Atom made from charged elementary black hole

TL;DR

This paper explores the theoretical properties of black hole atoms formed from charged elementary black holes, including their spectra, stability, and potential for observing high-charge states and quark capture phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of black hole atoms with arbitrary charge, analyzes their spectra and stability, and discusses novel phenomena like Z>137 states and quark capture.

Findings

Spectrum of charged black hole atoms calculated

Possibility of observing Z>137 bound states

Black holes can capture protons and quarks, forming unique bound states

Abstract

It is believed that there may have been a large number of black holes formed in the very early universe. These would have quantised masses. A charged ``elementary black hole'' (with the minimum possible mass) can capture electrons, protons and other charged particles to form a ``black hole atom''. We find the spectrum of such an object with a view to laboratory and astronomical observation of them, and estimate the lifetime of the bound states. There is no limit to the charge of the black hole, which gives us the possibility of observing Z>137 bound states and transitions at the lower continuum. Negatively charged black holes can capture protons. For Z>1, the orbiting protons will coalesce to form a nucleus (after beta-decay of some protons to neutrons), with a stability curve different to that of free nuclei. In this system there is also the distinct possibility of single quark capture. This leads to the formation of a coloured black hole that plays the role of an extremely heavy quark interacting strongly with the other two quarks. Finally we consider atoms formed with much larger black holes.