Scientists reveal the first state of matter in the universe after the Big Bang!
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Study of the genesis of matter after the Big Bang
Scientists recreated the first substance that appeared after the Big Bang, by smashing lead particles together at 99.9999991% of the speed of light.
And emerging from the wreckage is a primitive type of matter known as quark-gluon plasma (QGP).
It only lasted for a split second, but for the first time, scientists were able to examine the liquid-like properties of plasma -
and find that it has less resistance to flow than any other known substance -
and determine how it evolved in the early moments of the early universe.
"This study shows us the evolution of the QGP,
and ultimately can suggest how the early universe evolved in the first millisecond after the Big Bang,
" said co-author Yu Zhou, associate professor at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
What did scientists think about the origin of matter?
After the Big Bang ,the scientist thought the universe to be a soup of energy before it expanded rapidly during a period known as inflation,
allowing the universe to cool enough to form matter.
It is believed that quarks (subatomic particles) are the first entities to appear,
which are fundamental particles and gluons, which carry the strong force that holds quarks together.
As the universe cooled, these particles formed subatomic particles called hadrons,
some of which know as protons and neutrons.
Scientists created the soup at the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the border of Geneva, Switzerland.
By smashing heavy atomic nuclei together, scientists can create a tiny fireball that effectively melts particles into their elemental shapes for a split second.
Scientists believe they first devised QGP in 2000, but the latest batch,
reported online on May 11, 2021 in Physics Letters B , was the first time they had been able to investigate the properties of its liquid nature in detail.
Since the plasma lasted only 10 to 23 seconds,
the scientists used new computer simulations along with data they collected from an instrument called ALICE
- short for the Large Ion Collider Experiment - in the accelerator,
to see what properties the matter might have changed between the moment it formed and when it condensed into hadrons.
They found that QGP was an ideal fluid, meaning it had no viscosity or resistance to flow,
and that its shape changed over time in a way that differed from other forms of the substance.
This information helps scientists understand what the universe is like in the first moments after the Big Bang.
Scientists hope to reveal more details with the upgrade of the accelerator.
Source: Science Alert
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