Nuclear and subnuclear physics in Italy in the second half of the 20th century

• Autores: Luca Malagoli
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 763-771
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Before World War II, two departments were principally active in Italy, known in all the world: Arcetri (near Florence) and Rome. The promulgation of racial laws (1938) and the worsening of work condition caused the departure of most of the best know Italian physicists.

    During WW II the remaining part of ex Fermi’s group took a very important decision for their future: to avoid any involvement in the war, they left off the nuclear physics studies. They preferred to move towards different fields of research, in which the costs were at stake for a hard knocking Nation from the war.

    The years immediatly after WW II were characterized, in Italy, by a very difficult reorganization, also in the fields of physics. The work of reconstruction of Italian physics was undertaken by members of the two principal groups of research presented before the war. In particular, it’s right to give attention to Amaldi (Fermi’s group) and Bernardini (Arcetri’s school); with which a large number of important physicists worked to get ahead to the rebuilding operations.

    The availability of some departments with a good level of research was fundamental to continue in the rebuilding works, together with the help of a research institute, the INFN, placed over all the country.

    In particle physics, the Italian contribution took place in Frascati’s Laboratory building, where there were established an electrosynctrotron –a prototype for more collider generations– and the AdA’s accelerator with its follower Adone; in the participation to CERN’s building; and in the building of a laboratory in Legnaro, Catania and Gran Sasso.

    The winning of the Nobel Prize by Rubbia (1984) for the discovery of the boson vector W e Z 0 represented the peak of the Italian contribution to particle physics. On theoretical aspects, the main results were Puppi’s triangle, the introduction of Cabibbo’s angle, and the fourth quarks by Maiani (with Glashow and Iliopoulos).