Proceeding separately from theoretical research into relativity, and with the refinement of radio astronomy, astrophysics began to produce unusual observations of extremely intense radio sources, which were apparently located outside of the Milky Way. In consultation with theoretical physicists, it became apparent that the only sensible explanation for these sources were extremely large black holes residing in the cores of galaxies, producing intense radiation as they fed and, in the case of quasars, blasting out incredibly powerful jets of material in opposite directions, heating the surrounding galactic gas until it glowed in radio frequencies.[1]
Kip Thorne Black Holes And Time Warps Pdf Download
Toward the end of the text, Thorne deals with the much more speculative question of the nature of the core of a black hole; the so-called gravitational singularity predicted by Einstein's field equations. By introducing quantum behavior to curved spacetime, several physicists have suggested that black holes do not possess a true mathematical singularity, but rather a region of chaotic space, in which time does not exist. The behavior of this space and the material which approaches it are not well understood, with a complete marriage of relativity and quantum physics yet to be achieved. In the final chapter, Thorne delves into even more speculative matters relating to black hole physics, including the existence and nature of wormholes and time machines.[1]
This classic was first published in hardback in 1994. It is one of the best books written on the topic by one of the key players in the field. This book stands out for a number of reasons: 1)quality of the writing,2)An excellent bibliography, and 3) very well done illustrations. I have lost count of the number of astronomy books published in the last 14-20 years with poor quality photos or drawings. I wish Dr. Thorne would write a revision of the based on the recent discoveries made by the Hubble and Chandra Space Telescopes. This book is worth your time, and a careful reading will give you a good understanding of how our knowledge of black holes developed and what may come next.Christopher Nolan, director of the forthcoming movie "Interstellar" based the movie on some of the ideas in this book. Dr. Thorne was a consultant to the movie and is listed as one of the executive producers of the film.
One influential person who contributed to the development of the concept of black holes during the sixties was Roger Penrose. Among many achievements, he showed that black holes could and would be formed as a consequence of the theory of general relativity [36], and it earned him a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020 [26]. In 1969, Penrose added another layer to the theory of black holes when he proposed a mechanism to extract energy from a rotating black hole. The Penrose process would happen in the ergosphere, where a particle dropping from infinity would split into two components. One would fall into the black hole, while the other would escape with more mass energy than the original particle had, and thus, the rotational energy of the black hole would be transferred to the motion of this particle outside the ergosphere [38, p. 45]. The energy extraction of a rotating black hole would slow it and decrease its mass, a process that would not be indefinite.
The correlation between thermodynamics and black-hole physics spiked the curiosity of John M. Bardeen,Footnote 7 Brandon Carter, and Stephen Hawking, who gathered to work on a formulation of their own at the Les Houches Summer School on black holes in 1972 [30] and resulted on a paper published in the following year [2]. In it, they proposed four laws of black-holes mechanics, comparing them with the four laws of thermodynamics. In a more mathematical approach, they explored the geometry of the Kerr solution to calculate the mass and angular momentum in terms of unique time translational and rotational Killing vectors, from where they derived the ensuing laws.
Bekenstein further developed his formulation [6] in the following years. The description of thermodynamics as a statistical discipline and the interpretation of entropy as information loss guided his intuition. Although the proposal was over twenty years old at the time, the use of information theory to assess thermodynamics found one of its first application with this case [8], and this may explain why others were skeptical with the possibility of the thermodynamic description of black holes being more than an analogy.
The Hawking radiation is the starting point of a new chapter in the history of black-holes physics, the quantum phase of research, as Werner Israel put it [30]. The thermodynamical properties of black holes remain theoretical, but it opened venues and possibilities yet to be explored, hopefully in the near future.
Thanks to theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, real science is embedded in Christopher Nolan's film Interstellar, in which explorers seek a new home for humankind. Thorne talks about what he learned from the film's unprecedented visualizations of black holes and wormholes, what it and his accompanying book can teach, and the likelihood of humans escaping the Solar System.
I met with Jonah and Chris every few weeks as they crafted the screenplay, brainstorming about the science. I worked on the visualization of black holes and wormholes with Oscar-winner Paul Franklin and his team at Double Negative Visual Effects in London.
The nearest potentially habitable planet outside the Solar System is perhaps just under 12 light years (3.7 parsecs) away, orbiting the star τ Ceti. If you think of that distance as like going from New York to Perth, Australia, then the distance from Earth to the Moon would be about 7 centimetres. That gives you some sense of the challenge involved. I think humans will make that journey, but not in this century or the next, or maybe the one after that. It is too hard. For a science-fiction story, a wormhole created by an advanced civilization is the only way to do it in the next century, but it is unlikely that wormholes exist. You have to prop them open with 'negative energy' and it is unlikely that the laws of physics allow you to collect enough negative energy. But there is no proof that they can't exist.
Stephen Hawking explains the universe. In this best-seller, the renowned physicist breaks down black holes, space and time, the theory of general relativity and much more, and makes it accessible to those of us who aren't rocket scientists. The book is a great primer for anyone who wants to learn more about the origins of the universe and where it's all heading.
This beautifully illustrated and alluring volume is aimed at younger minds interested in astronomy. Children can encounter strange planets, distant stars, and elaborate galaxies. From asteroids to black holes, each page of this entertaining book reveals the secrets behind more than 100 celestial objects.
Have you ever considered what it would be like to cross over the event horizon and into the swirling maw of a supermassive black hole where time and space become distorted? Well, astrophysicist Janna Levin speculates on this very notion with great flair about exactly what that might feel like in this handy manual.
Theoretical astrophysicist Kip Thorne has spent his career exploring topics that once seemed relegated to science fiction, such as whether time travel is possible, and how humans could potentially travel from galaxy to galaxy via wormholes. In "Black Holes and Time Warps," Thorne provides an introduction to these and other mind-bending topics, at a level appropriate for nonscientists.
As the title suggests, you can't expect to master a significant fraction of the basicnotions of GR in this book, but what Geroch does cover here is very well explained. A beautifully illustrated and very gentle introduction to the geometry of Minkowskispacetime of SR and then to the curved spacetimes of GR, including a clear intuitivediscussion of some features of Schwarzschild geometry (nonrotating uncharged black holes),by a leading physicist.
Five of the six textbooks also discuss at length various of the following importanttopics: spinors, algebraic symmetries of tensors, the variational principle formulation ofGR, the initial value formulation of GR, the Petrov classification of curvature types,EXACT gravitational wave solutions, the singularity theorems, Penrose diagrams (conformalcompactification), Hawking radiation, and thermodynamics of black holes.
This is the proceedings of the Chandrasekhar Memorial conference, and containsexcellent survey articles by the leading experts in the field on all aspects of modernrelativity theory. Particularly notable are the articles by Thorne (gravitationalwave astronomy), Rees (astrophysical evidence for black holes), Penrose (censorship),Teukolsky (numerical relativity), Israel (internal structure of black holes), Wald (blackhole thermodynamics), and Hawking (information paradox). Indispensable. 2ff7e9595c
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