Create droplets of matter from the early universe

2018/12/11 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astrofisika

A group of researchers has created droplets of the first ultraviolet matter created immediately after the Big Bang. In fact, they have achieved a liquid situation similar to that of the quark-gluon plasma, which supposedly filled the universe in the first microseconds after the Big Bang, when the particles were still too hot to form atoms.

They conducted the experiment on the New York accelerator Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The packets of protons and neutrons have collided with larger atomic nuclei and have seen that, under certain conditions, quark-gluon plasma drops are formed that expand into geometric shapes such as circles, ellipses and triangles.

With the PHENIX experiment, researchers seek to unravel what is the smallest matter in the early universe that can exist. To begin with, this work has helped to understand how the first ultrabera matter cooled to form the first atoms. The study was published in the journal Nature Physics.

More information about quarkas and gluons: Have you separated the quarkas?

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