Is my understanding correct that particle accellerators could theoretically form black holes?

Question

If so what precautions are in place.

Surely a black hole of any size has the potential to grow if surrounded by enough material why does it have to be the size of a star, just because they are big enough to see? Why can't there be small blackholes creating and evaporating all the time?

Answer 1

It is a theoretical possibility, but that's assuming the existence of a certain number of dimensions under string theory. The black hole would have the mass of a proton or two and would evaporate nearly instantaneously due to Hawking radiation. So there aren't any precautions in place because natural forces will cause the black hole to disappear before it can be a threat. Keep in mind that this is theoretical, but Stephen Hawking, for one, has supported this theory.

You don't need a large amount of mass to create a black hole. You just need to be able to cram a given mass into a small enough volume (inside of its Schwartzchild radius).

These microscopic black holes, if they exist, won't pose a threat to Earth. Collisions of the magnitude required to theoretically create a mini black hole happen constantly in our upper atmosphere, but the Earth is still here. So it's reasonable to conclude that man-made black holes aren't a threat.

Answer 2

Any black hole formed in a particle accelerator is going to be very small. Such a black hole would quickly evaporate in a burst of Hawking radiation, releasing no more energy than went into its creation. So the danger from that appears to be minimal.

There has been some speculation that a very powerful accelerator could create what is called strange matter, and this strange matter could act as a seed crystal and convert the universe into strange matter. What's bad about that is that strange particles repel where normal particles attract, so all the atoms in the universe would disintegrate. The good news is that strange matter appears to be too unstable to last long enough to actually interact with anything.

Answer 3

I wouldnt worry too much...

A black hole is formed when any body is compressed to the scharwzchild radius.

r=2Gm/c2

Therefore an object of any mass can become a black hole. To artificially create a black hole in a particle accelerator the particle must reach an energy equal to the plank energy. Which is about 10^9 joules. We would need a particle accelerator the size of the solar system to accomplish such a fete.

Theoretically? yes. Will we ever? no

Answer 4

There have been suggestions that mini black holes could form during the operation of SLAC (one of the most powerful accelerators). Calcualtions have been attempted to figure out what the likelihood of doing this actually is and it seems to be very unlikely. Certainly, no black holes have been formed at any accelerators yet. Also, the BHs that could be formed at SLAC would almost immediately evaporate due to Hawking radiation, and so would not be dangerous (at least not any more so than the radiation that is there all the time due to other reactions).

Answer 5

Black holes form from collapsing stars, a particle accellerator? - where is the comparison.

Any event created there will last a nanosecond or less and will involve a couple of electrons.

Hardly worth watching eh !

Answer 6

I have never read anything about this theory. Particle accelerators do not create gravity or the forces needed to develop anything even remotely similar to a black hole. We puny humans will never have such power.

Answer 7

The article below is thought-provoking. But I think there's nothing to worry about.

Answer 8

No, they can't.

A black hole is a physical object with incredible mass. Even if a single particle was accelerated to near light speed it wouldn't gain enough mass to become a black hole.

Answer 9

i think blackholes grow in terms of gravity not size.stars have to be big for the implosion.