Dyson, Freeman, 294–296
Eddington, Arthur, 47, 282
education
Amidei’s intellectual structure with Fermi, 14–16
Fermi as prodigy, 14–15
Fermi’s admission paper to the University of Pisa, 19
Fermi’s early interest in science and technology, 7–8
Fermi’s pedagogical skills, 26
of the Fermi children, 219–220
Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, 18
See also Rome School of physics; Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa; University of Göttingen
Ehrenfest, Paul, 41–43, 111(fig.)
Einstein, Albert, 12, 28, 42–44, 47, 138, 156, 179, 249
electrodynamic theory, 28
electromagnetic field, 97–98
electromagnetic interaction, 357–358
electromagnetic theory, 16, 46, 70–71
The Electron Theory of Matter (Richardson), 16
electrons, 45, 49, 95–96, 102
Ellis, Charles Drummond, 109, 111–112, 112(fig.)
enemy alien, Fermi as, 188–189, 198, 202–203
energy efficiency, 328
Erdos, Paul, 155
ergodic theory, 37, 42, 291
espionage, 305
Klaus Fuchs, 239–240, 261, 301–302, 321
Oppenheimer controversy and hearings, 307–313
Ethiopia, Italy’s conflict with, 128, 130
eulogy, Fermi’s, 346–348
European Space Agency, 360
Everett, C.J., 302
exclusion principle, Pauli’s, 48–50, 54–57, 95–96, 98–99
experimental physics
chain reaction experiments, 161–165
Fermi bridging the gap between theoretical physics and, 27–28
Pauli’s incompetence, 47
Rome School, 80
Szilard-Fermi incompatibility, 173–174
fallibility, Fermi’s, 233
Faraday, Michael, 97–98
fascist regime, Italy’s, 233
anti-Semitic laws, 140
building Fermi a lab, 131–132
Corbino’s academic career, 32–34
Corbino’s efforts towards funding Fermi’s work, 108–109
Corbino’s refusal to join, 132
FBI suspicion of Fermi’s ties to, 189
Fermi’s background security check, 298
Fermi’s connection through the Accademia, 93
Fermi’s departure from, 134–136, 139–142
Fermi’s Italian colleagues’ war years, 164–165
Fermi’s Nobel Prize, 144–145
increasing politicization, 126
increasing reliance on Nazi Germany, 130, 133
Laura Fermi’s refusal to leave Italy despite, 129–130
Laura Fermi’s resistance to leaving Italy, 77
slow-neutron patent controversy, 320–321
See also Mussolini, Benito
Fat Man, 261–263
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 189, 198, 297–298, 309, 321–322
Feld, Bernard, 181, 193, 263
Fermi, Alberto (father), 3–5, 9, 13, 17–19, 41, 63–64, 67
Fermi, Enrico, pictures of, 79(fig.), 81(fig.), 90(fig.), 115(fig.), 143(fig.), 274(fig.), 275(fig.), 337(fig.), 346(fig.)
Fermi, Giulio (brother), 5–7, 6(fig.), 8–9, 8(fig.), 9–10, 27–28, 38
Fermi, Giulio (son), 10, 78, 133, 141, 150, 219–220, 272–273, 315, 338, 354–355
Fermi, Ida de Gattis (mother), 5–6, 9–10, 18–19, 41
Fermi, Laura Capon (wife), 39(fig.), 351(fig.)
