Black Holes and Gravitational Properties of Antimatter

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility that antimatter exhibits antigravity, which could alter black hole collapse, lead to neutrino-antineutrino pair production, and produce detectable signals in astrophysical and laboratory settings.

Contribution

It proposes a novel hypothesis that antimatter may repel matter gravitationally, affecting black hole physics and suggesting observable consequences such as neutrino fluxes and decay asymmetries.

Findings

Black holes may produce measurable antineutrino fluxes if antimatter exhibits antigravity.

Microscopic black holes at CERN could show matter-antimatter decay asymmetries.

Hawking radiation may not be the dominant decay mechanism for such black holes.

Abstract

The gravitational properties of antimatter are still a secret of nature. One outstanding possibility is that there is a gravitational repulsion between matter and antimatter (in short we call it antigravity). We argue that in the case of antigravity the collapse of a black hole doesn't end with singularity and that deep inside the horizon, the gravitational field may be sufficiently strong to create (from the vacuum) neutrino-antineutrino pairs of all flavours. The created antineutrinos (neutrinos) should be violently ejected outside the horizon of a black hole composed from matter (antimatter). Our rudimentary calculations suggest that both, the supermassive black hole in the centre of our Galaxy and in the centre of the Andromeda Galaxy may produce a flux of antineutrinos measurable with the new generation of one cubic kilometre neutrino telescopes. In addition, we suggest two signatures of antigravity in the case of microscopic black holes which may be eventually produced at CERN: the decay products should exhibit a strong matter-antimatter asymmetry and the Hawking radiation should not be the main mechanism for decay.