维克托·阿姆巴楚米扬Victor Ambartsumian

苏联亚美尼亚天体物理学家阿姆巴楚米扬 Amazaspovich 维克托·阿姆巴楚米扬（Viktor Hamazaspi Hambardzumyan）于1908年9月18日（旧历1908年9月5日）出生在一个亚美尼亚家庭，出生地是Tiflis，即现在的第比利斯，格鲁吉亚的首都。他的父亲Amazasp Asaturovich 阿姆巴楚米扬是一位语言学家，负责将荷马的Iliad翻译成亚美尼亚语。他从事语言的历史发展和关系的研究，并成为Yerevan大学的教授。阿姆巴楚米扬的母亲是Ripsame 阿姆巴楚米扬。阿姆巴楚米扬是三个孩子之一，有一个姐姐后来成为Yerevan大学概率论系主任，还有一个弟弟在23岁时作为操作员参加地球物理考察时去世。

正是Amazasp鼓励了阿姆巴楚米扬在数学和物理方面才能的发展。他[28]：-

……甚至向朋友们炫耀自己有这样一个儿子，才三四岁就已经会做乘法了。

到了该开始接受正规学校教育、进入初级预备班的年龄时，他必须通过考试才能被录取。给他一道算术题，他很容易就能心算出来，便写下了正确答案。结果他却没有通过。当他父亲愤怒地（阿姆巴楚米扬说他的父亲是个脾气暴躁的人）质问为什么儿子没有通过时，他被告知这道题很难，必须写出全部运算步骤。阿姆巴楚米扬的父亲于是说他要亲自教儿子，并且要直接进入高年级班。事情就这样发生了，两年之后——在此期间他学会了俄语——他进入了文理中学的一年级。

阿姆巴楚米扬热爱数学，并在十二岁时读了奥姆斯比·麦克奈特·米切尔（1809-1862）所著The Planetary and Stellar Worlds（1848年）的俄译本后对天文学产生了兴趣。这个1859年出版的俄译本题为The Celestial Bodies, or Planetary and star worlds. Popular exposition of the great discoveries and theories of modern astronomy（俄语）。他在文科中学的老师在他的一份报告上写道：“这个男孩将来能成为亚美尼亚天文台的创始人。”阿姆巴楚米扬在文科中学期间讲授天文学，当他发现一位莫斯科培养的天文学家尼古拉·伊格纳季耶维奇·苏达科夫在另一所梯弗里斯学校任教时，他转学到了那里。阿姆巴楚米扬迅速完成了文科中学的课程，并在十六岁生日前毕业。听从父亲的建议，他决定在列宁格勒大学学习，这是一个不错的选择，因为普尔科沃天文台离该市很近。

1924年，他到达列宁格勒时已经太晚，无法在那一年进入列宁格勒大学，于是他在赫尔岑师范学院的数学与物理系学习了十八个月。1925年，阿姆巴楚米扬作为本科生进入列宁格勒大学（即现在的圣彼得堡国立大学），希望将毕生精力投入天体物理研究。他的一位本科同学是专攻数学的舍盖·索伯列夫。其他同学朋友还包括列夫·朗道和George Gamow（1904-1968）。阿姆巴楚米扬于1926年发表了一篇关于太阳喷流的论文，Eine Methode der Bestimmung der Hole der Sonnenfackeln nach der Veranderung ihrer HelligkeitⓉ（一种在改变太阳喷流亮度后确定其孔洞的方法），这是他在本科期间将发表的十篇论文中的第一篇。这篇1926年的论文是与他的同学Nikolai Alexandrovich Kozyrev（1908-1983）合作完成的。回忆学生时代时，他说[25]：-

在列宁格勒大学学习期间，我主要关注天文学和数学课程。虽然我始终感到有必要更好地掌握物理学，但当时这门学科对我并没有太大吸引力。确实，在大学最后两年里，量子力学的逻辑之美以及统计物理学的某些方面给我留下了深刻印象。

