6. Dr. Samir Mathur

Heading into this lecture, I knew very little about black holes and the physics of the universe. I enjoyed learning from Dr. Mathar, who did a fantastic job of explaining the basics behind some incredibly complicated theories. It was refreshing to have a lecturer who used drawings on the chalkboard rather than a PowerPoint to reinforce his points.

Dr. Mathar’s presentation centered around the paradigm shifts occurring on the origin of the universe, stemming from Stephen Hawkings’ contributions of Hawking Radiation (1974) and the Black Hole Information Loss Paradox (1975). These concepts were difficult for me to wrap my head around. The foundation of these theories are black holes, which form when stars shrink to white dwarfs, white dwarfs shrink to neutron stars, and neutron stars eventually collapse to a black hole. However, the mass of the stars does not go away; rather, it all goes to a single point (the black hole). This is known as a singularity, or something that is frustrating because it is not supposed to happen. Hawking Radiation is the energy that should be emitted by a black hole as an object moves closer to the black hole. The Black Hole Information Loss Paradox says that when a particle goes in the black hole, its information is lost forever. There is negative energy when a particle gets too close to the black hole, and once a particle passes the horizon of the black hole, it can never come back out. After all of this research, we still only know about 5% of visible matter.

According to a diagram that Dr. Mathar drew on the board, the Big Crunch will occur when the universe starts shrinking, acting as the opposite of the Big Bang. After hearing all about black holes, I found it to be a little unsettling that String Theory could prove that nothing about black holes is correct. According to String Theory, nothing can be crushed into a point. Instead, it all expands into a ball. I will be interested to see how this paradigm will shift in my life time.

I really enjoyed Dr. Mathur’s lecture to us on black holes. Before his lecture, I never really understood exactly what a black hole is and the physics/theories behind them. Although Dr. Mathur’s lecture was different from the rest in the sense that he did not really talk about the life and works of scientists, I still enjoyed his lecture because it gave me an appreciation for physics and for the contributions that Hawking had for the subject. Not many people really talk about Hawking’s theories. Rather, the difficulties he has overcome while making these discoveries are what he is mainly known for to most people of the general public. Dr. Mathur’s lecture shined a light on some of the theories that Hawking has developed, and the importance/mystery associated with them till this day.

Dr. Mathur gave a lecture on the various paradigm shifts in physics that have developed over the years, especially the ideology surrounding black holes. With each new discover, there has been almost an entire shift on the mechanics of black holes. Dr. Mathur specifically talked about Stephen Hawking and his discover of Hawking Radiation. I thought it was particular interesting when Dr. Mathur was talking about his encounters with Hawking and how he gained fame in the science community. Finally, I also found it interesting to learn about how black holes form and the various discoveries that have been made in physics.

This discussion on Stephen Hawking, black holes, and the universe in general was very enlightening because in all honesty I have never spent much time researching or learning about any of these things. It amazes me how intelligent the people that work with these ideas are because these concepts are so dense and most of which we cant actually prove or experiment with. I also found it super cool that Dr. Mathur has had multiple personal experiences with Stephen Hawking. Also I am interested to see how the string theory tends to hold up as they believe that right now it is the most accurate theory explaining the creation of our universe and it will end. I hope to see some things that I am able to connect with Stephen Hawking or the development of any of these theories while abroad.

I really enjoyed Dr.Mathur’s lecture about blackholes and the research that Stephen Hawking had done on the subject matter. It was really interesting to learn more specifics about blackholes, such as how Hawking Radiation is created. I didn’t realize that Hawking Radiation was theorized to be created in the process where inside the event horizon if an electron is created, a positron can be created on the outside of the event horizon. It is these positrons that Hawking Radiation is composed of, as the electron is not seen since it is inside the event horizon and consequentially sucked towards the singularity of the black hole.  I really enjoyed this lecture because how it gave a glimpse into how the more theoretical side of physics is verified to be correct. Usually, physics problems can be solved through arriving at certain solutions through which the math can be connected to reality. In the realm of physics where the math required can’t always be related to physical quantities, such as though imaginary numbers, problems get more complicated to solve as it is harder to verify solutions experimentally. Resultantly it was interesting to learn that a main way that theories are verified in areas like the physics of blackholes, is through just making sure the theory aligns with previous theories and overall is consistent with everything that has been learned and tested up to the current point in time.

