Detuning the BSW Effect with Longitudinal String Spreading

Abstract

Black holes are interesting astrophysical objects that have been studied as systems sensitive to quantum gravitational data. The accelerated geometry in the exterior of extremal black holes can induce large center-of-mass energies between particles with particular momenta at the horizon. This is known as the Ba\~nados-Silk-West (BSW) effect. For point particles, the BSW effect requires tuning to have the collision coincide with the horizon. However, this tuning is relaxed for string-theoretic objects. String scattering amplitudes are large in the Regge limit, occurring at large center-of-mass energies and shallow scattering angles, parametrically surpassing quantum field theoretic amplitudes. In this limit, longitudinal string spreading is induced between strings with a large difference in light-cone momenta, and this spread can be used to 'detune' the BSW effect. With this in mind, quantum gravitational data, as described by string theory, may play an important role in near horizon dynamics of extremal Kerr black holes. Further, though it may be hard to realize astrophysically, this system acts as a natural particle accelerator for probing the nature of small-scale physics at Planckian energies.