Collisions of spinning massive particles in a Schwarzschild background

Abstract

It is known that the center-of-mass energy of the collision of two massive particles following geodesics around a black hole presents a maximum. The maximum energy increases when the black hole is endowed with spin, and for a maximally rotating hole this energy blows up, offering, in principle, a unique probe of fundamental physics. This work extends the latter studies by considering that the colliding particles possess intrinsic angular momentum (spin), described by the Hanson–Regge–Hojman theory of spinning particles. By analyzing planar trajectories of spinning particles around non-rotating black holes, a significant increase of the invariant collision energy is found. Radial turning points, causality constraints, and limitations of the theory are discussed.