Interview With Nicola Cabibbo

Abstract

After 25 years, this oral history interview with Nicola Cabibbo, recorded in July 2000, is being made available to an international audience. In the interview Cabibbo describes his early years as a student at the Sapienza University of Rome in the 1950s and his collaboration with Raoul Gatto in the pioneering work that launched \(e^+e^-\) physics in the early 1960s. The knowledge gained in those years through the systematic application of SU(3) symmetry to particle physics prepared the ground for his greatest achievement: the formulation of the mechanism responsible for quark mixing, which paved the way for the unification of the electromagnetic and weak interactions. Cabibbo’s significant influence on the revival of theoretical physics in Italy and his inspiring contribution to the development of a Roman school are also testified, together with his wide interests and lively curiosity which led him to promote the realization of a series of parallel supercomputers for numerical simulations of quantum field theory (the APE line). His extraordinary dedication, rigor and vision in promoting Italian scientific and technological development as President of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and other scientific institutions form a relevant and meaningful part of the narrative, which also includes significant recollections of his role as President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Prominently mentioned are: Guido Altarelli, Edoardo Amaldi, Gilberto Bernardini, Francesco Calogero, Marcello Conversi, Ugo Fano, Enrico Fermi, Bruno Ferretti, Raoul Gatto, Murray Gell-Mann, Makoto Kobayashi, Luciano Maiani, Guido Martinelli, Toshihide Maskawa, Giorgio Parisi, Roberto Petronzio, Giuliano Preparata, Giorgio Salvini, Massimo Testa, Bruno Touschek.