- English physicist
whose work in general relativity - particularly gravitational field
theory - led to a search for a quantum theory of gravity to explain
black holes and the Big Bang, singularities that classical relativity
theory does not adequately explain.
Hawking's objective of producing an overall synthesis of quantum mechanics
and relativity theory began around the time of the publication of his
seminal book The Large Scale Stucture of Space-Time, written with G.
F. R. Ellis, 1973. His most remarkable result, published in 1974, was
that black holes could in fact emit particles in the form of thermal
radiation - the so-called Hawking radiation.
Hawking was born in Oxford, studied at Oxford and Cambridge, and became
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge 1979.
Hawking's most fruitful work was with black holes, stars that have undergone
total gravitational collapse and whose gravity is so great that nothing,
not even light, can escape from them. Since 1974, he has studied the
behaviour of matter in the immediate vicinity of a black hole, concluding
that black holes do, contrary to expectation, emit radiation. He has
proposed a physical explanation for this 'Hawking radiation' which relies
on the quantum-mechanical concept of 'virtual particles' - these exist
as particle-antiparticle pairs and are supposed to fill 'empty' space.
Hawking suggested that, when such a particle is created near a black
hole, one half of the pair might disappear into the black hole, leaving
the other half, which could escape to infinity. This would be seen by
a distant observer as thermal radiation.
Confined to a wheelchair because of a rare and progressive neuromotor
disease, Hawking remains mentally active. His book A Brief History of
Time 1988 gives a popular account of cosmology and became an international
bestseller.
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