J965 Department of Ap died Lethenstics and Yheoretical University of thet is gravity is siways ctwactive an erse obeys the Copirnican trineiple th o it is spe hhouogeneous, then theive aust be = singulurity where the censity i infinite either in the future oc in the post. If, es seeus to be the case, the sinuulority is in the past, this iaplics thet the Universe hed a beginning.vezertaent of Ap licd uathel ond theoretical Physics cniversity of Coubri cee Gravitations] collapse of mausive objects hos « consiicrable 0 be in the direction of the norual te the sufzces alsopg p/™ where f is constant on the 4 - surface. vherefore f = (u) tet V* = elie) pp” vf eee) Ho ifpyg is in the + tine direction “i ifpije is in the tine direction mah 2 a. Veorwr = 2 erefore Va is = comruence of tine-Like irrotaticnel geodesic unit vectors, aw 6 =v, * ey ee Varn as sistem ee) then Bp UP = ZOOM Rb VV! Cavehaysuette wut Ory ot >0 ohh a Ua >0 (by the assumption that arity 30 J Ob We-36 at GLO then@ will become infinite in finite proper time£0 LG! sath vecoe infinite tn finite yroper time. If we oususe thst the surfaces fA = const. reusin syece-Like, vhen this means that the convergence of their unit normals beccaes infinite. This implies that they uust degenerate into, at the uost, a 2~ surface; call this © . Consider the fluid flow vector Ug. This is uniquely devined by the geometry as the timelike eigenvector of U*CRayo £GabR) = pe, Now consider sll fluid flow lines, # crossing B. If they do not ell the jinstein tensor: interscet C, let be the subset of F that intersect c. Let M be the subset of H intersected ty L . Since C is uniquely defined by the geonetry, / andMwill also be uniquely defined. Eut, by the original postulate, H was @ completely houogeneous surface, therefore it ely defined subset. lence all the fluid flow Lines ? wus can have no uni intersect C and che density will be infinite there. The above was on the assuaption thet the surfaces {A = const. reasin space-like, ‘They may houever becone light-Like (f = 0, a,¢ 0). It will be shown that in this case too there must be singularities. Consider the surface = conat. on which Mopit f 20 B40 then yap = yp ei = Eh ie Introduce a geodesic mull congruence Le throughout space e kg bo = © b Le 20 bass also take L, to be propartionsl tof‘, on the surface ff =O he = SPee 7rrivoine man vector aM» fh, et Lae =f, Mea WE == 1 Lm =m =O then one may writer ‘ob hay, +e, + MA) + OM, A, som, + Sh My Slay +e + ee, fe tren L "= | sd coe e (hai, e = Lape + RO, toe a E Cae Oe Oo eee ce, 6 But RA 4°>0 by the assumption thet wavity is attractive and the space is not eupty therefore will become infinite within a finite ® distance. Uhe only freedom we have in the choice of £,, on the surtecof = Ois: ise, Q 4s constant along a null ray te = Gea! thus L ‘will be infinite whend,' is a ef = 0, onvbienl,!* 4 finite. Therefore the 2 ~ surface on the 3 - sur finite will be uniquely defined. ue may then apoly the srgunents used bet! that the density will be infinite there.6. Of course the singulerity could be in the past not in the future. In this cose we wold speak of the universe expanding away frou # collapseé state rather than collapsing towards a state of infinite density. Indeed this would see to be true of our universe, The question whethe. our universe will fall back again or whether it is expanding fast enough to avoid this is one thst can only be settled by observation. so fer the results ze inconclusive. Since space-tine cannot be extended throwh a singularity, a singularity in the past would mean thet the unive.se had a'be; ning’ + In particular it appears thet an oscillating universe is incompatible with attractive gravity and the C pernican Principle. The proof of the occurrence of a siniulerity given ebeve has depended on the existence of a group of motions. Now, of course the universe has no exact group since there are local irregularities such os stars and galaxies, jiowever, provided that the universe is spatially homogeneous on = sufficiently large scele it is possible to extend the pro and show that a singularity still occurs. 42th Apil, 1965BP. Hoyle, ws A. Fowler, Gs, Burbidge and i+ i. Burbidge: aStrophys. J+ 139, 909 (164) R. Penrose: Phys. Zev. letters 14, No. 3 57 (1965) #. Hoyle and J. Bree. Roy. Soe. (London) 4 277, 1 (1964) + Karliker: A. Raycheudhuri and 8, danerji Z.tstrophys. 127 (1864) » Robertson: Rev, . A. Raychaudhuri: Phys. Zev. 981123 (Sw. Had kend a) I was born in 1912 in Oxford, Encland and was educated ot St. Albans School. In 1959 I went up to Oxford University where I took a degree in Fhysics. hile engaged upon vacation work at the Royal Greenwich Observatory I becane interested in Cosnology and consequently cane to Canbriége to do research under Dr. Sciana. I complete my Fh.U this suamer and shall then take up a Research Fellowship at Gonville and Caivs College, Cambridge.