Related papers: Ettore Majorana's course on Theoretical Physics: a…
Realizing topological superconductivity and Majorana zero modes in the laboratory is one of the major goals in condensed matter physics. We review the current status of this rapidly-developing field, focusing on semiconductor-superconductor…
This paper has been withdrawn. An extended version of this work can be found in E. Cappelluti, C. Grimaldi, L. Pietronero, S. Straessler: Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4771 (2000) [cond-mat/0105560] and E. Cappelluti, C. Grimaldi, L. Pietronero, S.…
The electric dipole moment of the electron, $d_e$, is known to vanish up to thre e-loops in the standard model with massless neutrinos. However, if neutrinos are massive Majorana particles, we obtain the result that $d_e$ induced by…
After a fascinating phase of discoveries, neutrino physics still has a few mysteries such as the absolute mass scale, the mass hierarchy, the existence of CP violation in the lepton sector and the existence of right-handed neutrinos. It is…
A detailed re-examination of the seminal paper on special relativity, taking into account recent work on the physical interpretation of the space-time Lorentz transformation as well as the modern understanding of classical elecromagnetism…
The term 'neutrinoless' is a cornerstone of modern particle physics, yet it defines a fundamental process by what is missing rather than what is created. We trace the origins of this privative neologism to a 1953 experimental claim and show…
Present limits on neutrino masses are briefly reviewed, along with cosmological and astrophysical hints from dark matter, solar and atmospheric neutrino observations that suggest neutrino masses. These would imply many possible new…
Twenty years ago, in October 1990, I found myself attending a workshop on Theoretical Physics in Chernomorka (Ukraine) intended only for Soviet physicists. That trip to the USSR/CCCP as well as the preceding months at CERN were highly…
Whether there exist elementary particles having Majorana nature is one the fundamental open question that has persisted since the 1930s. The only practical experiments to test the Majorana nature of neutrinos is the search for neutrinoless…
A novel method to differentiate the effects of Dirac and Majorana (D-M) neutrinos in four-body decays has been discussed in arXiv:2106.11785. There, it is concluded that the back-to-back kinematic scenario seems to avoid the constraint…
I observe that, as the physics side of the OPERA-anomaly story is apparently unfolding, there can still be motivation for philosophy of science to analyze the six months of madness physicists spent chasing the dream of a new…
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…
The Milanese period in Albert Einstein's life is a key one for the understanding of the development of his scientific questioning. While being a student in Z\"urich from 1896, Einstein returned regularly to Milan to meet his family for the…
The present informal set of notes covers the material that has been presented by the author in a series of lectures for the Doctoral School in Mathematics of the Southern Federal State University of Rostov-on-Don in the Fall of 2020 and…
We study the decay of heavy sterile Majorana neutrinos according to the interactions obtained from an effective general theory. We describe the two and three-body decays for a wide range of neutrino masses. The results obtained and…
We present a pedagogical review of neutrino physics. In the first lecture we describe the theoretical motivation for neutrino masses, and explain how neutrino flavor oscillation experiments can probe neutrino masses. In the second lecture…
A slightly revised version of notes distributed during a short course on GPTs, given at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in March and April of 2024.
This is the text of the lecture given by the author in Naples at "Giornata IndAM", June 7, 2005. The lecture is addressed at the general mathematical audience and reviews several topics in deformation theory of associative algebras.
Known or essentially known results about duals of interpolation spaces are presented, taking a point of view sometimes slightly different from the usual one. Particular emphasis is placed on Alberto Calderon's theorem describing the duals…
What is sometimes called the "totalitarian principle," a metaphysical doctrine often associated with the famous physicist Murray Gell-Mann, states that everything allowed by the laws of nature must actually exist. The principle is closely…