View source for Biography:Jacob Bekenstein

{{Short description|Mexican-Israeli physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name                    = Jacob Bekenstein
| image                   = Bekenstein100 (cropped).JPG
| image_size              = 200px
| caption                 = Bekenstein in 2009
| birth_date              = {{Birth date|1947|5|1}}
| birth_place             = [[Place:Mexico City|Mexico City]], Mexico
| death_date              = {{Death date and age|2015|8|16|1947|5|1}}
| death_place             = [[Place:Helsinki|Helsinki]], Finland
| citizenship             = Mexico<br />{{wipe|United States}}<br />[[Place:Israel|Israel]]
| field                   = [[Physics:Theoretical physics|Theoretical physics]]
| work_institution        = [[Organization:Hebrew University of Jerusalem|Hebrew University of Jerusalem]]<br />[[Organization:Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|Ben-Gurion University of the Negev]]
| alma_mater              = [[Organization:Princeton University|Princeton University]]<br />Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
| doctoral_advisor        = [[Biography:John Archibald Wheeler|John Wheeler]]
| doctoral_students       = 
| known_for               = [[Astronomy:Black hole thermodynamics|Black hole thermodynamics]]
| author_abbreviation_bot = 
| author_abbreviation_zoo = 
| prizes                  = {{plainlist|
* Rothschild Prize in Physics (1988)
* Israel Prize (2005)
* Wolf Prize in Physics (2012)
* Einstein Prize (APS) (2015)
}}
| footnotes               = 
}}

'''Jacob David Bekenstein''' ({{lang-he|יעקב בקנשטיין}}; May 1, 1947 – August 16, 2015) was a Mexican-born American-Israeli theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the foundation of [[Astronomy:Black hole thermodynamics|black hole thermodynamics]] and to other aspects of the connections between [[Information#Information theory|information]] and gravitation.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Wald, Robert M. |title=Jacob David BEKENSTEIN |journal=Physics Today |volume=68 |issue=12 |date=1 December 2015 |page=68 |doi=10.1063/PT.3.3029 |bibcode=2015PhT....68l..68W |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Biography==
Jacob Bekenstein was born in [[Place:Mexico City|Mexico City]] to Joseph and Esther (''née'' Vladaslavotsky), Polish Jews who immigrated to Mexico.<ref name="nytimesobit">{{cite news|last1=Overbye|first1=Dennis|title=Jacob Bekenstein, Physicist Who Revolutionized Theory of Black Holes, Dies at 68|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/science/space/jacob-bekenstein-physicist-who-revolutionized-theory-of-black-holes-dies-at-68.html?_r=0|access-date=August 22, 2015|work={{wipe|The New York Times}}|date=August 21, 2015}}</ref> He moved to the United States during his early life, gaining U.S. citizenship in 1968.<ref name="jspace">{{cite news|url=http://www.jspacenews.com/jacob-bekenstein-black-hole-pioneer-hebrew-university-physicist-died/|title=Jacob Bekenstein, Black Hole Pioneer and Hebrew University Physicist, Has Died|agency=Jspace|date=August 18, 2015|access-date=August 19, 2015|archive-date=August 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150826000421/http://www.jspacenews.com/jacob-bekenstein-black-hole-pioneer-hebrew-university-physicist-died/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was also a citizen of Israel.<ref name="cv">{{cite web|url=http://www.phys.huji.ac.il/~bekenste/Bekenstein_CV.pdf|title=Curriculum vitae|access-date=August 18, 2015|publisher=The Racah Institute of Physics}}</ref>

Bekenstein attended the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, now known as the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, obtaining both an undergraduate degree and a Master of Science degree in 1969. He went on to receive a [[Social:Doctor of Philosophy|Doctor of Philosophy]] degree from [[Organization:Princeton University|Princeton University]], working under the direction of [[Biography:John Archibald Wheeler|John Archibald Wheeler]], in 1972.<ref name="physics">{{cite web|url=http://physics.utsa.edu/Seminars/2015-Spring/2015-04-16-Jacob-Bekenstein.pdf|title= Professor Jacob Bekenstein|publisher=The University of Texas at San Antonio|access-date=August 18, 2015}}</ref>

