Abstract
If spacetime has more than four dimensions, ultra-high energy cosmic rays may create microscopic black holes. Black holes created by cosmic neutrinos in the Earth will evaporate, and the resulting hadronic showers, muons, and taus may be detected in neutrino telescopes below the Earth's surface. We simulate such events in detail and consider black hole cross sections with and without an exponential suppression factor. We find observable rates in both cases: for conservative cosmogenic neutrino fluxes, several black hole events per year are observable at the IceCube detector; for fluxes at the Waxman-Bahcall bound, tens of events per year are possible. We also present zenith angle and energy distributions for all three channels. The ability of neutrino telescopes to differentiate hadrons, muons, and possibly taus, and to measure these distributions provides a unique opportunity to identify black holes, to experimentally constrain the form of black hole production cross sections, and to study Hawking evaporation.
Highlights
The possibility that we live in Dϭ4ϩnϾ4 spacetime dimensions has profound implications
Black holes created by cosmic neutrinos in the Earth will evaporate, and the resulting hadronic showers, muons, and taus may be detected in neutrino telescopes below the Earth’s surface
Black holes provide a robust probe of extra dimensions and lowscale gravity, as long as particle collisions with center-ofmass energies above M Dϳ1 TeV are available
Summary
The possibility that we live in Dϭ4ϩnϾ4 spacetime dimensions has profound implications. For TeV-scale gravity and conservative flux assumptions, we find that IceCube could detect several black holes per year These rates may be enhanced by larger fluxes, and observable rates are possible even given a postulated exponential suppression factor in the black hole cross section28,29͔. The relative event rates in the three channels may differ from the SM, and the energy and angle distributions of black hole events are distinctive These will help identify black holes, but may constrain parameters such as n and M D , and determine if suppression factors in the cross section are present or absent. The search for black holes in neutrino telescopes complements black hole searches in other cosmic ray detectors, as well as searches for the effects of perturbative gravity processes at center-ofmass energies below M D30–33͔
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
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 callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
