arXiv subjects

Piero Nicolini

Publications and source records attributed to Piero Nicolini.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Holographic screens in ultraviolet self-complete quantum gravity

In this paper we study the geometry and the thermodynamics of a holographic screen in the framework of the ultraviolet self-complete quantum gravity. To achieve this goal we construct a new static, neutral, non-rotating black hole metric, whose outer (event) horizon coincides with the surface of the screen. The space-time admits an extremal configuration corresponding to the minimal holographic screen and having both mass and radius equalling the Planck units. We identify this object as the space-time fundamental building block, whose interior is physically unaccessible and cannot be probed even during the Hawking evaporation terminal phase. In agreement with the holographic principle, relevant processes take place on the screen surface. The area quantization leads to a discrete mass spectrum. An analysis of the entropy shows that the minimal holographic screen can store only one byte of information while in the thermodynamic limit the area law is corrected by a logarithmic term.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Self-Completeness in Alternative Theories of Gravity

It has recently been shown via an equivalence of gravitational radius and Compton wavelength in four dimensions that the trans-Planckian regime of gravity may by semi-classical, and that this point is defined by a minimum horizon radius commensurate with the Planck mass. We extend the formalism to gravity in the context of Randall-Sundrum and the generalized uncertainty principle.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

The final stage of gravitationally collapsed thick matter layers

In the presence of a minimal length physical objects cannot collapse to an infinite density, singular, matter point. In this note we consider the possible final stage of the gravitational collapse of "thick" matter layers. The energy momentum tensor we choose to model these shell-like objects is a proper modification of the source for "non-commutative geometry inspired", regular black holes. By using higher momenta of Gaussian distribution to localize matter at finite distance from the origin, we obtain new solutions of the Einstein's equation which smoothly interpolates between Minkowski geometry near the center of the shell and Schwarzschild spacetime far away from the matter layer. The metric is curvature singularity free. Black hole type solutions exist only for "heavy" shells, i.e. $M\ge M_{e}$, where $M_{e}$ is the mass of the extremal configuration. We determine the Hawking temperature and a modified Area Law taking into account the extended nature of the source.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Self-Completeness and the Generalized Uncertainty Principle

The generalized uncertainty principle discloses a self-complete characteristic of gravity, namely the possibility of masking any curvature singularity behind an event horizon as a result of matter compression at the Planck scale. In this paper we extend the above reasoning in order to overcome some current limitations to the framework, including the absence of a consistent metric describing such Planck-scale black holes. We implement a minimum-size black hole in terms of the extremal configuration of a neutral non-rotating metric, which we derived by mimicking the effects of the generalized uncertainty principle via a short scale modified version of Einstein gravity. In such a way, we find a self-consistent scenario that reconciles the self-complete character of gravity and the generalized uncertainty principle.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Self-completeness and spontaneous dimensional reduction

A viable quantum theory of gravity is one of the biggest challenges facing physicists. We discuss the confluence of two highly expected features which might be instrumental in the quest of a finite and renormalizable quantum gravity -- spontaneous dimensional reduction and self-completeness. The former suggests the spacetime background at the Planck scale may be effectively two-dimensional, while the latter implies a condition of maximal compression of matter by the formation of an event horizon for Planckian scattering. We generalize such a result to an arbitrary number of dimensions, and show that gravity in higher than four dimensions remains self-complete, but in lower dimensions it is not. In such a way we established an "exclusive disjunction" or "exclusive or" (XOR) between the occurrence of self-completeness and dimensional reduction, with the goal of actually reducing the unknowns for the scenario of the physics at the Planck scale. Potential phenomenological implications of this result are considered by studying the case of a two-dimensional dilaton gravity model resulting from dimensional reduction of Einstein gravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Production and evaporation of Planck scale black holes at the LHC

We review the phenomenology of mini black holes at colliders in light of the latest data from the LHC. By improving the conventional production cross-section, we show that the current non-observation of black hole signals can be explained in terms of quantum gravity effects. In the most optimistic case, black hole production could take place at a scale slightly above the LHC design energy. We also analyse possible new signatures of quantum-corrected Planck-scale black holes: in contrast to the semiclassical scenario the emission would take place in terms of soft particles mostly on the brane.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Could any black holes be produced at the LHC?

