Black Holes and Extra Dimensions

Speaker(s): Jonathan L. Feng

Of the four known forces — gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak andstrong forces — gravity is by far the weakest. The weakness of gravitymay not be an intrinsic property, however, but may result from the dilutionof gravity in extra spatial dimensions. Diverse experiments, ranging fromtabletop probes of Newtonian gravity to km-scale cosmic ray detectors, arenow putting this possibility to the test. I will give an overview of extradimensions with an emphasis on one of its most tantalizing predictions —the production of microscopic black holes in high energy particlecollisions.