Stephen Hawking and J.B. Hartle. 1983

J.B. Hartle (b.1939) and Stephen Hawking (1942-2018).

‘Wave function of the Universe.’ Offprint from: Physical Review D, Vol. 28, No. 12, pp.2960-2975. [Brookhaven, NY: The American Physical Society,] 15 December 1983.

Offprint dealing with the Euclidean approach to boundary conditions of the Universe. This paper suggests that an expanding universe can be created quantum-mechanically, thus avoiding the singularities of classical big bang cosmology.

Famous paper describing the Hartle-Hawking 'no boundary proposal’: it applies Euclidean quantum gravity to derive a quantum mechanical wave function for the entire Universe and shows that there is a small but finite probability of tunnelling to an expanding de-Sitter universe.

Quarto (285 x 210mm). Stapled self-wrappers (punch holes). Provenance: the estate of Professor Stephen Hawking.

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