Hawking has been dead for 6 years, and has recently been stirred up by some self-leaders. In addition to some "problems", it is also advertised that he is actually just a science writer with no scientific achievements. Let's sort out Hawking's real scientific achievements and see what level he really is.
After Hawking's death, Caltech physicist John Preskill wrote an obituary for him, which was published in the journal Science. Let's take a look at his accomplishments in this obituary.
Note that "classical gravity" here does not refer to Newtonian gravity, but to general relativity. In the classical gravitational phase, Stephen Hawking proved that the universe inevitably reaches a singularity when it goes back in time, and that time has a starting point. In other words,He used the general theory of relativity to theoretically deduce the inevitable existence of the big **. In addition, Hawking greatly advanced the study of black holes, especially the in-depth study of black holes and thermodynamics.
Stephen Hawking's research in 1974 shook the scientific community (Stephen's pivot from classical to quantum gr**ity was precipitated by his greatest scientific achievement, which shook the world of physics in 1974）。Since Einstein's theory of relativity introduced the existence of black holes, scientists believe that nothing can leave black holes. However, Hawking used the theory of quantum mechanics to successfully prove that black holes also emit radiation, which is Hawking radiation. Hawking's research established a deep connection between quantum theory, relativity theory, and information theory, and still guides the study of quantum gravity theory.
By analogy, Hawking's theory of black hole radiation is equivalent to Bohr's theory of atomic orbits. Bohr used classical mechanics and electromagnetism to build the first atomic orbital model and successfully interpreted the spectrum of hydrogen atoms. Although we later had more complete Schrödinger equations, Dirac equations, and even the Standard Model, Bohr's first step was crucial. Hawking's theory of black hole radiation also uses "classical" quantum mechanics and general relativity, which builds a bridge between quantum theory and general relativity, and more subtly, the theory also involves the second law of thermodynamics, which is closely related to the nature of time. The greatest contribution of this theory is not that "black holes also have radiation", but it is the first step towards a truly unified theory of quantum gravity, and it also implies that this grand unified theory may also explain the nature of time.
So Stephen Hawking was the top physicist of the 20th century.
Some people may compare him to Yang Zhenning, but I can only say that both are top physicists of the 20th century, and most people have the same little understanding of Yang Zhenning's scientific achievements. People only know that the universe is not conserved, but they do not know the "Yang-Mills theory", which is the cornerstone of the electroweak unified theory, and the subsequent Standard Model.
This is because the Nobel Prize is only awarded to proven results, so experimental physicists receive far more awards than theoretical physicists. Even Einstein won the prize for "the explanation of the photoelectric effect" rather than the theory of relativity. Stephen Hawking made important contributions to the theory of black holes, but this is extremely difficult to verify. Until Stephen Hawking's death, although scientists generally recognized the existence of black holes, they could only be said to be "possible" in the strict sense, so Cygnus X-1 was "very likely" a black hole, and the galactic center was a "massive dense mass accumulation area", and "it is very likely to be a black hole". The black hole accretion disk theory has long been successful in explaining the phenomenon of active galactic nuclei such as various quasars, B-type objects in the constellation Scorpio, and the Sifo galaxy, but the core key black hole is still only "possible".
In 2019. That year, the EHT project photographed the direct ** of the black hole. By this time, Hawking had been dead for a year. In 2020, Roger Penrose was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contributions to the theory of black holes, becoming one of the few theoretical physicists to receive the prize. The theory of black holes, especially the singularity theory, was perfected by a series of theories published by Penrose and Hawking in the 70s, which are collectively known as the Penrose-Hawking singularity theorem. So if Hawking hadn't died, would he have been able to catch the Nobel Prize in 2020?History has no ifs.
If anyone still doubts Hawking's strength, then take a look at his "Large-scale Structure of Time and Space", which is still a basic textbook.
Conclusion:Stephen Hawking is one of the top physicists of the 20th century, and although not as good as Einstein, he is a "top physicist".
Let's talk about the so-called "problem" that has been circulating recently, which is actually an old rumor, but I didn't expect that it needs to be refuted now.
Let's start with this **, what can you see from this **, Hawking is hugged left and right by a beautiful woman?So let's see who the people on the ** are.
The first beautiful lady from the right, her name is Lisa Randall, a professor of physics at Harvard and an authority in the field of particle physics and cosmology. Just because she's beautiful doesn't mean she's a vase. The second man is Kip Thorne, a physicist and Nobel laureateThe third is D**id Gross, a member of the American Academy of Sciences and a Nobel laureate. The fourth is Stephen Hawking. The lady on the far left doesn't know, but I know it's not a "Lori" based on her age.
Next up are the court documents. The so-called "Hawking likes to watch unclothed gnomes solve complex equations on a blackboard that is too high" circulated on the Internet is actually a spoof by a user on X, who clearly marked it as a joke in the original text.
There are indeed two references to Hawking in real court documents, and only two. The court documents were filed by a woman against Epstein. The first mention of Hawking is that the defense lawyer asked the woman to provide the relevant persons she mentioned, including Hawking. The second is an email sent by Epstein to another person of interest, asking him to find evidence to prove that the woman's accusations were false, the strongest of which was that "Clinton attended the dinner" and that "the new version of Hawking participated."
So what do the court documents say?It shows that Hawking was mentioned in the woman's accusation at that time, and the defense went to find evidence to prove that what she said was not true. Later, the defense proved through FBI records that Clinton had never been to the island, and that there was no follow-up to Hawking's part. With Hawking dead, Epstein committing suicide, and the trial adjourned, no one will spend time and energy proving or denying the plaintiff's claims.
Of course, in the mouths of some self-**, "may have" is "must have", "how can it appear if there is not"?
This reminds me of a sentence: "Although Fei Ziyun and Zhang Xianshu are unknown, their affairs are unwarranted." "It seems that a thousand years later, Qin Hui still has a large number of disciples and grandchildren.