Related papers: Women in Physics in Fermi's Time
The recognition that physical space (or space-time) is curved is a product of the general theory of relativity, such as dramatically shown by the 1919 solar eclipse measurements. However, the mathematical possibility of non-Euclidean…
Fermi's Golden Rule (FGR) is one of the most impactful formulas in quantum mechanics, providing a link between easy-to-measure observables - such as transition rates - and fundamental microscopic properties - such as density of states or…
The reform of the upper secondary school in Italy has recently introduced physics in the curricula of professional schools, in realities where it was previously absent. Many teachers, often with a temporary position, are obliged to teaching…
Gravity plays an important part in the experiments and discoveries of the modern world. But how was it discovered? Surely Newton and Einstein were not the only people to observe it and account for it. It had been a long path before the full…
A brief review of Heisenberg's life and work: participating in the youth movement in the aftermath of World War I, creating quantum mechanics, conflict with "deutsche Physik", involvement in "Hitler's Uranium Project", last illusions.…
Why is modern physics still today, more than 100 years after its birth, the privilege of an elite of scientists and unknown for the great majority of citizens? The answer is simple, since modern physics is in general not present in the…
Since 1984 INFN scientists performing experiments at Fermilab have been running a two month summer training program for Italian students at the lab. In 1984 the program involved only a few physics students from the Pisa group, but it was…
We have carried out a partial survey on the female participation in events organized by the Brazilian Physical Society (SBF, in Portuguese) from 2005 to 2021. Our analysis shows that the participation of women has increased over the years,…
Contributed paper to the Conference "Francesco's Legacy: Star Formation in Space and Time", in memory of Francesco Palla (1954-2016), held in Florence, June 5-9, 2017
The Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope, launched in 2008, has over 16 years of operations providing gamma ray (8 keV to 300 Gev) spectra science observations of cosmic phenomena. It continues to provide invaluable research for the astrophysics…
The esteemed physicist Erwin Schroedinger, whose name is associated with the most notorious equation of quantum mechanics, also wrote a brief essay entitled 'What is Life?', asking: 'How can the events in space and time which take place…
An english translation of the original work of Enrico Fermi on the quantization of the monoatomic ideal gas, is given in this paper. Fermi introduced here for the first time the statistical law obeyed by most of the particles in nature:…
In the Italian education system, secondary students (ages 14-19) are confronted with the foundations of quantum physics during the final term of scientific high school (pre-university year). The Italian Ministry of Education, University and…
A quantum mechanical wave of a finite size moves like a classical particle and shows a unique decay probability. Because the wave function evolves according to the Schr\"{o}dinger equation, it preserves the total energy but not the kinetic…
In these shorts notes I want to remembermy relationship with GianCarlo Ghirardi, who was my supervisor in my Master Degree in Physics at the University of Trieste and then he became a very deep and close friend. I don't want to describe in…
Ettore Majorana contributed several ideas that have had significant, lasting impact in condensed matter physics, broadly construed. Here I will discuss, from a modern perspective, four important topics that have deep roots in Majorana's…
K. Alex M\"uller started his scientific career in 1958 when he was about thirty-one years old. After his wife passed away and being in his nineties, his interest in physics gradually faded. In those years shortly before he passed away, on…
We derive an equation for the evolution of the number density of a massive particle species in the early Universe, which correctly accounts for the Fermi-Dirac (FD) statistics. The FD-corrections are sizable and potentially important if the…
In highly conducting astrophysical plasmas, charged particles are generically accelerated through Fermi-type processes involving repeated interactions with moving magnetized scattering centers. The present paper proposes a generalized…
J{\'e}r{\^o}me Lalande, a famous French astronomer in the 18th century, collaborated throughout his career with several female calculators in astronomy: Nicole Reine Lepaute, Marie Louise Dupi{\'e}ry and Marie Jeanne Lefran{\c c}ois. Taking…