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Giovanni Gentile Junior. Physics as an Intellectual and Spiritual Adventure

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The Milan Institute of Physics

Part of the book series: History of Physics ((HIPHY))

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Abstract

In 1936, the arrival of the young theoretical physicist Giovanni Gentile Jr. at the Institute of Physics of Milan University directed by Giovanni Polvani, opened novel horizons both in terms of the choice of research topics in the field of modern physics and of modernization of teaching. Gentile’s solid education at the Pisan school of physics and mathematics in the 1920s and his relationships with Fermi’s school in Rome and later with the great German school of theoretical physics through Schrödinger, London, Heisenberg and Sommerfeld, as well as his special friendship with Ettore Majorana, became the premises on which to build a stimulating research environment with the consequent formation of a new generation of theorists in contact with the international scientific community. The unique partnership between Polvani and Gentile, rooted in a deep human, cultural and scientific affinity, immediately resulted in an effective revitalizing impulse both for the Milan Institute of Physics and for Gentile Jr.’s personal research path. Despite his brief passage in Milan—barely five years before his premature death in 1942—Gentile planted a few seeds of renewal that flourished after the war, contributing to the rebirth and revival of Italian physics almost destroyed by Mussolini’s racial laws and the dramatic consequences of the war.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an in depth discussion of the very special relationship between Giovanni Gentile Junior and his father see the beautiful contribution written by Gabriele Turi [6]. See also Roberto Maiocchi’s biographical entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani [7].

  2. 2.

    Both Majorana and Gentile had in their personal libraries the first editions of the books by Hermann Weyl (Gruppentheorie und Quantenmechanik, 1928) and Eugene Wigner (Gruppentheorie und ihre Anwendung auf die Quantenmechanik der Atomspektren, 1931) as well as Luigi Bianchi’s Lessons on the theory of finite continuous groups of transformations, Andreas Speiser’s Theorie der Gruppen von Endlicher Ordnung and Bartel van der Waerden’s Die Gruppentheoretische Metode in der Quantenmechanik. Majorana’s investigations on group theory are largely present in his personal papers, preserved in his personal papers at Domus Galilaeana in Pisa. On Majorana and Gentile’s interest in group theory see [16]. See also [17] for the onset of group theory in the new quantum mechanics.

  3. 3.

    As mentioned in Majorana’s letter to Gentile of 22 December 1929 (G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1) a copy of his dissertation was requested by Johann Kudar, then in Berlin: “As soon as I will have confirmation of your new address, I will send you some of the well-known works of Fermi, as well as, for necessary deference to the desire expressed by the illustrious Kudar, the only copy in my possession of my dissertation.” And actually, starting from January 1929, Kudar published a series of articles discussing the connection between quantum mechanics and radioactive decay, topics that were very close to Majorana’s dissertation. A copy of Majorana’s dissertation can be found in Gentile’s papers, Box 7.

  4. 4.

    The last published work during his stay in Pisa is Sopra la teoria della Rimanenza e della curva di Magnetizzazione, submitted in December 1933, but of course it was related to research work arising from Heisenberg’s deep interest in ferromagnetism [22].

  5. 5.

    Nevertheless, Majorana continued to pursue his research interests and every year proposed free courses at the University of Rome submitting extremely advanced programs, but without any outcome [25]. Moreover, he was never offered any academic position during this period [24].

  6. 6.

    Curriculum Vitae, G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1.

  7. 7.

    In this regard, see also [27]. Gentile’s deep interest and involvement in reflecting on the epistemological and scientific implications raised by the theories that had profoundly revolutionized physics from the beginning of the twentieth century, were discussed by Maiocchi in the biographical entry dedicated to Gentile [7].

  8. 8.

    In the hapter on magnetic moments and vector model of the atom, Gentile introduces the fundamental concepts of reducible and irreducible representations of a group, concepts which are then used for the determination of the group representations of rotations and infinitesimal rotations and the selection rules for spectral emission. At that time no theoretical physics course included this kind of teaching.

  9. 9.

    G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1.

  10. 10.

    From the text of the speech given by Polvani for the inauguration of the new seat of the Institute of Physics on 10 February 1964 [30, p. 38].

  11. 11.

    Gentile to Vincenza Bartalini, 2 and 22 February 1938. All excerpts from the letters to Nani, still kept by the family, are reproduced with kind permission of Alessandra Gentile.

  12. 12.

    He was helped by his student Piera Pinto, who would later marry her fellow student Carlo Salvetti.

  13. 13.

    C. Salvetti, interview by L. Bonolis, Rome, 18 July 2002.

  14. 14.

    C. Salvetti, interview by L. Bonolis, Rome, 18 July 2002.

  15. 15.

    Due to his early death in March 1942, when the first volume of Questioni di Fisica was nearly ready, Gentile was unfortunately unable to complete his project himself and the first volume was published by Sansoni after the war, edited by Bernardini and Polvani [33]. For this collection of essays Gentile had secured the collaboration of leading Italian physicists. Related papers and correspondence are in G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1.

  16. 16.

    Gentile helped Polvani to write an historical essay on the Italian contribution to physics during the years 1839–1939 [34]. See also, for example an unpublished manuscript on the evolution of the energy concept in its different aspects written with Vanna Tongiorgi, who later married Cocconi and was his collaborator in cosmic-ray studies (G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 4).

