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And while you're at it, read a good book about String Theory.

Does not apply to a black hole, IMO.

Not until stellar engineering encompasses more than theory.

Oblig., but not XKCD for a change.

If there's nothing wrong with me, maybe there is something wrong with the universe!
<3

"If you're going in with an anti-violence message, then everything is flat and preachy. Characters only act how they are in order to reinforce the message. "Oh no, I shot a guy, and now my life is horrible! Why ever must we live in such a violent world!" "
Like Tarantino?

Is an ultraviolet catastrophe a math term, or a physics one?

A mathematical one. The simplest example would be something like the solution to the equation dy/dx=y^2, with y=1 at x=0. This has the solution 1/(1-x), which "blows up" at x=1. Technically, you would say the solution has a singularity at x=1. The singularity is characteristic of the differential equation itself, and not really of the initial conditions or the methods used to solve it. Inherently, you're going to face this problem when attempting to solve the differential equation.

A "blow" up or pole is just one kind of singularity. There are many others. In the context of physical equations, their presence suggests that the assumptions of your equation break down as the solution approaches the singularity, or that your assumptions were flawed to begin with. In the context of mathematics, it means that any numerical system you use to solve the equation is going to break down horribly as it gets close to the singularity. This is a huge problem as if you're using a numerical solver, you typically have no idea where the singularities are anyway. What's worse, most numerical methods will actually continue along happily after they have passed the singularity, the only problem being every number they return after that point is more than likely totally wrong.

It depends on what the authors mean by "classical solutions", but my reading of it is that they mean solutions without singularities and which decay quickly, both of which are reasonable solutions for the equation in question. Since the paper (at the arXiv) is 50 pages long, I'm not entirely sure. Their solution might allow certain other types of singularity or govern the propagation of singularities. I honestly have no idea, which I understand is fairly common these days.

Every geek goes through this rite of Passage...

http://abstrusegoose.com/206

(Bonus with Alt-Text and image can be clicked to display another similar one...)

Do we need another XKCD pic to go with thatÉ

... they wouldn't notice us

He copied it from abstrusegoose.com

http://abstrusegoose.com/88 ->
http://abstrusegoose.com/secret-archives/across-the-third-dimension

He copied it from abstrusegoose.com

http://abstrusegoose.com/88 ->
http://abstrusegoose.com/secret-archives/across-the-third-dimension

Well, there's an open letter to the Higgs Boson... http://abstrusegoose.com/118

Rite of Passage

I hadn't come across that comic before, and was quite impressed until comic 23. The glaringly obvious error in the 95th decimal place spoiled it for me - everyone knows it goes '...5342117067...' Sorry, but with such schoolboy errors staring you in the face, it still has a way to go before it's a real geek comic.

I love XKCD, but AG:XKCD::Drake-Sagan:ThisGuysRNANoise

Future Dating. The scary thing is that this is what will obviously happen.

Of course they would go to Fermilab, what else is a particle physicist going to do?

http://abstrusegoose.com/68

Apropos.

You don't find the Higgs boson.
The Higgs boson finds you.

Lolcats and Schrodingers cat together - interesting.

http://abstrusegoose.com/7