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I will hazard a guess that this is the short story "What Continues, What Fails" (1991) by David Brin. It's not a perfect match -- the female protagonist is part of a research team that is observing collisions of micro-black holes with a bigger one in order to observe things inside the bigger one, vs. waiting for one to collapse -- but the theme of universes spawning black holes which yield similar universes is a major focus.

I will hazard a guess that this is the short story "What Continues, What Fails" (1991) by David Brin. It's not a perfect match -- the female protagonist is part of a research team that is observing collisions of micro-black holes with a bigger one in order to observe things inside the bigger one, vs. waiting for one to collapse -- but the theme of universes spawning black holes which yield similar universes is a major focus.

I will hazard a guess that this is the short story "What Continues, What Fails" by David Brin (1991). It's not a perfect match -- the female protagonist is part of a research team that is observing collisions of micro-black holes with a bigger one in order to observe things inside the bigger one, vs. waiting for one to collapse -- but the theme of universes spawning black holes which yield similar universes is a major focus.

Instants after the nought's formation, inflation had turned it into a macrocosm. A fiery ball of plasma exploding in its own context, ina reference frame whose dimensions were all perpendicular to those Isola knew. Within that frame, a wheel of time marked out events, just as it did in Isola's universe -- only vastly speeded up from her point of view.

Energy -- or something like what she'd been taught to call "energy" -- drove the expansion, and traded forms with substances that might vaguely be called "matter." Forces crudely akin to electromagnetism and gravity contested over nascent particles that in coarse ways resembled quarks and leptons. Larger concatenations tried awkwardly to form.

But there was no rhythm, no symmetry. The untuned orchestra could not decide what score to play. There was no melody.

In the speeded-up reference frame of the construct-cosmos, her sampling probe had caught evolution of a coarse kind. Like a pseudo-life fabrication too long out of the vat, the universe Isola had set out to create lurched toward dissipation. The snapshot showed no heavy elements, no stars, no possibility of self-awareness. How could there be? All the rules were wrong.

I will hazard a guess that this is the short story "What Continues, What Fails" (1991) by David Brin. It's not a perfect match -- the female protagonist is part of a research team that is observing collisions of micro-black holes with a bigger one in order to observe things inside the bigger one, vs. waiting for one to collapse -- but the theme of universes spawning black holes which yield similar universes is a major focus.

Instants after the nought's formation, inflation had turned it into a macrocosm. A fiery ball of plasma exploding in its own context, in a reference frame whose dimensions were all perpendicular to those Isola knew. Within that frame, a wheel of time marked out events, just as it did in Isola's universe -- only vastly speeded up from her point of view.

Energy -- or something like what she'd been taught to call "energy" -- drove the expansion, and traded forms with substances that might vaguely be called "matter." Forces crudely akin to electromagnetism and gravity contested over nascent particles that in coarse ways resembled quarks and leptons. Larger concatenations tried awkwardly to form.

But there was no rhythm, no symmetry. The untuned orchestra could not decide what score to play. There was no melody.

In the speeded-up reference frame of the construct-cosmos, her sampling probe had caught evolution of a coarse kind. Like a pseudo-life fabrication too long out of the vat, the universe Isola had set out to create lurched toward dissipation. The snapshot showed no heavy elements, no stars, no possibility of self-awareness. How could there be? All the rules were wrong.

I will hazard a guess that this is What Continues, What Fails by David Brin (1991). It's not a perfect match -- the protagonist is part of a research team that is observing collisions of micro-black holes with a bigger one in order to observe things inside the bigger one, vs. waiting for one to collapse -- but the theme of universes spawning black holes which yield similar universes is a major focus.

I will hazard a guess that this is the short story "What Continues, What Fails" by David Brin (1991). It's not a perfect match -- the female protagonist is part of a research team that is observing collisions of micro-black holes with a bigger one in order to observe things inside the bigger one, vs. waiting for one to collapse -- but the theme of universes spawning black holes which yield similar universes is a major focus.