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#BigBangTheory: Stephen Hawking's last paper co-authored with EU funded researcher Thomas Hertog

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Professor Hawking's final theory of the origin of the universe, on which he worked in collaboration with Professor Thomas Hertog from KU Leuven, was published in the latest issue of the renowned Journal of High-Energy Physics.

The paper, which was submitted for publication before Hawking’s death earlier this year, predicts the universe is finite and far simpler than many current theories about the Big Bang say. In 2014, Professor Hertog was awarded a €2 million grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his 5 year-long project on holographic quantum cosmology. Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas said: "I am extremely pleased that yet again EU funded research lives up to its reputation of excellence.

"The universe might not be infinitely expanding, but the list of successful ERC grantees continues to grow. They dare to put concepts into question and push our knowledge over the edge into new realms."

Modern theories predict that our local universe came into existence when the overall universe expanded after the big bang. It is widely believed that some regions of the universe then never stopped growing, others did. In their new paper, Hawking and Hertog say that this concept of eternal inflation is wrong. They predict that our universe is not a fractal structure, but reasonably smooth and, what's more, finite. Their results, if confirmed by further work, would imply a significantly smaller range of possible universes. Professor Hertog said: "This kind of work is ambitious, high-risk, and lies entirely in the realm of the curiosity-driven, fundamental sciences. It fits in very well with the goals and the vision of the ERC. I used my ERC grant to set up a kind of school in theoretical cosmology which has proven to be a fertile and stimulating research environment to explore new ideas."

More information is available in an ERC press release and an ERC interview with Professor Hertog.

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