REVIEW
Black Holes at the LHC
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Submitted 27 Jun 2001 · 16 references
Pith's verdict: The founding paper of collider black hole phenomenology: the qualitative signatures have held up, the reach numbers and especially the n-measurement claim are softer than the abstract implies.
T0 · AI review
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Referee report
The paper
The paper claims
If gravity turns on near a TeV, the LHC becomes a black hole factory whose decays reveal the number of extra dimensions.
The reading
What carries the argument
Two ingredients carry the argument. The first is the geometric cross section $~$: because the hole's size is set by its mass and the fundamental Planck scale, formation is a classical capture problem with no perturbative suppression, which is what makes the rate large. The second is the Hawking temperature relation $~$, which after taking logarithms becomes a linear law whose slope is fixed by the number of extra dimensions. The decay spectrum, fitted to a Planck form below the kinematic cutoff $M_{BH}/2$, supplies $T_H$ in each mass bin; the mass comes from the visible four-momentum sum, made accurate by the small missing-energy fraction from the three neutrino species. The slope of the log-log line is the observable that distinguishes this signal from any other new physics producing hard leptons and photons.
Extended reading notes
Core claim
The claim is that black hole production and evaporation are not merely conceivable at the LHC but are a calculable, high-rate, low-background signal. Using the $(4+n)$-dimensional Schwarzschild radius of Myers and Perry, the authors take the production cross section to be the geometric area $~$, which at $~$ TeV is of order $400$ pb at parton level; convolving with parton luminosities gives total LHC rates from $0.5$ nb down to $120$ fb depending on $M_P$ and $n$. The decay is treated as blackbody emission at the Hawking temperature $T_H$, which scales as $M_{BH}^{-1/(n+1)}$; because the emitted wavelength exceeds the horizon size the hole is a point radiator emitting s-waves, so it decays equally onto the brane and into the bulk, and since the brane holds far more species the decay is visibly Standard Model. Taking the logarithm of the temperature relation gives $~$, a higher-dimensional analogue of Wien's displacement law, so a straight-line fit to $~$ versus $~$ measures $n$ from the slope and $M_P$ from the intercept. The authors simulate the measurement with LHC-like energy smearing and $100~$ of data and report that spectroscopy works up to $M_P$ of about $5$ TeV, while simple event counting reaches roughly $9$ TeV.
Load-bearing premise
The load-bearing premise is that the semiclassical picture, geometric capture at $~$ plus thermodynamic Hawking evaporation at the initial temperature, still describes black holes with mass close to the fundamental Planck scale, which is exactly where the LHC would operate; the authors state this obstacle plainly in the introduction and say they will ignore it.
Editorial extensions
If this is right
- A black hole sample of millions per year would allow the mass spectrum, production threshold, and cross section growth with energy to be mapped directly, turning quantum gravity into a measured rather than postulated scale.
- The slope of $\log T_H$ against $\log M_{BH}$ would return $n$, giving a count of large extra dimensions from collider data alone, independent of graviton-exchange or monojet searches.
- The near-absence of missing transverse energy in these events would let the black hole mass be reconstructed to roughly $100$ GeV, limited by jet energy resolution and initial-state radiation rather than by invisible carriers.
- Flavor-blind, democratic decay into all roughly sixty Standard Model species would make high-multiplicity hard lepton and photon events the discovery channel, with the $e/\mu + X$ final state giving the widest reach, up to about $9$ TeV in a counting experiment.
- Agreement with the Hawking formula would be the first experimental test of black hole thermodynamics as a physical, not merely formal, law.
Reading between the lines
- The same log-log slope test could in principle be run at lower-mass bins to look for the transition where the semiclassical description should fail, turning the stringy regime the authors set aside into a measurable deviation from a straight line rather than an untested assumption.
- If the slope came out consistent with $n$ but the intercept implied a Planck scale well below the production threshold inferred from the rate, that mismatch would itself be informative, pointing to bulk geometry or brane-localization effects the paper treats only as a constant.
- The democratic-decay premise makes the missing-energy fraction a diagnostic in its own right: a measured invisible fraction much larger than the roughly $5\%$ expected from neutrinos would suggest substantial emission into bulk gravitons, which the paper argues against on wavelength grounds.
- Because the temperature fit deliberately uses only the soft part of the spectrum below $M_{BH}/2$, the method's precision is limited by statistics in the low-energy tail; a detector with better electromagnetic resolution at high energy would extend the spectroscopic reach beyond the quoted $5$ TeV.
Original abstract
If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, the LHC will be producing one black hole (BH) about every second. The BH decays into prompt, hard photons and charged leptons is a clean signature with low background. The absence of significant missing energy allows the reconstruction of the mass of the decaying BH. The correlation between the BH mass and its temperature, deduced from the energy spectrum of the decay products, can test experimentally the higher dimensional Hawking evaporation law. It can also determine the number of large new dimensions and the scale of quantum gravity.
The compiled record
The paper's own sentences, arranged, kept beside the review and separate from it. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.