adjusting to Chicago, 218–219
arrival in Chicago, 198
arrival in Los Alamos, 234–236
Castelnuovo salons, 64–65
celebrating criticality, 212–213
collaborative writing, 73–74
donating her wedding ring to the Italian war effort, 128
English skills, 75
Fermi’s courtship, 65–68
Fermi’s death, 341–345, 351–353
Fermi’s enemy alien status, 189
Fermi’s first meeting with, 38–40
Fermi’s secrecy about fission research, 186
financial assets, 314–315
her son’s resemblance to, 355–356
house and staff in Rome, 71–72
initial dislike of America, 75–77, 149–150
life in New York, 171
move to New York, 154
Nella’s birth, 77–78
proposal and wedding, 68–69
response to the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings, 262–263
textbook translation, 316–317
the Fermis’ postwar return to Chicago, 271–272
Fermi, Maria (sister), 5–7, 6(fig.), 8–9, 11, 41, 63–64, 67, 69, 263, 315, 353–354
Fermi, Nella (daughter), 39–40, 77–78, 141, 150, 219–220, 272, 353–354
Fermi, Olivia (granddaughter), 354
Fermi, Rachel (granddaughter), 355
Fermi, Stefano (grandfather), 4
Fermi Award, 356–357
Fermi interaction, 285
Fermi Paradox, 37–38, 364
Fermi problems, 37–38, 66
Fermiac, 290
Fermi-Dirac statistics, 36, 96, 282, 359
fermions, 36
Feynman, Richard, 99, 239, 241, 286–288
finances, Fermi’s, 314–315
Fisica (Fermi), 73, 315–318
fission, nuclear, 356–357
Amaldi’s research, 264
critical mass problem, 239–241
Fermi’s failure to understand his results, 150
Fermi’s reaction to Hahn-Meitner-Strassman results, 156–157
Fermi’s work at Columbia, 159–161
fusion and, 192–193
lack of a theoretical framework, 152–153
political concerns over, 161–162
Roosevelt prioritizing work on, 180
Via Panisperna team’s failure to achieve, 157–158
See also chain reaction; neutron bombardment
Franck, James, 34–36, 138–139, 252–253, 350
Friedman, Jerome, 329–331
Frisch, Otto, 152–153, 157, 240
Fuchs, Klaus, 239–240, 261, 301–302, 321
Fuller, Robert, 272–273, 338–339
fusion research, 192–193
Fermi and Teller’s study of cosmic rays, 281–282
“Super” project, 238–239, 244, 263–264, 300–301, 308–310
Truman’s opinion on, 299
games and toys, Fermi’s interest in, 64, 219, 227, 246, 272
gamma rays, 102
Gamow, George, 112, 156, 192
Garbasso, Andrea, 53–54, 87–89, 111
Garrison, Lloyd, 310–311
Garwin, Richard, 294, 302–303, 330, 351
Gell-Mann, Murray, 278–279, 295–296, 342, 351, 358
General Advisory Committee (GAC), 290, 297–300, 312, 321–322
geophysics, Fermi’s interest in, 181
Germany
annexation of Austria, 152
direct control of Italy, 136
end of the European war, 249–250
failure to construct a working reactor, 215, 265
Heisenberg’s return to, 175–176
Italy’s increasing reliance on, 130, 133
Mussolini’s alliance with, 128–129
pact with the Soviet Union, 180
the Fermis’ departure from Italy through, 141–143
Weimar Republic, 35
See also Hitler, Adolf; University of Göttingen
Giannini, Gabriello, 84, 124, 150, 304, 319–320
Giorgi, Giovanni, 57–58
Glashow, Sheldon, 357–358
Glauber, Roy, 336
gluons, 358
Goldberger, Marvin “Murph,” 327
goldfish pond experiment, 122, 122(fn)
Goodyear Rubber Company, 205
–206
Goudsmit, Samuel, 42, 49, 74–76, 88, 99, 112(fig.)
graduate students, Fermi’s, 293–294, 326–331
graphite moderator, 177, 182–186, 215, 222–223
Greenewalt, Crawford, 207, 209, 212, 223, 228–229
Groves, Leslie, 201–204, 223–224, 228, 232–233, 250, 257, 267
Gunn, Ross, 169–170
Gustav V of Sweden, 144
Hahn, Otto, 119, 144, 150–153, 157, 356–357
Halmos, Paul, 155
Hanford, Washington, 203–204, 217, 228–233, 247
Heisenberg, Werner, 90(fig.), 337(fig.)
Basel conference, 334
Como conference, 89–90
Dirac’s QED work, 101
German failure to create a device, 250
heavy water reaction, 265
matrix mechanics and wave mechanics, 49–50
Nazi-Soviet alliance, 180
Nobel Prize, 138–139
Pauli’s view of, 47
return to Germany, 175–176
Rome conference, 112(fig.)
