Hawking radiation and black hole thermodynamics
Radiación de Hawking y termodinámica de agujeros negros
- Date
- 1974 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Stephen Hawking; Jacob Bekenstein
- People
- 👤 Jacob D. Bekenstein1947–2015👤 Stephen Hawking1942–2018
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Applying quantum field theory near the horizon, Hawking demonstrates that black holes emit thermal radiation and evaporate, confirming the entropy proportional to area proposed by Bekenstein. The first result to unite gravity, quantum theory and thermodynamics.
Not directly observed; the temperature of a stellar black hole is far lower than that of the cosmic microwave background.
What it led to
- Information paradox
- Holographic principle and AdS/CFT correspondence
- Quantum gravity
- Quantum cosmology
Built on
- General relativity and singularity theorems
- Bekenstein entropy (1972)
- Quantum field theory in curved spacetime
Made possible
- Unruh effect1976
- Analogue black holes in the laboratory (Steinhauer, 2016)