Title

The Reappearance of a Genius: Ettore Majorana, His Life and Works

Abstract

Born in Sicily, Italy in 1906, Ettore Majorana was one of the most important scientists in the XX century; the Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi – his mentor – held him to have been a genius of the rank of Galilei and Newton. And, indeed, his name appears repeatedly today in many different areas of science, including physics, mathematics, computer science, and even economics, and this is due to his unprecedented farsightedness in studying a number of different topics, notwithstanding he was barely a reluctant scientist, with just a handful of published papers. Majorana’s fame, however, is also indissolubly related to his mysterious disappearance from Naples in 1938, when he was still 31 years old. Despite several conjectures about his fate – including suicide, a retreat in a monastery and a flight to a foreign country – and the uninterrupted search for a reason for such a dramatic decision – ranging from personal and familiar, to nice literary tales –, nothing certain has emerged during the years about his disappearance. Also for this reason, since many years the “Majorana case” overstepped the boundaries of science, and imposed itself as a social case too. Indeed, a number of papers, books, comics, theatrical and cinematographic representations, etc. invaded the world market, not always by proper means, and the “case” repeatedly interested mass and social media. After a biographical sketch of the Italian scientist, I will present just such a case, letting the audience to appreciate how advanced and profound is the (published and unpublished) work by one of the giants of the XX century.

References

• Di Grezia E, Esposito S (2004) Fermi, Majorana and the statistical model of atoms. Foundations of Physics 34:1431-1450
• Di Mauro M, Esposito S, Naddeo A (2016) Majorana and the theoretical problem of electron-photon scattering. Advances in Historical Studies 5:113-125
• Drago A, Esposito S (2004) Following weyl on quantum mechanics: the contribution of Ettore Majorana. Foundations of Physics 34:871-887
• Drago A, Esposito S (2007) Ettore Majorana's course on theoretical physics: a recent discovery. Physics in perspective 9:329-345
• Esposito S (2002). Majorana solution of the Thomas-Fermi equation. American Journal of Physics 70:852-856
• Esposito S (2006) Ettore Majorana: Lezioni di Fisica Teorica. Bibliopolis, Naples.
• Esposito S (2006) A peculiar lecture by Ettore Majorana. European Journal of Physics 27:1147-1156
• Esposito S (2006) Majorana and the path-integral approach to quantum mechanics. Annales de la Fondation Louis de Broglie 31:1-19
• Esposito S (2007) Hole theory and quantum electrodynamics in an unknown manuscript in french by Ettore Majorana. Foundations of Physics 37:956-976
• Esposito S (2007) An unknown story: Majorana and the Pauli-Weisskopf scalar electrodynamics. Annalen der Physik 16:824-841
• Esposito S (2008) Majorana and the quasi-stationary states in nuclear physics. Foundations of Physics 38:228-240
• Esposito S (2009) A theory of ferromagnetism by Ettore Majorana. Annals of Physics 324:16-29
• Esposito S (2010) Fundamental times, lengths and physical constants: some unknown contributions by Ettore Majorana. Annalen der Physik 522:456-466
• Esposito S (2010) The disappearance of Ettore Majorana: an analytic examination. Contemporary Physics 51:193-209
• Esposito S (2012) Searching for an equation: Dirac, Majorana and the others. Annals of Physics 327:1617-1644
• Esposito S (2014) The physics of Ettore Majorana - Phenomenological, theoretical and mathematical. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Esposito S (2017) Ettore Majorana - Unveiled genius and endless mysteries. Springer, Heidelberg
• Esposito S, Naddeo A (2012) Majorana solutions to the two-electron problem. Foundations of Physics 42:1586-1608
• Esposito S, Naddeo A (2015) Majorana, Pauling and the quantum theory of the chemical bond. Annalen der Physik 527:A29-A33
• Esposito S, Naddeo A (2015) Homopolar bond and ionic structures: two contributions by Majorana. Annales de la Fondation Louis de Broglie 40:157-179
• Esposito S, Majorana E, van der Merwe A, Recami E (2003) Ettore Majorana: Notes on Theoretical Physics. Kluwer, New York.
• Esposito S, Recami E, van der Merwe A, Battiston R (2008) Ettore Majorana: Unpublished research notes on Theoretical Physics. Springer, Heidelberg

Contact

• salvatore.esposito@na.infn.it