University of Göttingen students, 34–36, 46
Higgs boson, 357, 359
Hillberry, Norman, 211(fig.), 297–298
Hinton, Joan, 239, 259
Hiroshima, Japan, 261–263, 361
Hitler, Adolf, 128, 133, 137, 161–162, 175–176
Hooper, Stanford, 166, 168–169
Hoover, J. Edgar, 309
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), 307–308
Houtermans, Fritz, 192
Hutchins, Robert Maynard, 193–194, 275(fig.)
hydrodynamics: Taylor instability, 291
hydrogen bomb, 239, 296, 299
moral and ethical issues, 300–302
Oppenheimer espionage hearings, 308–309, 313
Teller and Ulam’s contributions to, 302–303
testing in the South Pacific, 303
See also fusion research; “Super” project
implosion, 237, 247–249
impurities in the pile, 183, 191, 199, 215, 250, 265
induced radiation, 63, 84
initiator mechanism, 248–249
Institute for Nuclear Studies, 274–279, 281–282, 350
Interim Committee, 251–255
international conferences, 333
Como conference, 82, 89–91, 187–188, 334
enlightening the community about Italian physics, 88–91
National Academy of Sciences conferences, 286–287
Solvay conferences, 88–89, 104, 113, 144, 286
international control over nuclear weapons, 300–301
Italy. See fascist regime, Italy’s
Japan
deployment of Fat Man and Little Boy, 261–263
end of the war in Europe, 250–251
Interim Committee decision about continuing the project, 254–255
pion research, 127–128
Jensen, J. Hans D., 278
Jews
flight of European Jewish scientists, 131–132
Laura Capon, 38–39
Laura Fermi’s conversion to Catholicism, 141
Meitner’s escape from Germany, 152
Mussolini’s racial policies, 77, 134–136
Rome School physicists, 82
Joliot-Curie, Frédéric, 106, 113, 151–152, 163
Joliot-Curie, Irène, 106, 113, 151–152
Jordan, Pascual, 34, 46
application of the Pauli exclusion principle, 56–57
Dirac’s QED work, 101
Fermi’s beta radiation paper, 105–106
matrix mechanics and wave mechanics, 49–50
University of Göttingen, 35–36
King, L.D.P, 257–258, 290
King, Nick, 289(fig.)
Kistiakowsky, George, 238, 242, 247–248
Korean War, 303
labor dispute, 204
Lamb, Willis, 154, 157, 286
Lamb shift, 286
languages, Fermi’s knowledge of, 12, 17, 21–22, 75, 201
Lavender, Robert, 319–320
Lawrence, Ernest, 129, 186, 251
Lee, Tsung-Dao, 285, 326, 331–332, 358–359
lensing, 242
Les Houches, France, 336
Levi-Civita, Tullio, 29, 38–39, 57, 64, 89, 111
Libby, Leona, 35–36, 193–194, 208, 211, 211(fig.), 212–213, 219, 227, 229, 301, 341, 341(fn), 343–344, 352
Libby, Willard, 351
Lilienthal, David, 290, 299, 312–313
Little Boy, 261–263
Livermore National Laboratory, California, 309, 311(fn)
Lo Surdo, Antonino, 91–93, 132–133
Lorentz, Hendrik, 32, 88–89
Los Alamos, New Mexico, 333, 352
assembling the personnel, 223–225
critical mass problem, 239–241
deployment of Fat Man and Little Boy, 261–263
evaluating Fermi’s contribution, 266–268
Fermi’s daily routine and social life, 243–247
Fermi’s postwar research, 288–291
hydrogen bomb research, 296, 302–304
implosion device calculations, 241, 247–249
initiator problem, 248–249
invitation to Rasetti, 264
Nella Fermi’s memory of, 354
plutonium production at Oak Ridge, 223
postwar expansion, 299
Richard Garwin’s summer work, 330
slow-neutron patent, 319–320
Teller’s passion for fusion research, 193
test shot, 256–260, 258(fig.)
