Talk:Bruno Pontecorvo

bruno pontecorvo's wife/wives

It is claimed on the wiki page for Bruno Pontecorvo that he had two wives, one a Georgian named Rodam Amiredzhibi. Do you know where the source for this claim is? I am researching his life and would appreciate anyone who can clarify this question as I can only find evidence of one wife (Marianne). The person who made that particular entry did so on 19 April 2011 just after one of your edits, so I hope that you might already have noticed this particular edit. The name Rodam Amiredzhibi is very specific, so there may have been some relationship between them but not formal marriage. If anyone can enlighten me I would be grateful. I am reluctant to remove the claim until absolutely sure. Feel free to contact me at (Redacted) 86.26.57.40 (talk) 20:36, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Please see the discussion on this matter at the talk page in the Russian Wikipedia. - Ace111 (talk) 22:28, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

For those who don't read Russian, Rodam Amiredzhibi was his mistress. They never married. Hawkeye7 (talk) 10:07, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

Was Pontecorvo an agent?

Was Pontekorvo a soviet agent indeed? I really doubt. He embraced the communism for sure. The american government was suspicious about him. But we can understand why. All people could be enemies in those years.

even later no allegation of spying or of transferring of secrets to the Soviets has ever been made against him?

Its rather hard to reconcile that assertion from the "Defection" section with "Pontecorvo was also a Soviet agent.[3]" William M. Connolley (talk) 11:00, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

It's untrue. I have removed the claim. Hawkeye7 (talk) 10:05, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Bruno Pontecorvo/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Wizardman (talk · contribs) 14:53, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

This has waited way too long for a review. I'll try to get to it in the next few days. Wizardman 14:53, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Wow. Thanks for this. The article has been in the queue for ages. Hawkeye7 (talk) 22:02, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

I nominated Pontecorvo as a physicist rather than a military figure because, although he worked on reactor development for the Manhattan Project, he never worked on weapons development. Big mistake on my part. Hawkeye7 (talk) 22:23, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Starting with the image review, they all look good, but File:Carlo Franzinetti e Bruno Pontecorvo.jpg should be modified. I would believe it is public domain in the same manner the other personal images are, but "too commonly published" is not how copyright claims work, that part definitely needs fixing. Wizardman 15:01, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

I thought it was from CERN, but they say they got it from Wikimedia Commons. It is in the PD in Italy, and since Franzinetti died in the 1980, it is highly likely that it was taken before 1978, and is therefore PD in the US too; but I cannot be sure. So I have removed the image from the article. Hawkeye7 (talk) 22:02, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Sounds good. As for the sources, they all check out on reliability; no copyright check since they're pretty much all online but assuming good faith on that end. Only irk is that the final ref should have a language icon to go along with it, otherwise that's all fine as well. Hopefully I'll be able to do the prose review tomorrow. Wizardman 15:38, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Added lang=Russian, but we don't get little icons any more. Also added a trans-title, but the translation is mine, and my Russian is limited. Hawkeye7 (talk) 22:23, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Here's what I found on the prose front:

• "and then the author of numerous studies in " rm then

   Done Hawkeye7 (talk) 19:57, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

• There's quite a few "and"s in the second sentence in early life, which makes the sentence a run-on; reword.

   Done Re-wrote this bit. Hawkeye7 (talk) 19:57, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

• "After attending the first two years of engineering at the University of Pisa, he decided to switch to physics in 1931." That first half reads odd. Perhaps start with "He attended the University of Pisa.." and go from there.

   Done This is very common among physicists of his generation; there were few universities offering courses in physics. Hawkeye7 (talk) 19:57, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

• "Thus, just when he needed it most, Pontecorvo had a job offer in the United States." Can't say I'm a fan of the sentence, moving from encyclopedia to novel here.

   Done Deleted this sentence. Hawkeye7 (talk) 19:57, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

Up to Oklahoma, will try to finish rest later today. Wizardman 15:53, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

Anything remaining in the article I went ahead and fixed myself. Everything looks good now, so I'll pass the article. In particular, I appreciated that the more scientific spots in the article were easy to read and understand. Wizardman 15:04, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

21 reactions

Fidecaro wrote, "In particular Bruno made a long list of 21 reactions produced by neutrinos or antineutrinos, clearly marking the reactions forbidden if νe ≠ νμ." This must have been his Italian English for "clearly marking the reactions that were forbidden if νe ≠ νμ." In Pontecorvo's paper, only a few of the 21 reactions are so marked, namely the ones that violate what's now called conservation of electron number and muon number. http://centropontecorvo.df.unipi.it/Articles/Electron_and_muon_neutrinos_Zh_Eksp_Teor_Fiz-1959.pdf

Incidentally, it would be more accurate to say "reactions or pairs of similar reactions". What Pontecorvo noted was that if there were two kinds of neutrinos, one reaction could occur but a similar reaction couldn't. —JerryFriedman (Talk) 15:58, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

The main illustration is no Bruno Pontecorvo Suggestion

But a (yet) unidentified man at a 1954 physical conference in Italy where Pontecorvo wasn't present, see https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/7478/who-was-this-man-who-is-not-bruno-pontecorvo Ain92 (talk) 00:49, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

I've switched the image to the one used on the Italian and Russian wikipedias. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:39, 22 January 2021 (UTC)