Experimental signature for black hole production in neutrino air showers

Abstract

The existence of extra degrees of freedom beyond the electroweak scale may allow the formation of black holes in nearly horizontal neutrino air showers. In this paper we examine the average properties of the light descendants of these black holes. Our analysis indicates that black hole decay gives rise to deeply penetrating showers with an electromagnetic component which differs substantially from that in conventional neutrino interactions, allowing a good characterization of the phenomenon against background. Naturally occurring black holes in horizontal neutrino showers could be detected and studied with the Auger air shower array. Since the expected black hole production rate at Auger is $>1$ event/year, this cosmic ray observatory could be potentially powerful in probing models with extra dimensions and TeV-scale gravity.