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Geek Speak at BHSU- Parthasarathi Nag – “A Brief History of Black Holes”

November 14, 2019 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

With the recent [April, 10th, 2019] observation of a Black Hole in the center of the supergiant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 using an global array of radio X-ray telescopes known by Event Horizon Telescope it might be an appropriate time for briefly reviewing certain aspects of this object in general. Our story will start from the 18th century with mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace who postulated using Newton’s theory of gravity the first idea of a Black Hole. During the early 20th century mathematician David Hilbert and physicist Albert Einstein formulated the General Theory of Relativity. In a few months after the announcement of the result [1915], Karl Schwarzschild obtained a solution [in the middle of a trench during WW-I around 1916] to the Hilbert-Einstein equation which had an interesting aspect to it called “singularity”. One of the consequence of this is an extremely warped space-time, so much so that even light cannot escape and we have a Black Hole. However, it was found by Arthur Eddington and Finkelstein that this is an “apparent singularity” and a Black Hole can be characterized along with the idea of a White Hole which could be the nature of Big Bang. These effects are still classical without any quantum effects till physicist Stephen Hawking and Jacob Bekenstein theorized that Black Holes should radiate which ultimately leads to a Black Hole evaporating. Along with this presentation on Black Hole we will also point out how this has influenced certain interesting paradoxes one of which is called the Information Paradox that has resulted into the “Black Hole War” between Stephen Hawking on one side and Gerard ‘t Hooft/Leonard Susskind on the other side.

Details

Date:
November 14, 2019
Time:
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Event Category:
Website:
http://www.bhsu.edu/Academics/University-Honors-Program/Geek-Speak-Lecture-Series#November-65

Venue

Black Hills State University
1200 University Street, Spearfish, SD 57799 United States