Jacob bekenstein, a physicist who prevailed in an argument with stephen. Their combined citations are counted only for the first article. Sad news reached jenluc piquant this morning via jonathan oppenheims twitter feed. Scientific american, volume 289, number 2, august 2003, p. Jacob bekenstein, born mexico city 1947, became a us citizen in 1968. This year, the american physical society awarded him its einstein prize. Discover delightful childrens books with prime book box, a subscription that delivers new books every 1, 2, or 3 months new customers receive 15% off your.
Nearly extreme black holes which attempt to regrow hair. John wheeler, one of the worlds most influential physicists, is best known for coining the term black holes, for his seminal contributions to the theories of quantum gravity and nuclear fission, as well as for his mindstretching theories and writings on time, space and gravity. The israeli scientist who taught stephen hawking a. A black hole is the most compact form of matter, as implied by einsteins theory of gravity. Stephen hawking, the prodigious british theoretical cosmologist who became an.
Introduction to black holes, information and the string theory revolution, an over the last decade the physics of black holes has been revolutionized by developments that grew out of jacob bekenstein s realization that black holes have entropy. Sep 28, 2015 physicists jacob bekenstein and stephen hawking established that, for a black hole, the information storage capacity is determined not by the volume of its interior but by the area of its surface. What the neutron star collision means for dark matter the latest ligo observations rekindle a fiery debate over how gravity works. Jacob bekenstein, physicist who revolutionized theory of black. Hawkings most famous theoretical argument, that matter can escape black holes, was intimately related to the ideas of the late professor jacob bekenstein from the hebrew university of jerusalem. Of gravity, black holes, and information english books 2. She is the author of four popular science books for the general. Oct 31, 2017 what the neutron star collision means for dark matter the latest ligo observations rekindle a fiery debate over how gravity works. The bekenstein bound or universal entropy bound is a limit on the entropy that can be contained in a physical system or object with given size and total energy bekenstein j d, 1981.
He only came to that conclusion when he tried to prove a young student, jacob bekenstein, who had initially made the suggestion, wrong. May 1, 1947 august 16, 2015 was a mexicanborn israeli american theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of the connections between information and gravitation. Using conservative intuitive methods including timeold gedanken experiments, he discovered that black holes have thermodynamical properties such as entropy. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading of gravity, black holes, and information english books. Jacob bekenstein academic dictionaries and encyclopedias. Mar 14, 2018 so when the israeli theoretical physicist jacob bekenstein, at the time a princeton graduate student, suggested black holes have entropythe disorder of a system, measured using thermodynamics. Neil degrasse tyson is director of the hayden planetarium at the american museum of natural history. Chances are youve never heard of physicist jacob bekenstein, who devised a nifty formula for calculating a black holes entropy. Over the last decade the physics of black holes has been revolutionized by developments that grew out of jacob bekenstein s realization that black holes have entropy. Jan 07, 2016 these are the discoveries that made stephen hawking famous. Scientific american is the essential guide to the most aweinspiring advances in science and technology. Israeli scientists blast off at british physicists views about the big bang. God was not needed to create the universe excerpt of selfdescribed atheists new book causes stir. Jacob bekenstein was born in mexico city to joseph and esther nee vladaslavotsky, polish jews who immigrated to mexico.
Jacob david bekenstein, mexicanborn americanisraeli theoretical physicist born may 1, 1947, mexico city, mex. Schiffer, quantum limitations on the storage and transmission of. For two decades these questions puzzled theoretical physicists. May 1, 1947 august 16, 2015 was a mexicanborn americanisraeli theoretical physicist. The bound raised as many questions as it attempted to answer. Interestingly, hawking initially didnt believe it possible. Information in the holographic universe by jacob d. Stephen hawking and an israeli physicist had an argument. He traveled the globe to scientific meetings, visiting every continent, including. He is polak professor of theoretical physics at the hebrew. Bekenstein received the wolf prize in 2012 and the american physical. Jacob bekensteins pioneering contributions to the foundations of gravity.
