# Gravity coupling from micro-black holes

## 1 Introduction

As it is well known, the standard picture of supersymmetric GUT models predicts that the coupling of the three gauge interactions (electromagnetic, weak and color) unify to a good accuracy at an energy around $`210^{16}`$ GeV. Gravity, on the contrary, presents another natural energy scale: quantum fluctuations of the gravitational field seem to become important only when we observe them at the Planck length $`L_P=(G\mathrm{}/c^3)^{1/2}=1.610^{33}`$ cm. Energy fluctuations of the order of $`E_P=\frac{1}{2}(\mathrm{}c^5/G)^{1/2}=610^{18}`$ GeV create at this scale microblack holes that modify the topology of the spacetime. At the same scale, following the common views, gravity coupling (that is the ”strenght” of gravitational interaction) should become comparable with those of the other three gauge interactions.   
During the last years, studies based on string theories have changed this vision . In the early times of superstring theory, it was usual to associate it with (sub)planckian physics, because the theory provided an ultraviolet regulator of quantum gravity. More recently, a number of authors have considered the possibility that the compactification energy scale is far lower, with a fundamental scale of string theory being as low as TeV. Since the gauge couplings are inversely proportional to the volume of compactification space, this implies large compactification volumes and therefore large extradimension(s). By modifying the compactification radius one can tune the couplings of gauge interactions, including gravity.   
In the ”brane-world” picture the gauge interactions are localized on p-branes (with p $``$ 9) while gravity propagates in different spacetime dimensions. Precisely, gauge fields and particles with gauge charges move only on the ”walls” (i.e. on p-branes) while gravity moves also in the bulk, the spacetime region whose the p-branes are the boundary . In the Horava-Witten proposal the branes represent 3+1 dimensional walls in which all the standard model particles live, while gravity moves in the 4+1 dimensional bulk between the walls. The other six additional dimensions of string theory should be much smaller than that inhabited by gravity. The wall is then 9+1 dimensional in all and the complete spacetime is 10+1 dimensional. One can choose the size of the 11th dimension (the one inhabited only by gravity) so that the gravity coupling meets those of the other three forces at the same common scale, presumably the GUT scale . And the couplings of the other interactions remain untouched by this extra dimension.

## 2 Gravity coupling from micro-black holes

The purpose of this section is to show how the threshold of quantum gravitational effects could be considerable lowered from $`M_{Planck}`$ to almost $`M_{GUT}`$, *without* the use of large extra dimensions, of 11 dimensional M-Theory or of Horava-Witten model. Working in the framework of semiclassical 4-dim gravity, a careful analysis brings to the conclusion that quantum gravity effects could be present also at the GUT scale.   
Let us begin by reminding the process of creation of a planckian micro-black hole. We can use the Heisenberg inequality $`\mathrm{\Delta }p\mathrm{\Delta }x\mathrm{}/2`$ casted in the form $`\mathrm{\Delta }E\mathrm{\Delta }x\mathrm{}c/2`$ (because $`\mathrm{\Delta }Ec\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ in our high energy situation) to observe that in a space region of width $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ the metric field can fluctuate with an amplitude in energy of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E\mathrm{}c/2\mathrm{\Delta }x`$. If the gravitational radius $`R_g=2G\mathrm{\Delta }E/c^4`$ associated with the energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ equals the width $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ of the space region, a micro-black hole originates . This happens when $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=L_P`$ and the typical energy of the process is of course the Planck energy $`E_P`$. Planckian microholes are therefore typical quantum gravitational objects.   
We want now to calculate the lifetime of one of these microholes. This can be done in at least three different ways. The first is to follow the pure thermodynamical approach of the semiclassical Hawking decay . Of course many criticisms can be raised towards this approach, mainly because the extremely high energy situation seems to forbid any semiclassical calculus and even the use of the notion of temperature. The second method is to follow a microcanonical approach , which, using the microcanonical ensamble, avoids the problematic use of the concept of ”temperature” at these very high energies. The third way is to make use of the semiclassical Hawking decay, but corrected with opportune factors in order to account for the great number of decay channels (i.e. species of particles) that the microhole can radiate into during the final stages of its (short!) life.   
Although the microcanonical approach seem to be the more appropriate for this high energy situation, it is based on an exponentially rising density of states, which is interpreted by considering black holes as extended quantum objects (*p*-branes). We want on the contrary to work in a completely non-stringy environment and to remain in the realm of standard model and 4-dim gravity, in order to test how non-stringy physics can tackle the problem of gravity coupling. Therefore we choose here the third method of calculus.   
Let us start with the thermodynamical approach and introduce after the ”multi-channels” correction factor. The lifetime of a black hole of given initial mass $`M_0`$, loosing mass via Hawking radiation can be calculated in a simple manner. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law

$$W=\sigma T^4$$
(1)   
we can say that the variation $`dM`$ of the mass of the hole in a time $`dt`$ is

$$dM=\frac{\sigma T^4S}{c^2}dt$$
(2)   
where $`S`$ is the surface of the hole and $`T`$ is the Hawking temperature. For a Schwarzschild black hole we have

$$S=4\pi R_g^2$$
(3)   
$$withR_g=\frac{2GM}{c^2}andT=\frac{\mathrm{}c^3}{8\pi kGM}.$$