The abstract, sentence by sentence
If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, the LHC will be producing one black hole (BH) about every second. The BH decays into prompt, hard photons and charged leptons is a clean signature with low background. The absence of significant missing energy allows the reconstruction of the mass of the decaying BH. The correlation between the BH mass and its temperature, deduced from the energy spectrum of the decay products, can test experimentally the higher dimensional Hawking evaporation law. It can also determine the number of large new dimensions and the scale of quantum gravity.
background contribution method result interpretation main claim
| # | sentence | role | the authors' own work | states the main conclusion | strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s0 | If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, the LHC will be producing one black hole (BH) about every second. | background 0.70 | 0.08 | 0.23 | hedged possibility 0.49 |
| s1 | The BH decays into prompt, hard photons and charged leptons is a clean signature with low background. | method 0.31 | 0.13 | 0.12 | asserted 1.00 |
| s2 | The absence of significant missing energy allows the reconstruction of the mass of the decaying BH. | method 0.53 | 0.15 | 0.08 | asserted 0.98 |
| s3 | The correlation between the BH mass and its temperature, deduced from the energy spectrum of the decay products, can test experimentally the higher dimensional Hawking evaporation law. | interpretation 0.56 | 0.13 | 0.19 | hedged possibility 0.64 |
| s4 | It can also determine the number of large new dimensions and the scale of quantum gravity. | interpretation 0.66 | 0.12 | 0.23 | hedged possibility 0.66 |
What was examined, and what was not
- arXiv listing abstract v1
- full text
- figures and tables
- references and citing sentences
- relations to other papers
- P abstract
- S sections
- T body sentences
- C citations
- R cross-paper relations
Figures
Figures reproduced from arXiv:hep-ph/0106295 by the authors.
References
How later papers used it
148 later papers cite it
1 later paper by other authors is listed below: 1 used its method or tool.
Uses its method or tool 1 of 4 papers with this label
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Adopted the kind of signal introduced in this paper, a high-k-perpendicular isolated photon or Z, to study detection of TeV-scale black holes at the LHC.
Direct photons as probes of low mass strings at the LHC (2008) · 0.95 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting
How the literature uses it
138 arXiv papers cite this in 206 sentences
Papers citing it · 141 sentences without a confident label
Builds on it 1 paper
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We present an extension of previous searches for microscopic semiclassical black holes [ref] , quantum black holes [ref] , and string balls [ref] conducted by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Collaboration at the CERN LHC [ref] .
Search for microscopic black holes in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV · Introduction · 0.94
Uses its method or tool 4 papers
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In order to assess the possibility of discovery of new physics above background at LHC, we adopt the kind of signal introduced in [ref] to study detection of TeV-scale black holes at the LHC, namely a high-$k_⊥$ isolated $γ$ or $Z.$ Thus, armed with parton distribution functions (CTEQ6D) [ref] we have calculated integrated cross sections $σ(pp→γ+ jet)|_k_⊥(γ)> k_⊥, min$ for both the background QCD processes and for $gg→γg$, for an array of values for the string scale $M_s.$ Our results are shown in Fig. [ref].
Jet signals for low mass strings at the LHC · Introduction · 0.92
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In order to assess the possibility of discovery of signal above QCD background, we adopt the kind of signal introduced in [ref] to study detection of TeV-scale black holes at the LHC, namely a high-$k_⊥$ isolated $γ$ or $Z.$ Thus, armed with parton distribution functions (CTEQ6D) [ref] we have calculated integrated cross sections $σ(pp→γ+ jet)|_k_⊥(γ)> k_⊥, min$ for both the background QCD processes (see Appendix I) and for $gg→γg$, for an array of values for the string scale $M_s$ (see Appendix II).
Direct photons as probes of low mass strings at the LHC · Isolated hard photons · 0.95
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The and generators calculate the total cross section $σ$ from geometric considerations, assuming that $σ∝πr_S^2$, where $r_S$ is the Schwarzschild radius [ref] .
Search for microscopic black holes in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV · Event reconstruction and Monte Carlo samples · 0.85
Compares with it 3 papers
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Although just a convention, the numerical relationships mean that if we take $r_S∼1/M$ as the threshold for black hole production, comparing the two formulations of the Schwarzschild radius in the case of [ref] we would find that black holes would be produced at energies $∼M_P$, while in [ref] black holes would be produced at a scale of $∼4^1/3∼1.6 M_D$ while the convention would yield $(8π)^1/3M̃ ∼2.9 M̃$.
Black Holes and Quantum Gravity at the LHC · Criteria for Black Holes · 0.94
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As an aside, let us note that the multiplicity distribution and $p_T$ distribution of the v-pions, and the distribution of final-state quark and lepton flavors, is quite different from a thermal distribution, as one would (at least naively) expect in a black hole decay [ref] , another potential source of high-multiplicity events.
On the Phenomenology of Hidden Valleys with Heavy Flavor · The v-pions · 0.87
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Models of black hole production at colliders predict similar spectra [ref] , as do “string balls,” lower-mass precursors of black holes [ref] .
Spheres To Jets: Tuning Event Shapes with 5d Simplified Models · Comparison to other high-multiplicity models in the literature · 0.94
Cites it as support 1 paper
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However, as $t→0$, the impact parameter exceeds the Schwarzschild radius for the scattering particles, implying no black hole production in the forward limit [ref] .
Infrared Consistency and the Weak Gravity Conjecture · Analyticity (4D) · 0.99
Cites it as background 49 papers
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The prediction for black hole decays in experiments have been approached in a couple of ways, including treating the decay as instantaneous [ref] , evolving with mass [ref] , and sometimes including the appropriate grey body factors for the extra-dimensional black holes as well.
Black Holes and Quantum Gravity at the LHC · Thermality · 0.90
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One consequence of these models is the possibility of black hole production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) if the fundamental scale of gravity $M_D$ is about a TeV [ref] .
Production of tidal-charged black holes at the Large Hadron Collider · Introduction · 0.83
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A speculative, but intriguing, possibility of most models is the production of quantum black holes in hadron colliders [ref] .
Quantum black holes in the horizon quantum mechanics model at the Large Hadron Collider · Introduction · 0.89
Discussion
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