Making black holes in the lab (Part 2), featuring Space's extra dimension
Q: Can scientists create a black hole in a laboratory? What would it
take to create a black hole in a lab? Teodor, Bucharest,
Romania
A simulated
collision of two protons at the European particle physics institute’s, the
CERN’s, collider. Two protons collide; this depicts the resulting decay of a
Higgs particle. Perhaps we shall soon see a similar decay — except a black
hole! Simulation courtesy of CERN and Wikipedia.
A: This, the second of a three part article, tells how to create a black hole
in the lab. It is difficult. We can't make a black hole in the world
we know, because no collider can smash mass into a small enough space. The
resulting density has to be the so-called Planck's value of 1097
kilograms per cubic meter — which man cannot achieve.
Exploding stars can, but we're talking about
a man-made lab — a collider that smashes protons together at near light speeds.
Our puny efforts don't come close: a density of about 1034
kilograms per cubic meter is about the best we can do, and that only in 2008
when the Swiss upgrade the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)*.
But what if the Universe is different? Maybe the Planck value would be
smaller, in that case. Maybe, then, man could generate the needed energies. No maybes about it! Given an extra, nicely warped dimension, we can do it.
Here's how.
Suppose the real Universe has a Space with four dimensions (or more).
Furthermore, suppose the extra dimension warps gravity, so that gravity becomes
huge in the extra dimension of Space. (I'll explain warped dimensions next
week.)
Then the Planck value shrinks into a black-hole density the LHC can produce. In fact, the
upgraded LHC may be able to crank out a micro black hole each second.
Such a black hole's lifetime is only about ten trillion trillionths of a
second (10-27 seconds). In that brief instant, however, we can
tell if a black hole was born, because it dies a wild death. According to
Stephen Hawking, the dying micro hole will spew hordes of very-high energy
particles in all directions. If we see an imprint of such radiation, then
we will know the Universe is a far stranger place than the one our senses
detect. One in which we can create black holes in the lab.
Well, I've run out of room, again. Next week, I shall continue the story of
Space's extra dimensions and making black holes in the lab.
[Please click here to
continue the story.]
* A brief note on sizes: 10 -23 is 10 divided by a
trillion trillion, a very small number. 1034 is almost a
trillion trillion trillion, a very large number.
Further Reading:
Making black holes in the lab, Part 1,
WonderQuest
Making black holes
in the lab, Part 3,
WonderQuest
How black holes trap light, WonderQuest
How
black holes die, WonderQuest
Tracking black holes — do they exist? WonderQuest
Quantum black holes, Scientific American
Fermilab
at Work, Fermilab
How do physicists study particles, CERN
Black holes at Future Coliders and Beyond by Greg Landsberg, Brown
University
Warped Passages: unraveling the mysteries of the universe's hidden dimensions
by Lisa Randall, Harvard University
The Charm of Strange Quarks: Mysteries and Revolutions of Particle Physics
Universe review
(Answered June 11, 2007)
|
