Plasma Physics Reports. Vol. 24, No. 7, 1998, pp. 622.
Translated from Fizika Plazmy, Vol. 24, No. 7, 1998. pp. 672. Original Russian Text Copyright © 1998. OBITUARY Lev Markovich Degtyarev, a member of our Editorial Board, a department head at the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor of Moscow State University, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, died suddenly on March 7 in his 58th year. Lev Markovich was born April 13, 1940 to the family of an aviation technician in the town of Zhukovskii (near Moscow). After graduating from the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology in 1964, he started to work at the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics. At this time, intensive studies were beginning in the fields of plasma physics related to controlled fusion, fundamental problems of nonlinear waves, plasma turbulence, solitons, and the MHD-generator program. Lev Markovich was actively engaged in numerical modeling of the corresponding processes and made a significant contribution to the solution of quite a num- ber of problems in plasma physics. He took part in calculating self-sustaining dissipative structures in nonlinear media, modeling the ionization instability of a low-temperature magnetized plasma, and solving a number of other important physical problems. Experts have a high opinion of his elegant work on the modeling of Langmuir collapse. Later on, he was directly engaged in studies of the problems of magnetic-confinement fusion. Together with his disciples, he made an important contribution to the development of numerical methods for calculating the equilibrium conditions and plasma stability in tokamaks, stellarators, open confinement systems, and compact tori. Of particular importance are his calculations of the stability of a plasma with a free boundary in tokamaks with a non-circular cross section and investigations of the dependence of the maximum (consistent with equilibrium and MHD stability) plasma pressure on the displacement of the axis of the plasma column with respect to the helical windings of a stellarator. A highly erudite expert in modern methods of computational mathematics, Lev Markovich continuously sought for new approaches for increasing computation efficiency. In particular, he intensively developed the method of adaptive meshes for both controlled fusion problems, in which the investigation of plasma stability often requires high accuracy in describing plasma equilibrium, and the problems of hydrodynamic flow over bodies with boundary layers. Recently, Lev Markovich was involved in searching for new approaches to a complicated problem of modeling plasma equilibrium in three-dimensional magnetic confinement systems with an island structure of the magnetic field. Lev Markovich died tragically at the peak of his creative powers. It is hard to believe that this outstanding scientist and excellent, sincere, cheerful, and friendly man is no longer among us. Editorial Board | |||||
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