We introduce analytical quantum gravity modifications of the production cross section for terascale black holes by employing an effective ultraviolet cut off $l$. We find the new cross sections approach the usual "black disk" form at high energy, while they differ significantly near the fundamental scale from the standard increase with respect to $s$. We show that the heretofore discontinuous step function used to represent the cross section threshold can realistically be modeled by two functions representing the incoming and final parton states in a high energy collision. The growth of the cross section with collision energy is thus a unique signature of $l$ and number of spatial dimensions $d$. Contrary to the classical black disk result, our cross section is able to explain why black holes might not be observable in LHC experiments while they could be still at the reach of ultra-high energy cosmic ray events.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Physics on Smallest Scales - An Introduction to Minimal Length Phenomenology

Many modern theories which try to unify gravity with the Standard Model of particle physics, as e.g. string theory, propose two key modifications to the commonly known physical theories: i) the existence of additional space dimensions; ii) the existence of a minimal length distance or maximal resolution. While extra dimensions have received a wide coverage in publications over the last ten years (especially due to the prediction of micro black hole production at the LHC), the phenomenology of models with a minimal length is still less investigated. In a summer study project for bachelor students in 2010 we have explored some phenomenological implications of the potential existence of a minimal length. In this paper we review the idea and formalism of a quantum gravity induced minimal length in the generalised uncertainty principle framework as well as in the coherent state approach to non-commutative geometry. These approaches are effective models which can make model-independent predictions for experiments and are ideally suited for phenomenological studies. Pedagogical examples are provided to grasp the effects of a quantum gravity induced minimal length. This article is intended for graduate students and non-specialists interested in quantum gravity.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2012

Nonlocal and generalized uncertainty principle black holes

In this paper we study the issue of the role of nonlocality as a possible ingredient to solve long standing problems in the physics of black holes. To achieve this goal we analytically derive new black hole metrics improved by corrections from nonlocal gravity actions with an entire function of the order 1/2 and lower than 1/2, the latter corresponding to generalized uncertainty principle corrections. This lets us extend our previous findings about noncommutative geometry inspired black holes recently recognized as nonlocal black holes due to an entire function of order higher than 1/2. As a result we show that irrespective of the order of the function, nonlocality leads to the following properties for black hole spacetimes: i) horizon extremization also in the neutral, non rotating case; ii) black hole phase transition from a Schwarzschild phase to a positive heat capacity cooling down phase; iii) zero temperature remnant formation at the end of the evaporation process; iv) negligible quantum back reaction due to the presence of an upper bound for the Hawking temperature. Finally we show that, in agreement with the general theory of cut off functions, a regular deSitter core accounting for the energy density of virtual gravitons replaces the curvature singularity only in the case of entire functions of order 1/2 or higher.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Neutrino oscillations as a novel probe for a minimal length

We suggest that the presence of a quantum gravity induced minimal length can be explored using neutrino oscillation probabilities. Neutrinos seem ideally suited for this investigation because they can propagate freely over large distances and can therefore pile up minimal length effects beyond detectable thresholds. We determine the modified survival probability in a scenario with a minimal length and find deviations from the classical behaviour for high energies. We find that for the currently available experimental statistics the deviations from the standard oscillations do only allow for a bound of $\ell^{-1}\gtrsim 10 \mathrm{GeV}$ from MINOS data. On the other hand, oscillations of high-energy neutrinos emitted by galactic and extragalactic sources are strongly suppressed, leading to a possible observation of quantum gravity effects at neutrino telescopes such as IceCube and ANTARES.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Hawking emission from quantum gravity black holes

We address the issue of modelling quantum gravity effects in the evaporation of higher dimensional black holes in order to go beyond the usual semi-classical approximation. After reviewing the existing six families of quantum gravity corrected black hole geometries, we focus our work on non-commutative geometry inspired black holes, which encode model independent characteristics, are unaffected by the quantum back reaction and have an analytical form compact enough for numerical simulations. We consider the higher dimensional, spherically symmetric case and we proceed with a complete analysis of the brane/bulk emission for scalar fields. The key feature which makes the evaporation of non-commutative black holes so peculiar is the possibility of having a maximum temperature. Contrary to what happens with classical Schwarzschild black holes, the emission is dominated by low frequency field modes on the brane. This is a distinctive and potentially testable signature which might disclose further features about the nature of quantum gravity.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Quantum Gravity signals in neutrino oscillations

