Jacob Bekenstein's Universes: From Black Holes to Modified Theories of Gravity

TL;DR

This paper reviews Jacob Bekenstein's influential work on black hole thermodynamics and modified gravity theories, highlighting his scientific legacy and personal interactions over decades.

Contribution

It provides a reflective overview of Bekenstein's pioneering contributions across various scales in gravity and his influence on modern theoretical physics.

Findings

Bekenstein's work laid the foundation for black hole thermodynamics.

He invented the TeVeS modified gravity theory.

His insights continue to influence gravitational research.

Abstract

Jacob Bekenstein's pioneering contributions to the foundations of Gravity cover a broad range of scales, from Black Holes to the entire Universe. He is well known as the father of Black Hole Thermodynamics and the inventor of the TeVeS modified gravity theory. I reflect here on my interaction with him, from the time he supervised me for my MSc project at Ben-Gurion University in the early 1980s to his sabbatical visit at UCL in 2014, about a year before he passed away (sadly just a month before the first LIGO discovery of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole). His quote "I feel more comfortable in the world if I understand why things are happening" reflects the way he viewed the world as a Physicist as well as his personal belief. He also allegedly said "Sometimes theories are smarter than their inventors".