the Fermis’ arrival, 234–236
von Neumann and, 242–243
Macmillan Publishers, 315–318
magnetic fields, cosmic-ray energy and, 283–284
magnetic moment of an electron, 99, 110
magnetic resonance, 171
Majorana, Ettore, 80–81, 83–84, 109, 131
Majorana, Quirino, 83
Manhattan Project
centralizing, 187–189
Compton’s coordination, 187–188
diverse scientists’ contributions to, 266–268
end of the war in Europe, 250–255
facilities, 203–204
Fermi’s legacy, 361–363
Interim Committee decision about continuing the project, 251–255
Leslie Groves, 201–202
postwar documentaries, 273–274
reorganization, 236–239
slow-neutron technique patent, 319–321
uranium isotope separation work, 203–204
X-10 plutonium reactor, 221–223
See also Hanford, Washington; Los Alamos, New Mexico; University of Chicago
Marconi, Guglielmo, 7, 89, 111, 111(fig.), 127, 132–133
Marks, Anne Wilson, 253–254
marriage, Fermi’s, 65–71, 70(fig.), 71–72, 141. See also Fermi, Laura Capon
Marshak, Robert, 286
Marshall, John, 190, 193, 194(fn), 219, 329
mathematics
as precursor for Fermi’s study of physics, 17
Castelnuovo’s salons, 64
Dirac’s QED work, 99–101
Fermi’s curriculum and lecturers at Pisa, 21–22
Fermi’s intellectual stimulation under Amidei, 14–15
Giulio Fermi’s career, 355
Pauli’s genius, 47
projective geometry, 13–14
Rome School students, 84
matrix mechanics, 49–50
Maxwell, James Clerk, 46, 70–71, 97–98
Maxwell’s equations, 97–98, 220–221
Mayer, Joseph, 190, 278, 351
Mayer, Maria, 190, 277, 286, 344–345, 351
McKibbin, Dorothy, 260
McMahon Act (1946), 288–289
McMillan, Edwin, 234–235
McMillan, Elsie, 234–235, 260
Medal of Merit, congressional, 274
Meitner, Lise, 11
0, 112(fig.), 119, 144, 150–151, 153, 157, 356–357
mesons, 286, 295–296
mesotron (pion), 127–128, 275–276
Met Lab. See University of Chicago
Metropolis, Nicholas, 290–291, 344
military control of national laboratories, 288–289
Millikan, Robert, 110, 112(fig.), 113
moderator for chain reactions, 177–181, 194, 199–200, 215, 232–233
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 180
Monte Carlo method, 124, 290, 360, 364
Morrison, Phillip, 257
mountain hiking, 24, 53–54, 70–71, 84, 87, 244, 336
muons, 276, 284–286
Mussolini, Benito, 31–34, 92, 128–130, 134–135, 144–145, 352. See also fascist regime, Italy’s
Nagasaki, Japan, 261–263, 361
National Bureau of Standards (NBS), 306–308
nationalist movement, Italy’s, 31–33
Nature magazine, 104–105
Navy, US, 165–171
neutrinos, 104
Fermi’s speculation on Pauli’s hypothetical particle, 103–105
fusion reactions, 192
research into the weak interaction, 284–286, 357–359
neutron bombardment
Cambridge team, 114–115
CP-2 as neutron factory, 218
CP-3 neutron collision studies, 280–281
German and English teams’ work, 150–154
Joliot-Curies’ paper, 113–114
nuclear chain reaction, 154–155
paraffin block experiment, 120–125
plutonium resulting from, 197
radon-beryllium source, 114–117
See also fission, nuclear
neutron emission during fission, 161, 163–165. See also chain reaction
neutrons
discovery of, 45, 103–104, 112–113
moderating, 178
refraction of, 220–221
New York, New York, 75, 149–150
Nobel Prize, 112(fig.), 187–188, 358
Arthur Compton, 282
Chamberlain and Segrè, 84, 329
Fermi’s award, 119, 140–141, 143–145, 150, 227
Fermi’s nomination, 137–140
Fermi’s students, 331–332
Hans Bethe, 159
Harold Urey, 171
Hideki Yukawa, 128
Jerome Friedman, 329
Maria Mayer, 278
Schwinger nomination, 287–288
nuclear accidents, 362–363
nuclear graphite, 183–184
nuclear physics
creation of transuranic elements, 118–119
Fermi’s early interest in, 107–109
Fermi’s lectures on, 325
international conferences, 113
neutron bombardment, 114–117
pion research, 127–128
Rome conference, 110–112
slow-neutron process, 72, 120–127, 144, 182–184, 193, 318–322
See also chain reaction; fission, nuclear; fusion research; neutron bombardment
Nuclear Physics (Fermi), 325
The Last Man Who Knew Everything Page 53
