LHC search finds no quantum black holes, narrowing theories

September 22, 2026 at 05:00 AM1 min

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Physicists at UC Santa Barbara searched for microscopic black holes at the Large Hadron Collider and found none. The null result rules out a class of quantum black hole models and provides an exclusion limit. The findings are published in Progress in High Energy Physics.

Key Facts

The CMS experiment at the LHC found no evidence of quantum black holes in proton-proton collisions.
The result sets an exclusion limit, ruling out quantum black holes with certain properties at LHC energies.
The search was led by Tamas Vami and Danyi Zhang of UC Santa Barbara under professor Joe Incandela.
The findings are published in the journal Progress in High Energy Physics.

The Search

Physicists at UC Santa Barbara used the CMS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider to search for microscopic black holes. The hypothetical black holes would be extremely small and short-lived, potentially offering insights into quantum gravity. The search also tested a new technique for finding rare and previously unknown particles.

Null Result Significance

The absence of quantum black holes provides an exclusion limit, a publishable statement that rules out their existence under tested conditions. Researcher Danyi Zhang said the result is genuine knowledge about how the universe works, not a dead end. Null results reduce the number of viable theoretical possibilities and guide future experiments.

Theoretical Context

The possibility of producing black holes at the LHC emerged about two decades ago, based on models with extra spatial dimensions. If quantum black holes had been produced, they could have allowed direct study of quantum gravity and unification of fundamental forces. The continued absence of new physics at the LHC is a major challenge, but similar periods have led to breakthroughs like Einstein's relativity.