  17. 17.

    G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1.

  18. 18.

    Gentile had been also asked at the time to write Sommerfeld’s biographical entry for the Enciclopedia Italiana (G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1).

  19. 19.

    Giovanni Polvani, who had this article reprinted in Il Nuovo Cimento after the author’s death [36], paid great attention to it in his account of Gentile’s scientific career.

  20. 20.

    Brief undated note (Giovanni Gentile Foundation for Philosophical Studies, Archive, Sapienza University, Rome).

  21. 21.

    Majorana to Gentile, 25 August 1937 (G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1).

  22. 22.

    Giovanni Gentile Foundation for Philosophical Studies, Archive, Sapienza University, Rome.

  23. 23.

    For details on the competition see [37].

  24. 24.

    Such personal correspondence is kept by the family.

  25. 25.

    Both contain a post-script related to Heisenberg’s work on similar topics that Gentile had discussed in June 1938. See also his article in Scientia [40] as well as his Preface and Appendix to the Italian translation of Jordan’s book on twentieth century physics published by Sansoni [41].

  26. 26.

    For a wide discussion on such issues see Galison’s article [42].

  27. 27.

    G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1.

  28. 28.

    Gentile to Nani, 22 February and 3rd March 1938 (family papers).

  29. 29.

    Majorana to Gentile, 2 March 1938 (G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1).

  30. 30.

    G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1.

  31. 31.

    Gentile to Nani, 18–19 November and 1st December (family papers).

  32. 32.

    C. Salvetti, interview by L. Bonolis, Rome, 18 July 2002.

  33. 33.

    See for example Elisa Bonauguri’s dissertation on the vector model of the atom, discussing the properties of the group of rotations as an expression of the spherical symmetry of the electron cloud, part of which was published in 1939 [44]. See also Gentile’s article on the same topic [45]. After Gentile’s death, in order to honor the memory of her teacher and his inspiring guide, Teresa Magri Materossi published part of her dissertation discussed in 1941 with the title The problems of Lecher wires or propagation of electromagnetic waves along parallel wires, in a special issue of Il Nuovo Cimento dedicated to Gentile [46].

  34. 34.

    Somenzi’s work, inspired by Gentile, was related to a theory on superconductivity formulated by Sommerfeld’s collaborator Heinrich Welker [47, 48]. Somenzi’s personal papers are preserved at the Physics Department of Sapienza University of Rome.

  35. 35.

    The title was Il metodo dell’amplificatore proporzionale a lampada per lo studio delle particelle elementari. I am grateful to Leonardo Gariboldi for providing the exact title of Salvetti’s thesis.

  36. 36.

    After the discovery of nuclear fission announced at the beginning of 1939, a main topic of the utmost interest among physicists became the neutron cross section, which was directly involved in the mechanism of the nuclear chain reaction. In this regard, Gentile’s student Carlo Borghi wrote a dissertation completed in 1940 on the neutron cross section and Compton effect, which resulted in a work published in the issue of Nuovo Cimento including articles honoring Gentile’s memory [49]. Borghi would be in charge of the Calculus of Probability course after Gentile’s death.

  37. 37.

    G. Salvini, interview by L. Bonolis, Rome, 25 November 2004, 6 February 2005.

  38. 38.

    See G. Salvini, interview by L. Bonolis, February–May 1998, Rome, in [54] and personal recollections in [53]. Salvini’s personal papers are preserved at the Archives of the Physics Department of Sapienza University, Rome.

  39. 39.

    See for example [58,59,60] and his famous “Il Diavolo e la Termodinamica” [61].

  40. 40.

    Brillouin’s article was later cited by Gentile [64, p. 493], who criticized Brillouin’s method as not proper to treat the case of an intermediate statistics.

  41. 41.

    C. Salvetti, interview by L. Bonolis, Rome, 18 July 2002. See also [65, p. 123]. Polvani, too, later recalled how he had challenged Gentile to investigate such a problem [3, p. 157].

  42. 42.

    Manuscript given to the author by the late Carlo Salvetti in 2002.

  43. 43.

    “Most illustrious Professor, I would like to report some results that I have reached after some considerations on the intermediate quantum statistics with the prayer for your judgment.” Caldirola to Gentile, 18 July 1941 (G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1).

  44. 44.

    Gentile’s statistics have been discussed in [67, 68]. For an outline of Gentile’s work on the new statistics and its impact see also [69].

  45. 45.

    See also [74] and the review article on classical and quantum statistics [75].

  46. 46.

    Caldirola revisited the subject of intermediate statistics in 1975, in a review article on the exclusion principle in which he recalled the debate that flourished at the time in the Milanese school and discussed its subsequent evolution and possible applications to modern physics [76].

  47. 47.

    Antonio Borsellino, at the time working at Politecnico in Milan, demonstrated the incompatibility of Gentile’s statistics with quantum field theory [85].

  48. 48.

    See [86] and references therein.

  49. 49.

    Gentile to Sommerfeld, correspondence between 1st February and 3rd March 1942 (G. G. Jr. Papers, Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Box 1).

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  1. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany

    Luisa Bonolis

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Bonolis, L. (2022). Giovanni Gentile Junior. Physics as an Intellectual and Spiritual Adventure. In: The Milan Institute of Physics. History of Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99516-4_4

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