International scientific cooperation during the 1930s. Bruno Rossi and the development of the status of cosmic rays into a branch of physics

TL;DR

During the 1930s, Bruno Rossi's international collaborations and exchanges significantly advanced cosmic ray research, transforming it into a key branch of modern physics amid a period of institutionalized scientific cooperation.

Contribution

The paper highlights Rossi's role in establishing cosmic rays as a branch of physics through international cooperation and personal relationships with leading scientists of the era.

Findings

Rossi's collaborations facilitated knowledge exchange in cosmic ray research.

Cosmic ray studies contributed to the development of particle physics.

International cooperation was crucial during the 1930s for physics advancements.

Abstract

During the 1920s and 1930s, Italian physicists established strong relationships with scientists from other European countries and the United States. The career of Bruno Rossi, a leading personality in the study of cosmic rays and an Italian pioneer of this field of research, provides a prominent example of this kind of international cooperation. Physics underwent major changes during these turbulent years, and the traditional internationalism of physics assumed a more institutionalised character. Against this backdrop, Rossi's early work was crucial in transforming the study of cosmic rays into a branch of modern physics. His friendly relationships with eminent scientists -notably Enrico Fermi, Walther Bothe, Werner Heisenberg, Hans Bethe, and Homi Bhabha- were instrumental both for the exchange of knowledge about experimental practises and theoretical discussions, and for attracting the attention of physicists such as Arthur Compton, Louis Leprince-Ringuet, Pierre Auger and Patrick Blackett to the problem of cosmic rays. Relying on material from different archives in Europe and United States, this case study aims to provide a glimpse of the intersection between national and international dimensions during the 1930s, at a time when the study of cosmic rays was still very much in its infancy, strongly interlaced with nuclear physics, and full of uncertain, contradictory, and puzzling results. Nevertheless, as a source of high-energy particles it became a proving ground for testing the validity of the laws of quantum electrodynamics, and made a fundamental contribution to the origins of particle physics.