May 1, 1947 august 16, 2015 was a mexicanborn israeli american theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of the connections between. Stephen hawking raised profound issues concerning the loss of information in black hole evaporation and the consistency of quantum mechanics in a world with gravity. The famed physicists work with jacob bekenstein is considered a landmark in the quest to fulfill einsteins vision of the universe. Information in the holographic universe, scientific american, 289. But in his celebrated 1988 book, a brief history of time, hawking recanted. Fundamental physics research in space held at the airlie center in warrenton, virginia, usa, on may 2124, 2006. Whereas the physical universe is still generally seen to be composed of matter and energy, jacob bekenstein speculatively summarized in his 2003 article published in scientific american magazine a current trend set by john archibald wheeler, which suggests to regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as. Nov 23, 2015 with countless contributions to the sciences, stephen hawking is one of the greatest living minds, and one of the greatest scientific minds that ever lived. Jacob bekenstein, a physicist who prevailed in an argument with. Holographic universe simulation theory crystalinks. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. May 1, 1947 august 16, 2015 was a mexicanborn israeliamerican theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of the connections between information and gravitation.
These are the discoveries that made stephen hawking famous bbc. The israel prizewinning professor did not let his religious faith interfere with his investigations into the secrets of the universe. John wheeler scientist feynman and jacob bekenstein web. Just to be sure, he treated god mainly as the creator and insisted that his faith hasnt influenced his research. The movie life story of stephen hawking is not very. Mey 1, 1947 august 16, 2015 wis a mexican theoretical physicist. Using conservative intuitive methods including timeold gedanken experiments, he discovered that black holes have thermodynamical properties such as. A brief history of my friend stephen hawking, the man who.
Jacob bekenstein, a black hole pioneer and hebrew university theoretical physicist, has died. Hawkings scientific work, leaving viewers in the dark about exactly why he is so famous. Polak professor of theoretical physics, the hebrew university of jerusalem. Bekenstein, information in the holographic universe.
His early scientific work transformed our understanding of general relativity, einsteins theory of gravitation. Chances are youve never heard of physicist jacob bekenstein, who devised a. Jacob david bekenstein was a mexicanborn israeliamerican theoretical physicist who made. Jacob david bekenstein mexicanborn americanisraeli. Aug 12, 2015 well, jacob bekenstein was a staunch believer who had a jarmulka on his head at almost all times. Bekenstein to help us visualize what is taking place. Information in the holographic universe scientific american. Scientific american is the essential guide to the most aweinspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives. Jacob bekenstein simple english wikipedia, the free. The revolutionary insight, introduced in bekenstein s 1972 doctoral thesis, contradicted the prevailing theories on the. Jacob bekenstein was born in polish jews who immigrated to mexico, he moved to the united states during his early life, gaining u. There is still the question of whether our universe actually exists. He computed the temperature of a radiating black hole, and derived a beautiful formula for its entropy, validating and refining an earlier conjecture by theoretical physicist jacob bekenstein which stephen had hoped to refute.
He moved to the united states during his early life, gaining u. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist, hawking writes, as a coauthor with american physicist leonard mlodinow. Holographic principle the holographic principle is a property of quantum gravity and string theories which states that the description of a volume of space can be thought of as encoded on a boundary to the regionpreferably a lightlike boundary like a gravitational horizon. It also helped to transform information theory into a fundamental. Stephen william hawking died on 14 march albert einsteins birthday at the age of 76 after decades of battling the incurable disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis als. Oct 28, 2014 but the movie doesnt deserve any prizes for its driveby muddling of dr. Metamaterials make magnetic wormholes, the case for complex dark matter, and solving the mystery of interweaved phone books.
Does the universe include dark matter, or doesnt it. Stephen hawking, the illustrated a brief history of time during a debate in tom stoppards arcadia 1993 between a byron scholar and a mathematician over the cultural value of literary genius versus that of scientific knowledge, the byronist lauches into a tirade against newtonian and postnewtonian cosmology. Jacob bekenstein, towering theoretical physicist who. Stephen hawking once boycotted israel, but an israeli. A friend and colleague who knew hawking for more than 50 years reflects on an extraordinary life. Jacob bekenstein, the scientist who exposed the flaws in hawkings black hole dynamics, saw the glory of god in the black holes. How stephen hawking inspired blackhole researchers the. He also told me some stories about some of their troubles with the arabs he wouldnt ever actively use the word palestinians. What the neutron star collision means for dark matter. Of gravity, black holes and information by jacob d.