We investigate the effect of a Quantum Gravity-induced minimal length on neutrino oscillations. The minimal length is implemented in a phenomenological framework, allowing us to make predictions independently of any fundamental approach. We obtain clear minimal length signatures and discuss their observability in current and future experiments. We present an overview over other scenarios in which the minimal length leaves its signature and show new results concerning minimal length thermodynamics.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Micro black holes in the laboratory

The possibility of creating microscopic black holes is one of the most exciting predictions for the LHC, with potentially major consequences for our current understanding of physics. We briefly review the theoretical motivation for micro black hole production, and our understanding of their subsequent evolution. Recent work on modelling the radiation from quantum-gravity-corrected black holes is also discussed.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

The phase diagram in $T-μ-N_c$ space

We examine the phase diagram of hadronic matter when the number of colors, as well as temperature and density, are varied. We show that in this regime several new phase transitions are possible, and we examine issues related to these transitions.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2011

The Hawking-Page crossover in noncommutative anti-deSitter space

We study the problem of a Schwarzschild-anti-deSitter black hole in a noncommutative geometry framework, thought to be an effective description of quantum-gravitational spacetime. As a first step we derive the noncommutative geometry inspired Schwarzschild-anti-deSitter solution. After studying the horizon structure, we find that the curvature singularity is smeared out by the noncommutative fluctuations. On the thermodynamics side, we show that the black hole temperature, instead of a divergent behavior at small scales, admits a maximum value. This fact implies an extension of the Hawking-Page transition into a van der Waals-like phase diagram, with a critical point at a critical cosmological constant size in Plank units and a smooth crossover thereafter. We speculate that, in the gauge-string dictionary, this corresponds to the confinement "critical point" in number of colors at finite number of flavors, a highly non-trivial parameter that can be determined through lattice simulations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2011

Cosmological production of noncommutative black holes

We investigate the pair creation of noncommutative black holes in a background with positive cosmological constant. As a first step we derive the noncommutative geometry inspired Schwarzschild deSitter solution. By varying the mass and the cosmological constant parameters, we find several spacetimes compatible with the new solution: positive mass spacetimes admit one cosmological horizon and two, one or no black hole horizons, while negative mass spacetimes have just a cosmological horizon. These new black holes share the properties of the corresponding asymptotically flat solutions, including the non-singular core and thermodynamic stability in the final phase of the evaporation. As a second step we determine the action which generates the matter sector of gravitational field equations and we construct instantons describing the pair production of black holes and the other admissible topologies. As a result we find that for current values of the cosmological constant the deSitter background is quantum mechanically stable according to experience. However positive mass noncommutative black holes and solitons would have plentifully been produced during inflationary times for Planckian values of the cosmological constant. As a special result we find that, in these early epochs of the universe, Planck size black holes production would have been largely disfavoured. We also find a potential instability for production of negative-mass solitons.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2011

Enhancement of Compton Scattering by an Effective Coupling Constant

A robust thermodynamic argument shows that a small reduction of the effective coupling constant $α$ of QED greatly enhances the Compton scattering cross section and that the Thomson scattering length is connected to a fundamental scale $λ$. A discussion provides a possible quantum interpretation of this enormous sensitivity to changes in the effective coupling constant $α$.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2011

Aspects of noncommutative (1+1)-dimensional black holes

We present a comprehensive analysis of the spacetime structure and thermodynamics of $(1+1)-$dimensional black holes in a noncommutative framework. It is shown that a wider variety of solutions are possible than the commutative case considered previously in the literature. As expected, the introduction of a minimal length $\sqrtθ$ cures singularity pathologies that plague the standard two-dimensional general relativistic case, where the latter solution is recovered at large length scales. Depending on the choice of input parameters (black hole mass $M$, cosmological constant $Λ$, etc...), black hole solutions with zero, up to six, horizons are possible. The associated thermodynamics allows for the either complete evaporation, or the production of black hole remnants.

gr-qc↗