Ettore Majorana - 2025 NAFTA

Packet 9: Tossup 1

A February 2025 Nature paper found that the parity of states named for this scientist at the opposite end of a 1DTS can be measured in a single shot using a stack of indium arsenide and aluminum. (15[2])Linking states named for this scientist in a 1D lattice and considering the nearest neighbor produces a Kitaev chain. (15[2])Microsoft claims (15[1])to have created (15[2])topoconductors (15[2])in their (15[1])new quantum computer named (15[1])“[this scientist] (15[1]-5[1])(*) 1.” Setting the Dirac operator to be (10[1])purely Hermitian in the Dirac equation produces a relativistic wave equation named for this scientist. (-5[1])Particles named for Fermi (-5[1])and this scientist (-5[3])are observed (-5[1])in bound states called “zero (10[1])modes” and would have their existence (10[1])confirmed by observing (10[1])neutrinoless (10[1])double (10[1])beta (10[1])decay. (10[3]-5[2])For 10 points, what Italian (10[1])physicist (10[3])names fermions that are (10[1])their own antiparticle? (10[3]-5[1])■END■ (10[6]0[5])

ANSWER: Ettore Majorana (“ma-yo-RA-na”) [accept Majorana equation or Majorana fermion or Majorana 1 or Majorana zero modes]