1928年毕业后，他继续在列宁格勒（今圣彼得堡）附近的普尔科沃天文台攻读研究生，师从Aristarkh Apollonovich Belopolsky（1854-1934），后者自1888年起一直在普尔科沃天文台工作。阿姆巴楚米扬继续在该天文台进行研究，直到1931年。

他走向学术认可的最早一步是1929年与Dmitri Dmitrievich Ivanenko（1904-1994）合作撰写的论文Über eine Folgerung der Diracschen Theorie der Protonen und Electronen Ⓣ（关于保罗·狄拉克的质子和电子理论的一个推论）。当时，Ivanenko在列宁格勒的苏联科学院物理数学研究所工作。他们的发表表明原子核不可能由质子和电子组成。这一结论很快得到证实，三年后，James Chadwick爵士发现了中子，中子与质子共同构成原子核。

他于1931年与Vera Feodorovna Klochihina（生于彼尔姆省索利卡姆斯克县的Lisva）结婚，并于1940年加入苏联共产党。

1931年至1943年间，他在列宁格勒大学讲学，领导天体物理系。正是在1932年，Royal Astronomical Society的Monthly Notices发表了他的论文“On the radiative equilibrium of a planetary nebula”，该论文现在被认为是现代气体星云理论的基石。这引发了一系列进一步发展该主题的研究文章。在列宁格勒大学任职三年后，阿姆巴楚米扬于1934年创立并领导了第一个天体物理讲席，成为该大学的教授。

关于20世纪30年代普尔科沃天文台的问题，见THIS LINK。

1938年，他首次提出了关于星际吸收斑块结构的想法。苏布拉马尼扬·钱德拉塞卡在[12]中写道：-

阿姆巴楚米扬对银河系亮度涨落在无限光学深度极限下给出了极为优雅的表述，表明银河系亮度涨落的概率分布相对于观测者的位置是不变的。

战争年代给阿姆巴楚米扬及其工作带来了障碍。他在1938年至1941年间担任列宁格勒大学天文台台长，1941年他和大学的实验室被迁往俄罗斯西部鞑靼斯坦偏远的叶拉布加。这次迁移当然是被迫的，因为德军正在向列宁格勒推进。阿姆巴楚米扬在那里度过了四年，指导实验室的工作，既研究军事问题，也研究光的散射。1941年至1943年间，阿姆巴楚米扬被任命为该校副校长，在此期间他发展了关于光在宇宙空间散射介质中行为的理论。这成为地球物理学、空间研究尤其是天体物理学的重要工具。

Armenian Academy of Sciences于1943年11月10日成立，是苏联科学院的一个分支。阿姆巴楚米扬回到亚美尼亚，成为新科学院的第一位副院长。此外，1944年，他在埃里温大学创立了第一个天体物理学讲席，并被任命为埃里温天文台台长。

1946年，他组织了距亚美尼亚首都埃里温30公里的布拉堪天文台的建设。台址选在阿拉加茨山海拔1500米处，选择得当。在这里，他开始了另一段成功的活动时期，担任天文台台长，这一职务他一直担任到1988年[25]：-

在天文台建设进行期间，一小群年轻天文学家（包括Benjamin Markarian、Hayk Badalyan和一名学生Grigor Gurzadyan）用非常简陋的设备开始了观测。他们不得不自行设计甚至建造许多仪器。后来，天文台提供了望远镜和其他设施，学生主要来自埃里温大学天体物理系的毕业生。天文台的正式落成典礼于1956年举行，以一次研讨会为标志，来自世界各地的众多天文学家参加了研讨会。阿姆巴楚米扬使布拉堪成为国际知名的科学中心。在与西方的通信相当复杂的情况下（冷战年代），他设法通过积极的双边合作将布拉堪与格鲁吉亚的阿巴斯图马尼天文台以及保加利亚、匈牙利、东德、罗马尼亚和捷克斯洛伐克的天文台联系起来。他的学生中有来自俄罗斯、格鲁吉亚、乌克兰、阿塞拜疆、匈牙利、保加利亚等地的人。然而，即使在这种情况下，若干国际天文学联合会（IAU）研讨会和众多有西方学者参加的会议仍在布拉堪举行。

