Roger Penrose

Sir Roger Penrose, OM, FRS (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He is highly regarded for his work in mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He is also a recreational mathematician and controversial philosopher. Roger Penrose is the son of scientist Lionel S. Penrose and Margaret Leathes, and the brother of mathematician Oliver Penrose and chess grandmaster Jonathan Penrose.

Career

In 1955, while still a student, Penrose reinvented the generalized inverse (also known as Moore-Penrose inverse, see Penrose, R. "A Generalized Inverse for Matrices." Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 51, 406-413, 1955.)

Related Topics:
1955 - Moore-Penrose inverse

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Penrose earned his Ph.D. at Cambridge in 1958, writing a thesis on tensor methods in algebraic geometry under the well known algebraicist and geometer John A. Todd.

Related Topics:
Cambridge - John A. Todd

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In 1967, Penrose invented twistor theory which maps geometric objects in Minkowski space into the 4-dimensional complex space with the metric signature (2,2). In 1969 he conjectured the cosmic censorship hypothesis. This proposes (rather informally) that the universe protects us from the inherent unpredictability of singularities (such as black holes) by hiding them from our view. This form is now known as the weak censorship hypothesis; in 1979, Penrose formulated a stronger version called the strong censorship hypothesis. Together with the BKL conjecture and issues of nonlinear stability, settling the censorship conjectures is widely regarded as the most important outstanding problem in general relativity.

Related Topics:
1967 - Twistor - Minkowski space - 1969 - Cosmic censorship hypothesis - Singularities - Black hole - BKL conjecture - General relativity

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Roger Penrose is well-known for his 1974 discovery of Penrose tilings, which are formed from two tiles that can only tile the plane aperiodically. In 1984, similar patterns were found in the arrangement of atoms in quasicrystals. His most important contribution may be his 1971 invention of spin networks, which later came to form the geometry of spacetime in loop quantum gravity. He was influential in popularizing what are commonly known as Penrose diagrams (causal diagrams).

Related Topics:
1974 - Penrose tiling - Tile - Aperiodically - 1984 - Quasicrystal - 1971 - Spin network - Spacetime - Loop quantum gravity - Penrose diagram

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In 2004 Penrose released ', a 1,099-page book aimed at giving a comprehensive guide to the laws of physics.

Related Topics:
2004 - Laws of physics

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