LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CONCERNING N. F. OVCHINNIKOV’S ARTICLE “DISCUSSION OF I. V. KUZNETSOV’S REPORT”*)

In the October issue of the journal UFN an article by N. F. Ovchinnikov was published, in which, without any agreement with me, my brief remarks on the report of I. V. Kuznetsov at a meeting of the Academic Council of the Sector of Dialectical Materialism of the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, devoted to questions of mass and energy, are cited. In presenting my remarks, N. F. Ovchinnikov arbitrarily altered the wording of individual phrases and even mathematical formulas. In doing so, gross distortions were introduced that substantially change the meaning. Thus, for example, instead of the equation cited in my remarks

\[ \left(\sum_k p_k\right)^2 + M_0^2 c^2 = \left(\sum_k \frac{E_k}{c}\right)^2, \tag{A} \]

which expresses the conservation of the energy, momentum, and mass of the system, on p. 272 there is given an equality that has no physical meaning,

\[ \sum \left(P_k^2 + m_{0k}^2 c^2\right) = \sum \frac{E_k^2}{c^2}. \tag{Б} \]

Further, on p. 273 it is asserted that... “Ya. P. Terletskii also denied the necessity of calling the relation \(E = mc^2\) a law of nature.” In this way, in the editorial office of N. F. Ovchinnikov it turns out that I allegedly defended the non-objective character of the relation \(E = mc^2\), relying on the plainly meaningless relation (Б). In actual fact, the meaning of my remarks was that the relation \(E = cm^2\) is only a particular physical relation in comparison with the general conservation laws expressed for a system by equality (A), whereas I. V. Kuznetsov, and after him N. F. Ovchinnikov, not attempting to understand the relativistic conservation laws, distort reality by elevating a particular relation to the rank of a fundamental, all-embracing law.

I believe that such free handling of the text of my critical remarks testifies to the extreme instability of the positions defended by N. F. Ovchinnikov and his associates.

I ask the editorial board of UFN to discuss and publish this letter in the next issue.

31 December 1952

Ya. P. Terletskii

*) UFN, vol. XLVIII, p. 263, 1952.