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Dr. Slobodan Vrhovac

Research Professor

"If we, as physicists, want to go ahead and get some insight into the physically nontrivial problems, we are practically forced to compromise with mathematical rigior. The art of theoretical physics (this may be taken as a definition) is in optimizing the ratio R(t) between nonrigorous and rigorous aspects of the theory in any given problem at a given time in history; this rigor factor R(t) is assumed to be a decaying function of time, as a result of the refinements of the theory. A theory reaches equilibrium and stationarity when R(t) =0. But perfect beauty is equivalent to death. A perfect theory can only be contemplated and admired: no further work can be done on it. Fortunately, for all physical theories, R(t) > 0."

(R. Balescu, in Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics, Wiley & Sons 1975.)

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address:

Dr. Slobodan Vrhovac

Scientific Computing Laboratory

Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 68

Pregrevica 118, Zemun 11080, Belgrade

Serbia

• Tel. (+381 11) 37 13 000
• Fax: (+381 11) 31 62 190
• e-mail: vrhovac@ipb.ac.rs
• Home page: http://www.ipb.ac.rs/~vrhovac/
• Scientific Computing Laboratory: http://scl.bg.ac.rs/

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