The traceless disappearance of Ettore Majorana born 1906
The traceless disappearance of Ettore Majorana born 1906 in Catania disappeared March 26, 1938 Amand Faessler, Tuebingen Many of the Photos and letters shown are originally collected by Erasmo Recami from the Majorana family and other sources. They can be found in his book: „Il Caso Majorana. “ I want to thank Erasmo for the permission to use these documents.
Ettore Majorana „La Scomparsa di Majorana“ Bestseller; more than 600 000 copies sold. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Father, two sisters and Ettore Majorana Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana 5. 8. 1906 – 26. 3. 1938 Mathematical „Wunderkind“ from Catania During visits of friends in the family Ettore three to four years old war sitting under the table and multiplyed two three digit number or calculated the square root from such numbers. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana 5. 8. 1906 – 26. 3. 1938 1923 – 1928 studies ingeneering in Rome. 1929 - 1930 Enrico does his Ph. D. with Fermi in Rome about Theoretical Physics: „Quantum theory of the radioactive Nucleus“. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana Enrico Fermi With Fermi Majorana often did calculations in competition: Majorana in his head, the back to Fermi and Fermi with slide rule and paper. Normally Majorana did win. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana l l At the beginning of 1932 the neutron was detected: Majorana realizes that now one is able to build up the nuclei from protons and neutrons consistently. Fermi urges him to publish the idea or at least to go in summer to the Paris conference and report about it. Majorana refuses. Heisenberg publishes first that protons and neutrons can built the nuclei and introduces isospin. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana 1928 – 1938 Scientific Work: Contributions to Quantum Mechanics and Nuclear Physics 1933 Fellowship from the consiglio Nazionale delle Richerche to go to Heisenberg in Leipzig from January 20. till August. Publishes in Zeitschrift für Physik an article in Faessler: Ettore Majorana german with the title: „Über Amand die Kerntheorie“
Ettore Majorana 20. January till August 1933 in Leipzig Werner Heisenberg in Leipzig 32 years old Nobel-Price 1932 Plays with him chess and discusses about the nucleus and the nucleon-nucleon interaction. They like each other. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana 1. page of an article in ‚Zeitschrift für Physik 82‘ Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
1933 -1937: Ettore Majorana lives secluded in Rome 1933 – 1937 lived practically alone in an appartment of the Majorana family in Rome, curtains closed and only his physics friends send him somtimes a hair cutter. He publishes no paper. 1937 competition for three theoretical chairs short list: (Chairman of committee: Enriquo Fermi ) 1. Gian Carlo Wick (Palermo => Turino, +1992) 2. Giulio Racah (Pisa => Israel) 3. Giovanni Gentile (junior; Cagliari/Sardinia) Father Minister of Mussolini (Castelveterano) Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana Surprising application for a chairs by Ettore Majorana: „Chiara fama“ (due to the undoubtable good reputation) → Naples For the competition has to write an scientific article: „La Teorica simmetrica dell‘ electrone e del positrone“ Nuovo Cimento , Vol. 14, 1937, pp. 171 – 184. Electron different from Positron (Dirac Particle), but Ettore Majorana: Neutrino can be identical with antineutrino: Majorana Neutrino Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana in Naples Oct. 37 Script of the Lecture 25. 1. XVI Copy from Aldo Covello 25. Januar 1938 in Napels 26. März 1938 disappeared without a trace Ship: Napels→ Palermo → Napels ? ? Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Mussolini: October 1922, March to Rome Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana in Naples Oct. 37 Script of the Lecture 25. 1. XVI Copy from Aldo Covello 25. Januar 1938 in Napels 26. März 1938 disappeared without a trace Ship: Napels→ Palermo → Napels ? ? Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
The traceless Disappearance of Ettore Majorana l On March 25. Majorana draws from the bank all the money he has earned in Naples from October 1937 to February 1938 and which he did not touch before. The money was never found. l The nephew of Ettore living in Meran told me: „A Majorana must not work for his living. “ l On March 25. 1938 at 22. 30 h he boards the mail ship to Palermo and sleeps in a three person cabin. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Letter on March 25, 1938 Dear Carelli, I have made a decision which was unavoidable. In it is not the smallest grain of egoism, but I am aware of the problems which my surprising disappearance is for you and the students. I also ask you to forgive me that I disappoint your trust, your sensire friendship and the sympathy which you extended to me in the last months. I am asking you to bring me also to those in their memory, whom I got to know and to estimate in your Institute, especially Sciutti. Also I will keep them in my memory, at least till 11 o‘clock this evening and perhaps also later. