Black hole formation in the head-on collision of ultrarelativistic charges

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electric charge affects black hole formation during high-speed collisions, finding that charge reduces the likelihood of black hole creation in particle accelerators.

Contribution

It introduces a model for charged ultrarelativistic particles and derives a critical charge condition for black hole formation in head-on collisions.

Findings

Charge decreases black hole formation probability at LHC energies.

A critical electric charge threshold is necessary for apparent horizon formation.

The approach has limitations discussed in the context of collider physics.

Abstract

We study black hole formation in the head-on collision of ultrarelativistic charges. The metric of charged particles is obtained by boosting the Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetime to the speed of light. Using the slice at the instant of collision, we study formation of the apparent horizon (AH) and derive a condition indicating that a critical value of the electric charge is necessary for formation to take place. Evaluating this condition for characteristic values at the LHC, we find that the presence of charge decreases the black hole production rate in accelerators. We comment on possible limitations of our approach.