Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: CorneliusDalvert on 11/10/2015 10:11:07
-
Are there more potential plasma to be made from the other particles in the standard model ? And could these plasma be dense enough that they could generate enough gravity to sustain a black hole ?
-
You need really high energy colisions to generate a quark-gluon plasma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_gluon_plasma) with high-mass byproducts like quarks (which quickly dissipate into jets of other particles).
Other high-mass particles that you might get in high-energy colisions would include Higgs particles and strange quarks. But since the Higgs particle completes the standard model, I don't think you will get even more energetic particles within the standard model.
What you may get is different phases of quark-gluon plasma - a high viscosity liquid, a low viscosity liquid, a gas state, or even a "glassy" state. At extremely high energies (beyond current capabilities), it may even be possible to obtain "free" quarks.
By coliding heavy particles (eg lead nuclei instead of protons) at even higher energies, the renovated LHC will be able to generate denser and hotter plasmas. Some physicists hope that the LHC might just be able to create a micro black hole - but it will only be possible if some assumptions hold about string theory and higher dimensions (ie ideas outside the Standard Model).
-
Hi evan_au thanks for your reply , so it is possible that even denser plasma states could yet be created in the LHC ? I'm very curious about this I know that quark-gluon plasmas were theoretically predicted but what is the theoretical limit to the density and mass of these structures ? I've tried looking for answers to this but I've not had much luck , any suggestions would be most welcome :)
-
It does not really matter what a black hole forms from, provided there is enough mass/energy in a small enough volume, it should form a black hole (in theory). It should then promptly "evaporate" through Hawking Radiation, meaning that it will not threaten immediate destruction of the Earth.
We have considerable confidence in this because the Moon's surface has been bombarded over millennia by cosmic rays of far higher enegy than can be generated by the LHC, and it has not yet been swallowed by a black hole...
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_black_hole
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_of_particle_collisions_at_the_Large_Hadron_Collider#Large_Hadron_Collider
-
Hi evan_au I'm not worried about black hole formation at the LHC just curious about what's behind an event horizon :) I'd much rather there was some kind of super dense plasma rather than a singularity generating the required gravity for an event horizon , which now doesn't seem like too crazy an idea :) Even a science novice like me should be able to understand that you'd need sustained energies of a huge level (the sort you get in a collapsing star ) to form a black hole , the LHC is good but it ain't that good :) It's clear you understand this , it's a shame others don't :(