Stephen William Hawking: a Biographical Memoir
Stephen William Hawking CH CBE 8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018 Elected FRS 1974 Bernard J. Carr1, George F. R. Ellis2, Gary W. Gibbons3, James B. Hartle4, Thomas Hertog5, Roger Penrose6, Malcolm J. Perry3, and Kip S. Thorne7.∗ 1 Queen Mary College, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK 2 University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa 3 DAMTP, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK 4 Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, USA 5 Institute for Theoretical Physics, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium 6 Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Andrew Wiles Building, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK 7 Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA 20 December 2018 Abstract Stephen Hawking’s contributions to the understanding of gravity, black holes and cosmology were truly immense. They began with the singularity theorems in the 1960s followed by his discovery that black holes have an entropy and consequently a finite temperature. Black holes were predicted to emit thermal radiation, what is now called Hawking radiation. He pioneered the study of primordial black holes and their potential role in cosmology. His organisation of and contributions to the arXiv:2002.03185v1 [physics.hist-ph] 8 Feb 2020 Nuffield Workshop in 1982 consolidated the picture that the large-scale structure of the universe originated as quantum fluctuations during the inflationary era. Work on the interplay between quantum mechanics and general relativity resulted in his formulation of the concept of the wavefunction of the universe. The tension between quantum mechanics and general relativity led to his struggles with the information paradox concerning deep connections between these fundamental areas of physics.
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