Viktor Hambardzumyan - Scientific Activity - Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics of The Stellar Systems

Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics of The Stellar Systems

In 1936 Hambardzumyan gave an elegant solution of a mathematical problem posed by British scientist Arthur Eddington, viz. determination of the distribution of the stars spatial speeds basing on the distribution of their radial speeds. The solution was published in the “Monthly Notices” by recommendation of Arthur Eddington himself. Decades later the same mathematical problem reappered in the context of medical computer diagnostics. Eventually (1979) that mathematical topic was marked by the Nobel Prize in medicine “For the development of computer assisted tomography”. The research conducted by Hambardzumyan in the stellar systems statistics and dynamics laid the foundations of the statistical mechanics of the stellar systems. For this particular contribution Ambartsumian was rewarded with the State Prize of Russian Federation in 1995.

In 1935-1937 Hambardzumyan engaged in a debate with British scientist James Jeans over the age of the Milky Way (our own galactic stellar system), proving that the Milky Way is at least 1000 times younger than the estimate given by Jeans and previously accepted by the scientific community.

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