Geoffrey R. Burbidge
Professor
Department of Physics
University of California, San Diego  
Ph.D. London 1951


Editor, Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Scientific Editor, Astrophysical Journal
Fellow, Royal Society
AAS Warner Prize (with M. Burbidge) 1959
NRAO Jansky Lecturer
ASP Bruce Medalist 1999

Research Interests:

Theoretical Astrophysics:

Physics of active galaxies and quasi-stellar objects
Non-thermal radiation processes
Cosmology

With my collaborators, Fred Hoyle and Jayant Narlikar, I am working on the nature of
quasi-stellar objects, the origin of the redshifts in these objects, and on Quasi-Steady
State Cosmology, an alternative to the Big Bang theory.

The Quasi-Steady State Cosmology

The Quasi-Steady State Cosmology is an oscillatory, general-relativistic cosmology in which matter is created in "mini-big bangs" of about 1016 M, occurring at intervals of ~ H0-1. In this model, 4He is produced by nucleosynthesis in stars. It is then thermalized by dust grains at epochs near oscillatory minimum to produce the observed cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The energy released in the synthesis of cosmic 4He from hydrogen is nearly equal to the energy contained in the CMB. This result strongly suggests that the 4He was produced by hydrogen burning in stars and not in the early stages of a big bang. In addition, we have shown that there are good arguments for believing that the other light isotopes, D, 3He, 6Li, 7Li, 9Be, 10B, and 11B, were also synthesized in processes within stars. By combining these results with the earlier, much more detailed work of Burbidge et al. and of Cameron, we conclude that all of the chemical elements were synthesized from hydrogen in stars over a time of about 1011 yr.

This cosmology is described in our article in the April 1999 Physics Today and in several of the publications listed below.

Selected Publications

Links:
University of California, San Diego

UCSD Department of Physics

UCSD Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences




CASS Research Interests Page  gburbidge@ucsd.edu


Page designed and maintained by
S.Rappoport
Selected graphics by