Elon Musk Wants To Build Particle Collider: Is He Making A Black Hole?

Elon Musk wants to step in and build a new particle accelerator for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). After the organization recently proposed creating a new 100-kilometer (62 miles) collider, Musk jumped in and made his intentions clear.

The intended Future Circular Collider (FCC) will take over the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland. If the tunnel is realized, then it will be nearly four times longer than the LHC. Scientists previously declared that the latter would be running of “discovery potential” beyond 2035.

Elon Musk is no stranger to jumping in to suggest that one of his companies could come up with the solution. On Twitter, the executive claimed that he already had a discussion with the director of CERN, Fabiola Gianotti, about the Boring Company potentially digging the tunnel. He added that if his company gets involved, then the project can save “several billion euros."

According to reports, the project can cost as much as €24 billion ($27.2 billion) while the tunnel can rake up as much as €5 billion ($5.6 billion).

"In view of projects for future larger accelerators, CERN is indeed open to new, cost-effective technologies that could lead to their implementation, including the tunnels that will be needed," a CERN spokesperson said before confirming the meeting Musk had with Gianotti in July 2018.

According to the spokesperson, the two had an "informal brief discussion" on what the Boring Company could do for CERN. However, there are no specifics yet on when CERN plans to start digging the tunnel.

Musk's the Boring Company has yet to engage in a commercial tunnel project. Currently, the company is in talks with the City of Chicago for its underground transport system. Musk called his company before as a "sort of hobby company." He did say that the equipment they use can reduce digging costs.

“In typical tunneling projects, excavated dirt is shipped off site to disposal locations,” the company's site stated. “This process is costly, time-consuming, noisy, and can be environmentally hazardous. The Boring Company has developed technologies to recycle the earth into useful bricks to be used to build structures.”

If the Boring Company does end up digging the tunnel, is there a possibility that the project could end up making a black hole as well?

Researchers previously found that it would take around 2/4 less energy to make a black hole. Some raised concerns before about the ability of a particle collider accidentally making one. Basically, when particles collide with one another, the resulting reaction can trap gravitational pull. This means the LHC can create one with the right conditions. Once enough energy gets trapped between those particles, then this can collapse and eventually lead not just to one but two black holes.

“We find that the threshold for black hole formation is lower (by a factor of a few) than simple hoop conjecture estimates, and, moreover, near this threshold, two distinct apparent horizons first form post-collision and then merge,” William E. East and Frans Pretorius said in their 2013 study.

More importantly, even if Elon Musk and his team will create a particle collider, experts said previously that the Earth is not at risk of being engulfed by a man-made black hole thanks to the process known as Hawking Radiation.