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High-Temperature and High-Pressure In situ Magic Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

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Spinning black holes as particle accelerators.

Ted Jacobson¹, Thomas P Sotiriou

¹Center for Fundamental Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA.

Physical Review Letters

|April 7, 2010

Summary

Particles near maximally spinning Kerr black holes can collide with extremely high center-of-mass energies. However, practical limitations mean these ultra-energetic black hole collisions are unlikely in reality.

Area of Science:

Astrophysics
General Relativity
High-Energy Physics

Background:

Kerr black holes possess unique properties related to their spin.
Previous studies suggested the possibility of extremely high-energy particle collisions near these objects.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the mechanism behind ultra-high energy collisions outside Kerr black holes.
To identify the practical limitations of such energetic events near black holes.

Main Methods:

Theoretical analysis of particle trajectories.
Exploration of the Kerr black hole metric.
Investigation of the center-of-mass energy in collision scenarios.

Main Results:

Particles falling from rest at infinity can achieve arbitrarily high center-of-mass energies in collisions.

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This phenomenon is limited to the case of maximal black hole spin.

Practical constraints prevent such ultra-energetic collisions from occurring near astrophysical black holes.

Conclusions:

While theoretically possible, the conditions for ultra-energetic particle collisions near Kerr black holes are highly idealized.
Astrophysical black holes are unlikely to host collisions with arbitrarily high center-of-mass energies due to inherent limitations.