Can a photon have enough energy to create a black hole?

Question

E=hf=mc^2. If a photon of sufficient energy impacts a particle, can that particle turn into a back hole? If so, would that "mini" black hole gobble up other particles around it and grow, eventually swallowing everything it its path?

Given the statistical nature of quantum world, what possibility would there be to have such high energy photons generated by current technology? ie, what energy density do we typically generate in the lab, and what chance is there that such high energy photon is generated?

Answer 1

please don't destroy the universe, some of us like it here.

Answer 2

It would have to transfer one helluva lot of relativistic energy to the particle for sufficient mass to be generated. The subject of quantum gravity is still largely a mystery (it's one of the big problems with Grand Unification) and it doesn't look as if it's going to be understood any time soon.

There is a thing called a 'unit black hole' that is the smallest amount of mass that could, theoretically' become a black hole, but I don't remember what it is. You might try a Google search ☺

Doug

Answer 3

One Photon??

Not a chance

The amount of energy in a black hole, at formation, is dependant upon the mass of the star that collapsed when it formed. There are so many trillions upon trillions of photons released from a star every second, that I can say without reservation that a single photon will never have enough energy to form a black hole on its lonesome.

Answer 4

A black hole has enormous mass.

Photons have no mass. All the photons in the universe would not create even a tiny black hole because of this.