XLVI National Congress of the Italian Society for the History of Physics and Astronomy

Session

History of Physics in 20th Century

15 Sept 2026, 14:30

Auditorium Ernesto Capocci (Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte)

Conveners

History of Physics in 20th Century

• Adele La Rana (Università di Roma La Sapienza)

History of Physics in 20th Century

• Adele La Rana (Università di Roma La Sapienza)

History of Physics in 20th Century

• Ivana Gambaro (DAFIST - Università Genova)

History of Physics in 20th Century

• Ivana Gambaro (DAFIST - Università Genova)

2. The special-relativistic theory of gravitation by Henri Poincaré and Alfred North Whitehead

Giannetto, Enrico (Università di Bergamo)

15/09/2026, 14:30

The History of Physics and Astronomy

Henri Poincaré, indeed, was the first (July 23, 1905) to propose a new mechanics based on the principle of special relativity and covariance by Lorentz transformations, and at the same time also a first relativistic theory of gravitation as a field, i.e. in terms of gravitational waves, formulated within a four-dimensional space-time. After the formulation of general relativity (1915),...

5. Between science outreach and political activism: Bari and its publishing houses in the second half of the twentieth century with a case study: Edizioni Dedalo

Romano, Luigi (Università degli Studi di Bari)

15/09/2026, 14:55

The History of Physics and Astronomy

Bari has always been home to a large number of publishing houses, reflecting its vibrant intellectual life. Covering a wide variety of topics, they have attested the intense periods our Nation has gone through (the post-war era, the economic boom, the political activism and the Years of Lead, the decline and the gradual erosion of ideologies, the Berlusconi era and so on). Among them, we wish...

41. Beyond the Optical Sky: Serendipity, Exaptation, and the Violent Universe (1950-1970)

Furlan, Stefano (Universiteit Utrecht)

15/09/2026, 15:20

The History of Physics and Astronomy

Recent historiography has emphasized that the birth and flourishing of the new astronomies beyond the optical (X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutrino astronomy, alongside relativistic astrophysics), from the 1950s onward, did not merely add further "information" about already well-defined celestial objects. An “additive narrative” that assumes a smooth convergence of results across different...

12. The Ising Model: 100 Years of Connections Between Physics and Complexity

Spairani, Luisa

15/09/2026, 16:15

The History of Physics and Astronomy

Published in 1925, the Ising model represents a foundational milestone in statistical physics. Originally developed by Ernst Ising—under the guidance of his supervisor, Wilhelm Lenz—as a simplified mathematical framework to explain ferromagnetic ordering, the model has evolved into an indispensable tool for studying phase transitions and many-body systems.
Beyond its origins in physics, the...

3. From Small Experiments to "Battleship" Research: The Nobel Case of Emilio Segrè.

Buccilli, Bianca (Cref)

15/09/2026, 16:40

The History of Physics and Astronomy

The Via Panisperna group is internationally recognized for its fundamental work carried out in Rome during the 1930s and for the leadership of its central figure, Enrico Fermi. Less well-known, however, is the scientific career of another member of the group: Emilio Segrè.

Following World War II, Segrè settled at the Berkeley laboratories where, together with Owen Chamberlain, he succeeded...

7. Experimental confirmation of γ–γ scattering and implications of Quantum Field Coherence Theory, with the emergence of Giant Resonances in heavy-ion collisions.

Mileto, Graziano (ISTITUTO DI ISTRUZIONE SUPERIORE "FRANCESCO SEVERI")

15/09/2026, 17:05

Physics in Naples

The recent experimental confirmation of γ–γ scattering in heavy-ion collisions, obtained in high-energy experiments, provides important confirmation of theoretical results previously developed by the author. In particular, this confirmation allows for the reevaluation of research published in Il Nuovo Cimento, based precisely on this interaction mechanism, subsequently extended to the lower...

57. A Schrödinger equation without Schrödinger?

Darrigol, Olivier (CNRS-Université Denis Diderot)

17/09/2026, 09:15

The Physics of the Cat

It is easy to see that the Schrödinger equation was implicitly contained in earlier work by other theorists: first, in a remark by Louis de Broglie in his dissertation of November 1924, and second, in the new quantum mechanics proposed by Werner Heisenberg in July 1925. Yet the equation first appeared in a famous article sent to Annalen der Physik by Erwin Schrödinger in late January 1926. We...

10. Italian Competitions for Physics Chairs from 1902 to 1942

Rossi, Paolo (Dipartimento di Fisica Università di Pisa)

17/09/2026, 09:55

The History of Physics and Astronomy

The evolution of Italian physics in the first half of the 20th century is observed through a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of university competitions for chairs in experimental, theoretical, terrestrial, and technical physics, based on the texts of the judging committees' reports. One can clearly see the scientific and sociological dynamics of the slow transition from the...

52. From Via Panisperna to Como: Fermi, Persico, Pontremoli and the International Congress of Physicists (1927)

Leone, Matteo (University of Turin)

17/09/2026, 10:20

The History of Physics and Astronomy

Within the framework of the CREF project In the Footsteps of the Via Panisperna Boys, we reconstruct the relationships between Enrico Fermi, Enrico Persico and Aldo Pontremoli during the 1920s at the Institute of Physics of the University of Rome. Drawing on previously unavailable archival sources, we examine the scientific, institutional and personal dynamics that shaped their interactions,...

43. The Path to the Neutron: From Rutherford’s Hypothesis to Chadwick’s Discovery

Pagano, Emanuele Vincenzo (INFN - LNS)

17/09/2026, 11:15

The History of Physics and Astronomy

The discovery of the neutron in 1932 represents a watershed moment in the history of modern physics, fundamentally altering our understanding of the atomic nucleus and the forces of nature. This contribution explores the historical evolution of the neutron concept, beginning with Ernest Rutherford’s 1920 Bakerian Lecture, where he first hypothesized a "neutral doublet" to resolve discrepancies...

23. The hydrodynamic electromagnetism of the Norwegian Bjerknes family -- A neglected but revaluable research program

Scalera, Giancarlo (INGV, Rome)

17/09/2026, 11:40

The History of Physics and Astronomy

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the theoretical and experimental research of Norwegian physicists Carl Bjerknes (1825-1903) and his son Vilhelm (1858-1951) on a fluid-dynamic mechanism for electromagnetic interactions was well-known and discussed in Europe. The Bjerknes, convinced that hydrodynamic sink and source entities could not exist in nature, as were all the...

42. Feynman-Wheeler absorber theory and cosmology

Naddeo, Adele (INFN, Sezione di Napoli)

17/09/2026, 12:05

The History of Physics and Astronomy

Richard Feynman and John Wheeler’s joint contributions on radiation reaction and absorber theory, based on the action at a distance picture, are historically retraced and contextualized. Then we focus on the cosmological consequences of absorber theory, as emerged from the talks and discussions which took place at the conference on “The Nature of Time”, held at Cornell University in June 1963...

66. Einstein’s KosmoLogik (1917)

Afriat, Alexander (Université de Bretagne Occidentale)

17/09/2026, 12:30

The History of Physics and Astronomy

The perfectly cylindrical universe - without expansion or contraction - proposed by Einstein in 1917 indeed involves, as has often been pointed out, a surprising balance between the repulsive influence represented by the cosmological constant and the gravitational attraction due to matter. I propose a (kosmo)logical analysis of “Kosmologische Betrachtungen zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie”...