# On the Possibility of Building a Black Hole for Electrons in the Laboratory

## Abstract

We point out in this work that if our recently proposed unified description of gravitation and electromagnetism through a symmetric metric tensor is true, then building in the laboratory black holes for electrons with radii $`r_E0.5m`$ in air and with much smaller radii in a vacuum should be possible.

The possibility that spacetime is curved in the presence of an electromagnetic field, just like it is curved in the presence of a gravitational field, was recently studied  and experiments to test this conjecture were proposed . If the ideas introduced in ref. are correct, then not only do we have a unified description of gravitation and electromagnetism through a symmetric metric tensor $`g_{\mu \nu }`$, but also new physical phenomena such as the redshift and deflection of light in an electric and magnetic field, respectively . When a negatively(positively) charged test particle moves in the viscinity of a positively(negatively) charged sphere of radius $`R`$ and mass $`M`$, with an electric potential of $`V(R)`$ on its surface, the line element is given by 

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`\left(12{\displaystyle \frac{GM}{c^2r}}2{\displaystyle \frac{q}{m}}{\displaystyle \frac{R\pm V(R)}{c^2r}}\right)c^2dt^2+`$ (1)   
$`\left(12{\displaystyle \frac{GM}{c^2r}}2{\displaystyle \frac{q}{m}}{\displaystyle \frac{R\pm V(R)}{c^2r}}\right)^1dr^2+r^2d\theta ^2+r^2sin^2\theta d\varphi ^2,`$   
where $`G`$ is the gravitational constant, $`c`$ is the speed of light, $`q`$ is the electric charge, and $`m`$ is the mass of the test particle. Eq.(1) reduces to the Schwarzschild line element  when $`V(R)=0`$. One noteworthy point about the solution in eq.(1) is that test particles with different electric charge-to-mass ratios move in different spacetime manifolds. Inspection of eq.(1) reveals that

$`g_{00}=\left(12{\displaystyle \frac{m_G}{r}}2{\displaystyle \frac{m_E}{r}}\right)0,`$   
$`g_{11}=\left(12{\displaystyle \frac{m_G}{r}}2{\displaystyle \frac{m_E}{r}}\right)^1\mathrm{},`$ (2)   
as

$$r2(m_G+m_E),$$
(3)   
where

$$m_G=\frac{GM}{c^2},m_E=\frac{q}{m}\frac{R\pm V(R)}{c^2}.$$
(4)   
Then there is an event horizon at $`r_{EH}=2(m_G+m_E)`$ and the region enclosed by it will be a black hole , for those particles whose electric charge-to-mass ratio is $`q/m`$, if $`r_{EH}>R`$, the radius of the sphere. We wish to show in this letter that such a black hole for electrons can be built in the laboratory, provided, of course, that our unified description of gravitation and electromagnetism is true.

Consider a sphere of radius $`R=0.5m`$, mass M=1000kg, and charged to a potential difference of $`3\times 10^5V`$ with respect to the ground, and with electrons in its viscinity. Then $`m_G=7.42\times 10^{25}m`$, and $`m_E=0.29m`$, indicating that the gravitational field of the sphere is negligibly weak compared to its electric field. Thus we can write

$$g_{00}=\left(12\frac{m_E}{r}\right),g_{11}=\left(12\frac{m_E}{r}\right)^1.$$
(5)   
The event horizon then occurs at the electrical radius

$$r_E=2m_E=2\frac{e}{m}\frac{RV(R)}{c^2},$$
(6)   
which corresponds to the gravitational radius (Schwarzschild radius) $`r_S=2m_G`$ in pure gravitation <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1There corresponds a different electrical radius $`r_E`$ to each $`q/m`$ ratio in the same electric field. This is in sharp contrast with gravitation in which all the test particles have the same gravitational radius $`r_G`$ in the same gravitational field.. Here $`e`$ and $`m`$ are the charge and the mass of the electron, respectively. The values of the potential $`V(R)`$ that causes $`r_E`$ to be larger than the radius $`R`$ of the sphere are then given, for electrons, by

$$V(R)=\frac{r_E}{R}\frac{mc^2}{2e},r_E>R.$$
(7)   
Tabulated in Table 1 are $`r_E`$, $`V(R)`$, and the electric field strength $`V(R)/R`$ on the sphere for sphees with different radii. The reason we quote the electric field strength $`V(R)/R`$ is that if $`V(R)/R>3\times 10^6`$ , which is the dielectric strength of air, then air will begin to conduct electricity and discharging from the sphere will occur. We see that a black hole, for electrons, can be built in the laboratory rather easily. Let some electrons be injected continously into the viscinity of a metallic sphere positively charged <sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2It is seen from Table 1 that the potential $`V(R)`$ must be larger than $`255,495V`$. One way of obtaining such a high potential may be connecting the sphere, through a cable, to a Van de Graaf generator already producing a high enough potential. according to a desired electrical radius $`r_E`$. Electrons that are inside the spherical surface of radius $`r_E`$, i.e. the black hole, cannot go out of this surface. Had the “effective” electric charge-to-mass ratio of the photons  were the same as that of the electrons, we would have had the possibility of building black holes for the light too. Unfortunately, photons should have, if at all, a different ratio, most probably $`(q/m)_\gamma =\pm 1`$ . As a result of the nonequality of their respective electric charge-to-mass ratios, electrons and photons move in different geometries in the same electric field. Note, however, that if $`(q/m)_\gamma `$=1, the potential required to produce an electrical black hole for light with $`r_E/R=2`$ is $`9\times 10^{16}V`$. It should be noted that because of the dielectric strength, $`3\times 10^6V/m`$, of air small size spheres can maintain their electric charge only in a vacuum.   

Finally, we would like to point out that energy considerations in Newtonian electricity, namely Laplace’s theorem ‘that the attractive force of a heavenly body could be so large that light could not flow out of it’  parallelled in electricity, yield the same expression as ours in eq.(6): Consider an electron moving radially away from a positively charged sphere of charge $`Q`$ and radius $`R`$. The electron will escape from a distance of $`r`$ and reach infinity at zero speed:

$$\frac{1}{2}m_ev_{esc}^2\frac{k_eeQ}{r}=0,$$
(8)   
where the gravitational potential energy of the electron has been neglected. The radius $`r_E`$ of the spherical surface from which the electron cannot escape is obtained by replacing $`v_{esc}`$ by $`c`$, the speed of light:

$$r_E=2\frac{e}{m_e}\frac{k_eQ}{c^2}.$$
(9)   
With $`k_eQ=RV(R)`$, this expression for $`r_E`$ is the same as that obtained from the metric which describes the dynamical actions of gravitation and electricity together. This argument may be a strong indication that our metric unification of gravitation and electromagnetism may indeed be true. If gravitational black holes are a reality, then so must be the electrical ones according not only to our scheme, but also to Newtonian electricity.

In conclusion, if our scheme for a unified description of gravitation and electromagnetism  is true, we then have the intriguing possibility of building (electrical) black holes for electrons in the laboratory. The study of nonrotating as well as rotating black holes for electrons in the laboratory may soon be a reality.