If the fundamental planck scale is near a TeV, then parton collisions with
high enough center-of-mass energy should produce black holes. The production
rate for such black holes at LHC has been extensively studied for the case of a
proton-proton collision. In this paper, we extend this analysis to a lead-lead
collision at LHC. We find that the cross section for small black holes which
may in principle be produced in such a collision is either enhanced or
suppressed, depending upon the black hole mass. For example, for black holes
with a mass around 3 TeV we find that the differential black hole production
cross section, d\sigma/dM, in a typical lead-lead collision is up to 90 times
larger than that for black holes produced in a typical proton-proton collision.
We also discuss the cross-sections for `string ball' production in these
collisions. For string balls of mass about 1 (2) TeV, we find that the
differential production cross section in a typical lead-lead collision may be
enhanced by a factor up to 3300 (850) times that of a proton-proton collision
at LHC.Comment: Added some discussion, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. D (rapid
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