<BC, Physics> | NAFTA-Packet-9

= Average correct buzzpoint

Back to tossups

Buzzes

Player	Team	Opponent	Buzzpoint	Value
Danny Han	Stanford A	Stanford B	36	15
Colin Veevers	Strange Case of Dr. Joker and Mr. Pennywise	William of Baskerville attempts to investigate John P. Robarts, gets turned away for not having a student card	36	15
Kai Smith	Shipping Down from Ballston	Untitled by Alexander McQueen by Premeditated Chaos by Alexander McQueen by Percival Everett	55	15
Kevin Wang	Capital One in the Twenty-First Century	The Fire Neg Time	55	15
Vicent Du	The Umayyad Caliphate be like REPEAL NAPHTHA	Girls who Just Want to Have Fun + Liam	57	15
David Bass	JHU	Rosslyn Academic Team	60	15
Billy Busse	The Worst Trade Deal in the History of Trade Deals	Lex	60	15
Dan Ni	Muscle Mass Extinction Event	(give me an) ANSWER: die for baseball	61	15
Daniel Hothem	Not Old! (Old)	Team 7	61	15
Kunaal Chandrashekar	Licence to C. Wright Mill	I'm just here (being trivia club president) so I won't get fined	63	15
Gus Redding	Dour Straits	Dielectrical Materialism	67	15
Ryan Rosenberg	NYU A	The "C" Team	69	15
Aditya Gangrade	Surrealist Subcommandante Marcos be like Esto no es una pipa	The Saint-Straw that Broke the Camille's Back	69	-5
Geoffrey Wu	Habitat 67	Untitled Keyal Team	76	10
Iain Carpenter	Penn State	Contessa Dora	91	-5
Alex Akridge	Indiana	BHSU	95	-5
Bhaskar Moorthy	St. Marx	[Redacted]	98	-5
Swapnil Garg	Berkeley A	Constans Constantius and Constantine Jr.	98	-5
Tianyu Xu	Georgia Tech 𓂈𓆉𓃡	Ana Pauker? I hardly know her!	98	-5
Yashwanth Bajji	In the Mood for Transportation Equipment	Invective Against Swans	100	-5
Geoffrey Chen	https://i.imgur.com/C6nN2FE.png	Mike and Psmith	105	10
Joy An	The Saint-Straw that Broke the Camille's Back	Surrealist Subcommandante Marcos be like Esto no es una pipa	111	10
Michael Du	You Don't Have the Cards	The lion does not concern itself with negging teammates out of their own categories	114	10
Andrew Wang	Execute Order 6 7	1000000 Delinquents	115	10
Ben Russell Jones	The Third Time when she was Given to Answer the Hard and the Easy, and Answered Only the Easy	H Charlson's Washed Up Scrubs	116	10
John John Groger	WashU	Maybe Ever	117	10
Sharath Narayan	Northwestern	Chicago !A	118	-5
Maxwell Ye	Quebecois Olga Tokarczuk be like 'freins de jacob interdits'	The tram is not in service; please use the moving walkway.	118	10
Chris Ray	Maryland F♯ A♯ ∞	Munir Siddiqui Fan Club	118	-5
Rasheeq Azad	Polish Orthographers Posting Their Łs	Copán Seethe	118	10
Rohan Shelke	Berkeley B	Team 8	118	10
Jim Fan	UNC Charity	Catholic University A	123	10
Rachel Bentham	Vacuous Tortoise	C R A B S	124	10
Platon Gorokhov	Licence to Bill	Guelph Cloze	124	10
Matthew Wang	UBC A	UBC B	124	10
Daniel Merida	four high school generalists shock natives with fluent stock in Tocharian B	W&L+Friend	128	10
Rob Carson	BHSU	Indiana	131	10
Daniel Ma	Noah Sheidlower	Negged Five Times in a Yellow Cab Against the Gottis and Gambinos	131	-5
Matt Weiner	It's something unpredictable/that in the end is right/please refrain from e-mailing my wife	David Foster Gromit	131	10
Justin Qian	Abbas I founded the Abbasids	The Unbearable Heaviness of History Players	131	10
Adhit Ranjan	Invective Against Swans	In the Mood for Transportation Equipment	132	0
John Marvin	Chicago !A	Northwestern	132	10
Kelvin Ni	NYU B or not NYU B (that is the question)	Six Quizbowlers in Search of Owen Minmo	132	0
Rishi Swaminathan	Six Quizbowlers in Search of Owen Minmo	NYU B or not NYU B (that is the question)	132	0
Jeremy Cummings	Contessa Dora	Penn State	132	10
Isaac Mammel	Munir Siddiqui Fan Club	Maryland F♯ A♯ ∞	132	10
Neil Gurram	Constans Constantius and Constantine Jr.	Berkeley A	132	10
Gabrielle Clark	Where's the nearest library, I need to have a public crashout.	I fear not the man who has reviewed 10000 cards once, but I fear the man who has reviewed one card 10000 times	132	0
Franklin Wu	I fear not the man who has reviewed 10000 cards once, but I fear the man who has reviewed one card 10000 times	Where's the nearest library, I need to have a public crashout.	132	10
Eric Mukherjee	Ana Pauker? I hardly know her!	Georgia Tech 𓂈𓆉𓃡	132	10
Parker McCoig	Tennessee A	Say It Ain't Zhou	132	0

Summary

Tournament	Edition	Match	Heard	Conv. %	Power %	Neg %	Avg. Buzz
2026 NAFTA at Stanford	01/17/2026	✓	4	100%	50%	25%	86.75
2026 NAFTA at UBC	01/17/2026	✓	2	100%	0%	0%	127.50
2025 NAFTA Online	02/14/2026	✓	4	75%	25%	25%	101.67
2026 NAFTA at Vanderbilt	02/14/2026	✓	3	67%	33%	33%	94.50
2025 NAFTA at Toronto	09/13/2025	✓	5	100%	40%	0%	93.80
2025 NAFTA at Maryland	09/27/2025	✓	5	100%	20%	40%	110.40
2025 NAFTA at Harvard	10/04/2025	✓	2	100%	50%	50%	83.00
2025 NAFTA at Oxford	10/11/2025	✓	3	100%	33%	0%	102.33
2025 NAFTA at Chicago	11/08/2025	✓	6	83%	17%	50%	111.40
2025 NAFTA at Columbia	11/08/2025	✓	5	60%	40%	20%	66.67
2025 NAFTA at Richmond	12/20/2025	✓	2	100%	0%	0%	124.50