Dr. Mathur discussed so much more than only black holes, but his talk about black holes was what I thought was the most compelling. Taking an astronomy class in high school taught me a lot about the universe, but I knew almost nothing about any of the topics Dr. Mathur discussed in this presentation. Overall, I could tell that he was incredibly knowledgeable about what he researches and he very much enjoys teaching other people almost as much.

My favorite part of the discussion was the topic regarding where the universe may have originated, and where it could potentially go. I love the idea that it continually expands, but then starts to retract back upon itself until it is essentially a speck with every bit of density at one singular point. I think this is a very compelling theory, but it is also disappointing to know that we will (probably) never know the answer to this question in our lifetime. I was also impressed at how well he did at answering every question posed to him in complete detail.

I found this discussion to be very interesting. I was intrigued by the many physics attributes that I had not been introduced to before (since I have never taken a physics class). I have learned about some of the basic aspects of Stephen Hawking’s work, but never to the point where Dr. Mathur took the discussion. Steven Hawking attacked some of the most advanced concepts that physics has to offer, and did so with his challenging physical handicaps.

The discussion began with the talk of black holes, and the basics of stars leading to the black holes. The singularity of black holes was presented, along with the opposing ideas of how the circulatory of the stars (ex. sun) may effect if it would still lead to being a black hole. However, even if the star is not perfectly circular, it will still come to a singularity (a black hole). Following this work that was done in the 60s and 70s, Hawking founded the ideas of Hawking Radiation in 1974. Also Hawking created the black hole information paradox in 1975, which is puzzling.

Along with the black hole information paradox and the idea of the shrinking process of the star as it “dies” to become a black hole, I thought of something interesting. So when the Big Bang occurred, everything evolved from that point. With the model that Dr. Mathur put on the board, there will be the “big crunch,” acting as the opposite of the Big Bang. I found it amazing to think that since information is essentially lost when the black hole is in its singularity, this process could have happened many times before, but since all information is lost, we have no way of knowing.

Finally, I found it fascinating that after so much research and time spent on these ideas, we still only know about 5% of visible matter (stars). The ideas of dark energy and dark matter have somewhat recently emerged, and created more room for information to be learned about the universe. The concepts that may be presented about these things within the next 10-20 years is something that may create a paradigm shift. Altogether, the philosophy and physics of the work that Hawking and other great minds have completed is all somewhat of a scrambled mess, but in a good way. The more work that is done and the more small bits of information that is learned, the closer we get to pinning it all together in the right way to have a full picture.

Dr. Mathur spoke to the topic of Steven Hawking and his discoveries related to black holes. To be completely honest, I knew Steven Hawking was an influential scientist, but did not know what discoveries he had made related to the scientific field. The talk given by Dr. Mathur was very informative and interesting. I appreciated how Dr. Mathur discussed two things that students have heard of, Hawking and black holes, but do not know about them in detail. Dr. Mathur detailing the complex science and physics behind black holes was very enticing. I had no idea that stars start collapsing which eventually lead to the creation of a black hole. He took an extremely hard topic and simplified it, so we could understand them. I and many others, based on our questions, have found the universe and stars completely fascinating. Hawking is an influential figure in modern day science that I have heard of but did not know of his discoveries. I appreciated learning more about his discoveries, related to black holes and the Big Bang theory, that we tend to cover in basic science and physic classes.

Going in to the talk, I was familiar with intermediate levels of physics and some knowledge of star cycles and such. I was amazed at how easily the speaker was able to put complicated topics in to very easy to understand sections. There was almost no prerequisite knowledge needed to understand what was being conveyed. I learned a great deal about what made Hawking famous with the mathematical proof that black holes can form after a certain threshold is passed, or initial mass. I was unaware of the Black Hole Information Loss Paradox and it was interesting to hear that there are so many unsolved problems still in physics that can’t be answered by the tools that we currently possess. Another thing that interested me was his condition. I am very familiar with ALS and was aware that he had the condition, but I did not know that it started to affect him in his twenties. This is fairly early for the disease to start to show symptoms. It was also incredible how long he was able to persist with the average lifespan after diagnosis being 5~10 years.