Scientists / Open questions

Enrico Fermi

Nuclear physics; particle physics; statistical physics

1938 Nobel Prize in Physics

10 questions

Quantitative prediction of negative-muon atomic capture in matter: chemical and molecular effects on capture probabilities and initial capture states beyond the Fermi–Teller Z-law
Causal mechanisms, exposure-parameter dependence, and generalization of ELF-PEMF enhancement of osteogenic differentiation in pre-committed mesenchymal stem cells
Theoretical explanation of the fission-fragment yield distribution and the asymmetry of fission in neutron-induced fission of heavy elements
First-principles computation of nuclear beta-decay matrix elements: the surviving open core of Fermi's 1934 beta-decay theory
Completing Fermi's covariant variational analysis of electromagnetic inertia: non-spherical charge distributions and the self-gravitating regime
Interaction-suppressed equilibrium populations of atomic bound states in gases and plasmas of finite density: the occupation-probability problem originating in Fermi's 1924 excluded-volume theory
Rigorous foundation and error analysis of Fermi's 1926 Gaussian-tail formula for the running maximum of partial sums of independent errors
Electromagnetic mass in quantum electrodynamics: the exact spectral problem for Fermi's coupled electron-field system and the relativistically invariant finite-radius electron
The two-degrees-of-freedom gap in the Poincaré–Fermi non-existence theorem: convergence of Fermi's formal series for invariant hypersurfaces
Injection and maximum-energy limits of Galactic cosmic-ray nuclei: the surviving open core of Fermi's 1949 cosmic-ray origin problem

Back to open problems

Quantitative prediction of negative-muon atomic capture in matter: chemical and molecular effects on capture probabilities and initial capture states beyond the Fermi–Teller Z-law

Causal mechanisms, exposure-parameter dependence, and generalization of ELF-PEMF enhancement of osteogenic differentiation in pre-committed mesenchymal stem cells

Theoretical explanation of the fission-fragment yield distribution and the asymmetry of fission in neutron-induced fission of heavy elements

First-principles computation of nuclear beta-decay matrix elements: the surviving open core of Fermi's 1934 beta-decay theory

Completing Fermi's covariant variational analysis of electromagnetic inertia: non-spherical charge distributions and the self-gravitating regime

Interaction-suppressed equilibrium populations of atomic bound states in gases and plasmas of finite density: the occupation-probability problem originating in Fermi's 1924 excluded-volume theory

Rigorous foundation and error analysis of Fermi's 1926 Gaussian-tail formula for the running maximum of partial sums of independent errors

Electromagnetic mass in quantum electrodynamics: the exact spectral problem for Fermi's coupled electron-field system and the relativistically invariant finite-radius electron

The two-degrees-of-freedom gap in the Poincaré–Fermi non-existence theorem: convergence of Fermi's formal series for invariant hypersurfaces

Injection and maximum-energy limits of Galactic cosmic-ray nuclei: the surviving open core of Fermi's 1949 cosmic-ray origin problem