Bekenstein had three children with his wife, Bilha. All three children, Yehonadav,{{efn|name=Yehonadav|1= In 2018, Yehonadav joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion as an assistant professor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://materials.technion.ac.il/members/yehonadav-bekenstein/|title=Yehonadav Bekenstein|website=Department of Materials Science and Engineering|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-16|archive-date=November 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116142859/https://materials.technion.ac.il/members/yehonadav-bekenstein/|url-status=dead}}</ref>}} Uriya and Rivka Bekenstein, became scientists.<ref name="nytimesobit"/>  Bekenstein was known as a religious man and a believer, being quoted as saying: "I look at the world as a product of [[Religion:God|God]], He set very specific laws and we delight in discovering them through scientific work."<ref>{{cite news|title=Jacob Bekenstein, towering theoretical physicist who studied black holes, dies at 68|newspaper={{wipe|The Washington Post}} |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jacob-bekenstein-towering-theoretical-physicist-who-studied-black-holes-dies-at-68/2015/08/27/ff404f90-4ba3-11e5-84df-923b3ef1a64b_story.html}}</ref>

==Scientific career==
By 1972, Bekenstein had published three influential papers about the black hole stellar phenomenon, postulating the [[Astronomy:No-hair theorem|no-hair theorem]] and presenting a theory on black hole thermodynamics. In the years to come, Bekenstein continued his exploration of black holes, publishing papers on their [[Physics:Entropy|entropy]] and [[Physics:Mass#Mass in quantum physics|quantum mass]].<ref name="cv"/>

Bekenstein was a postdoctoral fellow at the [[Organization:University of Texas at Austin|University of Texas at Austin]] from 1972 to 1974. He then immigrated to Israel to lecture and teach at [[Organization:Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|Ben-Gurion University]] in Beersheba. In 1978, he became a full professor and in 1983, head of the [[Physics:Astrophysics|astrophysics]] department.

In 1990, he became a professor at the [[Organization:Hebrew University of Jerusalem|Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] and was appointed head of its theoretical physics department three years later.<ref name="cv"/> He was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1997.<ref name="aps">{{cite web|url=http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?last_nm=Bekenstein&first_nm=Jacob&year=2015|title=2015 Einstein Prize Recipient|access-date=August 18, 2015}}</ref> He was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in 2009 and 2010.<ref>[http://www.ias.edu/people/cos/frontpage?page=11 Institute for Advanced Study: A Community of Scholars] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130106223448/http://www.ias.edu/people/cos/frontpage?page=11 |date=January 6, 2013 }}</ref>

In addition to lectures and residencies around the world,<ref name="physics"/> Bekenstein continued to serve as Polak professor of theoretical physics at the Hebrew University until his death at the age of 68, in [[Place:Helsinki|Helsinki]], Finland.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.astroblogs.nl/2015/08/18/natuurkundige-jacob-bekenstein-overleden/|title=Natuurkundige Jacob Bekenstein overleden|first=Arie|last=Nouwen|date=August 18, 2015|access-date=August 18, 2015|language=nl|agency=Astroblogs|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150819012550/http://www.astroblogs.nl/2015/08/18/natuurkundige-jacob-bekenstein-overleden/|archive-date=August 19, 2015|df=mdy-all}}</ref> He died unexpectedly on August 16, 2015, just months after receiving the [[Organization:American Physical Society|American Physical Society]]'s Einstein Prize "for his ground-breaking work on black hole entropy, which launched the field of black hole thermodynamics and transformed the long effort to unify quantum mechanics and gravitation".<ref name="jspace"/><ref name="aps"/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/in-memorium-jacob-bekenstein-1947-2015-and-black-hole-entropy/|work=Scientific American|title=In Memoriam: Jacob Bekenstein (1947–2015) and Black Hole Entropy|first=Jennifer|last=Ouellette|date=August 17, 2015|access-date=August 18, 2015}}</ref>

