Ilya Frank

Ilya Mikhailovich Frank (1908–1990) was a Soviet physicist who shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics for explaining Cherenkov radiation.

Pavel Cherenkov: A Soviet physicist who discovered the radiation emitted when charged particles move through a medium faster than light travels in that medium. Cherenkov’s observations of the blue glow prompted Frank and Tamm to explain its physical origin.
Cherenkov radiation: Electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle travels through a medium faster than light travels through that medium. Frank’s Nobel-recognized explanation accounts for this radiation’s origin.
Cherenkov detector: A particle detector that uses Cherenkov radiation to measure charged particles’ speeds or identify them. Such detectors turn the radiation explained by Frank into a measurable particle signal.
Neutrino astronomy: The study of astronomical objects and events through the neutrinos they emit. Water Cherenkov detectors use Frank’s radiation mechanism to register neutrino interactions.
Igor Tamm: A Soviet theoretical physicist who shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics for explaining Cherenkov radiation. Tamm developed the radiation’s theory jointly with Frank.
Frank–Tamm formula: A formula giving the spectral energy emitted as Cherenkov radiation by a charged particle moving through a medium. Frank and Tamm derived this quantitative description of the radiation.
Ring-imaging Cherenkov detector: A detector that reconstructs a charged particle’s Cherenkov cone as a ring to determine its velocity. Its ring geometry makes the radiation’s emission angle useful for particle identification.
Particle identification: The determination of a particle’s identity from measured properties such as speed, charge, and energy. Cherenkov emission thresholds and angles distinguish particles in experimental detectors.
Sergei Vavilov: A Soviet physicist whose research on luminescence helped lead to the discovery of Cherenkov radiation. Vavilov directed the laboratory where Cherenkov observed the distinctive radiation.
Electromagnetic radiation: Energy carried through space or matter by oscillating electric and magnetic fields. Cherenkov radiation is a specific form of electromagnetic radiation.

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Joint Institute for Nuclear ResearchRelated: Frank’s name was given to JINR’s Laboratory of Neutron Physics.