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.

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.

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.

The Weak Interaction in Nuclear, Particle, and Astrophysics

The Weak Interaction in Nuclear, Particle, and Astrophysics
Author: K. Grotz
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2020-12-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000157334

This book provides insight into concept of the weak interaction and its integration into the conceptual structure of elementary particle physics. It exhibits the important role of the weak interaction in nuclear, particle and astrophysics together with the close connection between these areas.

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?

Particle Cosmology and Astrophysics

Particle Cosmology and Astrophysics
Author: Dan Hooper
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2024-05-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691235066

A graduate-level introduction to the interface between particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology This book explores the exciting interface between the fields of cosmology, high-energy astrophysics, and particle physics, at a level suitable for advanced undergraduate- to graduate-level students as well as active researchers. Without assuming a strong background in particle physics or quantum field theory, the text is designed to be accessible to readers from a range of backgrounds and presents both fundamentals and modern topics in a modular style that allows for flexible use and easy reference. It offers coverage of general relativity and the Friedmann equations, early universe thermodynamics, recombination and the cosmic microwave background, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the origin and detection of dark matter, the formation of large-scale structure, baryogenesis and leptogenesis, inflation, dark energy, cosmic rays, neutrino and gamma-ray astrophysics, supersymmetry, Grand Unified Theories, sterile neutrinos, and axions. The book also includes numerous worked examples and homework problems, many with solutions. Particle Cosmology and Astrophysics provides readers with an invaluable entrée to this cross-disciplinary area of research and discovery. Accessible to advanced undergraduate to graduate students, as well as researchers in cosmology, high-energy astrophysics, and particle physics Does not assume a strong background in particle physics or quantum field theory and contains two chapters specifically for readers with no background in particle physics Broad scope, covering many topics across particle physics, astrophysics, and particle cosmology Modular presentation for easy reference and flexible use Provides more than 200 homework problems, many with solutions Ideal for course use or self-study and reference

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.

Fundamentals of Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics

Fundamentals of Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics
Author: Carlo Giunti
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 727
Release: 2007-03-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0198508719

Our Universe is made of a dozen fundamental building blocks. Among these, neutrinos are the most mysterious - but they are the second most abundant particles in the Universe. This book provides detailed discussions of how to describe neutrinos, their basic properties, and the roles they play in nature.

Neutrino Physics - Proceedings Of Nobel Symposium 129

Neutrino Physics - Proceedings Of Nobel Symposium 129
Author: Lars Bergstrom
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2006-03-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9814478261

Nobel Symposium 129 on Neutrino Physics was held at Haga Slott in Enköping, Sweden during August 19-24, 2004. Invited to the symposium were around 40 globally leading researchers in the field of neutrino physics, both experimental and theoretical.The dominant theme of the lectures was neutrino oscillations, which after several years were recently verified by results from the Super-Kamiokande detector in Kamioka, Japan and the SNO detector in Sudbury, Canada. Discussion focused especially on effects of neutrino oscillations derived from the presence of matter and the fact that three different neutrinos exist. Since neutrino oscillations imply that neutrinos have mass, this is the first experimental observation that fundamentally deviates from the standard model of particle physics. This is a challenge to both theoretical and experimental physics. The various oscillation parameters will be determined with increased precision in new, specially designed experiments. Theoretical physics is working intensively to insert the knowledge that neutrinos have mass into the theoretical models that describe particle physics. The lectures provided a very good description of the intensive situation in the field right now. The topics discussed also included mass models for neutrinos, neutrinos in extra dimensions as well as the “seesaw mechanism,” which provides a good description of why neutrino masses are so small.This book is A4 size and in full color.

Dynamics of the Standard Model

Dynamics of the Standard Model
Author: John F. Donoghue
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 599
Release: 2023-01-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1009291009

This 2014 edition, now OA, provides a detailed and practical account of the Standard Model of particle physics.