==Contributions to physics==
In 1972, Bekenstein was the first to suggest that black holes should have a well-defined [[Physics:Entropy|entropy]]. He wrote that a black hole's entropy was proportional to the area of its (the black hole's) event horizon. Bekenstein also formulated the generalized second law of thermodynamics, black hole thermodynamics, for systems including black holes. Both contributions were affirmed when [[Biography:Stephen Hawking|Stephen Hawking]] (and, independently, Zeldovich and others) proposed the existence of [[Physics:Hawking radiation|Hawking radiation]] two years later. Hawking had initially opposed Bekenstein's idea on the grounds that a black hole could not radiate energy and therefore could not have entropy.<ref>Overbye, Dennis, Jacob Bekenstein, Physicist, dies at 68; revolutionized the study of black holes, New York Times, August 22, 2015, p.B7</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Levi Julian|first=Hana|title='40 Years of Black Hole Thermodynamics' in Jerusalem|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/159585#.UErd_yJipNs|access-date=September 8, 2012|publisher=Arutz Sheva|date=September 3, 2012}}</ref> However, in 1974, Hawking performed a lengthy calculation that convinced him that particles can indeed be emitted from black holes. Today this is known as Hawking radiation. Bekenstein's doctoral adviser, John Archibald Wheeler, also worked with him to develop the [[Astronomy:No-hair theorem|no-hair theorem]], a reference to Wheeler's saying that "black holes have no hair," in the early 1970s.<ref>''The Big Bang: A View from the 21st Century'' (2003) by David M. Harland, pp. 227–8, {{ISBN|978-1852337131}}</ref> Bekenstein's suggestion was proven unstable, but it was influential in the development of the field.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/theoreticalphysics/Public/MSc/Dissertations/2010/Wahiba%20Toubal%20Dissertation.pdf|title=No-Hair Theorems and introduction to Hairy Black Holes|first=Wahiba|last=Toubal|year=2010|access-date=August 18, 2015|publisher=Imperial College London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182743/https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/theoreticalphysics/Public/MSc/Dissertations/2010/Wahiba%20Toubal%20Dissertation.pdf|archive-date=March 3, 2016|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last1=Mayo|first1=Avraham|last2=Bekenstein|first2=Jacob|year=1996|title=No hair for spherical black holes: charged and nonminimally coupled scalar field with self−interaction|journal=[[Physics:Physical Review D|Physical Review D]]|volume=54|issue=8|pages=5059–5069|arxiv=gr-qc/9602057|doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.54.5059|pmid=10021195|bibcode = 1996PhRvD..54.5059M |s2cid=32267348}}</ref>

Based on his black-hole thermodynamics work, Bekenstein also demonstrated the [[Astronomy:Bekenstein bound|Bekenstein bound]]: there is a maximum to the amount of information that can potentially be stored in a given finite region of space which has a finite amount of energy (which is similar to the [[Physics:Holographic principle|holographic principle]]).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://plus.maths.org/content/bekenstein|title=The limits of information|first=Marianne|last=Freiberger|work=+plus Magazine|date=November 3, 2014|access-date=August 18, 2015}}</ref>

In 1982, Bekenstein developed a rigorous framework to generalize the laws of [[Physics:Electromagnetism|electromagnetism]] to handle inconstant [[Physics:Physical constant|physical constant]]s. His framework replaces the [[Physics:Fine-structure constant|fine-structure constant]] by a [[Scalar field|scalar field]]. However, this framework for changing constants did not incorporate gravity.<ref>''Possibilities in Parallel: Seeking the Multiverse'' (2013) by the editors of ''Scientific American'', {{ISBN|9781466842519}}</ref>

In 2004, Bekenstein boosted [[Biography:Mordehai Milgrom|Mordehai Milgrom]]'s theory of Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) by developing a relativistic version. It is known as [[Physics:Tensor–vector–scalar gravity|TeVeS]] for Tensor/Vector/Scalar and it introduces three different fields in space time to replace the one gravitational field.<ref name=Bekenstein2004>{{Citation |last1=Bekenstein |first1=J. D. |year=2004 |title=Relativistic gravitation theory for the modified Newtonian dynamics paradigm |journal=[[Physics:Physical Review D|Physical Review D]] |volume=70 |issue=8 |pages=083509 |arxiv=astro-ph/0403694 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.70.083509 |bibcode=2004PhRvD..70h3509B}}</ref>

