Brandon Carter

Infobox Scientist
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name = Brandon Carter


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birth_date = 1942
birth_place = Australia
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fields = General relativity
workplaces = CNRS
alma_mater = Cambridge
doctoral_advisor = Dennis Sciama
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known_for = Carter's constant
No-hair theorem
Carter-Penrose diagrams
Doomsday argument
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Brandon Carter (born 1942) is an Australian theoretical physicist, best known for his work on the properties of black holes and for being the first to name and employ the anthropic principle in its contemporary form. He is a researcher at the Meudon campus of the Laboratoire Univers et Théories, part of the CNRS.

After studying at Cambridge under Dennis Sciama, Carter made several important contributions to the golden age of general relativity. He found the exact solution of the geodesic equations for the Kerr/Newman electrovacuum solution, and the maximal analytic extension of this solution. In the process, he discovered the extraordinary "fourth constant of motion" and the Killing-Yano tensor. Together with Werner Israel and Stephen Hawking, he proved the no-hair theorem in general relativity, stating that all stationary black holes are completely characterized by mass, charge, and angular momentum. More recently, Carter, Chachoua, and Chamel (2005) have formulated a relativistic theory of elastic deformations in neutron stars.

ee also

*Anthropic principle
*Golden age of general relativity
*Carter catastrophe

References

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External links

* [http://luth2.obspm.fr/LuThE.html Site of the Laboratoire "Univers et Théories" (LUTH)]
** [http://luth2.obspm.fr/~luthier/carter/ Brandon Carter’s page at the LUTH (in French)]