Ettore Majorana and his heritage seventy years later

TL;DR

This paper reviews Ettore Majorana's life and work, highlighting his contributions to physics and exploring recent historical and scientific research about his mysterious disappearance and scientific legacy.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of Majorana's scientific contributions beyond his famous concepts and summarizes recent research on his life and impact.

Findings

Majorana's work significantly influenced particle physics and condensed matter physics.

Recent studies have shed new light on his personal background and scientific legacy.

His mysterious disappearance remains a subject of ongoing historical investigation.

Abstract

The physicists working in several areas of research know quite well the name of Ettore Majorana, since it is currently associated to fundamental concepts like {\it Majorana neutrinos} in particle physics and cosmology or {\it Majorana fermions} in condensed matter physics. But, probably, very few is known about other substantial contributions of that ingenious scholar, and even less about his personal background. For non specialists, instead, the name of Ettore Majorana is usually intimately related to the fact that he disappeared rather mysteriously on March 26, 1938, just seventy years ago, and was never seen again. The life and the work of this Italian scientist is the object of the present review, which will also offer a summary of the main results achieved in recent times by the historical and scientific researches on his work.