到1947年，他发现了一种相对较新的恒星系统类型，他将其命名为“星协”[27]：-

这一概念涉及气体、尘埃和恒星等巨大复合体之间的相互关系，例如猎户座星云区域，已证明在我们理解恒星创生与演化过程方面具有不可估量的价值。阿姆巴楚米扬在这一引人入胜领域的工作，无疑是对激发现代恒星演化和银河系结构研究最有力的影响之一。

苏布拉马尼扬·钱德拉塞卡曾在1935年首次遇见阿姆巴楚米扬，多年后回忆道（见[27]）：-

我记得1950年末，当我在叶凯士天文台的学术讨论会上首次介绍阿姆巴楚米扬的论文时，'当权派'天文学家们对这一发现最初持怀疑态度。

他最重要的成果得出结论：银河系中的恒星形成过程仍在继续，且大多数恒星起源于正在发展中的恒星群系统。

阿姆巴楚米扬还研究了来自银河系外的射电信号。他对这些研究的结论与当时广泛接受的解释相矛盾，即这些射电信号是从恒星系统碰撞中接收到的。相反，他提出了这样的观点：这些信号是由于星系内亚原子裂变过程造成的。因此，根据他的观点，“射电星系”可能代表近距离相互作用的恒星系统，这些系统是由超致密的恒星物质形成物形成的。

他的教科书Theoretical Astrophysics于1958年出版，经过多次再版和翻译，包含了他处理困难天文问题的独特方法的例子。此外，他以其通俗而引人入胜的演讲风格而闻名，在国际研讨会上吸引了大量听众。众所周知，他甚至在最数学化的演讲中也会加入诗歌引文。

在他的整个职业生涯中，他被许多学术团体和科学院接纳为成员，在其中确立了相当的地位。他于1939年当选为苏联科学院的通讯院士，1953年成为正式院士。1943年，在Joseph Orbeli的主席任期内，他被任命为埃里温亚美尼亚科学院的创始副院长。他开始在埃里温国立大学任教。

阿姆巴楚米扬接替Orbeli成为科学院任职时间最长的院长，从1947年到1993年领导该院。在此任期之后，他被授予科学院名誉院长。他于1961年至1964年担任国际天文学联合会主席，并两次当选国际科学联合会理事会主席，在1966年至1972年间任职，此前曾担任副主席（1948-1956年）。Adriaan Blaauw写道[9]：-

阿姆巴楚米扬担任国际天文学联合会副主席的任期恰逢西方列强与苏联之间的冷战年代。那些年里，由于国际天文学联合会执行委员会决定推迟原计划于1951年在列宁格勒举行的全体大会，International Astronomical Union经历了其存在中的关键阶段。在随后的几年里，尽管阿姆巴楚米扬激烈反对执行委员会的决定，但他并未停止对该联合会作为涵盖所有国家天文学家的世界性组织的支持。他于1961年当选为国际天文学联合会主席，既反映了对他在这方面努力的赞赏，也反映了他杰出的科学成就。

他还是许多学会的外籍会员，包括英国的皇家学会、美国的国家科学院以及印度科学院。

此外，他因对科学的贡献而获得许多奖项。他曾两次获得斯大林奖（1946年、1950年），一次获得皇家天文学会金奖（1960年），一次获得太平洋天文学会布鲁斯金奖（1960年），他还获得了社会主义劳动英雄奖（1968年、1978年）和亚美尼亚国家英雄奖（1994年）。这些只是授予他的众多荣誉中的一小部分。

1972年5月，T M Smirnova在克里米亚天文台发现的一颗小行星以阿姆巴楚米扬（1905 阿姆巴楚米扬）命名。

在阿姆巴楚米扬80岁生日时，苏布拉马尼扬·钱德拉塞卡写道[12]：-

本世纪唯一在始终如一和献身天文学方面可与院士阿姆巴楚米扬相比的其他天文学家是Jan Oort教授。……本世纪最多只有两三位天文学家能够回顾一生如此值得地献身于天文学的进步。