Mar 29, 2014 in his phd dissertation in the early 1970s, the mexicanisraeli theoretical physicist jacob bekenstein developed the thermodynamics of black holes using a generalized version of the second law of thermodynamics. Scientific american is the essential guide to the most aweinspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the. Jacob bekenstein, one of the worlds foremost theoretical physicists, who used the power of thought to explore the invisible objects that are ranked among the wonders of the universe black holes died aug. Business tech science climate sports obituaries the upshot. Of gravity, black holes, and information by jacob d. References eedit eedit soorce jacob bekenstein, black hole pioneer and hebrew university physicist, has died. All this had been proposed in a 1939 paper by the american physicist robert. He is polak professor of theoretical physics at the hebrew university of jerusalem, a member of the israel. In the early 1970s the late jacob bekenstein provided a proof for the nonexistence of hair made of scalar. He made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of the connections between information and gravitation. Theoretical results about black holes suggest that the universe could be like a gigantic hologram. Hawking did that largely through his book a brief history of time.
The hawking of stephen hawking university of michigan. Bekenstein received the wolf prize in 2012 and the american. May 1, 1947 august 16, 2015 was a mexicoborn israeli american theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects. Jacob bekenstein, a black hole pioneer and hebrew university. I have sold more books on physics than madonna has on sex. Susskind is a member of the national academy of science and the american academy of arts and sciences, and the recipient of numerous prizes including the science writing prize of the american institute of physics for his scientific american article on black holes. Gives us key indicators of the valuation needed, in order to determine what maths are going to be used.
Jacob bekenstein, a physicist who prevailed in an argument with stephen hawking that revolutionized the study of black holes, and indeed the nature of spacetime itself, died on sunday in helsinki, finland, where he was to give a physics lecture. Aug 28, 2015 the israeli scientist who taught stephen hawking a thing or two about black holes. Holographic principle project gutenberg selfpublishing. Of gravity, black holes, and information english books kindle edition by jacob d.
Jacob beckenstein shortly after stephen hawking formulated the area theorem, jacob beckenstein, at the time a graduate student at princeton, noticed the analogy between the area theorem and the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Bekenstein has contributed to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of the connections between information and gravitation. He obtained his undergraduate and m sc degrees in 1969 from the polytechnic institute of brooklyn nowadays the polytechnic institute of new york university, and his ph. Mar 26, 2018 bekenstein said, i look at the world as a product of god, he set very specific laws and we delight in discovering them through scientific work. The revolutionary insight, introduced in bekenstein s 1972 doctoral thesis, contradicted the prevailing theories on the nature of black holes and was not immediately accepted. The physical universe is widely seen to be composed of matter and energy. This chapter contains a description of attempts to sharpen the concepts involved in the bound and ways of generalizing them to space times including. Jacob bekenstein, towering theoretical physicist who studied black. Jacob bekenstein tells here the story of how the thermodynamics of a black hole was. Why stephen hawking was so important to science cbc news. Facing the ultimate frontier, and the host of the emmy awardwinning documentary cosmos. Millions have had their cosmic horizons widened by his bestselling books.
Jacob bekenstein, an israeli physicist of the hebrew university, jerusalem, planted the seeds of a revolution of our understanding of spacetime. He is polak professor of theoretical physics at the hebrew university of jerusalem, a member of the israel academy of sciences and humanities, and a recipient of the rothschild prize. From quantum to cosmos world scientific publishing company. So we have these diagrams and thought processes developed from individuals like jacob d. Later in life, stephen became an immensely successful popularizer of science. From the holographic principle to the fractal multiverse. Chances are youve never heard of physicist jacob bekenstein, who devised a nifty formula for calculating a. Apr, 2018 instead, due to the subtle consequences of quantum physics, they emit what we now call hawking radiation. In his 2003 article published in scientific american magazine, jacob bekenstein summarized a current trend started by john archibald wheeler, which suggests scientists may regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as incidentals. He is the author of many books, including space chronicles. The bekensteinhawking entropy formula for a black hole. Theoretical results about black holes suggest that the universe could be like a gigantic hologram, scientific american, vol. This work made it possible for physicists to describe and analyze black holes using informationtheoretical concepts.
In new passover childrens books, meet a googly eyed. In physics, the bekenstein bound named after jacob bekenstein is an upper limit on the entropy s, or information i, that can be contained within a given finite region of space which has a finite amount of energyor conversely, the maximal amount of information required to perfectly describe a given physical system down to the quantum level. Reality as a simulation or hologram is no longer a fringe theory with nobel prize winners and other thought leaders believing in it. The english physicist, who died wednesday morning, set out to prove jacob bekenstein wrong but found that black holes should emit radiation. Jacob bekenstein, physicist who revolutionized theory of. But when the math says that a black holes store of information is measured by its surface area, does that merely reflect a numerical accounting. In this case the subject of conformal field theory makes itself known, for the thought process. Jacob david bekenstein was a mexicanborn israeli american theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of the connections between information and gravitation.
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