Large Hadron Collider Finds Signs of Big Bang Matter in Small Collisions
Scientists using CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have found compelling new evidence that relatively small atomic collisions can recreate quark-gluon plasma.
This exotic state of matter is thought to have filled the universe moments after the Big Bang. At temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the center of the Sun, it forces ordinary particles apart into their constituent quarks and gluons.
The new result indicates that the extreme conditions associated with the early universe may be reproduced not only in large nuclear collisions, but also on a smaller scale, expanding opportunities to study the behavior of matter and energy under primordial conditions.