  A search for microscopic black holes and string balls is presented, based on
a data sample of pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV recorded by the CMS
experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of 12 inverse femtobarns. No excess of events with energetic
multiparticle final states, typical of black hole production or of similar new
physics processes, is observed. Given the agreement of the observations with
the expected standard model background, which is dominated by QCD multijet
production, 95% confidence limits are set on the production of semiclassical or
quantum black holes, or of string balls, corresponding to the exclusions of
masses below 4.3 to 6.2 TeV, depending on model assumptions. In addition,
model-independent limits are set on new physics processes resulting in
energetic multiparticle final states.
