E. Recami - Böcker

This work reveals the outstanding personality underlying Ettore Majorana's notes. A mixture of mathematical command, physics intuition and creative thought makes the Notes enjoyable for physicists of every discipline. The Notes are interesting for both graduate students and theoretical physics experts. In fact, the contents range from applied physics models, thorough fundamental atomic physics, to advanced group theory. The Notes have never been published and here they appear in the same format as organized by Ettore Majorana. The style is plain, proposed solutions to physics problems are original. These notes are intended as a series of fundamental physics themes treated by Ettore Majorana during the first "burning years" of the Panisperna Group, as the new deal of physics started in Rome around Enrico Fermi.

Without listing his works, all of which are highly notable both for the originality of the methods utilized as well as for the importance of the results achieved, we limit ourselves to the following: Inmodernnucleartheories, thecontributionmadebythisresearcher to the introduction of the forces called ‘Majorana forces’ is universally recognized as the one, among the most fundamental, that permits us to theoretically comprehend the reasons for nuclear stability. The work of Majorana today serves as a basis for the most important research in this ?eld. In atomic physics, the merit of having resolved some of the most - tricate questions on the structure of spectra through simple and elegant considerations of symmetry is due to Majorana. Lastly, he devised a brilliant method that permits us to treat the positive and negative electron in a symmetrical way, ?nally elimin- ing the necessity to rely on the extremely arti?cial and unsatisfactory hypothesis of an in?nitely large electrical charge di?used in space, a question that had been tackled in vain by many other scholars [4].

This book is unique, since it reveals the outstanding personality underlying Majorana's notes. An extraordinary mixture of mathematical command, physics intuition and creative thought makes the Notes enjoyable for physicists of every discipline. The Notes are interesting for both graduate students and theoretical physics experts. In fact, the contents range from applied physics models, thorough fundamental atomic physics, to advanced group theory. The Notes have never been published and here they appear in the same format as organized by Ettore Majorana. The style is plain, proposed solutions to physics problems are original. These notes are intended as a series of fundamental physics themes treated by Ettore Majorana during the first "burning years" of the Panisperna Group, as the new deal of physics started in Rome around Enrico Fermi.