Hawking on the Big Bang and Black Holes

Stephen Hawking

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 1993
• ISBN:
  9789813103375
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Astronomy & Astrophysics

Stephen Hawking, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, has made important theoretical contributions to gravitational theory and has played a major role in the development of cosmology and black hole physics.

Hawking's early work, partly in collaboration with Roger Penrose, showed the significance of spacetime singularities for the big bang and black holes. His later work has been concerned with a deeper understanding of these two issues. The work required extensive use of the two great intellectual achievements of the first half of the Twentieth Century: general relativity and quantum mechanics; and these are reflected in the reprinted articles. Hawking's key contributions on black hole radiation and the no-boundary condition on the origin of the universe are included.

The present compilation of Stephen Hawking's most important work also includes an introduction by him, which guides the reader though the major highlights of the volume. This volume is thus an essential item in any library and will be an important reference source for those interested in theoretical physics and applied mathematics.

Contents:

• The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology
• The Event Horizon
• Particle Creation by Black Holes
• Action Integrals and Partition Functions in Quantum Gravity
• Cosmological Event Horizons, Thermodynamics and Particle Creation
• The Path-Integral Approach to Quantum Gravity
• Wave Function of the Universe
• Quantum Cosmology
• Origin of Structure in the Universe
• Wormholes in Spacetime
• Chronology Protection Conjecture

Readership: Astrophysicists and high energy physicists.
Keywords:Big Bang;Black Hole;Collapse;Cosmology;Creation;Gravity;UniverseReview:

“It is an excellent thing to have so many of Professor Hawking's most important contributions to the theory of black holes and space-time singularities all collected together in one handy volume. I am very glad to have them.”

Roger Penrose (Oxford)

“This was an excellent idea to put the best papers by Stephen Hawking together. Even his papers written many years ago remain extremely useful for those who study classical and quantum gravity. By watching the evolution of his ideas one can get a very clear picture of the development of quantum cosmology during the last quarter of this century.”

Andrei Linde
Stanford Univ.

“This review could have been quite short: ‘The book contains a selection of 21 of Stephen Hawking's most significant papers with an overview written by the author’. This would be sufficient to convince any researcher, student or librarian to acquire the book, so indisputable is the contribution of this man to the theoretical physics of the last half of our century … Collected together, these brilliant works constitute a valuable contribution to the literature on modern classical and quantum gravity and cosmology. This book will certainly be a source of inspiration for new generations of physicists entering into this fascinating area of research.”

D Gal'tsov
Classical & Quantum Gravity
0

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Series Editors
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology (with R. Penrose)
• 2. The Event Horizon
• 3. The Four Laws of Black Hole Mechanics (with J. M. Bardeen and B. Carter)
• 4. Particle Creation by Black Holes
• 5. Action Integrals and Partition Functions in Quantum Gravity (with G. Gibbons)
• 6. Breakdown of Predictability in Gravitational Collapse
• 7. Evaporation of Two-Dimensional Black Holes
• 8. Cosmological Event Horizons, Thermodynamics, and Particle Creation (with G. Gibbons)
• 9. The Development of Irregularities in a Single Bubble Inflationary Universe
• 10. Zeta Function Regularization of Path Integrals in Curved Spacetime
• 11. The Path-Integral Approach to Quantum Gravity
• 12. Wave Function of the Universe (with J. B. Hartle)
• 13. Quantum Cosmology From Relativity Groups and Topology, Les Houches Lectures,
• 14. Origin of Structure in the Universe (with J. J. Halliwell)
• 15. Arrow of Time in Cosmology
• 16. The No-Boundary Proposal and the Arrow of Time
• 17. The Cosmological Constant is Probably Zero
• 18. Wormholes in Spacetime
• 19. Do Wormholes Fix the Constants of Nature?
• 20. Selection Rules for Topology Change (with G. Gibbons)
• 21. Chronology Protection Conjecture