Abstract: This report reviews the potential risks associated with black hole production at the LHC. In TeV-scale gravity scenarios, the creation of black holes is expected from LHC collisions. Significant uncertainties remain about whether such black holes would radiate, and if so, how quickly. It is also not known whether such black holes would be charged, or whether they must all be neutral. The different possible scenarios are associated with different risk profiles, but in almost all cases there are considerable potential risks associated with producing black holes at an Earth-bound collider. Even under the favourable assumption that black holes rapidly radiate, no bound has been established on the potentially catastrophic environmental effects of the remnants which could be left at the end of the initial radiative phase. Similarly, no bound has been shown for the possible effects of charged stable black holes with masses greater than 7 TeV. In the case of neutral stable black holes, calculations published by CERN predict the premature destruction of the Earth in several cases. Attempts to rule out these risks based on the existence of specific massive and ultramassive white dwarfs are limited by significant uncertainties in the available data and the proposed accretion model. Bounds based on the existence of neutron stars are even weaker, since their powerful magnetic fields protect them from the direct effects of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, and the alternative constructions proposed by CERN are limited by the lack of sufficient evidence to justify those arguments. The only significant safety factor would be if TeV-scale gravity is not realized and black holes are not produced at the LHC.
2010-03-07 | achtphasen | 13:46:15 | 
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