates was not the central problem. Cyril Gurov, despite deafness, was directed to work at a defense plant in Kuibyshev (now Samara). He worked as a grinder, and he systematically exceeded the production rate. I personally saw the article of the war times about Cyril Gurov as a leader in production.

In 1944, Cyril returned to Moscow and entered postgraduate study under supervision of the world-
known Soviet physicist and mathematician (in fact, Ukrainian scientist, according to his origin and education) M.M. Bogolyubov, who then worked simultaneously in Moscow and Kiev. The result of their work was the joint paper "Kinetic equations in quantum mechanics" (ZhETF, volume 17, p.614 (1947), which made the authors world-famous. On the basis of the above-mentioned results, Gurov successfully defended his Ph.D., and later the development of these ideas and results, Bogolyubov-Gurov's method was described in the well-known monograph "Foundations of the kinetic theory" (Nauka Publishing House, 1966), which became classical. However, his further career for a long time was stopped – “thanks to” his father - "enemy of the people". He could not manage to find a research position till 1954, he worked as a technical editor in a scientific publishing house (he was looking for and correcting mistakes in formulas and texts). In 1954, after Stalin's death, he was offered the research position at the Institute of Metallurgy (Soviet Academy of Sciences) where he worked 40 years till the end of his life. He introduced his approach, his theoretical methods, his fundamental understanding of the kinetics and the hierarchy of kinetic processes in the physics of materials (he defended his doctoral dissertation in 1968), In particular, he played an important role in the development of the theory of mutual diffusion in metal alloys "the method of the hole gas". Here is a list of monographs written by prof. Gurov or/and under his guidance:

Gurov K. P. The foundations of kinetic theory. Method of NN Bogolyubov. - Science, 1966.

Borovskii I. B., Gurov K. P., Marchukova I. D., Ugaste Yu. E. Processes of mutual diffusion in alloys. -
Science, 1973.

Gurov KP Phenomenological dynamics of unpathic ppotsessov. - Science, 1978.

Melting, crystallization and phase formation in weightlessness. Science, 1979 (co-authored)

Gurov K. P., Kartashkin B. A., Ugaste Yu. E. Mutual diffusion in multiphase metallic systems. - Science. Gl Ed. phys.-mate Lit., 1981.

The author of this material got acquainted with Gurov in 1978, when he was already recognized state-of-art expert in the theory of diffusion processes. Getting acquainted with him turned my life over, but this aspect will be described elsewhere. Meetings and communication with Kirill (friends, colleagues and students used to call him in such a way) were for me like a sip of fresh air. To communicate with him all we had to learn the language of the gestures. At the same time, Cyril read on our lips and generally used to finish phrases for the interlocutor. With such communication any falsehood is automatically filtered out. Only truly important and sincere could be said. He did not teach, but just hinted in which direction we could look in our research. The sincerity, simplicity and kindness of Cyril impressed everybody. He was loved by everyone - from cleaners to academics.

Professor Gurov, me and our Cherkassy research team jointly developed the theory of diffusion
competition of phases, the theory of nucleation in the gradient concentration field, the theory of inter- and reactive diffusion with limited efficiency of sources and drains of vacancies, the theory of the influence of electromigration on the kinetics of reaction diffusion. The ideas of professor Gurov, after his death, were in the origin of the theories of bifurcation of the cortical plane, induced by coalescence flows with mutual diffusion, the theory of formation and collapse of hollow nanostructures, the theory of flux-induced nucleation, and the theory of the point-contact solid-state reactions.

We all live in our continuations. The continuations of Cyril Gurov do not fade, but grow and spread with each passing year. Let's remember!