Introduction to Collection "Physics in a Mad World" (an Abridged Version)

TL;DR

This paper introduces a collection highlighting the lives of two physicists, Fritz Houtermans and Yuri Golfand, emphasizing their scientific achievements and personal struggles amidst political turmoil.

Contribution

It provides a detailed background and contextual analysis of the physicists' lives, complementing the main essays with additional insights and stories.

Findings

Houtermans explained why stars shine.

Golfand contributed to supersymmetry theory.

Physicists faced political persecution and personal hardships.

Abstract

This Introduction opens the collection "Physics in A Mad World" devoted to two outstanding physicists whose destinies were deeply intertwined with the tragedies and drama of the times in which they lived. Friedrich (Fritz) Houtermans was the first to understand why stars shine. He endured Stalin's prisons in the Moscow of the late 1930s, then faced the Gestapo in Germany. In the early 1970s, Yuri Golfand was among the discoverers of theoretical supersymmetry, a concept which completely changed mathematical physics in the 21st century. After his discovery, his research institution in Moscow fired him. He knew the humiliations of the Brezhnev regime firsthand, blacklisted and unemployed for the rest of the decade due to his desire to emigrate to Israel. This introduction gives a detailed review of background and supplemental information to the events described in the three main essays authored by V. Frenkel, B. Eskin and B. Bolotovsky who presented captivating stories of the physicists' lives, as told by their friends, colleagues and relatives.