2004/05/12 by Slava Rychkov, Vyacheslav S. Rychkov, Rychkov, Vyacheslav S.
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-ph/0405104
10pp
arxiv created 2004/05/12 · openalex publication_date 2004/05/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The classical Einstein gravity description of black hole production in transplanckian collisions in TeV-scale gravity is tested for self-consistency. In addition to the "curvature must be small" test, which was shown to be violated in [hep-ph/0401116], it is proposed to estimate quantum fluctuations in the Aichelburg-Sexl shock waves corresponding to the colliding particles. Using linearized quantum gravity, it is found that the occupation numbers of gravitons with characteristic frequency are too small to resolve the classical width of the shocks. This raises further doubts in the classical gravity picture of black hole creation and the geometric cross section estimate based on it.