阿姆巴楚米扬于1996年8月12日在Byurakan去世，并葬在那里的大望远镜塔旁。

2010年，Viktor Ambartsumian国际奖首次颁发。该奖项由亚美尼亚共和国总统设立，授予在天体物理学以及数学和物理学等相关科学领域做出杰出贡献的人。该奖项每两年颁发一次，直到2016年，奖金为50万美元。目前（2018年），该奖项的奖金为30万美元。

Soviet Armenian astrophysicist Victor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian (Viktor Hamazaspi Hambardzumyan) was born on 18 September 1908, old style 5 September 1908, to an Armenian family, in Tiflis, now known as Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. His father, Amazasp Asaturovich Ambartsumian, was a philologist, who was responsible for a translation of Homer's Iliad into Armenian. He undertook research on the historical development and relationship of languages and became a professor at Yerevan University. Victor's mother was Ripsame Ambartsumian. Victor was one of three children, having an older sister who became the chairman of the Department of Probability Theory at Yerevan University and a younger brother who died at the age of 23 while working on a geophysical expedition as an operator.

It was Amazasp who encouraged the development of Victor's aptitude for mathematics and physics. He [28]:-

... even showed off to his friends that he had such a son who could already multiply when he was all of three or four years old.

By the time he was of an age to begin his formal schooling in the junior preparatory class, he had to sit a test before being accepted. Given an arithmetic problem he could easily do in his head, he wrote down the correct answer. He was failed and when his father angrily (Victor said his father was a hot-headed man) demanded to know why his son had been failed he was told that the problem was a hard one and all steps of the working were necessary. Victor's father then said he would teach his son himself and he would go straight into the senior class. This is what happened and after two years, during which time he learnt Russian, he entered the first class of the Gymnasium.

Ambartsumian loved mathematics and became interested in astronomy at the age of twelve after reading a Russian translation of The Planetary and Stellar Worlds (1848) by Ormsby McKnight Mitchel (1809-1862). The Russian translation, published in 1859, was entitled The Celestial Bodies, or Planetary and star worlds. Popular exposition of the great discoveries and theories of modern astronomy (Russian). His teacher at the Gymnasium wrote on one of his reports, "this boy can become in future the founder of an astronomical observatory in Armenia." Ambartsumian gave lectures on astronomy while at the Gymnasium and, discovering that a Moscow trained astronomer Nikolai Ignatevich Sudakov was teaching at another Tiflis school he transferred there. Ambartsumian completed the Gymnasium courses rapidly and graduated before his sixteenth birthday. Following his father's advice, he decided to study at the University of Leningrad, a good choice since the Pulkovo Observatory was close to the city.

Arriving in Leningrad too late in 1924 to enter the University of Leningrad in that year, he studied in the Mathematics and Physics department of the Herzen Pedagogical Institute for eighteen months. In 1925, Ambartsumian entered into the University of Leningrad (what is now known as the St Petersburg State University), as an undergraduate, hoping to devote his life's work to the research of astrophysics. One of his fellow undergraduates was Sergei L'vovich Sobolev who specialised in mathematics. Other student friends included Lev Davidovich Landau and George Gamow (1904-1968). Ambartsumian published a paper devoted to sun jets in 1926, Eine Methode der Bestimmung der Hole der Sonnenfackeln nach der Veranderung ihrer Helligkeit Ⓣ, the first of ten papers that he would publish as an undergraduate. This 1926 paper was a joint work with his fellow student Nikolai Alexandrovich Kozyrev (1908-1983). Recalling his student years he said [25]:-

During my studies at the University of Leningrad I paid chief attention to astronomy and mathematical courses. While I always felt the necessity of a better knowledge of physics, at that time this discipline did not attract me much. It is true that during my last two university years the logical beauty of quantum mechanics as well as some aspects of statistical physics deeply impressed me.

