Schwarzschild Black Hole as a Particle Accelerator

Abstract

© 2020, Pleiades Publishing, Inc. We consider collision of two particles near the horizon of a nonextremal static black hole. At least one of them is accelerated. We show that the center-of-mass energy Ecm can become unbounded in spite of the fact that a black hole is neither rotating nor electrically charged. In particular, this happens even for the Schwarzschild black hole. The key ingredient that makes it possible is the presence of positive acceleration (repulsion). Then, if one of particles is fine-tuned properly, the effect takes place. This acceleration can be caused by an external force in the case of particles or some engine in the case of a macroscopic body (“rocket”). If the force is attractive, Ecm is bounded but, instead, the analogue of the Penrose effect is possible.