Thursday, 23rd March 2000 at 16.00 hrs
Room N115, Block 2
Tea/coffee complimentary
 
 
 
 
 

The work of Hawking, Penrose and others in the 60's showed that space-time as described by General Relativity - Einstein's geometric theory of the gravitational field - is plagued with singularities, for example in the description of the gravitational collapse of sufficiently large stars which have exhausted their nuclear fuel. Such singularities may be concealed insideblack holes; whatever unknown and possibly pathological physics occurs at the singularity is shielded from our view. However the singularity may be visible, causing severe problems for the space-time. This led Penrose to formulate the "cosmic censorship hypothesis" that singularities forming in realistic gravitational collapse are always surrounded by black holes.The aim of the talk will be to introduce the concepts of black holes and space-time singularities in the context of the cosmic censorshiphypothesis and to review the current status of this hypothesis.