Simulations of black hole air showers in cosmic ray detectors

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of TeV black hole events in Earth's atmosphere originated by cosmic rays of very high energy. An advanced fortran Monte Carlo code is developed and used to simulate black hole extensive air showers from ultrahigh-energy neutrino-nucleon interactions. We investigate the characteristics of these events, compare the black hole air showers to standard model air showers, and test different theoretical and phenomenological models of black hole formation and evolution. The main features of black hole air showers are found to be independent of the model considered. No significant differences between models are likely to be observed at fluorescence telescopes and/or ground arrays. We also discuss the tau ``double bang'' signature in black hole air showers. We find that the energy deposited in the second bang is too small to produce a detectable peak. Our results show that the theory of TeV-scale black holes in ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays leads to robust predictions, but the fine prints of new physics are hardly to be investigated through atmospheric black hole events in the near future.