James Burkett Hartle: a Biographical Memoir

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Horowitz, Gary T., Thorne, Kip S.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Horowitz, Gary T.
Thorne, Kip S.
author_facet Horowitz, Gary T.
Thorne, Kip S.
contents James Burkett Hartle was a theoretical physicist who made major contributions to our understanding of relativistic stars, black holes, and cosmology. Most of his career, however, was devoted to studying the universe as a quantum system. As a result, he was known as the father of quantum cosmology. He is best known for two seminal papers with Stephen Hawking that introduced two quantum states of fundamental importance: the "Hartle-Hawking vacuum" for matter fields outside a black hole, and the "no-boundary wave function of the universe" for cosmology. Jim (as everyone called him) was a warm and caring person who was genuinely concerned with the success of his students, postdocs, and colleagues. He was generous with his time and helped to foster a culture of a welcoming family among gravitational physicists.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_14288
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle James Burkett Hartle: a Biographical Memoir
Horowitz, Gary T.
Thorne, Kip S.
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
History and Philosophy of Physics
James Burkett Hartle was a theoretical physicist who made major contributions to our understanding of relativistic stars, black holes, and cosmology. Most of his career, however, was devoted to studying the universe as a quantum system. As a result, he was known as the father of quantum cosmology. He is best known for two seminal papers with Stephen Hawking that introduced two quantum states of fundamental importance: the "Hartle-Hawking vacuum" for matter fields outside a black hole, and the "no-boundary wave function of the universe" for cosmology. Jim (as everyone called him) was a warm and caring person who was genuinely concerned with the success of his students, postdocs, and colleagues. He was generous with his time and helped to foster a culture of a welcoming family among gravitational physicists.
title James Burkett Hartle: a Biographical Memoir
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
History and Philosophy of Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14288