Majorana: From Atomic and Molecular, to Nuclear Physics [Book Review]

Foundations of Physics 36 (10):1554-1572 (2006)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

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 discusses Fermi’s solution of the celebrated Thomas–Fermi equation for electron screening in atoms and positive ions. We argue that some of Majorana’s seminal contributions in molecular physics already prelude to the idea of exchange interactions (or Heisenberg–Majorana forces) in his later works on theoretical nuclear physics. In all his papers, he tended to emphasize the symmetries at the basis of a physical problem, as well as the limitations, rather than the advantages, of the approximations of the method employed

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Fermi, Majorana and the Statistical Model of Atoms.E. Di Grezia & S. Esposito - 2004 - Foundations of Physics 34 (9):1431-1450.
Majorana Solutions to the Two-Electron Problem.S. Esposito & A. Naddeo - 2012 - Foundations of Physics 42 (12):1586-1608.
Covariant Majorana Formulation of Electrodynamics.Salvatore Esposito - 1998 - Foundations of Physics 28 (2):231-244.
The history of the discovery of nuclear fission.Jack E. Fergusson - 2011 - Foundations of Chemistry 13 (2):145-166.
Fermi-Ferretti problem and signal velocity.M. Shirokov - 1981 - Foundations of Physics 11 (1-2):21-36.
Unpublished correspondence of majorana, Ettore to Gentile, Giovanni.B. Gentile - 1988 - Giornale Critico Della Filosofia Italiana 8 (2):145-153.
Geometrical properties of the Fermi energy.Richard L. Liboff - 1985 - Foundations of Physics 15 (3):339-352.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-11-22

Downloads
53 (#268,501)

6 months
1 (#1,042,085)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Majorana Solutions to the Two-Electron Problem.S. Esposito & A. Naddeo - 2012 - Foundations of Physics 42 (12):1586-1608.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Collected Papers.Colin McGinn - 1988 - Philosophical Review 97 (2):278.
Fermi, Majorana and the Statistical Model of Atoms.E. Di Grezia & S. Esposito - 2004 - Foundations of Physics 34 (9):1431-1450.

Add more references