Product Description

Stephen Hawking, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists of our time. This book contains a personal selection of his most significant papers on gravitational theory applied to cosmology and black holes. His early work, partly in collaboration with Roger Penrose, showed that spacetime must come to an end at singularities that will occur both in the big bang and in black holes. This means that time will have a beginning and an end. Hawking's later work has been concerned with understanding these two situations. This requires a combination of the two great theories of the first half of the 20th century: general relativity and quantum mechanics. Although a completely unified theory remains elusive, Hawking has been able to make considerable progress, both with black hole radiation and with the no-boundary proposal for the origin to the universe. This compilation of Stephen Hawking's most important works, complete with an introduction by him, is an essential collector's item and an important source of reference for theoretical physicists. It bears testimony to the courage of a man who has overcome severe physical disability to push the frontiers of science to new heights.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1681479 in Books
• Published on: 1993-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
"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