Search for Black Holes in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

An update on a search for microscopic black hole production in $pp$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC is presented using a 2011 data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 190~pb$^{-1}$. This corresponds to a six-fold increase in statistics compared to the original search based on 2010 data. Events with large total transverse energy have been analyzed for the presence of multiple energetic jets, leptons, and photons, typical of a signal from an evaporating black hole. A good agreement with the expected standard model backgrounds, dominated by QCD multijet production, has been observed for various multiplicities of the final state. Stringent model-independent limits on new physics production in high-multiplicity energetic final states have been set, along with model-specific limits on semi-classical black hole masses in the 4-5~TeV range for a variety of model parameters. This update extends substantially the sensitivity of the 2010 analysis.