On the (Im)possibility of Electrically Charged Planck Relics
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866912633012092928 |
|---|---|
| author | Profumo, Stefano |
| author_facet | Profumo, Stefano |
| contents | I revisit whether black-hole remnants, from sub-Planckian compact objects to Planck relics and up to (super)massive black holes, can preserve Standard-Model (SM) electric charge. Two exterior-field mechanisms -- Coulomb-focused capture from ambient media and QED Schwinger pair production -- robustly neutralize such objects across cosmic history. I first derive the general capture rate including both Coulomb and gravitational focusing, and sum the stepwise discharge time in closed form via the trigamma function, exhibiting transparent Coulomb- and gravity-dominated limits. I then integrate the Schwinger rate over the near-horizon region to obtain an explicit $\dot Q(Q)$ law: discharge proceeds until the horizon field falls below $E_{\rm crit}$, leaving a residual charge $Q_{\rm stop}^{(e)}\!\propto\! r_h^2$ that is $\ll e$ for Planck radii. Mapping the mass dependence from sub-Planckian to astrophysical scales, I also analyze dark-sector charges with heavy carriers (including kinetic mixing and massive mediators). In a conservative ``no-Schwinger'' limit where vacuum pair creation is absent, cumulative ambient exposures alone force discharge of any integer SM charge. Three possible loopholes remain. (i) A fine-tuned SM corner in which the relic sits arbitrarily close to Reissner-Nordström extremality so greybody factors suppress charged absorption, while Schwinger pair creation is absent due to Planck-scale physics. (ii) Charge relocated to a hidden $U(1)_D$ with no light opposite carriers, e.g. if the lightest state is very heavy and/or kinetic mixing with $U(1)_{\rm EM}$ is vanishingly small. (iii) Discrete or topological charges rather than ordinary SM electric charge. Outside these cases, the conclusion is robust: within SM electromagnetism, charged black-hole relics neutralize efficiently and cannot retain charge over cosmological times. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_12520 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | On the (Im)possibility of Electrically Charged Planck Relics Profumo, Stefano High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory I revisit whether black-hole remnants, from sub-Planckian compact objects to Planck relics and up to (super)massive black holes, can preserve Standard-Model (SM) electric charge. Two exterior-field mechanisms -- Coulomb-focused capture from ambient media and QED Schwinger pair production -- robustly neutralize such objects across cosmic history. I first derive the general capture rate including both Coulomb and gravitational focusing, and sum the stepwise discharge time in closed form via the trigamma function, exhibiting transparent Coulomb- and gravity-dominated limits. I then integrate the Schwinger rate over the near-horizon region to obtain an explicit $\dot Q(Q)$ law: discharge proceeds until the horizon field falls below $E_{\rm crit}$, leaving a residual charge $Q_{\rm stop}^{(e)}\!\propto\! r_h^2$ that is $\ll e$ for Planck radii. Mapping the mass dependence from sub-Planckian to astrophysical scales, I also analyze dark-sector charges with heavy carriers (including kinetic mixing and massive mediators). In a conservative ``no-Schwinger'' limit where vacuum pair creation is absent, cumulative ambient exposures alone force discharge of any integer SM charge. Three possible loopholes remain. (i) A fine-tuned SM corner in which the relic sits arbitrarily close to Reissner-Nordström extremality so greybody factors suppress charged absorption, while Schwinger pair creation is absent due to Planck-scale physics. (ii) Charge relocated to a hidden $U(1)_D$ with no light opposite carriers, e.g. if the lightest state is very heavy and/or kinetic mixing with $U(1)_{\rm EM}$ is vanishingly small. (iii) Discrete or topological charges rather than ordinary SM electric charge. Outside these cases, the conclusion is robust: within SM electromagnetism, charged black-hole relics neutralize efficiently and cannot retain charge over cosmological times. |
| title | On the (Im)possibility of Electrically Charged Planck Relics |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.12520 |