Ultrarelativistic Particle Collisions

2009/08/31 by Matthew W. Choptuik, Frans Pretorius · 171 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Collision #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Einstein field equations #Gravitation #Gravitational collapse #Gravitational field #Kinetic energy #Nonlinear system #Numerical relativity #Particle (ecology) #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #astro-ph.HE #gr-qc #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.104.111101

published in Physical Review Letters 104(11), 111101 (American Physical Society) · 4 pages, 2 figures (replaced with version similar to published one)

openalex publication_date 2010/03/17 · arxiv created 2010/07/12 · arxiv updated 2010/07/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We present results from numerical solution of the Einstein field equations describing the head-on collision of two solitons boosted to ultrarelativistic energies. We show, for the first time, that at sufficiently high energies the collision leads to black hole formation, consistent with hoop-conjecture arguments. This implies that the nonlinear gravitational interaction between the kinetic energy of the solitons causes gravitational collapse, and that arguments for black hole formation in super-Planck scale particle collisions are robust.

Citations

• Initial data and coordinates for multiple black hole systems
• Universality and scaling in gravitational collapse of a massless scalar field
• Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension
• The Hierarchy Problem and New Dimensions at a Millimeter
• Black holes from high-energy beam--beam collisions
• Classical black hole production in high-energy collisions
• High energy gravitational scattering: a numerical study
• Review of Particle Physics

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