什麼是費米

Fermi, Enrico

義大利出生的美籍理論物理學家。畢業於比薩大學。1926年任羅馬大學理論物理學教授，開始從事研究工作（後來由狄拉克發展完備），後來提出着名的費米－狄拉克統計法。他發展β衰變的一種理論，可透過弱核力應用到其他的核反應，但這個理論一直到1957年以前還未完善，當時發現弱核力不能保持宇稱。費米設想出誘發人工放射性的方法，因此獲1938年諾貝爾物理學獎。他趁赴瑞典受獎的機會永離法西斯主義的義大利，而直赴美國，他在哥倫比亞大學任教，不久成為實踐核子物理學理論的主要工程師之一。他參與曼哈頓計畫，在發展原子彈方面扮演重要的角色，1942年負責生產可控制的自持鏈式核反應的工作。1946年獲得美國國會勛章。美國原子能委員會還專門設立了費米獎金，1954年他榮獲了首次頒發的費米獎。為紀念費米的不平凡成就，原子序數為100的元素被命名為鐨（fermium）。

1901～1954年

Fermi, Enrico

Italian-U.S. physicist. As a professor at the University of rome, he began the work, later fully developed by P. A. M. Dirac, that led to Fermi-Dirac statistics. He developed a theory of beta decay that applies to other reactions through the weak force, which was not improved until 1957, when the weak force was found not to conserve parity. He discovered neutron-induced radioactivity, for which he was awarded a 1938 Nobel Prize. After receiving the award in Sweden, he never returned to fascist Italy but instead moved directly to the U.S., where he joined the faculty of Columbia University and soon became one of the chief architects of practical nuclear physics. A member of the Manhattan Project, he was an important figure in the development of the atomic bomb; in 1942 he directed the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. He received the Congressional Medal of Merit in 1946. In 1954 he became the first recipient of the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Enrico Fermi Award. Element number 100, fermium, was named in his honor.