Majorana, the Neutron, and the Neutrino: Some elementary historical remarks

Abstract

At the kind request of the Editor of Hadronic Journal, and of TEC/TNRG (Usa), we recall in this article some elementary historical information about the role played by Ettore Majorana[1-17] with regard to the Neutron, and to the Neutrino. Often we do explicitly insert direct quotations from the original written statements --in particular by Edoardo Amaldi[22-24]--, which in some cases, and for some topics, constitute the main available evidence. We also discuss some recent, unjustified rumors about Ettore Majorana and Enrico Fermi. [Keywords: Ettore Majorana; Neutron; Neutrinos; Enrico Fermi; Edoardo Amaldi; Majorana spinors; Majorana algebras; Majorana fermions; Fred Wilczek; History of XX century physics; Reply to unjustified rumors]

38 pages, with 4 Figures. Work partially supported by CAPES (Brazil), and by TEC/TNRG (USA). [The published version contained some defects that are corrected in this e-print]