pith. sign in

arxiv: 2409.14321 · v2 · pith:4V7S5ZIXnew · submitted 2024-09-22 · 🌀 gr-qc · astro-ph.EP· hep-th

Searching for small primordial black holes in planets, asteroids and here on Earth

classification 🌀 gr-qc astro-ph.EPhep-th
keywords blackholeholeshollowleavesmallstructuresvery
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

Small primordial black holes could be captured by rocky planets or asteroids, consume their liquid cores from inside and leave hollow structures. We calculate the surface density and surface tension of a hollow structure around a black hole and compare them with the density and compressive strength of various materials that appear in nature to find the allowed parameter space. For example, granite or iron can support a hollow asteroid/planetoid/moon of the size of up to $0.1 R_\oplus$. Along the same lines, future civilizations might build spherical structures around black holes to harvest their energy. Using the strongest material that we currently know how to make (multiwall carbon nanotube), to withstand gravity of one solar mass black hole, the shell must be constructed at distances larger than $10^4 R_\odot$. Alternatively, a fast black hole can leave a narrow tunnel in a solid object while passing through it. For example, a $10^{22}$g black hole should leave a tunnel with a radius of $0.1$ micron, which is large enough to be seen by an optical microscope. We could look for such micro-tunnels here on Earth in very old rocks, or even glass or other solid structures in very old buildings. While our estimate gives a very small probability of finding such tunnels, looking for them does not require expensive equipment and long preparation, and the payoff might be significant.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Smoluchowski Coagulation Equation and the Evolution of Primordial Black Hole Clusters

    astro-ph.CO 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Monte Carlo solutions to the Smoluchowski coagulation equation yield runaway timescales and mass evolution for primordial black hole clusters at different redshifts based on cluster properties.

  2. $\tt BlackHawk$ $\tt v3.0$: Hawking Radiation from Regular Black Holes

    gr-qc 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    BlackHawk v3.0 adds Hawking temperatures and greybody factors for multiple regular black hole metrics to an existing public code via numerical routines.

  3. Regular black holes with gravitational self-energy as dark matter

    gr-qc 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Incorporating non-local gravitational self-energy from a T-duality-inspired model yields a regular neutral black-hole metric with extremal Planck-mass particle-black-hole solutions that are thermodynamically stable an...