Related papers: Complex and Unpredictable Cardano
After a quick historical account of the introduction of the group-theoretical description of Quantum Mechanics in terms of symmetries, as proposed by Weyl, we examine some unpublished papers by Ettore Majorana. Remarkable results achieved…
Aim of this paper is to retrace the path that led the young Enrico Fermi to write his paper on the statistics of an ideal monatomic gas. This discovery originated in his interest, which he had shown since his formative years, in the…
This is a brief, popular (non-technical) introduction (in Italian language) to the problem of quantum gravity, to the recent perspective of emergent spacetime and to its (potential) realization in the context of group field theories, in…
Recent tremendous development of quantum information theory led to a number of quantum technological projects, e.g., quantum random generators. This development stimulates a new wave of interest in quantum foundations. One of the most…
We give an account of the appearance and first developments of the statistical model of atoms proposed by Thomas and Fermi, focusing on the main results achieved by Fermi and his group in Rome. Particular attention is addressed to the…
On 14 December 1900 Max Planck first formulated the idea of energy quanta related to a new universal constant now known as Planck's constant. Despite the following progress of thus initiated "quantum mechanics", the physical origin of both…
It is often stated that complex numbers are essential in quantum theory. In this article, the need for complex numbers in quantum theory is motivated using the results of tandem Stern-Gerlach experiments
Dynamical triangulations of four-dimensional Euclidean quantum gravity give rise to an interesting, numerically accessible model of quantum gravity. We give a simple introduction to the model and discuss two particularly important issues.…
The last century saw dramatic challenges to the Laplacian predictability which had underpinned scientific research for around 300 years. Basic to this was Alan Turing's 1936 discovery (along with Alonzo Church) of the existence of…
Universality of the weak interactions is reviewed, with special emphasis on the origin of the Cabibbo theory of strange particles beta-decays and its role in the discovery of the unified Electroweak Theory. Achievements and present…
Complex numbers are an intrinsic part of the mathematical formalism of quantum theory, and are perhaps its most mysterious feature. In this paper, we show that the complex nature of the quantum formalism can be derived directly from the…
150 years after the discovery of quaternions, Hamilton's conjecture that quaternions are a fundamental language for physics is reevaluated and shown to be essentially correct, provided one admits complex numbers in both classical and…
Finding exponential separation between quantum and classical information tasks is like striking gold in quantum information research. Such an advantage is believed to hold for quantum computing but is proven for quantum communication…
The evolution of Physics between the second half of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century is presented coupling art and science, in the framework of Ferrara. The main characters are Giuseppe Bongiovanni, Professor of…
One of the great pleasures of working with Imre Leader is to experience his infectious delight on encountering a compelling combinatorial problem. This collection of open problems in combinatorics has been put together by a subset of his…
Fermi helped establish a new framework for understanding matter, based on quantum theory. This framework refines and improves traditional atomism in two crucial respects. First, the elementary constituents of matter belong to a very small…
We aim to apply a quantum computing technique to compose artworks. The main idea is to revisit three paintings of different styles and historical periods: ''Narciso'', painted circa 1597-1599 by Michelangelo Merisi (Caravaggio), ''Les fils…
Envisioned by Richard Feynman in the early 1980s, quantum simulation has received dramatic impetus thanks to the development of a variety of plateforms able to emulate a wide class of quantum Hamiltonians. During the past decade, most of…
This article is a summary of a talk about Richard Feynman, given at a conference Polymaths across the Eras organized in November 2023 by the St Cross Centre for the History and Philosophy of Physics (HAPP) in Oxford. It describes Feynman as…
Turing's (1936) paper on computable numbers has played its role in underpinning different perspectives on the world of information. On the one hand, it encourages a digital ontology, with a perceived flatness of computational structure…