Neutrino-induced Collapse of Bare Strange Stars Via TeV-scale Black Hole Seeding

There is increasing observational evidence for the existence of strange stars: ultra-compact objects whose interior consists entirely of deconfined quark matter. If confirmed, their existence places constraints on the rate of formation of microscopic black holes in models which invoke a TeV-scale Planck mass. In such models, black holes can form with ~TeV masses through nuclear interactions of particles with PeV and greater energies. Once formed, these black hole states are unstable to Hawking radiation, and rapidly decay. However, if such a black hole forms in the interior of a strange star, the density is high enough that the decay may be counterbalanced by accretion, and the black hole can grow, leading to subsequent catastropic collapse of the star. A guaranteed source of ultra-high energy particles is provided by the cosmogenic Greisen neutrinos, as well as by ultra-high energy cosmic rays, and the implied lifetimes for strange stars are extremely short, contrary to observations. The observed lifetimes of strange star candidates thus effectively exclude Planck mass scales of less than ~2 TeV with comparable black hole masses, for up to 2 extra dimensions. Seeding of strange star collapse in scenarios with a larger number of extra-dimensions or with higher mass black holes remains a possibility, and may provide another channel for the origin of gamma-ray bursts