Astrophysicist Michael Rees stated that there is a negligible but real possibility of destroying the Earth with particle accelerators. According to the scientist, there is a likelihood of a growing black hole, strapless or vacuum decay. This is reported by Science Alert.
A straplet (stranglet) is a hypothetical compound particle or substance that includes a large proportion of strange quarks. Such "strange" structures can be relatively large and stable for a long time, reaching sizes exceeding the diameter of heavy atoms and even comparable to astronomical objects. When a straplet collides with ordinary matter, the latter disintegrates with the formation of new straplets, scattering in all directions. Thus, a chain reaction is possible that will turn all of the Earth's matter into a ball of strange matter.
In another scenario, a phase transition occurs between false and true vacuum. Currently, the Universe exists in a metastable state called a false vacuum. However, there is a more energetically favorable state - true vacuum. According to cosmological models, the probability of a transition from one phase to another is not zero. Thus, at any point in the Universe, a bubble of true vacuum, expanding at a speed not exceeding the speed of light, can spontaneously appear, which destroys any astronomical objects on its way. When high-energy particles collide, the likelihood of a "bubble of death" increases many times over.
However, any of these scenarios are unlikely. There are natural particle accelerators such as magnetic fields near black holes and neutron stars. The Earth is constantly bombarded by cosmic rays - particles and nuclei of atoms, which move with high energies, comparable to those that reach protons in the accelerating ring of the Large Hadron Collider. What's more, researchers have yet to find evidence for the existence of strapless.