Dissertation: Properties of Expanding Universes
- Made:
- 1966 in University of Cambridge
Ph.D. Dissertation (thesis). Book with green cloth binding, titled (on spine):"Properties of Expanding Universes" by S.W. Hawking. Photostatic copy typescript. Cambridge (UK), 1966.
Stephen Hawking kept two copies of his PhD thesis in his office, and his students appreciated that they were right next to those those completed by their peers. One of the two copies, with original inscriptions in several pages, was auctioned in 2018.
The official submitted version of Hawking's thesis is at Cambridge University, and a scan of the entire document, including many handwritten inscriptions, is now availabile online there.
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/251038
From early in his career, Hawking showed a daring approach and a flair for communication. His 1966 PhD thesis provided crucial support for the big-bang theory. Hawking ran the theory of the collapse that forms black holes in reverse, showing that the universe must explode into being from a single point in space and time.
His 1974 paper ‘Black Hole Explosions’ disproved the conventional notion that nothing could ever escape from a black hole. It boldly blended quantum theory, which describes the very small scales of the atomic world, with general relativity, the large-scale theory of gravity.
Details
- Category:
- Stephen Hawking Office
- Collection:
- Stephen Hawking’s Office
- Object Number:
- 2021-561/2
- Materials:
- paper (fibre product), ink and textile
- Measurements:
-
overall (open for display): 165 mm x 347 mm x 260 mm,
overall (Closed): 260 mm x 207 mm x 21 mm,
- type:
- thesis, dissertation
- credit:
- Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by H M Government from the Estate of Stephen Hawking and allocated to the Science Museum, 2021
