Tiny Black Holes May Exist in 5D World

A team of researchers led by Luis Anchordoqui of Lehman College in the US has explored the possibility of primordial black holes existing in a universe with a dark dimension. According to their theory, gravity can extend into this extra dimension, which is roughly a micron wide and hidden from view.

The team applied proposed rules of quantum gravity to see how black holes would behave under the dark dimension theory. Their calculations revealed that some primordial black holes would start out behaving like standard four-dimensional objects but would then become unstable and transform into five-dimensional ones.

Others formed from cosmic strings would be five-dimensional from the start. This theory could potentially explain the detection of an ultra-high-energy neutrino by the KM3NeT neutrino telescope in February 2023.

The neutrino was 35 times more powerful than any similar particle previously observed, sparking great interest in the astrophysical community. Dieter Lüst of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich says that if the exploding primordial black hole is located within the fifth dimension, only neutrinos can escape from it, and photons cannot.

This model refers to black holes formed as a result of the collapse of cosmic strings. The high density around the strings created sufficient conditions for the formation of a black hole. However, the existence of the fifth dimension has not yet been fully proven.

Dan Hooper, a cosmologist, emphasizes that the existence of the fifth dimension is still speculative. The theory is based on the idea that the fifth dimension is an additional effect of dark energy, existing at every point of spacetime in the form of a micron-sized circle.

The researchers' proposal is an attempt to explain the mysterious neutrino detection. If proven, it could have significant implications for our understanding of the universe and the nature of dark matter.