Профессор Линсли из Университета Нью-Мексико, США не успел написать воспоминания об А.Е. Чудакове, поскольку сам вскоре ушел из жизни. Он, однако, принимал очень заинтересованное участие в подготовке некрологов для бюллетеня CosNews и журнала Physics Today. Мне кажется, представляет большой интерес его письмо, помещенное ниже, из которого видно как зарубежные коллеги оценивали А.Е. Чудакова (his undoubted genius). Очень важным обстоятельством представляется также и несомненная уверенность в приоритете А.Е. Чудакова относительно предложения флуоресцентного метода регистрации широких атмосферных ливней. Текст, о котором идет речь, - некролог Чудакова для бюллетеня CosNews.

А.С. Лидванский

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From: John Linsley

To: Alexandr Lidvansky

Date: Saturday, March 31, 2001, 6:37:34 PM

Subject: Chudakov DOC

Files:

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Dear Prof. Lidvansky,

The text you sent to me has been forwarded to Frank Jones; however I

haven't yet received confirmation from him that he received it.

To answer your question, I read what you wrote with some care because

some of the information about Chudakov wasn't known to me before.

My opinion is favorable. The English has a few of the usual

peculiarities of idiom, but is generally OK.

I tried but failed to get clarification from Chudakov himself in his later

years about an idea that apparently came to him before it came to others:

to observe EAS by means of atmospheric scintillation. In a well-known

remark of his at the 1962 Interamerican Symposium in La Paz, Bolivia,

published in the Proceedings, he described his idea in some detail,

dating it to 1955-57, the time he made pioneering measurements, with

Nesterova, on atmospheric Cerenkov radiation from EAS. Putting to

one side his undoubted genius, there should have been some 'sparks'

to kindle it. Clearly, the work required the availability of

large-size photomultiplier tubes, and involved working at night in

good atmospheric conditions. The step from Cerenkov to scintillation

light was a natural extension, but it had to occur: it was NECESSARY

before other steps: recognition of the way ISOTROPY could be

exploited using arrangements that he was quick to invent. My hunch

is that being Russian--living where it is practically important to have

good understanding of atmospheric conditions, where winter nights are

long but winter sky is often ornamented with aurorae--gave to our fallen

comrade a PREDISPOSITION to be the first one to perceive the connection.

Do you have any comment on this speculation?

Sincerely,

John Linsley

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