Hannes Alfvén (born 30.05.1908) was a Swedish physicist and astrophysicist and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (from 1947). Born in Norrköping. He graduated from the University of Uppsala and worked there until 1937, and in 1937 —40 at the Nobel Institute for Physics in Stockholm. From 1940 he was professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm). His research concerned electrodynamics, plasma physics, cosmic physics and astrophysics. His work gave rise to a new scientific discipline — magnetohydrodynamics. In particular, he formulated its basic proposition, the idea of the magnetic field frozen into the plasma, and discovered (1950) a new type of wave motion of a conducting medium in a magnetic field — the magnetohydrodynamic waves later called Alfvén waves. He put forward a number of hypotheses to explain such astronomical phenomena as the formation of prominences and of sunspots, the ejection of clouds of gas from the Sun, magnetic storms and aurorae, and the origin of cosmic rays, of the Solar System and so on. He predicted (1937) the existence of galactic (interstellar) magnetic fields. He advanced the idea that the radiation of radio sources is synchrotron in nature, and in 1950, together with N. Herlofson, he proposed a theory of their radiation. For his research in magnetohydrodynamics Alfvén was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1970. He put forward the idea of a collective method of accelerating particles and attempted to accelerate positive ions by introducing them inside focused clusters of electrons. An honorary member of many academies of sciences and scientific societies, and in particular a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1958). The M. V. Lomonosov Gold Medal (1971).
Alfvén, Hannes
Hannes Alfvén (born 30.05.1908) was a Swedish physicist and astrophysicist and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (from 1947). Born in Norrköping. He graduated from the University of Uppsala and worked there until 1937, and in 1937 —40 at the Nobel Institute for Physics in Stockholm. From 1940 he was professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm). His research concerned electrodynamics, plasma physics, cosmic physics and astrophysics. His work gave rise to a new scientific discipline — magnetohydrodynamics. In particular, he formulated its basic proposition, the idea of the magnetic field frozen into the plasma, and discovered (1950) a new type of wave motion of a conducting medium in a magnetic field — the magnetohydrodynamic waves later called Alfvén waves. He put forward a number of hypotheses to explain such astronomical phenomena as the formation of prominences and of sunspots, the ejection of clouds of gas from the Sun, magnetic storms and aurorae, and the origin of cosmic rays, of the Solar System and so on. He predicted (1937) the existence of galactic (interstellar) magnetic fields. He advanced the idea that the radiation of radio sources is synchrotron in nature, and in 1950, together with N. Herlofson, he proposed a theory of their radiation. For his research in magnetohydrodynamics Alfvén was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1970. He put forward the idea of a collective method of accelerating particles and attempted to accelerate positive ions by introducing them inside focused clusters of electrons. An honorary member of many academies of sciences and scientific societies, and in particular a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1958). The M. V. Lomonosov Gold Medal (1971).