Time Machine at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores the theoretical possibility that high-energy collisions at the LHC could produce time machines, such as traversable wormholes, if quantum gravity effects become significant at TeV scales, potentially violating causality.

Contribution

It proposes a novel scenario where LHC collisions could generate traversable wormholes, providing a new way to test causality and quantum gravity effects experimentally.

Findings

Wormhole production cross section is comparable to black hole cross section.

Decay signatures of time machines are discussed.

Causality violation could be tested at the LHC.

Abstract

Recently, black hole and brane production at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been widely discussed. We suggest that there is a possibility to test causality at the LHC. We argue that if the scale of quantum gravity is of the order of few TeVs, proton-proton collisions at the LHC could lead to the formation of time machines (spacetime regions with closed timelike curves) which violate causality. One model for the time machine is a traversable wormhole. We argue that the traversable wormhole production cross section at the LHC is of the same order as the cross section for the black hole production. Traversable wormholes assume violation of the null energy condition (NEC) and an exotic matter similar to the dark energy is required. Decay of the wormholes/time machines and signatures of time machine events at the LHC are discussed.