2006/08/29 by Rosario N. Mantegna, Rosario Nunzio Mantegna, Mantegna, Rosario Nunzio
Arts and Humanities · Chemistry · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #History and advancements in chemistry #Probability and Statistical Research #Twentieth Century Scientific Developments #physics.hist-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/0608279
3 pages, to appear in Europhysics News 37/4 July/August 2006
arxiv created 2006/08/29 · openalex publication_date 2006/08/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This year is the centenary of the birth of Ettore Majorana, one of the major Italian physicists of all times. In this note we briefly sketch a few biographical details about Ettore Majorana and introduce and discuss the main points of Majorana's 10th article. In his article Majorana explicitly considers quantum mechanics as an irreducible statistical theory because the theory is not able to describe the time evolution of a single particle or atom in a precise environment at a deterministic level. This lack of determinism at the level of an elementary physical system motivated him to suggest a formal analogy between statistical laws observed in physics and in the social sciences. We hope the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Ettore Majorana will be useful to remember and to reconsider not only his exceptional achievements in theoretical physics but also his fresh and original views on the role of statistical laws in physics and in other disciplines such as the social sciences.