Graduating in 1928, he went on to continue his studies as a postgraduate at the Pulkovo Observatory near Leningrad (now St Petersburg), under the supervision of Aristarkh Apollonovich Belopolsky (1854-1934) who had worked at Pulkovo Observatory from 1888. Ambartsumian continued to undertake research at the Observatory until 1931.

An early step on his road to recognition was taken with his paper, Über eine Folgerung der Diracschen Theorie der Protonen und Electronen Ⓣ written jointly with Dmitri Dmitrievich Ivanenko (1904-1994) in 1929. Ivanenko was, at this time, working at the Physical Mathematical Institute of USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. Their publication showed that the atomic nucleus could not be made up of protons and electrons. This was soon confirmed, when three years later, Sir James Chadwick discovered neutrons, which, together with protons, make up atomic nuclei.

He married Vera Feodorovna Klochihina (born at Lisva, Solikamsk uyezd, Perm) in 1931 and joined the Communist Party of the USSR in 1940.

He spent the years 1931-43 lecturing at the University of Leningrad, heading the astrophysical department. It was in 1932 that Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society published his paper "On the radiative equilibrium of a planetary nebula", now considered a cornerstone of the modern theory of the gas nebulae. This led to a series of research articles developing the topic further. After three years' affiliation with Leningrad University, Ambartsumian founded and headed the first astrophysics chair in 1934, making him a professor at the university.

For the problems at the Pulkovo Observatory during the 1930s, see THIS LINK.

In 1938 he came up with the first idea about the patchy structure of interstellar absorption. Chandrasekhar writes in [12]:-

Ambartsumian's marvellously elegant formulation of the fluctuations in brightness of the Milky Way in the limit of infinite optical depth, showed that the probability distribution of the fluctuations in the brightness of the Milky Way is invariant with the respect to the location of the observer.

The War years provided obstacles for Ambartsumian and his work. Having served as director of the Leningrad University Observatory between 1938 and 1941, he and the laboratories of the University were relocated to the remote Yelabuga, Tatarstan in west Russia in 1941. This relocation was, of course, forced because of German forces advancing towards Leningrad. Ambartsumian spent four years there directing the work of the laboratories working both on military problems and on the scattering of light. Between 1941 and 1943, Ambartsumian was appointed pro-rector of the University, and while in this role he developed his theory of the behaviour of light in a scattering medium of cosmic space. This became an important tool in geophysics, space research and particularly astrophysics.

The Armenian Academy of Sciences was founded on 10 November 1943 as a branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Ambartsumian returned to Armenia to become the first vice-president of the new Academy. In addition, in 1944 he founded the first chair of Astrophysics at Yerevan University and was appointed as director of the Yerevan Observatory.

In 1946, he organised the construction of the Byurakan Astronomical Observatory 30 km from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. This site was well chosen at a height of 1500 metres above sea level on Mt Aragats. Here he began another successful period of activity as the director of the observatory, a role he would maintain until 1988 [25]:-

While the construction of the Observatory was proceeding, a small group of young astronomers (including Benjamin Markarian, Hayk Badalyan and a student Grigor Gurzadyan) started observations with very modest facilities. They had to design or even build many instruments themselves. In later years the Observatory supplied both telescopes and other facilities, and the students came mainly from the graduates of the astrophysical department of Yerevan University. The official inauguration of the Observatory took place in 1956, marked by a symposium with the participation of numerous astronomers from all over the world. Ambartsumian made Byurakan an internationally known scientific centre. In conditions when the communications with the West were rather complicated (the cold war years) he managed to link Byurakan by active bilateral collaboration with the Abastumani Observatory in Georgia, with observatories in Bulgaria, Hungary, Eastern Germany, Romania and Czechoslovakia. Among his students were those from Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. However, even in those conditions several International Astronomical Union (IAU) Symposia and numerous conferences with participation of western scholars were held in Byurakan.

