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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 88 » Issue 2
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 021303 (2001) [4 pages]

Black Hole Production by Cosmic Rays

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Jonathan L. Feng1,2 and Alfred D. Shapere1,3
1Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697
3Department of Physics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40502

Received 17 September 2001; published 28 December 2001

See accompanying Physics Focus

Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays create black holes in scenarios with extra dimensions and TeV-scale gravity. In particular, cosmic neutrinos will produce black holes deep in the atmosphere, initiating quasihorizontal showers far above the standard model rate. At the Auger Observatory, hundreds of black hole events may be observed, providing evidence for extra dimensions and the first opportunity for experimental study of microscopic black holes. If no black holes are found, the fundamental Planck scale must be above 2 TeV for any number of extra dimensions.

© 2002 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.021303
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.021303
PACS:
04.70.Dy, 04.50.+h, 13.15.+g, 96.40.Tv
 
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