Large Hadron Collider Creates the 'Littlest Liquid' from the Big Bang: Particle Physics

First Posted: Sep 04, 2015 09:25 AM EDT
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The Large Hadron Collider has recreated the "littlest liquid" from the Big Bang. Scientists have managed to create the smallest amount of quark-gluon plasma, which is a state of matter thought to have existed at the birth of the universe.

The material was discovered by colliding protons with lead nuclei at high energy inside the supercollider's Compact Muon Solenoid detector. Physicists have actually dubbed the resulting plasma as the "littlest liquid."

"Before the CMS experimental results, it had been thought the medium created in a proton on lead collisions would be too small to create a quark-gluon plasma," said Quan Wang, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Indeed, these collisions were being studied as a reference for collisions of two lead nuclei to explore the non-quark-gluon-plasma aspects of the collisions. The analysis presented in this paper indicates, contrary to expectations, a quark-gluon plasma can be created in very asymmetric proton on lead collisions."

This new study shows that multiple particles are correlated to each other in proton-lead collisions, similar to what is observed in lead-lead collisions where quark-gluon plasma is produced. In fact, this study is the first evidence that the smallest droplet of quark gluon plasma is produced in proton-lead collisions.

"It's believed to correspond to the state of the universe shortly after the Big Bang," said Wang. "The interaction between partons-quarks and gluons-within the quark-gluon plasma is strong, which distinguishes the quark-gluon plasma from a gaseous state where one expects little interaction among the constituent particles."

These types of experiments could help researchers better understand the cosmic conditions that were present in the instant following the Big Bang.

"While we believe that state of the universe bout a microsecond after the Big Bang consisted of a quark-gluon plasma, there is still much that we don't fully understand about the properties of quark-gluon plasma," said Wang. "One of the biggest surprises of the earlier measurements at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory was the fluid-like behavior of the quark-gluon plasma. Being able to form a quark-gluon plasma in proton-lead collisions helps us to better define the conditions needed for its existence."

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