The equation in $`dM`$ becomes

$$dM=\frac{\lambda }{M^2}dt$$
(4)   
with

$$\lambda =\frac{\sigma \mathrm{}^4c^6}{2^8\pi ^3G^2k^4}3.9310^{24}g^3s^1.$$
(5)   
This gives the mass of the hole at time $`t`$

$$M(t)=(M_0^33\lambda t)^{1/3}$$
(6)   
and therefore the lifetime of the hole is

$$t_0=\frac{M_0^3}{3\lambda }=\frac{2^8\pi ^3G^2k^4}{\sigma \mathrm{}^4c^6}\frac{M_0^3}{3}.$$
(7)   
In particular for a micro-black hole of a Planck mass, $`M_0=M_P=E_P/c^2`$, we obtain for the lifetime

$$t_{0P}=\frac{2^5}{3}\frac{\pi ^3k^4}{\sigma }\frac{1}{\mathrm{}^3c^2}(\frac{G\mathrm{}}{c^5})^{1/2}2.0110^3\tau _P$$
(8)   
where $`\tau _P=(G\mathrm{}/c^5)^{1/2}`$ is the Planck time. (Remember that $`E_P\tau _P=\mathrm{}/2`$).   
The precendent derivation, making use of the Stefan-Boltzmann law, takes into account only the pure electromagnetic black body emission (i.e. photons). In order to consider also other particles species, we have now to introduce a ”multi-channels” correction factor, $`f_c`$. The equation (4) now reads

$$dM=\frac{\lambda f_c}{M^2}dt$$
(9)   
where $`f_c`$ accounts for the degrees of freedom of each emitted particle specie contributing to the energy loss. Various forms have been proposed for $`f_c`$ . In the standard model picture $`f_c`$ never exceeds a value of order $`10^2`$ (and also in a supersymmetric picture $`f_c`$ is again of this order of magnitude). The equation (8) hence becomes

$$t_{0P}\frac{2.0110^3}{f_c}\tau _P.$$
(10)   
We note now that, in absence of gravitational effects, an energy fluctuation of the same size of a planckian micro hole would have a lifetime of just only one Planck time (if we take into account the Heisenberg principle only). The decay time is slowed down by the presence of the event horizon of the micro hole, which traps the energy and emits it only at a slow rate via Hawking evaporation. Thus we can consider the quantum micro hole, which has a lifetime of the order of $`20\tau _P`$, as a sort of *metastable quantum state*. From the theory of the decay of metastable states  we can infer that the decay probability $`dP`$ of a state during the time interval $`(t,t+dt)`$ is proportional to

$$exp[\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\mathrm{}}t]$$
(11)   
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the width in energy of the state. The mean lifetime of the state is

$$\tau =\frac{\mathrm{}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}.$$
(12)   
We know that the lifetime of the metastable micro hole quantum state is $`t_{0P}`$ and from here we can calculate its width in energy

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{0P}=\frac{\mathrm{}}{t_{0P}}=\frac{2E_Pf_c}{2.0110^3}=610^{15}f_cGeV.$$
(13)   
For $`f_c`$ of the order $`10^2`$ we obtain $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{0P}=610^{17}`$ GeV. This width is so huge that should allow the existence of planckian micro-black holes also at the GUT threshold or very near to it, quite below the Planck threshold.   
Incidentally, it is also interesting to note that, by reversing the argument, we can obtain a valuation of the number of particles species present in Nature. In fact, if we demand that

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{0P}=E_PE_{GUT}$$
(14)   
we get then $`f_c996`$.

## 3 Conclusion

The GUT energy scale seems to emerge in a natural way from a careful analysis of the micro-black hole metastable quantum state. This seems to indicate that typical quantum gravity objects can be present also at energies well below the Planck threshold, and this result is obtained in a completely non-stringy framework. The quantum gravity scale could be fixed at the GUT scale (almost) and no more at the Planck scale. This agrees also with the simplest inflationary potential invoked to explain the density fluctuations as measured by COBE (see Banks $`etal.`$ ).