Whenever we push the boundaries of knowledge, there are risks and the prospect of rewards. There are many risks: not finding anything new, conducting a failed or non-working experiment, causing destruction if things go awry. But the rewards can be enormous: new knowledge, new technologies and breakthroughs for all of human science.
One place that epitomizes all of this is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, where we began colliding protons at the highest energies ever achieved in a particle accelerator. A couple of years ago, we broke the old record - 2 TeV (teraelectronvolt, or 1012 eV), which was set by the Fermi Laboratory - by accelerating particles to 3.5 TeV and colliding them together, reaching 7 TeV of total energy. This discovery not only allowed us not only to create a huge number of elusive fundamental particles (top quark, W and Z bosons), but also to discover a completely new fundamental particle, the last of the undiscovered particles of the Standard Model: the Higgs boson.
The updated LHC allows us to gain about 13-14 TeV of total energy. If we're lucky, an impressive number of collisions at these energies, combined with incredible detectors, will allow us to create and discover never-before-seen particles in this laboratory. And, of course, this opens up the whole scope for incredible (and completely awkward) statements, such as:
"Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider hope to be in contact with a PARALLEL UNIVERSE soon."
"The Large Hadron Collider Challenges the Big Bang Theory."
"Games with the Universe can destroy us: the black holes created at the LHC will swallow us."
Promotional video:
And if the first two are completely nonsense, incorrectly conveyed scientific information, the third statement sows fear among the population, rearing its ugly head every time the LHC starts working.
Where are the legs of this nonsense growing from? Let's find out.
There are a number of theories that predict the existence of extra dimensions. Not only three spatial and one temporal, which, as we know, are inherent in our four-dimensional space-time, but also at least one more spatial dimension in our Universe. And while we cannot access these dimensions at the energies available to us, it is believed that on scales that are smaller than those with which we dealt - and correspond to higher energies - these additional dimensions exist.
And if these extra dimensions exist, there is also the theoretical possibility that tiny, miniature, microscopic black holes could be created!
If we had done this, we would have accomplished an incredible technological and scientific feat that would forever change the way we think about the universe. But when you say "black hole", people instantly (and not in vain) imagine a catastrophic picture of something sucking in matter of any kind, devouring protons, neutrons, electrons of our world and destroying everything and everyone.
But this is impossible for three reasons. Let's figure it out.
1. If these miniature black holes exist, then they hit the Earth for billions of years, and the Earth is still spinning
Of course, we've never created particles with this energy in a laboratory setting before. But at the highest energy levels - energies more than a hundred million times (100,000,000) higher than those with which we work at the LHC - particles constantly collide with the Earth: these are cosmic rays that bombard us from all cosmic directions.
These black holes, if they existed, would bombard the Earth (and all planets) throughout the history of our solar system, as well as the sun, and there is nothing to indicate that any body in the solar system has turned black hole or was eaten by it.
And here you can argue, they say, these objects are moving too fast and therefore simply fly through the Earth, eating too little matter to stay inside, and fly out into intergalactic space. In this case, the second reason should calm you down.
2. If you really create a miniature black hole, it will decay due to Hawking radiation, and very, very quickly
If there are additional dimensions, it can be assumed that they may be of a certain type, allowing (again, rarely, but aptly) microscopic black holes to form. Such a black hole will have, at best, a mass equivalent to the energy of a proton-proton collision, up to 13-14 TeV. According to the formula E = mc2, this corresponds to a mass of 5 x 10-20 grams, and, most likely, even less.
But even if you have extra dimensions of the right scale, and also the right type, and you make this black hole, the problem remains: it will be unstable. Thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics, this black hole will decay in the process of Hawking radiation. For a black hole with a mass of 5 x 10-20 grams, the decay time in three dimensions will be about 10-83 seconds, it is difficult to even call it existence. For physics to make sense, it takes at least 10-43 seconds or longer. Translated into the mass of a black hole, it must weigh at least 0.00002 grams to have a chance of existence.
In four dimensions, however, especially if one "additional" is large, the decay time will be 10-23 seconds. But to thwart the expected decay of this miniature black hole, you need to throw away the well-known laws of physics. And these laws are so well established that there is not the slightest likelihood of refuting them - it is like waking up in the morning and seeing the sun rise in the west.
But let's say there are new laws of physics that we don't know yet, and these black holes suddenly become stable. You make a black hole - a tiny one - in the center of the earth, and it doesn't disintegrate. Will it swallow the Earth? And if so, how fast? This brings us to the third and final condition, and do not forget: we have already twice rejected the known laws of physics in order to make this nonsense possible.
3. You can calculate how fast a black hole is absorbing matter, and you won't even get close to the lifetime of our planet
We are used to thinking that black holes "suck in" matter, but in truth, they can only interact with it gravitationally. With a mass of 5 x 10-20 grams, this gravitational force will be extremely small: all it can do is pass through the center of the Earth over and over again, waiting for a collision with an elementary particle. Since the cross section of our black hole is very small and the cross section of a proton (or neutron) is very large, it can be assumed - to save the argument - that every time the black hole collides, it will absorb a proton or neutron.
Assuming it absorbs every proton, neutron, or electron it comes in contact with - and taking its gravity into account to figure out what it attracts - it will absorb on the order of 66,000 protons and neutrons per second. Of course, 66,000 protons and neutrons are small things in terms of mass: 1.1 x 10-25 grams. This growth rate will be constant until the black hole is quite large; only at a mass of a billion metric tons will a black hole grow faster as its cross section increases. Capturing 66,000 nucleons per second, how long do you think it will take a black hole to gain a kilogram? Three trillion years. During this time, the Sun will go out - even the Universe does not exist that much.
So even if you make a black hole, and even if the laws of physics are wrong, and the black hole will live forever, it will be harmless. No matter how many laws of physics we discard, revise, or change, the Earth will still be fine.
So don't be afraid. We try to explore the world in a completely safe way. Any concerns can be dispelled - just turn to scientists and ask. They're not crazy either.
ILYA KHEL