Structure and Mass Absorption of Hypothetical Terrestrial Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper explores the properties and potential detectability of hypothetical small black holes, called GEAs, which may bind matter without absorption, and discusses their implications for dark matter and detection challenges.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of gravitationally bound atoms (GEAs) around black holes and analyzes their mass absorption and emission characteristics for detection.

Findings

Black holes below ~10^12 kg can bind matter without absorption.

Emissions from such bound matter are too weak for Earth-based detection.

Stable mini black holes could contribute to dark matter.

Abstract

The prospect of mini black holes, either primordial or in planned experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, interacting with the earth motivate us to examine how they may be detected and the scope of their impact on the earth. We propose that the more massive of these objects may gravitationally bind matter without significant absorption. Since the wave functions of gravitationally bound atoms orbiting a black hole are analogous to those of electrons around a nucleus, we call such an object the Gravitationally Equivalent of an Atom (GEA). Mini black holes are expected to lose mass through quantum evaporation, which has become well accepted on purely theoretical grounds. Since all attempts to directly observe x-rays from an evaporating black hole have failed, we examine the possibility of the inverse test: search for extant mini black holes by looking for emissions from matter bound in a GEA. If quantum evaporation does not occur, then miniature black holes left over from the early universe may be stable, contribute to dark matter, and in principle be detectable through emissions associated with the bound matter. We show that small black holes-with masses below \sim10^12 kg-can bind matter without readily absorbing it into the black hole but the emissions are too weak to be detected from earth.