📝 Original Info
- Title: Ettore Majoranas Scientific (and Human) Personality
- ArXiv ID: 0708.2855
- Date: 2010-02-01
- Authors: Researchers from original ArXiv paper
📝 Abstract
This article, in English, represents part of the invited talk delivered by the author at the "Internat.Conf.Majorana Legacy and Phys. XXI century" held at Dep. of Phys.,University of Catania, Italy, in Oct.2006: Conference organized for celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth (in Catania) of the Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana; probably the brightest Italian theoretician of the XX century (Enrico Fermi regarded him as the brightest in the world of his time), even if to some people Majorana is still known chiefly for his mysterious disappearance, in 1938, when he was 31. In this writing we outline the significance of his main publications, as well as his life: The biographical data being based on letters, documents, testimonies discovered or collected by the author during almost 30 years, and contained in the book by E.Recami, "Il Caso Majorana: Epistolario, Testimonianze, Documenti" (initially published, in 1987 and 1991, by Mondadori, Milan, and presenly published, in 2002, by Di Renzo Editore, Rome: http://www.direnzo.it). At last, some information and comments are added with regard to the scientific manuscripts left unpublished by Majorana. ----- Ettore Majorana: Un cenno alle sue Opere (e Vita). Il secondo articolo rappresenta la versione italiana di parte del seminario su invito tenuto dall'autore alla "Internat.Conf.Majorana's Legacy and Phys. of XXI Century" che ha avuto luogo nell'ottobre 2006 presso il Dip. di Fis. della Univ. di Catania: Conferenza organizzata per celebrare il centenario della nascita (a Catania) del fisico teorico Ettore Majorana; probabilmente il piu` geniale teorico italiano del XX secolo (Enrico Fermi lo considero` il piu` brillante del suo tempo nel mondo), anche se a qualcuno Majorana e` ancora noto soprattutto per la sua misteriosa scomparsa, avvenuta nel 1938, quando aveva 31 anni. In questo scritto descriviamo in sintesi tanto il significato delle sue piu` importanti pubblicazioni, quanto la sua vita: i dati biografici essendo basati su lettere, documenti, testimonianze scoperti o raccolti dall'autore durante quasi 30 anni, e contenuti nel libro di E.Recami: "Il Caso Majorana: Epistolario, Testimonianze, Documenti" (pubblicato inizialmente da Mondadori, Milano, nel 1987 e 1991, e al presente pubblicato, nel 2002, da Di Renzo Editore, Roma: http://www.direnzo.it). Infine, si aggiungono informazioni e commenti circa i manoscritti scientifici lasciti inediti dal Majorana.
💡 Deep Analysis
Deep Dive into Ettore Majoranas Scientific (and Human) Personality.
This article, in English, represents part of the invited talk delivered by the author at the “Internat.Conf.Majorana Legacy and Phys. XXI century” held at Dep. of Phys.,University of Catania, Italy, in Oct.2006: Conference organized for celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth (in Catania) of the Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana; probably the brightest Italian theoretician of the XX century (Enrico Fermi regarded him as the brightest in the world of his time), even if to some people Majorana is still known chiefly for his mysterious disappearance, in 1938, when he was 31. In this writing we outline the significance of his main publications, as well as his life: The biographical data being based on letters, documents, testimonies discovered or collected by the author during almost 30 years, and contained in the book by E.Recami, “Il Caso Majorana: Epistolario, Testimonianze, Documenti” (initially published, in 1987 and 1991, by Mondadori, Milan, and presenly published
📄 Full Content
abstract: This article represents the English version of part of the invited talk delivered by the author at the "International Conference on Majorana's Legacy and the Physics of the XXI century" held at the Department of Physics, University of Catania, Catania, Italy, on 5 and 6 October, 2006: Conference organized for celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth (in Catania) of the Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana; probably the brightest Italian theoretician of the XX century (Enrico Fermi regarded him as the brightest in the world of his time), even if to some people Majorana is still known chiefly for his mysterious disappearance, in 1938, when he was 31. In this writing we outline the significance of his main publications, as well as his life: the biographical data being based on letters, documents, testimonies discovered or collected by the author during almost 30 years, and contained in the book by E.Recami, "Il Caso Majorana: Epistolario, Testimonianze, Documenti" (initially published, in 1987 and 1991, by Mondadori, Milan, Italy, and presently published, in 2002, by Di Renzo Editore, Rome, Italy: www.direnzo.it). At last, some information and comments are added with regard to the scientific manuscripts left unpublished by Majorana. [Obs.: Much of the material following below is protected by copyright, and cannot be further reproduced without the written permission of Fabio Majorana et al., of E.Recami, and of the publisher Di Renzo].
1 Historical Prelude. Ettore Majorana’s fame solidly rests on testimonies like the following, from the evocative pen of Giuseppe Cocconi. At the request of Edoardo Amaldi [3], he wrote from CERN (July 18, 1965): “In January 1938, after having just graduated, I was invited, essentially by you, to come to the Institute of Physics at the University in Rome for six months as a teaching assistant, and once I was there I would have the good fortune of joining Fermi, Bernardini (who had been given a chair at Camerino a few months earlier) and Ageno (he, too, a new graduate), in the research of the products of disintegration of µ “mesons” (at that time called mesotrons or yukons), which are produced by cosmic rays […] “It was actually while I was staying with Fermi in the small laboratory on the second floor, absorbed in our work, with Fermi working with a piece of Wilson’s chamber (which would help to reveal mesons at the end of their range) on a lathe and me constructing a “jalopy” for the illumination of the chamber, using the flash produced by the explosion of an aluminum ribbon short-circuited on a battery, that Ettore Majorana came in search of Fermi. I was introduced to him and we exchanged few words. A dark face. And that was it. An easily forgettable experience if, after a few weeks while I was still with Fermi in that same workshop, news of Ettore Majorana’s disappearance in Naples had not arrived. I remember that Fermi busied himself with telephoning around until, after some days, he had the impression that Ettore would never be found.
“It was then that Fermi, trying to make me understand the significance of this loss, expressed himself in quite a peculiar way; he who was so objectively harsh when judging people. And so, at this point, I would like to repeat his words, just as I can still hear them ringing in my memory: ‘Because, you see, in the world there are various categories of scientists: people of a secondary or tertiary standing, who do their best but do not go very far. There are also those of high standing, who come to discoveries of great importance, fundamental for the development of science’ (and here I had the impression that he placed himself in that category). ‘But then there are geniuses like Galileo and Newton. Well, Ettore was one of them. Majorana had what no one else in the world had […]’” And, with first-hand knowledge, Bruno Pontecorvo, adds: “Some time after his entry into Fermi’s group, Majorana already possessed such an erudition and had reached such a high level of comprehension of physics that he was able to speak on the same level with Fermi about scientific problems. Fermi himself held him to be the greatest theoretical physicist of our time. He often was astounded […]. I remember exactly these words that Fermi spoke: ‘If a problem has already been proposed, no one in the world can resolve it better than Majorana.’ " (See also [12].)
Ettore Majorana disappeared rather mysteriously on March 26, 1938, and was never seen again [4]. The myth of his “disappearance” has contributed to nothing more than the notoriety he was entitled to, for being a true genius and a genius well ahead of his time.
Majorana was such a pioneer, that even his manuscripts known as the Volumetti, which comprise his study notes written in Rome between 1927, when he abandoned his studies in engineering to take up physics, and 1931, are a paragon not only of order, based on argument and even supplied with an index, but also of conciseness, essen
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