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Farwell Letter to his Family from 25. April 1938 I have only one wish, that you do not dress in black. But if you want to follow customs, you can wear a sign of sorrow but not longer than three days. Later on remember me in your heart, if you can and forgive me. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Letter from Palermo on the stationary letter paper of the Hotel „Sole“ to the director Carelli of the Theoretical Institute in Naples. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Letter from March 26, 1938 -XVI on the stationary of the hotel „Sole“ in Palermo Dear Carelli, hopefully you have received the telegram and my letter at the same time. The sea has refused me and I will return tomorrow into the hotel „Bologna“. Perhaps I travel together with this letter. But I have the intension to give up teaching. Please, do not assume that I am a girl from a play of Ibsen, the case is different. For all details, I will be available to you. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Return from Palermo to Naples ? l l l The return ticket again for a three person cabin was given on the departure of the ship on the evening of March 26 th. in Palermo to the company. (by Majorana ? ? ? ) A cabin fellow, Prof. Strazzieri reports, that two additional persons were on return in the cabin: Majorana ? and an english man Carlo Price, who seemed to be uneducated and spoke sicilian dialect. He has seen the person (supposedly Majorana) still at 5 h in the morning on March 27 th. in his bed. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Return to Palermo on March 27 th. ? l l Letter of Prof. Strazzieri to the brother of Majorana: „If the third man was your brother, he could not have killed himself before the arrival in Palermo. “ A nurse, who did know Ettore Majorana, reports, that she has seen him before lunch on March 27 th. in a narrow street in Naples in his blue coat. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Investigations of the Police Ø Ø Ø On April 16. 1938 letter of Giovanni Gentile (from Castelveterano), professor of philosophy, former minister of education and culture, royal senatore (Senato del Regno) to the President of the Italian Police Bocchini to receive the brother of Ettore. (April 18. 1938) Erasmo Recami/Bergamo found three consecutive remarks written across the Majorana potfolio of the police department in Rome: Violett (Police President): Report urgently Green: Informe the police, that His Excellency (Police President) wants, that the invetigations are intensified. Blue (office of police president): Atti (Back to the documents) April 23. 1938. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Musolini and „Il Caso Majorana“. l l l Mussolini on petition of the mother and of Fermi looks in to the Majorana portfolio of the police: Additional note of Musolini on the first page: „I want, that he is found“. Below a note of the police president: „The deads are found, the living can disappear. “ Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
Rumours go around: l l l A beggar at a street corner in Marsalla is helping scholars with their mathematics. A prior of a monastery in Naples reports, that a man looking like Ettore asked before March 26. 1938, if he could join the monastery. (Majorana sees, that his work leads to the atomic bomb. ) Someone sees an entry into a hotel book in Buenos Aires with the name of Majorana. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
ETTORE! Your Mama and your sisters and brothers wait full urgence for a sign of you.
In the Monastery San Giovanni degli Erimiti in Palermo ? l Leonardo Sciascia in „The Disappearance of Ettore Majorana (La Scomparsa di Majorana)“ (Italian Bestseller with more than 600 000 sold copies. ). l At the end of the novel a friend of Sciascia goes to the monastery San Giovanni degli Erimiti in Palermo. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
San Giovanni degli Erimiti, Palermo Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
View into the Cemetery of San Giovanni degli Erimiti, Palermo. Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
In the Monastery San Giovanni degli Erimiti in Palermo ? The friend of Sciascia goes with a monk to the cemetery of the monastery San Giovanni degli Erimiti in Palermo with 30 little hills of soil and crosses without names. The monk: „A famous scientist lived in the monastery and is buried here. “ l The monk: „Ho dato risposta a tutti i vostri quesiti ? “. Sciascia‘s friend says: „Si“. THE END Amand Faessler: Ettore Majorana
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