title: Ultrarelativistic particle collisions.
abstract: We present results from numerical solution of the Einstein field equations describing the head-on collision of two solitons boosted to ultrarelativistic energies. We show, for the first time, that at sufficiently high energies the collision leads to black hole formation, consistent with hoop-conjecture arguments. This implies that the nonlinear gravitational interaction between the kinetic energy of the solitons causes gravitational collapse, and that arguments for black hole formation in super-Planck scale particle collisions are robust.
authors.affiliation: CIFAR Cosmology and Gravity Program, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver British Columbia, V6T 1Z1 Canada.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Choptuik
authors.forename: Frans
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pretorius