Ettore Majorana: his work and his life

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of Ettore Majorana's scientific contributions, unpublished manuscripts, and biographical details, highlighting his significance in theoretical physics and his mysterious disappearance.

Contribution

It offers an extensive synthesis of Majorana's scientific work, unpublished manuscripts, and biographical information, combining historical and scientific perspectives for the first time.

Findings

Majorana was regarded as one of the brightest physicists of the 20th century.

His unpublished manuscripts reveal deep insights into theoretical physics.

Biographical data are compiled from decades of research and testimonies.

Abstract

In this paper we present a panoramic view of the main scientific articles published by Ettore Majorana, the brightest Italian theoretical physicist of the XX century (actually, Enrico Fermi regarded him as the brighest in the world of his time, and compared him to Galileo and Newton; even if to some people Majorana is often known mainly for his mysterious disappearance in 1938, when he was 31). Extensive information and comments are added with regard to the scientific manuscripts left unpublished by him. We also outline his life, the biographical data being based on letters, documents, testimonies discovered or collected by the author during more than four decades, and contained for instance in Recami's 1987 book quoted in the text. Two pictures complete the paper.