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Quantum Production of Black Holes
We give a path integral expression for the quantum amplitude to produce a
black hole from particle collisions. When expanded about an appropriate
classical solution it yields the leading order contribution to the production
amplitude in a curvature expansion. Classical solutions describing black hole
production resulting from two particle scattering at non-zero impact parameter,
combined with our formalism, indicate a geometric cross section for the quantum
process. In TeV gravity scenarios these solutions may exhibit large curvatures,
but (modulo a mild assumption about quantum gravity) corrections to the
semi-classical cross section are small.Comment: 10 pages, latex; Minor revisions, to appear in Physics Letters
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