Ettore Majorana - Disappearance at Sea and Suggested Explanations

Disappearance At Sea and Suggested Explanations

Majorana disappeared in unknown circumstances during a boat trip from Palermo to Naples. Despite several investigations, his fate is still uncertain. His body has not been found. He had apparently withdrawn all of his money from his bank account, prior to making a trip to Palermo. He may have travelled to Palermo hoping to visit his friend Emilio Segrè, a professor at the university there, but Segrè was in California at that time and, as a Jew, was barred from returning to Italy under a 1938 law passed by Benito Mussolini's government. On March 25, 1938 Majorana wrote a note to Antonio Carrelli, Director of the Naples Physics Institute, asking to be remembered to his colleagues and saying that he had made an unavoidable decision and apologising for the inconvenience that his disappearance would cause. This was followed rapidly by a telegram cancelling his earlier plans. He apparently bought a ticket from Palermo to Naples and was never seen again.

Several possible explanations for his disappearance have been proposed, including:

• Hypothesis of suicide, by his colleagues Amaldi, Segrè and others
• Hypothesis of escape to Argentina, by Erasmo Recami and Carlo Artemi (who has developed a detailed hypothetical reconstruction of Majorana's possible escape and life in Argentina)
• Hypothesis of escape to a monastery, by Sciascia
• Hypothesis of kidnapping or killing, to avoid his participation in the construction of an atomic weapon, by Bella, Bartocci, and others
• Hypothesis of escape to become a beggar ("omu cani" or "dog man" hypothesis), by Bascone.