Building new universes

Tiny black holes could soon be made on demand in particle accelerators, but shortly after their birth, they might blink out of existence. In the 14 October PRL, a team proposes a mechanism for this vanishing act: The space around these black holes could wrap upon itself and bud off, forming a new baby universe that is invisible to us. Such an event might signify the existence of extra dimensions beyond the three we are familiar with and might give clues to the properties of the extra dimensions.

Dejan Stojkovic of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland says the new study confirms his earlier paper [1] suggesting that small black holes could leave our brane. However, Greg Landsberg of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, is skeptical about the broad applicability of the results. He says there are many scenarios that include different assumptions that result in black holes being trapped on the brane. Rather than spend a lot of time discussing various possibilities, he says, "I prefer to wait a few years until the LHC turns on."