Gravitational Effects of a Small Primordial Black Hole Passing Through the Human Body
The gravitational effects of a primordial black hole (PBH) passing through the human body are examined, with the goal of determining the minimum mass necessary to produce significant injury or death.
Two effects are examined: the damage caused by a shock wave propagating outward from the black hole trajectory, and the dissociation of brain cells from tidal forces produced by the black hole on its passage through the human body.
It is found that the former is the dominant effect, with a cutoff mass for serious injury or death of approximately MPBH>1.4×1017g. The number density of primordial black holes with a mass above this cutoff is far too small to produce any observable effects on the human population.
Robert J. Scherrer
Comments: 3 pages, no figures
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
Cite as: arXiv:2502.09734 [astro-ph.CO] (or arXiv:2502.09734v1 [astro-ph.CO] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.09734
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Submission history
From: Robert J. Scherrer
[v1] Thu, 13 Feb 2025 19:41:02 UTC (6 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.09734
Astrobiology, Space Physiology, Astrophysics,
