A brief history of Florentine physics from the 1920s to the end of the 1960s

TL;DR

This paper traces the development of the Institute of Physics at the University of Florence from 1913 to the 1960s, highlighting key figures, research fields, and historical challenges faced by the institution.

Contribution

It provides a detailed historical account of the evolution of Florentine physics, emphasizing the formation of a significant scientific community and the development of theoretical physics in Italy.

Findings

Formation of a prominent physics school at Arcetri

Transition from experimental to theoretical physics post-1950s

Impact of historical events on scientific development

Abstract

The history of the Institute of Physics at the University of Florence is traced from the beginning of the 20th century, with the arrival of Antonio Garbasso as Director (1913), to the 1960s. Thanks to Garbasso's expertise, not only did the Institute gain new premises on Arcetri hill, where the Astronomical Observatory was already located, but it also formed a brilliant group of young physicists made up of Enrico Fermi, Franco Rasetti, Enrico Persico, Bruno Rossi, Gilberto Bernardini, Daria Bocciarelli, Lorenzo Emo Capodilista, Giuseppe Occhialini and Giulio Racah, who were engaged in the emerging fields of Quantum Mechanics and Cosmic Rays. This Arcetri School disintegrated in the late 1930s for the transfer of its protagonists to chairs in other universities, for the environment created by the fascist regime and, to some extent, for the racial laws. After the war, the legacy was taken up by some students of this school who formed research groups in the field of nuclear physics and elementary particle physics. As far as theoretical physics was concerned, after the Fermi and Persico periods these studies enjoyed a new expansion towards the end of the 1950s, with the arrival of Giacomo Morpurgo and above all, that of Raoul Gatto, who created the first real Italian school of Theoretical Physics at Arcetri.