Discovering New Physics in the Decays of Black Holes

Abstract

If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, the LHC will be producing one black hole (BH) about every second, thus qualifying as a BH factory. With the Hawking temperature of a few hundred GeV, these rapidly evaporating BHs may produce new, undiscovered particles with masses ~100 GeV. The probability of producing a heavy particle in the decay depends on its mass only weakly, in contrast with the exponentially suppressed direct production. Furthemore, BH decays with at least one prompt charged lepton or photon correspond to the final states with low background. Using the Higgs boson as an example, we show that it may be found at the LHC on the first day of its operation, even with incomplete detectors.