Related papers: Fermi, Majorana and the statistical model of atoms
Ettore Majorana proposed an important improvement to the Thomas-Fermi statistical model for atoms, with a communication at the general meeting of the Italian Physical Society, held in Rome, on December 29th, 1928, regularly published on…
We comment on a recent paper announcing the discovery of a previously unknown publication of Ettore Majorana on the Thomas-Fermi atomic model. In pointing out that such a publication was not written by Majorana, we correct some…
We report on theoretical courses by Fermi and Majorana, giving evidence of the first appearance and further development of Quantum Mechanics teaching in Italy. On the basis of original documents, we make a comparison between Fermi's and…
Majorana found a way to exploit the scaling properties of the Thomas-Fermi equation for converting this second-order differential equation into one of first order. We explore his method for the familiar neutral-atom solution and extend it…
We outline Fermi's early attitude towards old quantum physics. We sketch out the context from which his interest for quantum physics arose, and we deal with his work on quantum statistics. We also go through the first two courses on…
In the centennial of Ettore Majorana's birth (1906-1938?), we re-examine some aspects of his fundamental scientific production in atomic and molecular physics, including a not well known short communication. There, Majorana critically…
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…
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 review is based on lectures given by M. J. Duff summarising the far reaching contributions of Ettore Majorana to fundamental physics, with special focus on Majorana fermions in all their guises. The theoretical discovery of the…
A complete theoretical model describing artificial disintegration of nuclei by bombardment with alpha-particles, developed by Majorana as early as in 1930, is discussed in detail alongside the basic experimental evidences that motivated it.…
This year is the centenary of the birth of Ettore Majorana, one of the major Italian physicists of all times. In this note we briefly sketch a few biographical details about Ettore Majorana and introduce and discuss the main points of…
We study the classical and quantum dynamics of a Fermi accelerator realized by an atom bouncing off a modulated atomic mirror. We find that in a window of the modulation amplitude dynamical localization occurs in both position and momentum.…
We retrace the first steps towards understanding neutrinos, particles predicted by Pauli in 1930 to avoid a supposed violation of time-translation symmetry. Despite the tendency to reduce the whole story to his intuition and the skill of…
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:…
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…
This agile small "book" (in Italian) is an introduction to the life and work of Ettore Majorana, the brightest Italian theoretical physicist of the XX century, regarded by Enrico Fermi as the best theoretician of his time in the world. It…
The Standard Model is an up-to-date theory that best summarizes current knowledge in particle physics. Although some problems still remain open, it represents the leading model which all physicists refer to. One of the pillars which…
A complete history of early atomic models would fill volumes, but a reasonably coherent tale of the path from mechanical atoms to the quantum can be told by focusing on the relevant work of three great contributors to atomic physics, in the…
We analyse the solution to the Thomas-Fermi equation discovered by Majorana. We show that the series for the slope at origin enables one to obtain results of accuracy far beyond those provided by available methods. We also estimate the…
We review the introduction in physics of the concepts of an elementary space length and of a fundamental time scale, analyzing some related unknown contributions by Ettore Majorana. In particular, we discuss the quasi-Coulombian scattering…