Abstract Details

Name: G. Srinivasan
Affiliation: Formerly at Raman Research Institute
Conference ID: ASI2021_spl
Title : Of Stars and Singularities
Authors and Co-Authors :
Abstract Type : Invited
Abstract Category : Special Lecture
Abstract : The 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded jointly to Sir Roger Penrose, Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel for their discoveries related to Black Holes. “Black Stars” were first predicted in 1783 by John Michell, but this remarkably prescient discovery was soon forgotten. Within a month of the publication of the General Theory of Relativity by Einstein, Karl Schwarzschild discovered an exact solution for the geometry of spacetime surrounding a spherically symmetric star. This solution predicted that no radiation can escape from a star once its radius contracts to a critical value. This rigorous conclusion was soundly rejected by Einstein. And yet, there is mounting evidence for the existence of countless number of black holes in our Universe. In this Public Lecture, I shall trace the key developments pertaining to Black Holes of General Relativity, highlighting, in particular, the remarkable discoveries by Penrose, Zeldovich and Hawking. The lecture will be nontechnical and is intended for a general audience.