==Awards and recognition==
*Ernst David Bergmann Prize for Science (Israel) in 1977<ref name="awards">{{cite web|url=http://www.consejoculturalmundial.org/cv-science2012/Prof-JackBekenstein.pdf|title=Prof. Jack Bekenstein|publisher=World Cultural Council|access-date=August 18, 2015}}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
*[[Biography:Lev Landau|Landau Prize for Research in Physics]] (Israel) in 1981<ref name="awards"/>
*First prize essay for the Gravity Research Foundation (United States) in 1981<ref name="awards"/>
*Rothschild Prize in the Physical Sciences in 1988<ref name="awards"/>
*Elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1997<ref name="aps"/>
*Second prize essay for the Gravity Research Foundation in 2001<ref name="awards"/>
*Elected to the World Jewish Academy of Sciences in 2003<ref name="cv"/>
*Israel Prize in Physics in 2005<ref name=prizeJR>{{cite web|url=http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashsah/Bekenstein/BekensteinNimokim.htm |title=Israel Prize Judges' Rationale for the award (in Hebrew) |publisher=Israel Prize Official Site |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101021013245/http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashsah/Bekenstein/BekensteinNimokim.htm |archive-date=October 21, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*Weizmann Prize in the Exact Sciences (Tel Aviv, Israel) in 2011<ref name="awards"/>
*Wolf Prize in Physics in 2012<ref name=prizeWolf>{{cite web |url= http://www.wolffund.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=winners&cs=699| title=Jacob D. Bekenstein Winner of Wolf Prize in Physics – 2012}}</ref>
*Einstein Prize of the American Physical Society in 2015<ref name="aps"/>

==Published works==
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Information in the Holographic Universe''. Scientific American, Volume 289, Number 2, August 2003, p.&nbsp;61.[http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=000AF072-4891-1F0A-97AE80A84189EEDF]
* J. D. Bekenstein and M. Schiffer, ''Quantum Limitations on the Storage and Transmission of Information'', [https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0311050 Int. J. of Modern Physics 1:355–422 (1990)].
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Entropy content and information flow in systems with limited energy'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v37/i9/p3437_1 Phys. Rev. D 30:1669–1679 (1984)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515085527/https://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v37/i9/p3437_1 |date=May 15, 2022 }}. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Communication and energy'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v37/i9/p3437_1 Phys. Rev A 37(9):3437–3449 (1988)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515085527/https://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v37/i9/p3437_1 |date=May 15, 2022 }}. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Entropy bounds and the second law for black holes'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v49/i4/p1912_1 Phys. Rev. D 27(10):2262–2270 (1983)]. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Specific entropy and the sign of the energy'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v26/i4/p950_1 Phys. Rev. D 26(4):950–953 (1982)]. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Black holes and everyday physics'', [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1982GReGr..14..355B&amp;db_key=PHY&amp;data_type=HTML&amp;format= General Relativity and Gravitation, 14(4):355–359 (1982)]. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Universal upper bound to entropy-to-energy ratio for bounded systems'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v23/i2/p287_1 Phys. Rev. D 23:287–298 (1981)]. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Energy cost of information transfer'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v46/i10/p623_1 Phys. Rev. Lett 46:623–626. (1981)]. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Black-hole thermodynamics'', [http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/33/1/10.1063/1.2913906 Physics Today, 24–31 (Jan. 1980)].
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Statistical black hole thermodynamics'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v12/i10/p3077_1 Phys. Rev. D 12:3077–3085 (1975)]. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Generalized second law of thermodynamics in black hole physics'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v9/i12/p3292_1 Phys. Rev. D 9:3292–3300 (1974)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725010822/http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v9/i12/p3292_1 |date=July 25, 2008 }}. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Black holes and entropy'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v7/i8/p2333_1 Phys. Rev. D 7:2333–2346 (1973)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725012204/http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v7/i8/p2333_1 |date=July 25, 2008 }}. [citeseer]
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Black holes and the second law'', Nuovo Cimento Letters 4:737–740 (1972).
* J. D. Bekenstein, ''Nonexistence of baryon number of static black holes'', [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v5/i6/p1239_1 Phys. Rev. D 5:2403–2412 (1972)]. [citeseer]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
== References ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* [https://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Bekenstein_J/0/1/0/all/0/1 Bekenstein's papers list at ArXiv] with links to the full papers
* [http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashsah/Bekenstein/BekensteinKorotHaim.htm Israel Prize Official Site – CV of Jacob Bekenstein] {{in lang|he}}

{{Wolf Prize in Physics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bekenstein, Jacob}}
[[Category:Thermodynamicists]]

{{Sourceattribution|Jacob Bekenstein}}