A Brilliant Darkness

A Brilliant Darkness
Author: Joao Magueijo
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2009-11-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0465020089

On the night of March 26, 1938, nuclear physicist Ettore Majorana boarded a ship, cash and passport in hand. He was never seen again. In A Brilliant Darkness, theoretical physicist Joao Magueijo tells the story of Majorana and his research group, "the Via Panisperna Boys," who discovered atomic fission in 1934. As Majorana, the most brilliant of the group, began to realize the implications of what they had found, he became increasingly unstable. Did he commit suicide that night in Palermo? Was he kidnapped? Did he stage his own death? A Brilliant Darkness chronicles Majorana's invaluable contributions to science -- including his major discovery, the Majorana neutrino -- while revealing the truth behind his fascinating and tragic life.

Scientific Papers of Ettore Majorana

Scientific Papers of Ettore Majorana
Author: Luisa Cifarelli
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-04-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783030235086

This book presents in full the work of the Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana and explains its impacts, which are still being felt. It opens with a contribution by A. Zichichi that considers in depth the scientific genius of Majorana. This introductory chapter is followed, in chronological order, by the eleven scientific papers by this great scientist, in most cases translated into English for the first time. Each paper is accompanied by a comment from an expert in the field in question. Although very few in number, Majorana's papers constitute a heritage of undeniable value and extraordinary scientific meaning, since they laid the foundations for research fields that remain topical today. With this in mind, two additional contributions on ongoing developments in these research fields are included: one on neutrino physics and the other on Majorana fermions in condensed matter. The volume closes with a note on Majorana's life until his ill-fated disappearance.

Ettore Majorana

Ettore Majorana
Author: Giuseppe-Franco Bassani
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2007-04-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3540480951

A century after his birth, Ettore Majorana is rightfully considered one of the greatest physicists of the first half of the last century. With this volume the Italian Physical Society presents a collection of Ettore Majorana's scientific papers in the original language and, for the first time -- with three exceptions -- translated into English. Each paper is then followed by a comment in English of an expert in the scientific field.

What Is Real?

What Is Real?
Author: Giorgio Agamben
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 58
Release: 2018-11-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1503607372

Eighty years ago, Ettore Majorana, a brilliant student of Enrico Fermi, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while going by ship from Palermo to Naples. How is it possible that the most talented physicist of his generation vanished without leaving a trace? It has long been speculated that Majorana decided to abandon physics, disappearing because he had precociously realized that nuclear fission would inevitably lead to the atomic bomb. This book advances a different hypothesis. Through a careful analysis of Majorana's article "The Value of Statistical Laws in Physics and Social Sciences," which shows how in quantum physics reality is dissolved into probability, and in dialogue with Simone Weil's considerations on the topic, Giorgio Agamben suggests that, by disappearing into thin air, Majorana turned his very person into an exemplary cipher of the status of the real in our probabilistic universe. In so doing, the physicist posed a question to science that is still awaiting an answer: What is Real?

Ettore Majorana: Notes on Theoretical Physics

Ettore Majorana: Notes on Theoretical Physics
Author: Salvatore Esposito
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 505
Release: 2013-03-09
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401701075

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, he wrote from CERN (July 18, 1965): "In January 1938, after having just graduated, I was invited, essen tially 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 /-L "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.

Majorana Case, The: Letters, Documents, Testimonies

Majorana Case, The: Letters, Documents, Testimonies
Author: Erasmo Recami
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2019-12-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811207038

'The Majorana Case is beautifully written, with a pleasant style, and concatenates a great deal of material. A text that could only be written by those who know the life and work of Ettore Majorana very well, as Prof Recami. The book traces the extraordinary life of Ettore Majorana — through his letters, documents and several testimonies from his friends and family members. What makes it more fascinating is that the author presented it also as a detective-story, by exploring his mysterious disappearance at young age. The personal testimonies also give to the book a welcome surplus. The Majorana Case, therefore, is both a pleasant biography and a mystery book.'Contemporary PhysicsEttore Majorana was born in the Sicilian city of Catania. He joined Enrico Fermi's 'Via Panisperna boys' at an early age and was part of the team who first discovered the slow neutrons (the research that would lead to the nuclear reactor and eventually, the atomic bomb). Enrico Fermi considered him one of brightest scientists, comparable to Galileo and Newton.On March 25, 1938, Ettore Majorana mysteriously disappeared at 31. When the author moved to the University of Catania, Sicily, from Milan University back in 1968, he soon discovered important documents pertaining to Majorana's life and works. Together with his own investigative materials and full cooperation from Majorana's family members, he published a book on his disappearance in Italian (after having helped the famous Italian writer, Leonardo Sciascia, to write down his known Essay, by supplying him with copy of some of the discovered documents). Recami's book was entitled Il Caso Majorana — Epistolario, Documenti, Testimonianze and when it first appeared in Italy, it drew interest from all the major newspapers, publications and TVs & broadcast media.Even after his disappearance, Ettore Majorana's name appeared in many areas of frontier physics research, ranging from elementary particle physics to applied condensed matter, to mathematical physics, and more. His long lasting contributions is a testimony of his brilliance and farsightedness and has continued to draw interest from scientists not only in Italy, but from all over world until today.An English version of the original is very appropriate at this juncture, when more and more scholars in the world are getting convinced that he was really a genius 'like Galileo and Newton'. This book traces the extraordinary life of Ettore Majorana — through his letters, documents and testimonies from his friends and family members. What makes this book more fascinating (as a detective-story too) is his mysterious disappearance at young age. This book, therefore, is both a biography and a mystery book.

