Abstract
We discuss how the Penrose process, taking place in singular rotating Kerr black holes as well as in their smooth, horizonless fuzz-ball counterparts in string theory, may provide an efficient mechanism for the acceleration of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays, including strangelets, a form of Strange Quark Matter that is under active experimental investigation with Mini-EUSO. We focus on non-BPS solutions of the JMaRT kind that present an ergo-region. We study geodetic motion and the (non-collisional) Penrose process in this context. In particular we compute its efficiency that turns out not to be bounded unlike for Kerr BH's and briefly comment on possible implications for near-future observations.
Highlights
Introduction and motivationsCosmic rays (CR) and in particular Ultra High Energy CR (UHECR) tend to play an important role in any progress of high-energy physics, from the identification of new elementary particles in the past to the recent confirmation of rare phenomena such as neutrino oscillations
In particular we will comment on upper limits that MINI-EUSO can set on the flux of strangelets and on the Penrose mechanism for their acceleration derived in Section 3 for non-BPS fuzz-balls and reviewed in the Appendix
We have shown that the Penrose process can take place in singular rotating (Kerr) Black Hole (BH) and in smooth horizonless geometries that are expected to represent the micro-states of rotating BHs
Summary
Cosmic rays (CR) and in particular Ultra High Energy CR (UHECR) tend to play an important role in any progress of high-energy physics, from the identification of new elementary particles in the past to the recent confirmation of rare phenomena such as neutrino oscillations. BHs may provide both tidal tearing of captured astrophysical objects, including NS and QS, and a powerful acceleration mechanism of UHECR, including strangelets, aka Penrose process [6]. In particular we will comment on upper limits that MINI-EUSO can set on the flux of strangelets and on the Penrose mechanism for their acceleration derived in Section 3 for non-BPS fuzz-balls and reviewed in the Appendix. In the Appendix, for the sake of convenience and for comparison with our analysis for non-BPS fuzzballs, we briefly review the rotating BH solution, originally found by Kerr, and its properties and discuss the Penrose process for both massive particles decaying into a massless pair (photons)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
