Year: 2022

THERMODYNAMICS IS QUANTUM. “We have repeatedly seen that quantum effects play a prominent role in the operation of the law: The GSL is at its roots a quantum law. We have also seen that the GSL is a statistical law.” (GSL = the generalized second law of thermodynamics). https://lnkd.in/dAr7QTt View in LinkedIn

VALIDITY ASSUMED. “It seems, therefore, that such a proof could be obtained only in the context of quantum-statistical mechanics in curved space-time. Since this discipline does not yet exist, we shall simply have to assume, on the strength of the arguments of paper I, and in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the GSL is valid generally.” (GSL = the generalized second law of thermodynamics). https://lnkd.in/dAr7QTt View in LinkedIn

NUCLEONS TO BLACK HOLES. “Consider first a cold non-rotating assembly of N nucleons. If its mass exceeds a critical mass of the order of 2Mo it will collapse spontaneously, presumably to form a Schwarzschild black hole.” https://lnkd.in/dAr7QTt View in LinkedIn

SEEDING BLACK HOLES. “However, in principle smaller masses can also be induced to collapse. One way to accomplish this" would be to artificially compress the central portion of the system into a "seed" black hole which would then gobble up the rest of the nucleons. The energy expended in "seeding" can be made negligible.” https://lnkd.in/dAr7QTt View in LinkedIn

ASTOUNDING PREDICTIONS. “We have seen how the GSL makes very reasonable (if not astounding) predictions for processes of black-hole formation. This success supports the view that it must be generally valid for such processes.” (GSL = the generalized second law of thermodynamics). https://lnkd.in/dAr7QTt View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of a series of papers by Jacob Bekenstein, whose extraordinary work on black hole entropy had an enormous impact on astrophysics. This man used the sheer power of logic, imagination and mathematics to probe the unknowable, for nothing we know can penetrate a black hole and survive. https://lnkd.in/dAr7QTt View in LinkedIn

Castle of Montfalcó Muralatt (near Lleida, Spain) was first mentioned in 1043 AD, and along with the nearby town is locked in Medieval time, giving an extraordinary sense of place. View in LinkedIn

THE CONJECTURE. “Bekenstein’s generalized second law of thermodynamics: The role of the hoop conjecture, by Shahar Hod. Another relgem commenting on our featured and favoriteauthor. https://lnkd.in/d3sfhP6 View in LinkedIn

TEA WITH MILK PLEASE. “The legend says that it all began with a cup of tea and two genius physicists, Professor John Archibald Wheeler and his young student Jacob David Bekenstein, who tried to figure out what happens to the second law of thermodynamics when the cup goes down a black hole.” https://lnkd.in/d3sfhP6 View in LinkedIn