Kip Thorne
Kip Stephen Thorne ( born June 1, 1940 in Logan, Utah, United States) is an American scientist of theoretical physics, a student of John Archibald Wheeler, known for his extensive contributions of the gravitational and relativistic astrophysics. He was until 2009 a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech ).
Life and work
Thorne's research dealt with the basics and astrophysical applications of the general theory of relativity. On him the ring criterion goes back to which is to decide whether to form a compact body of a black hole. Thorne was instrumental in the construction of the LIGO project, which aims at the direct detection of gravitational waves, and continues to be an active participant in the LIGO research.
Kip Thorne has a wider public through his popular science book " Black Holes and bent time. Einstein's Legacy " is known ( in engl Original:. Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein 's Outrageous Legacy ). In his controversial theory Thorne examined among other things the possibility of time travel using wormholes. As an expert, he advises Christopher Nolan on his film project Interstellar.
Thorne was also known for a bet that he graduated with Stephen Hawking and John Preskill in 1997. In this bet is about the problem that almost all information about matter that falls into a black hole seems to be lost in this moment. Thorne and Hawking supported this view, while Preskill speculates about a possible way that this information remains.
Was named after him, the Thorne - Żytkow object.
Awards
Publications
- Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne and John A. Wheeler: Gravitation. Freeman, San Francisco 1973, ISBN 0-7167-0334-3.
- Kip S. Thorne: Black Holes and bent time. Einstein's legacy. 4th edition. Earthscan, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-426-26718-7.