Enrico Fermi in Argentina and his Lectures in Buenos Aires, Cordoba and La Plata

Abstract: In 1934 Enrico Fermi accepted an invitation to deliver lectures in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. He arrived in Buenos Aires on July 30, lectured in Buenos Aires, Cordoba, La Plata and Montevideo, and then moved on August 18 to Sao Paulo via Santos and Rio de Janeiro; he traveled back from Rio to Naples on September 1st. His visit had a large resonance, and halls were crowded despite the fact that he lectured in Italian. The University of Buenos Aires recorded his five lectures and transcribed them in Spanish. They contain the first public presentations of the theory of beta decay and of the works on artificial radioactivity started by the via Panisperna group, but are not included in Fermi's Collected Works edited by the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome and by the University of Chicago, although listed in the Bibliography. In this paper we present the transcription of Fermi's five lectures in Buenos Aires, a summary of the lecture in La Plata and an extended summary of the lecture in Cordoba, translating them in English for the first time.