Hawking's final multiverse theory done b4 death + Student: What Hawking taught me

[C C]

Stephen Hawking's 'breathtaking' final multiverse theory completed two weeks before he died
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018...ultiverse/

EXCERPT: A final theory explaining how mankind might detect parallel universes was completed by Stephen Hawking shortly before he died, it has emerged. Colleagues have revealed the renowned theoretical physicist’s final academic work was to set out the groundbreaking mathematics needed for a spacecraft to find traces of multiple big bangs. Currently being reviewed by a leading scientific journal, the paper, named *A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation*, may turn out to be Hawking’s most important scientific legacy....

MORE: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018...ultiverse/

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I was a student of Stephen Hawking’s – here’s what he taught me
https://theconversation.com/i-was-a-stud...t-me-93508

EXCERPT: . . . There were many occasions when physics discussions merged seamlessly into social activities: going to the pub, eating dinner at one of his favourite Cambridge restaurants, and so on. Hawking had a wonderful sense of humour. He turned his communication difficulties into an advantage, composing pithy one-liners. For instance when changing his mind about what happens to information in a black hole, he announced it in the pub by turning the volume up on his synthesizer, saying simply: “I’m coming out.” He would discuss anything and everything in a social setting: politics, movies, other branches of science, music.

As we worked in closely related fields, we saw each other regularly even after I finished my PhD. In 2017, I attended a conference in Cambridge celebrating his 75th birthday. The list of participants illustrates Hawking’s influence on academia and beyond. Many of his former students and collaborators have gone on to become leaders in research in cosmology, gravitational waves, black holes and string theory. Others have had huge impact outside academia, such as Nathan Myhrvold at Microsoft.

There is currently pressure on academics to demonstrate the immediate impact of their research on society. It is perhaps worth reflecting that impact is not easily measurable on short time scales. Hawking’s was truly blue-sky research – and yet it has fascinated millions, attracting many into scientific careers. His academic legacy is not just the remarkable science he produced, but the generations of minds he shaped.

There’s no doubt Hawking’s death is a huge loss to physics. But personally, what I will miss most is his humour and the general feeling of inspiration I got from being around him.

MORE: https://theconversation.com/i-was-a-stud...t-me-93508

[Zinjanthropos]

There is currently pressure on academics to demonstrate the immediate impact of their research on society. 

Are D-I-Y subforms, blogs and book shelves ready for a surge in popularity? Ever wonder if funding for science was suddenly eliminated worldwide, just how long would it remain that way? In this world, not very long, science means more than a glance at the stars. No powerful country wants to be caught with their pants down.

[Yazata]

Stephen Hawking's 'breathtaking' final multiverse theory completed two weeks before he died

EXCERPT: A final theory explaining how mankind might detect parallel universes was completed by Stephen Hawking shortly before he died, it has emerged. Colleagues have revealed the renowned theoretical physicist’s final academic work was to set out the groundbreaking mathematics needed for a spacecraft to find traces of multiple big bangs. Currently being reviewed by a leading scientific journal, the paper, named *A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation*, may turn out to be Hawking’s most important scientific legacy....

The paper is here (it's above my pay-grade):

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.07702.pdf

Sabine Hossenfelder isn't all that impressed. Apparently Hawking and his coauthor were hypothesizing about a particular version of cosmic inflation that if true, may have resulted in other 'multiverse' universes and should also have left detectable traces in the Cosmic Background Radiation.

But Hossenfelder complains that other very different hypotheses about the very early universe would also produce very similar traces. So there needs to be some mathematics quantifying it so as to make it possible to distinguish which traces are consistent with which hypotheses. But this Hawking paper doesn't provide that. So the idea that it gives us an observational test for the existence of other universes seems to be hyperbole.    

http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/03...l?spref=tw