Classical Black Hole Production in High-Energy Collisions

TL;DR

This paper studies classical black hole formation in high-energy particle collisions, providing new estimates for production cross-sections and black hole masses in four dimensions, and discusses the validity of semiclassical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a method to find apparent horizons in flat space for D=4, improving estimates of black hole production cross-sections and masses in high-energy collisions.

Findings

Constructed apparent horizon solutions in D=4 for small impact parameters.

Provided improved estimates of black hole production cross-sections.

Suggested solutions are valid for semiclassical analysis due to weak curvature regions.

Abstract

We investigate classical formation of a D-dimensional black hole in a high energy collision of two particles. The existence of an apparent horizon is related to the solution of an unusual boundary-value problem for Poisson's equation in flat space. For sufficiently small impact parameter, we construct solutions giving such apparent horizons in D=4. These supply improved estimates of the classical cross-section for black hole production, and of the mass of the resulting black holes. We also argue that a horizon can be found in a region of weak curvature, suggesting that these solutions are valid starting points for a semiclassical analysis of quantum black hole formation.