English

Time Machine at the LHC

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2008-11-26 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

Recently, black hole and brane production at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been widely discussed. We suggest that there is a possibility to test causality at the LHC. We argue that if the scale of quantum gravity is of the order of few TeVs, proton-proton collisions at the LHC could lead to the formation of time machines (spacetime regions with closed timelike curves) which violate causality. One model for the time machine is a traversable wormhole. We argue that the traversable wormhole production cross section at the LHC is of the same order as the cross section for the black hole production. Traversable wormholes assume violation of the null energy condition (NEC) and an exotic matter similar to the dark energy is required. Decay of the wormholes/time machines and signatures of time machine events at the LHC are discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0710.2696,
  title  = {Time Machine at the LHC},
  author = {I. Ya. Aref'eva and I. V. Volovich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.2696},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

12 pages, LATEX, comments and references added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:31:35.830Z