Black Hole Production at the Large Hadron Collider

Black hole production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is an interesting consequence of TeV-scale gravity models. The predicted values, or lower limits, for the fundamental Planck scale and number of extra dimensions will depend directly on the accuracy of the black hole production cross-section. We give a range of lower limits on the fundamental Planck scale that could be obtained at LHC energies. In addition, we examine the effects of parton electric charge on black hole production using the trapped-surface approach of general relativity. Accounting for electric charge of the partons could reduce the black hole cross-section by one to four orders of magnitude at the LHC.Comment: CTP Symposium on Supersymmetry at LHC: Theoretical and Experimental Perspectives at the British University in Egypt 11-14 March 200

Negative Refraction Gives Rise to the Klein Paradox

Electromagnetic negative refraction in metamaterials has attracted increasingly great interest, since its first experimental verification in 2001. It potentially leads to the applications superior to conventional devices including compact antennas for mobile stations, imaging beyond the diffraction limit, and high-resolution radars, not to mention the anamolous wave propagation in fundamental optics. Here, we report how metamaterials could be used to simulate the "negative refraction of spin-zero particles interacting with a strong potential barrier", which gives rise to the Klein paradox--a counterintuitive relativistic process. We address the underlying physics of analogous wave propagation behaviours in those two entirely different domains of quantum and classical.Comment: 4 journal pages, 2 figure

Microcanonical treatment of black hole decay at the Large Hadron Collider

This study of corrections to the canonical picture of black hole decay in large extra dimensions examines the effects of back-reaction corrected and microcanonical emission at the LHC. We provide statistical interpretations of the different multiparticle number densities in terms of black hole decay to standard model particles. Provided new heavy particles of mass near the fundamental Planck scale are not discovered, differences between these corrections and thermal decay will be insignificant at the LHC.Comment: small additions and clarifications, format for J. Phys.

Entangled Light in Moving Frames

We calculate the entanglement between a pair of polarization-entangled photon beams as a function of the reference frame, in a fully relativistic framework. We find the transformation law for helicity basis states and show that, while it is frequency independent, a Lorentz transformation on a momentum-helicity eigenstate produces a momentum-dependent phase. This phase leads to changes in the reduced polarization density matrix, such that entanglement is either decreased or increased, depending on the boost direction, the rapidity, and the spread of the beam.Comment: 4 pages and 3 figures. Minor corrections, footnote on optimal basis state

Missing energy in black hole production and decay at the Large Hadron Collider

Black holes could be produced at the Large Hadron Collider in TeV-scale gravity scenarios. We discuss missing energy mechanisms in black hole production and decay in large extra-dimensional models. In particular, we examine how graviton emission into the bulk could give the black hole enough recoil to leave the brane. Such a perturbation would cause an abrupt termination in Hawking emission and result in large missing-energy signatures.Comment: addressed reviewer comments and updated reference

Spin decoherence by spacetime curvature

A decoherence mechanism caused by spacetime curvature is discussed. The spin state of a particle is shown to decohere if only the particle moves in a curved spacetime. In particular, when a particle is near the event horizon of a black hole, an extremely rapid spin decoherence occurs for an observer who is static in a Killing time, however slow the particle's motion is.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure