graduate

The Chandrasekhar - Eddington controversy

TYPEColloquium
Speaker:Professor Giora Shaviv
Affiliation:Technion
Date:12.11.2012
Time:14:30
Location:Lidow Rosen Auditorium (323)
Abstract:

I review one of the major controversies in the history of modern astrophysics between the novice Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and the celebrated Sir Arthur Eddington about the fate of stars (how stars die), the existence of compact and collapsed objects and whether macroscopic system obey quantum - relativistic - mechanics. I  review the quantum source of stellar evolution and  how big names shed away from voicing their views against a scientific dogma touted by a scientific czar.