The colours of the Higgs boson: a graphic elaboration of a particle collision in the LHC
The book · 2018

Amore Fisico

A journey between poetry and physics, along the edges of reason, in search of paths that bring us closer, from new perspectives, to the mystery of love.

The idea
Physics as a lens for looking not only at the world around us, but also inside ourselves.

I have always had two sides strongly present in me: the fiercely rational one and the, let us say, artistic one. They collided during my studies in Theoretical Physics. I wanted to understand how the Universe works, and I truly wanted it.

I let my brain change shape, let it be moulded by concepts and ways of thinking that are completely counterintuitive, even though they are part of us. And the further I went, the more the rationality my studies demanded fought with the need to make peace with sensitivity and emotion.

In the end I thought of writing a book: to convey not only the love I feel for science but, above all, a new perspective from which to look, perhaps with greater awareness, at the things that happen to all of us, around us, inside us.

Amore Fisico is not a scientific treatise. It is an attempt to convey emotions by using the beauty of contemporary physics as a reservoir of metaphors, able to extend the more traditional ones, tied to the reality we can see directly. It tells of a journey of love and growth, between prose and poetry.

Riccardo Donati, 2018: from the page and the proposal that introduced the book. Translated from the Italian; the title means both “physical love” and “a physicist's love”.

From the book

Four poems as they stand in the book: accents and letter-spacing are the author's. The English is a plain translation.

Luce Light

Italian

Di massa nulla,
non si logora,
non ha paura di invecchiare,
non conosce barriere,
dà grandezza alla parola sempre.

La verità è che Tu
sei indeterminato dualismo
tra materia e cuore,
esisti in un punto
e in tutti i punti.
Còntrointuitìva,

invariante per natura e, per questo,
unica possibile misura del tempo,
al quale attribuisci
dignità di dimensione,

tu, Luce,
veicoli quella forza elementare
dalla quale tutto trova

unificàta ragiòne.

English

Massless,
it does not wear out,
it has no fear of growing old,
it knows no barriers,
it gives greatness to the word always.

The truth is that You
are undetermined dualism
between matter and heart,
you exist in one point
and in all points.
Counterintuitive,

invariant by nature and, for this,
the only possible measure of time,
to which you grant
the dignity of a dimension,

you, Light,
carry that elementary force
from which everything finds

unified reason.

Cascate Waterfalls

Italian

Versàte làcrime
incàtenàte al cièlo

nel pètto esplodète
con fragòre assordànte

fàte
di matèria il dolòre

per favòre
fìnalmènte

cascàte immènse.

English

Shed tears
chained to the sky

burst inside the chest
with a deafening roar

make
pain into matter

please
at last

immense waterfalls.

Coppia di Cooper Cooper pair

Italian

Stati legati
senza informazioni,

oltre il Limite
per sempre

uno.

English

Bound states
without information,

beyond the Limit
forever

one.

Orizzonte Horizon

Italian

Sfioráti appena
in un solo punto

per quanto fuggano
per quanto aspettino

mai hanno potuto
né potranno

abbandonare

lo stesso orizzonte
degli eventi.

English

Barely brushed
at a single point

however far they flee
however long they wait

never have they been able
nor will they ever be

to leave

the same event
horizon.

Augmented contents

Six doors in the paper book

The paper book is printed in black and white. Six QR codes open what ink cannot give: three images in colour and three musical compositions.

They are not accessories: they bridge the distance between the emotions I want to tell and the knowledge needed to follow the text all the way.

The thread

From the book to the music, with dates.

Adesso che farai?

Adesso che farai?

2017 · the three compositions in the book are the three parts of this song: words by Serena Santorelli, music by Riccardo Donati.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

2020 · the words of “Cascate”: lyrics and music by Riccardo Donati.

Cascate Immense

Cascate Immense

2026 · the same words in Latin, with an AI orchestra.

Lux

Lux

2026 · “Luce” in Latin, with an AI orchestra.

And Alma

Amore Fisico is an idea before it is a book, and it is the same idea that runs through Alma Hale's lyrics today: fields, phases, thresholds and alignments become hidden forms of emotion.

Some of the poems in these pages have already become music, and others will. But the idea underlies all of Alma's lyrics, present and future.

The book
The cover of Amore Fisico, by Riccardo Donati
Author
Riccardo Donati
Written
2017-2018
Form
prose and poetry, with augmented contents via QR code
Pages
66
Language
Italian
ISBN
9781980949688
Where
soon on Amazon, in print and digital

The three compositions behind the QR codes date from 2017.

Cover and “I colori del bosone di Higgs”: elaborated by Riccardo Donati from an illustration by generalfmv (iStock.com/generalfmv).

Alma Hale is a virtual artist created and directed by Riccardo Donati. Human-authored. AI-rendered.