The Physics of Ettore Majorana

The Physics of Ettore Majorana
Author: Salvatore Esposito
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2015
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1107044022

A unique volume exploring Majorana's work, for graduate students and researchers interested in the history of science.

Hadrons and Their Interactions

Hadrons and Their Interactions
Author: A Zichichi
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 737
Release: 2012-12-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0323142893

Hadrons and Their Interactions: Current and Field Algebra, Soft Pions, Supermultiplets, and Related Topics focuses on formulas, principles, and interactions involved in the study of physics. The compilation contains the papers presented at the ""Ettore Majorana,"" held in Erice on July 1-14, 1967. Divided into three parts with 22 chapters, the compilation focuses first on lectures on soft pions; the method of phenomenological lagrangians and algebra of fields; and radiative corrections to beta decay and the structure of hadrons. The second part focuses on seminars. The areas covered include a review of coherent production in strong interactions; spontaneous breakdown and the weak interaction angle; and the symmetries of the S-matrix. The concluding part also focuses on lectures, including lectures on the present status of the fundamental interactions; a pedagogical exercise in binning and resolution; and the pomeranchuk affair and twisting trajectories. The compilation is a valuable source of data for readers and physicists wanting to explore the interactions of hadrons.

Magnetic Fields

Magnetic Fields
Author: Heinz E. Knoepfel
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 643
Release: 2008-07-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3527617426

A unique resource for physicists and engineers working with magnetic fields An understanding of magnetic phenomena is essential for anyone working on the practical application of electromagnetic theory. Magnetic Fields: A Comprehensive Theoretical Treatise for Practical Use provides physicists and engineers with a thorough treatment of the magnetic aspects of classical electromagnetic theory, focusing on key issues and problems arising in the generation and application of magnetic fields. From magnetic potentials and diffusion phenomena to magnetohydrodynamics and properties of matter-topics are carefully selected for their relevance to the theoretical framework as well as current technologies. Outstanding in its organization, clarity, and scope, Magnetic Fields: * Examines a wide range of practical problems, from magnetomechanical devices to magnetic acceleration mechanisms * Opens each chapter with reference to pertinent engineering examples * Provides sufficient detail enabling readers to follow the derivation of the results * Discusses solution methods and their application to different problems * Includes more than 300 graphs, 40 tables, 2,000 numbered formulas, and extensive references to the professional literature * Reviews the essential mathematics in the appendices

Biomonitoring of Trace Aquatic Contaminants

Biomonitoring of Trace Aquatic Contaminants
Author: David J.H. Phillips
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 404
Release: 1994
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780412538506

Twenty years ago, researchers wishing to identify contaminated areas in aquatic environments generally took water samples, and analysed them badly (as we have since discovered) for a few "pollutants" which were of topical note at the time (and which could be quantified by the methods then available). Today, the use of aquatic organisms as biomonitors in preference to water analysis has become commonplace, and many national and interna tional programmes exist around the world involving such studies. We believe that this trend will continue, and have complete faith in the methodology (when it is employed correctly). We hope that the following text assists in some part in attaining this goal, such that the quality of our most basic global resource -water - is adequately protected in the future. DAVE PHILLIPS, PHIL RAINBOW England, March 1992 vii Acknowledgements Our thanks for contributions to this book are due to several individuals and groups, for varying reasons. Firstly, a co-authored book is always a triumph, and we trust that the following text is an acceptable compromise of the views of two individual authors, on a complex and developing topic. Secondly, many of the ideas herein have crystallised over the last two decades as the field has grown, and we are individually and collectively grateful to a number of researchers for their insight and assistance.