Indian origin researchers cite the theory of mini-black holes.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: After years of postulating and theorizing about what the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest single machine in the world, could reveal about the physics of the universe, the gargantuan apparatus may be on the cusp of proving to humanity that parallel universes do exist.
Although the Switzerland-based LHC went online in 2008, it is not expected to be operating at full capacity until later this spring. When it does, it will be able to fire subatomic particles against each other at double the energy levels achieved before, allowing scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to search for the presence of mini-black holes.
In a research paper newly published in the scientific journal “Physics Letters B,” physicists Mir Faizal, Mohammed M. Khalil, and Ahmed Farag Ali state the LHC’s detection of mini-black holes would support string theory, according to which different dimensions co-exist, enabling the possibility of parallel universes.
Researchers have attempted to search for mini-black holes at the LHC in the past, but to no avail. Faizal, a visiting professor in the physics and astronomy department at the University of Waterloo, told CBC News that it could be because they didn’t consider the theory of rainbow gravity, which posits gravity’s effects on spacetime are felt differently by different wavelengths of light at different energy levels.
“So if LHC operates at that [energy level]- we will know that rainbow gravity is correct, and that extra dimensions and parallel universes are correct,” Faizal explained.
While some may be apprehensive about the notion of deliberately creating actual black holes capable of sucking in any mass in its path — including light — physicist Damian Pope, an outreach scientist with the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, wants to assure the masses that there is no true cause for concern.
“They’re very, very, very tiny, it could be a couple of millimeters or even much, much smaller than that, said Pope. “It turns out mini black holes are incredibly unstable, they’re incredibly fleeting and they evaporate in microseconds. Even if we create a whole bunch, a million mini-black holes, they’ll just evaporate right away, they won’t grow and grow.”