Here’s a novel way to think about quantum gravity. The authors make some interesting assumptions. Namely, that gravity near a very hot event horizon (one where quantum effects dominate) acts much more like the strong nuclear force than it does near a cold event horizon (like at the surface of a star-sized black hole).
If valid, this assumption could mean that every subatomic particle is just a mini-black hole. But the mini-back hole would have a slightly unusual event horizon. It would have to be able to leak some information, yet also be able to tightly shield the usual long range effects of gravity at the same time.
Now that idea of shielding yourself against gravity sounds really, really useful. If Einstein’s Equivalence Principle still holds, it could do wonders for space flight.
Is Everything Made of Mini Black Holes?
“At first glance the scenario derived in SSGS seems bizarre, but it is not: this is exactly what would be expected if an evaporating black hole leaves a remnant consistent with quantum mechanics,” Coyne and Cheng write. “One might posit that the black hole smoothly turns into something approximating a large and unstable elementary particle, which then continues to evaporate (decay) into familiar stationary states. … This would put a whole new light on the process of evaporation of large black holes, which might then appear no different in principle from the correlated decays of elementary particles.”
Scotsman on a Horse 