By 1947, he had discovered a new type of comparatively recent stellar system, which he named "stellar association" [27]:-

This concept, which involves the interrelationships between great complexes of gas, dust, and stars, like the region of the Orion Nebula, has proven invaluable in our efforts to understand the processes of star creation and development. Ambartsumian's work in this fascinating field has undoubtedly been one of the most powerful influences in stimulating modern research on stellar evolution and galactic structure.

Chandrasekhar, who had first met Ambartsumian in 1935, recalled many years later (see [27]):-

I recall the early scepticism with which this discovery was received by the astronomers of the 'establishment' when I first gave an account of Ambartsumian's paper at the colloquium at the Yerkes Observatory in late 1950.

The most important of his results concluded that the process of stellar formation in the Milky Way still continues and that most stars have their origin in developing systems of groups of stars.

Ambartsumian also studied radio signals coming from outside the Milky Way. His conclusion of these studies contradicted the widely accepted interpretation of the time, that these radio signals are received from star system collisions. Instead, he forwarded the idea that the signals were due to the subatomic process of fission within galaxies. Thus, according to his view, 'radio galaxies' may represent systems of stars interacting in close proximity, that were formed from super-dense formations of stellar material.

His textbook Theoretical Astrophysics, published in 1958, went through many editions and translations, containing examples of his unique approaches to difficult astronomical problems. Moreover, he is credited with having a popular and engaging lecturing style, drawing large audiences at international symposia. He is known to have added in poetic quotes to even his most mathematical addresses.

Throughout his career, he was made a member of many academic societies and academies, establishing himself considerably in them. He was elected in 1939 as a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, becoming a full academician in 1953. He was appointed founding vice-president of the Armenian Academy of Sciences in Yerevan in 1943, under the presidency of Joseph Orbeli. He began teaching at the Yerevan State University.

Ambartsumian succeeded Orbeli and became the longest serving president of the Academy, heading it from 1947 to 1993. Following this reign, he was made an Honorary President of the Academy. He served as president of the International Astronomical Union from 1961 to 1964, and was twice elected the president of the International Council of Scientific Unions serving between 1966 and 1972, having previously worked as vice-president (1948-1956). Adriaan Blaauw writes [9]:-

Ambartsumian's term as a Vice-President of the International Astronomical Union coincided with the years of the cold war between the western powers and the Soviet Union. In those years, the International Astronomical Union went through a critical stage in its existence as a consequence of the International Astronomical Union Executive Committee's decision to postpone the General Assembly that had been planned for 1951 in Leningrad. During the subsequent years, although vigorously contesting the Executive Committee's decision, Ambartsumian did not fail to continue his support to the Union as the world-wide organisation embracing astronomers from all countries. His election as President of the International Astronomical Union in 1961 reflected both the appreciation for his efforts in this respect and his outstanding scientific achievements.

He was also a foreign member of many societies, including the Royal Society in Britain, the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, and the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Additionally, he received many awards for his services to science. Twice the recipient of the Stalin Prize (1946, 1950), once the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1960), once the Bruce Gold Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1960), he also received the Hero of Socialist Labour award (1968, 1978), and the National Hero of Armenia award (1994). These are only a few of the numerous honours bestowed on him.

A minor planet discovered in May 1972 by T M Smirnova at the Crimea Observatory was named after Ambartsumian (1905 Ambartsumian).

On Ambartsumian's 80th birthday, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar wrote [12]:-

The only other astronomer of this century who compares with Academician Ambartsumian in his consistency and devotion to astronomy is Professor Jan Oort. ... There can be no more than two or three astronomers in this century who can look back on a life so worthily devoted to the progress of astronomy.

Ambartsumian died on 12 August 1996 in Byurakan, and is buried next to the Grand Telescope Tower there.

For the first time in 2010, the Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize was awarded. Set up by the President of the Republic of Armenia, the award is granted to those offering outstanding contributions in the field of astrophysics and in adjacent scientific fields such as mathematics and physics. It is awarded biennially, and until 2016, was worth $500,000. At present (2018) $300,000 is awarded with the Prize.