Inelastic black hole production and large extra dimensions

Black hole production in elementary particle collisions is among the most promising probes of large extra spacetime dimensions. Studies of black holes at particle colliders have assumed that all of the incoming energy is captured in the resulting black hole. We incorporate the inelasticity inherent in such processes and determine the prospects for discovering black holes in colliders and cosmic ray experiments, employing a dynamical model of Hawking evolution. At the Large Hadron Collider, inelasticity reduces rates by factors of 10(3) to 10(6) in the accessible parameter space, moderating, but not eliminating, hopes for black hole discovery. At the Pierre Auger Observatory, rates are suppressed by a factor of 10. We evaluate the impact of cosmic ray observations on collider prospects. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.