What if Singularities DO NOT Exist?

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It's not too often that a giant of physics threatens to overturn an idea held to be self-evident by generations of physicists. Well, that may be the fate of the famous Penrose Singularity Theorem if we're to believe a recent paper by Roy Kerr. Long story short, the terrible singularity at the heart of the black hole may be no more.
Roy Kerr Paper: Do Black Holes have Singularities?
arxiv.org/pdf/2312.00841.pdf
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[@CallOfCutie69]

Roy Kerr, being almost 90 years old, had been looking at this debacle for half a century, and then said “fine, I’ll do it myself”. What a chad.

[@caleschley]

Kerr is still shaking things up at 90 years old. What a beast.

[@philbertgodphry1]

10:45

[@Zamicol]

This is one of the best videos Space Time has ever produced. Technical, succinct, refers to sources, gives references, and great graphics. Whoa! Well done.

[@Valdagast]

Man, he's 90 and still contributing to physics. That's life goals right there.

[@robinharwood5044]

I read the paper with ever-increasing levels of incomprehension. Eventually I came to

[@Tenbed]

I'm glad PBS is still going after all these years. And still has decent content.

[@Sparta22033]

Unfortunately I was taught in school to not ask what if questions because they are endless and most instructors do not have the knowledge or time to tell you an answer. I LOVE PBS thanks so much for giving us these in depth analysis' on topics like this. It's really great seeing the scientific method being practiced real-time and gives you an inordinate amount of respect for all the beautiful minds thinking of these things.

[@chaosmkmk]

Here's an observation that I think a lot of people here are getting wrong:

[@SentientRaven]

"Singularity-free spacetime!" - Sounds like a great slogan for a T-shirt.

[@randyhavard6084]

It does make sense a black hole could be an extremely dense object that we can't yet conceive instead of a single point with some infinit density.

[@PaigeTArt]

Here are some reasons I've always felt black holes are more genuine physical object than the romantic singularity that we apparently "need event horizons" to "hide" from us:

[@Breakemoff2]

Dear whoever edits/does music for these,

[@Czeckie]

kerr is like 90 and still producing new ideas. what a g

[@isilver78]

It's great to see Kerr's thoughts laid out clearly at this point in his career. Some folks down my little branch of the physics family tree were with Kerr in Texas in the late 60s. As a grad student, I once had the pleasure of hearing him talk and then going to dinner. At the time I was struggling with the concept of singularities in the physical universe, but he provided an elegant model that broke down a mental barrier for me immediately. Thanks for bringing this paper to light, I doubt I would have seen it otherwise having been out for the game for quite some time. Cheers!

[@user-qd2zk8zs1f]

The closest thing to witnessing a singularity in my life is when I reached the bottom of an ice cream cone of a drumstick.

[@ZoonCrypticon]

Although I barely understand 5% of the mathematics and physics behind it, I enjoy watching this show. Very relaxing! Thank you!

[@jgt2598]

I'm really glad he more or less came out and said "you're taking the models too literally, it's probably just some kind of really dense star in there". Looking at a model throwing infinities and assuming the model is so perfect the universe must be breaking is a bit silly.

[@nathanielgrant6593]

This is exactly how my uncomplicated brain figured it worked. Things enter a black holes event horizon but never reach the center and at the center is the remanent of a dead star...

[@MelGibsonFan]

I don't have the mathematical knowledge to understand, but I do remember a physics professor making a couple of passing comments about the "woo" like nature of singularities, string theory, multiverses etc. and just how much bunk he felt was given undue credence. This was 13 years ago so...