Stellar Nucleosynthesis

B-squared-F-H

Hoyle went on to work in a famous collaboration with Willy Fowler and Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge to find a solution to the origin of the chemical elements. Their mammoth paper, ‘Synthesis of the elements in stars’ was published in Reviews of Modern Physics, (pp. 547-650) in 1957. With over 1300 citations it is Hoyle’s most frequently referenced paper.

Willy Fowler was a life-long stream-train enthusiast. This photograph shows Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, Fowler and Fred Hoyle together at Fowler’s sixtieth birthday, in July 1971. He was presented with the model engine as a present for his birthday. ‘Synthesis of the elements in stars’ is universally referred to by scientists as B2FH (B-squared-F-H) in reference to the initials of the surnames of the four authors.

Hoyle's Notebook | The r-Process | B-squared-F-H

Photograph of Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, Willy Fowler, and Fred Hoyle in 1971. Photo © Don Clayton.

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