Ball Lightning: Manifestation of Cosmic Little Black Holes

A case is made that in encounters with the earth's atmosphere, astrophysical little black holes (LBH) can manifest themselves as the core energy source of balllightning (BL). Relating the LBH incidence rate on earth to BL occurrence has the potential of shedding light on the distribution of LBH in the universe, and their velocities relative to the earth. Most BL features can be explained by a testable LBH model. Analyses are presented to support this model. LBH produce complex and many-faceted interactions in air directly and via their exhaust, resulting in excitation, ionization, and radiation due to processes such as gravitational and electrostatic tidal force, bremsstrahlung, pair production and annihilation, orbital electron near-capture by interaction with a charged LBH. Gravitational interaction of atmospheric atoms with LBH can result in an enhanced cross-section for polarization and ionization. An estimate for the power radiated by BL ~ Watts is in agreement with observation. An upper limit is found for the largest masses that can produce ionization and polarization excitation. It is shown that the LBH high power exhaust radiation is not prominent and its effects are consistent with observations.